BRETT
Have you considered the visitors visa route, as I told you in past posts and on shout chat, my lady and I secured a 6 months visitors visa last week in approx 6 to 7 weeks from the application being made.
You actually don’t apply at the British Consulate in china ,and there are several each serving a particular area ,ours was in Guangzhou ,with the actual office that was nearest to Linfangs place being in Fuzhou ,is where they take the application papers and all relating documents the embassy require.
Mainly Chinese staff work at the applications offices, and apparently some can be little Hitlers, jobs worth’s, very brash and sometimes overwhelming to the person applying, I told Linfang not to be fazed by them as they were paid by the British government and are civil servants who we indirectly pay via our taxes. They scrutinize all the paperwork and make sure all is correct and everything’s in order before they forward it to the nearest consulate, as I said ours was Guangzhou. For consideration by an entry clearance officer.
You can track the progress of the visa ,but it only says the visa was applied for and the date, most of the time ,so no real joy there ,you know you have the green light when it says the visa has been processed and your passport mailed back to you .
Anyhow I had to supply evidence of my earnings in the form of my last 6 months bank statements, Evidence of savings accounts ,My latest mortgage statement ,copies of the relevant visa pages in my passport along with the entry stamps pages, a letter of invitation and sponsorship ,which has to state I’m willing to provide accommodation and pay for her flight here and back, pictures to prove we have met ,details of when and how we met ,I copied and sent the first 6 or 7 EMF mails we exchanged via chn love, I don’t have many phone call bills as I tend to use the pre paid cards for £5 ,and mostly were on yahoo chat with webcam ,but if needed I save all our chats there and could print off if required .
Linfang had to provide evidence of her work, and her income, which her boss duly provided, Birth certificate ,family book , her income and evidence of where she worked and how long all had to be translated into English, she’s a doctor there and has worked in the centre for some 20 odd years, Basically they don’t want her disappearing into the Chinese community and possible becoming state dependant, though god knows how they think a Chinese lady in a strange country with only basic English would know where to apply for anything. I did state in my sponsors letter she would be returning back to china, for her work and within the time lapse of the visa so it wouldn’t jeopardize any further visa application we may make in the future.
The visitors visa itself costs around £ 70 ,so with the travel to Fuzhou and the translation costs for her paperwork I sent Linfang £ 200.00 which amply covered everything to apply for the visa .
She has got extended leave for 2 months from the 22 nd of November to the 23 rd of January, so it will be a nice Christmas and new year for us in the UK.
The flight BTW came in at circa £ 540 return from Shanghai, via Doha to Manchester with Qatar airways.
So we did this by ourselves, without expensive visa lawyers and the like .so it’s not impossible to get a visitor visa here, and I did go through the fiancée process in 1997 without a hitch in the Philippines too, although I agree things have become tighter visa wise.Frankly Brett i think your stumbling block will be the length of time you have known your lady whichever route you choose.
Hope this helps
Mike
