Boyfriend Wants to Visit Me From UK, Confused on Procedure?

[DannybearsGirl 0]

Our Goal: To have him come stay with me in Maryland for six months. I will be renting a small room for us both from my uncle (who owns the house) and supporting both of us. He also gets a bit of money from his youtube work. Money isn't my question here as we have that figured out. I'm just wondering about the legal stuff.

Ultimately I want to move to the UK, but because I can only stay there for six months at a time once a year, we have to switch off (me going there him coming here) until we can apply for a partner or fiancé visa. First I'll list my questions, then I'll go over our history together in case that's needed (when I went to England, the immigration officer wanted proof of our relationship since that was my reason for going there.) Here goes.

1) How difficult is it to get a tourist visa for a UK citizen (England)? It was fairly easy for me to get one into the UK, I just got my passport stamped. for this I've read he'll need to pay a fee for the visa itself and have an interview - it sounds costly and time consuming. Are the chances high that he'll get turned down because visiting his girlfriend isn't a good enough reason to be here or something?

2) How much does it cost overall (including fees and stuff).

3) How long does it take to get the visa, and what ways can it be gotten.

4) How would he get the visa whilst being in England (if he has to have an interview where would he go to do that, a US embassy or something? He lives in Sheffield)

5) Would we be able to get a visa for 6 months or even longer (which would be AWESOME) or is that generally hard to do? If we applied for a visa that lasts 6 months and they don't want to give us that much time, does that mean we'd have to reapply and hope it goes through?

6) Are UK citizens coming into the states frowned upon by border control like some residents of other countries? I suppose this is similar to the first question, I'm wondering if there's any info he needs to provide to them (convince them he has no plans to work here, or should he even mention me at all?)

I'll admit I'm generally scared it'll fail for some reason and our time and money will be for naught. It's already tough being apart. Anyway here's our history and plans, if this helps.

We met on a lame RPG online when we were kids. I was 11 and he was 14. Somehow we quickly became the best of friends and each other's only confidants (we both had daddy issues, to put it lightly) and so latched onto each other quickly. This manifested into several immature on and off online dating relationships over the years to come until 2 years ago we decided to meet and really give it ago - this was love, not a kid thing any longer. 6 months and 2 weeks ago he picked me up at the Manchester airport and took me to his home in Sheffield England where I lived with him, his mom and sister, and now we have plans to be married in the next two years. I'm 19 and he's 22. I know we're young but that's how it is. I fell in love with England and want to live there with him, so our main goal is to get a partner of fiance visa that would allow me to live and work there for 2 years at a time (and reapply). But to do that he has to come here otherwise we have to be without each other for 6 months and wait for years to do that. Which is pretty much torture.

Any info/advice/ would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Darnell 8,478]

Boyfriend Wants to Visit Me From UK, Confused on Procedure?

for 6 months at a whack - he needs a B1/B2 visa, he can chase after a DS-160 at the London Embassy

or

if just a 3 month stint, he gets that mostly for free, via ESTA and the VWP.

we've a guide for stuff - check out

http://www.visajourney.com/content/visitor-visa-guide

Edited September 16, 2014 by Darnell

[Ryan H 3,790]

Since the UK is a VWP participant, he may encounter difficulty explaining why he needs a 6 month visa instead of using the 3 months the VWP allows.

If he were to be denied a tourist visa, he would lose his VWP privileges.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Ryan H

[DannybearsGirl 0]

3 months is a short amount of time and doesn't really suit our long term goal..we'd still have to spend several months apart. Since he has no intention of living here and I want to move to the UK would that make our case look any better for the 6 month visa? We want to spend as long as possible together, the less time we have to wait for our partner visa later the better.

[Darnell 8,478]

when you clicked the link I provided,

and read stuff,

what were yer thoughts?

[DannybearsGirl 0]

Sorry I didn't say anything, I was still reading. It definitely helped, I'm still wondering though - would it be difficult for him to get in? We don't want to pay that much money for a visa unless we're pretty damn sure it'll happen. Since you mentioned the fiance visa I also looked at that (I'm sure he'd have no objection to getting married early) however, and correct me if I'm wrong, that would only allow him to stay in the US with me for 3 months, and our long term goal isn't to have him move here, though we will get married in both of our countries for our family and friend's. It sounds to me like US border control is pretty picky about letting people in, and he could still get turned away at the border control even if he successfully got a passport? Does that happen often?

I couldn't find any info on how long it usually takes to get these visas.

[Boiler 43,392]

A week or two to get an interview for a B.

VWP gives him 90 days, he has to get an approved ESTA beforehand which is a pre clearance.

If he is refused a B then he has to declare this which usually results in a declined ESTA, seems to take 6 months or so before you are eligible again. YMMV

Applying for a B is a high risk strategy but if he wants 6 months that is the only option.

[Boiler 43,392]

If he were to be denied a tourist visa, he would lose is VWP privileges.

Not so, he may lose them temporarily.

[DannybearsGirl 0]

If we got the 3 month visa, would he be able to stay in the US for longer than that with an immigration officer's approval? The major problem is, how the heck do we book a plane ticket round trip with all of this stuff that is uncertain? He gets a visa, we book the ticket for 3 months round trip, the officer says he can stay longer and we're screwed, either buy a new ticket or pay a fee to have it changed if we're lucky. Not to mention the way it sounds like the visa works, if it's only 3 months long that's including the time it takes to buy the ticket..and the cost goes up if we don't buy in advance.

Is there something I'm missing here or is the system totally screwed up?

We really don't want to have to spent 6 months apart each year for the next 3 years. ._.

There has to be something I just haven't read somewhere.

[Boiler 43,392]

There is no 3 month visa, B2's are usually but not guaranteed to be admitted for up to 6 months.

Remember it is a visitor visa, there is no shack up with my boyfriend visa.

[DannybearsGirl 0]

What do you guys suggest we do then? We just want to be allowed to spend time together (we need to do this before I can be allowed to move to England, else I would do it already and not bother with this complicated #######.)

If there were some way for us to get married here and apply for a UK marriage visa I would even do that, but I think that has the 2 year living together requirement as well.

[Boiler 43,392]

What 2 year living together requirement? The UK have much higher requirements for sponsorship which might be an issue.

[DannybearsGirl 0]

I just read about the visa that would allow me to stay in the UK for 2 years and work if we married. Here is the link: https://www.gov.uk/join-family-in-uk/overview

It says somewhere we either need to be married, or have proof that we've lived together for 2 years (we have been thinking we had to do this, thus my confusion and stress). If we can get married on a shorter visit in the US, and I can apply for that visa to live in the UK it would be perfect.

Are there any issues with that plan I should be aware of? it seems too good to be true. I just really want some advice/suggestions on what to do here.

[Illiria 980]

The tourist visa is not for living together while you try to get eligibility to apply for another visa, he may need to show he will go back to the uk and prove it is for tourist purposes.

Also the visa for you to move to the UK when married will require him to show he earns over a certain amount. Has he registered as self employed and does he do self assessment for his taxes on his youtube income? If not he may not have any official income listed in the UK to use as proof for the visa requirements.

[Boiler 43,392]

US requires you to be married to sponsor a spouse, UK recognises shall we call them common law marriages, but they have that 2 year requirement.