Asking for Advice

I belong to a facebook group for expat women that live in Luxor. I decided to post up a request of advice from anyone who had gone through the visa process.

Some of the comments I received were really very helpful, especially one from a lady who had gone through the visa experience herself, successfully, a couple of years ago.

There are also online forums you can join, or you can just type in visa into the google toolbar and see what pops up. Everyone has a different story to tell, some good and some not so good.  Some positive and some negative.

There is the tale of the much older woman who married her younger Egyptian toy boy, brought him to the UK and he ran off with a younger woman...and the husband who 'changed' as soon as he'd got his British passport and then demanded a divorce. No one wants to think that will happen to them, but I suppose life is all about taking chances, albeit I hope that I won't be one of those with a negative story to tell in the future.

I do believe though that asking advice and going into this kind of thing with your eyes wide open is very important.

Visa Adventure!

I've decided to blog about the experience of applying for a UK visa for my Egyptian husband. I'm doing so partly as a diary of what we have to go through, but also in the hope that it might help other couples who have to go through the process in the future.

Our plan is to apply for a settlement visa which means that my husband is eligible to live and work in the UK for up to 2.5 year. Unfortunately post July 2012 the requirements to get a visa to the UK became more stringent and I suspect this could be quite a long winded journey.

I recently returned from Luxor where I had been living for the last nine months, building a villa by the Nile and also getting married to my Egyptian partner in a civil marriage in Cairo in May. Due  to the continuing  fragile economic climate in Egypt, my husband and I soon realised that it was unsustainable for me to stay in the country and that my career prospects remain back in the UK.

I have travelled overseas many times and had many visas stamped into my passport with no problems at all. Most of the time I just had to fill in a short form online with very few personal details required and hey presto my visa application was successful and I was able to visit that country without any issues.

However, getting a spousal visa or event for that matter a tourist one into the UK is a bit more tricky, especially when you come from a country like Egypt. The forms you need to fill in are lengthy, the information and evidence you need to provide to prove the relationship is genuine and that financially you are solvent is mind boggling. From what I have had read and stories I have been told, visas can be refused on the flimsiest of reasons....and if you are unsuccessful the £1,000 application fee is non-refundable.  So this could end up being a very expensive experience - good job I love my husband and know he is worth it!!

As I have been living in Luxor and not working, I can only start the visa application once I have at least six months worth of payslips as the financial requirements have also changed which means anyone sponsoring their spouse to join them in the UK (i.e. Me) has to be earning at least £18,600 a year - hopefully not a problem, but now the pressure is on to get a job ASAP.

Finger and toes crossed I get one soon and then the visa adventure will begin in earnest and my husband will soon be able to join for a new and exciting phase in our life together in the UK.