UK Visas and British Citizenship

Mamiko , a  Japanese National  who  was switching from Tier 4 Student visa to spouse visa : The lawyer helped my visa application, Jules, was very responsive and reliable. Thanks to this company, I got the visa quickly. Here is a copy of Google review, which can also be found here:  https://goo.gl/maps/XNbZExgc4RFgVWXw7 For individual advice or to make your application as successful please contact us:  info@1st4immigration.com  or visit our website,  UK Spouse and Partner visas page Let’s start working on your UK Spouse / Partner application! 1st 4 Immigration   is one of the most experienced and prominent UK immigration law companies, accredited by the OISC at the highest Level 3. We have been in business for over 10 years, our OISC reference is 200800152, in which 2008 stands for the year accreditation. Office address:  Tower 42 (NatWest Tower),  25 Old Broad Street,  City of London,  London,  EC2N 1HN ...

-  UK marriage visa advice for Meghan Markle and why The Daily Mail is wrong to claim she will become a British Citizen after 3 years. -  How will Meghan Markle become a British citizen? After 3, 5 or 6 years , which is the right answer? -  Settlement visa for Meghan Markle: Spouse visa, Fiancée visa or maybe Marriage Visitor? -  Royal engagement: Meghan Markle faces trip abroad to apply for visa - according to The Times. We say “No, she doesn’t!”, she can switch to a Spouse visa while in the UK.  -  UK Spouse visa Financial Requirement: how much savings do I need? It’s NOT £18600. It’s close to the cost of Meghan Markle’s couture engagement dress of £56000!  -  Following an article on Huffington Post from a JCWI CEO, we ask the unthinkable: What if Meghan Markle’s visa application is rejected by the Home Office? It’s fun to read but legally accurate and the cover the same Rules as would apply to an ordinary British-foreign coup...

It’s NOT £18600 . It’s close to the cost of Meghan Markle’s couture engagement dress of £56000! We have been planning to clarify the issue of savings for a Spouse visa for some time now - there’s so Michu confusion! We have been also “advising” Meghan and Prince Harry on a UK Spouse visa in this blog. Then we saw her wearing a £56000 designer dress on the official photos:  http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/style/celebrity-fashion/meghan-markle-official-engagement-dress-11732777 . We couldn’t help thinking “That’s almost the amount of savings to meet the Financial Requirement of the Immigration Rules !” Time to clarify the Savings rule. (Perhaps when Meghan bought THAT  dress she didn’t realise it would have “bought” her a Spouse visa - Meghan, you need a good immigration law firm like 1st 4Immigration !) So, there’s a lot of confusion. Do I need £18609 in savings? Or maybe £16000? The correct answer is the whopping amount of £62500! (We did say the cost of that dress was clo...

It is that time of the year when the new UK fiscal year is approaching and it is also the traditional time for the UK Visas and Immigration to change their fees. We should say “to increase” the fees, as the government fees tend to go one way – up. This article in The Express recent attracted our attention, even though it was published in November 2017 https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/915540/meghan-markle-prince-harry-news-uk-visa It covers the maters of dual nationality, one being British and the other in this case being American. The UK law on dual nationals are the same, though, whether you are American or not  - you can have dual or even multiple nationalities. The subject in this article focuses o the tax matters, which come under the different area of law, ie tax law and not immigration law. There is also the law of the other country to consider (the United States in this case), does that country allow dual nationality and if yes, what are the other rules, s...

This is based on ITV.com article: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend first official engagement together We are making an educated guess that Meghan is likely to be in possession of a UK Fiancée visa at the moment, as it would be the most logical step for her to marry a British citizen. A Fiancée visa allows to come to the UK and marry her (and ours) special one within 6 months. Does this visa allow working in the UK? No, it does not. We were concerned about Meghan’s status first but then remembered that she has been “working” in the charitable capacity, ie unpaid and not as an employee for a company, so it is OK. On the serious note, in our practice, our clients often ask whether to choose a Fiancée visa or a Spouse visa. We have a detailed page on our website Spouse v Fiancée: http://www.1st4immigration.com/spouse-v-fiancee.php There are advantages and disadvantages of each route, they are explained in great detail on the link above. ...

All the posts: - UK marriage visa advice for Meghan Markle and why The Daily Mail is wrong to claim she will become a British Citizen after 3 years. - How will Meghan Markle become a British citizen? After 3, 5 or 6 years , which is the right answer? - Settlement visa for Meghan Markle: Spouse visa, Fiancée visa or maybe Marriage Visitor? - Royal engagement: Meghan Markle faces trip abroad to apply for visa - according to The Times. We say “No, she doesn’t!”, she can switch to a Spouse visa while in the UK.  - UK Spouse visa Financial Requirement: how much savings do I need? It’s NOT £18600. It’s close to the cost of Meghan Markle’s couture engagement dress of £56000!  - Following an article on Huffington Post from a JCWI CEO, we ask the unthinkable: What if Meghan Markle’s visa application is rejected by the Home Office? It’s fun to read but legally accurate and the cover the same Rules as would apply to an ordinary British-foreign couple, including the f...

You think it’s not possible? Yet it is. All it takes is a Home Office official making a mistake when applying their own complex UK Immigration Rules. Does it happen? Yes, and fairly often. Is it easy to put right even though it’s the mistake of the authorities’? It can be put right but it won’t be easy and quick. We came across this interesting, very emotional article on Huffington Post: As Meghan Markle Chooses To Become A British Citizen I Just Wait For My Wife To Be Able To Come Home . Written by a Chief Executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), a most prominent organisation that campaigns for the foreign citizens - who come here legally and abide by the UK law - to be treated fairly. His own wife’s entry clearance application was refused by the Home Office, only for the officials to admit later they had made a mistake. Mr Singh, the author, doesn't go into technical details why it was refused but the point is the Home Office later admitted they h...

We have been planning to clarify the issue of savings for a Spouse visa for some time now - there’s so Michu confusion! We have been also “advising” Meghan and Prince Harry on a UK Spouse visa in this blog. Then we saw her wearing a £56000 designer dress on the official photos: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/style/celebrity-fashion/meghan-markle-official-engagement-dress-11732777 . We couldn’t help thinking “That’s almost the amount of savings to meet the Financial Requirement of the Immigration Rules !” Time to clarify the Savings rule. (Perhaps when Meghan bought THAT  dress she didn’t realise it would have “bought” her a Spouse visa - Meghan, you need a good immigration law firm like 1st 4Immigration !) So, there’s a lot of confusion. Do I need £18609 in savings? Or maybe £16000? The correct answer is the whopping amount of £62500! (We did say the cost of that dress was close.) The threshold of £18600 applies to income, not savings. The amount of savings is calculated u...

How do we know? We, 1 st 4Immigration Ltd,   were chosen by the UKVI to take part in a survey to provide a feedback on the upcoming system. We are very honoured! As can be seen on the Home Office letter (pictured), we were selected as one of only approximately 50 firms in the whole country, following the request of the Home Office to the OISC. We had a visit from 2 Home Office officials in November 2017. What a great day and what a productive visit! The officials informed us they had been trying hard to promote the online application process for in-country applications, such as FLR(M) for spouses and partners of UK citizens. The online applications have existed for entry clearance (when applying outside the UK) for many years now. Yet the in-country online application process has so far been relatively unknown and unused. It can be found here: https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/product/family-routes At the moment most FLR(M) and FLR(FP) applications ar...

Another unqualified immigration advice from the press, this time from The Times:  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/royal-engagement-meghan-markle-faces-trip-abroad-to-apply-for-visa-052bplp8x On this blog we have been “advising” Meghan and Harry on the UK visa rules, so we couldn’t miss this article and let Meghan make an unnecessary trip abroad (with all that airport hassle during the spring bank holidays!) Meghan CAN switch to a Spouse visa inside the UK after marrying her prince (literally). She can simply apply for a Fiancée visa now from the US or Canada, which allows switching to the Spouse status inside the UK. Can even be on same-day service like the one we use for our clients in Croydon. If Meghan doesn’t take this advice and remains in the UK as a visitor, then yes, she would have to make a trip abroad to secure her Spouse visa, and we don’t envy her buying those expensive flight tickets during the World Cup! We guess Meghan may already have a Fiancée visa, but...

It appears Meghan is spoilt for choice!  Visitor: many so called non-visa nationals , including Americans, can come to the UK for up to 6 months to visit and obtain entry stamp at the airport. This status doesn’t allow working in the UK.  Marriage Visitor: a separate category under Visitors. This visa allows to get married in the UK with the view of leaving after 6 months (and not trying to apply for a settlement visa inside the UK).  This visa is required for all non-EU nationals even Americans  A standard visitor status doesn’t allow to get married in the UK. For example , if Meghan arrives at Heathrow without any visa in her passport and says “I am here to marry Prince Harry”, strictly speaking, she could be denied entry and sent back. Well, the visa offices are probably used to hearing young ladies saying that and just laugh and waive them through. But with Meghan, it is for real! Fiancée visa : this is a much better option for Meghan and we suspect she...

We “stole” the main headline from BBC (article  http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42169602 ), we ke ep watch as we are b eing protective of Meghan’s immigration status to be legal and intact.  Last week (and before BBC!) we posted a summary of UK marriage visa steps for Meghan ( http://1st4immigration-visas.blogspot.pt/2017/11/uk-marriage-visa-advice-for-meghan.html?m=1 )  Our posts - 100% legally accurate - attracted many comments and we Thank everybody who participated!  The original article claimed Meghan would need 3 years. We rushed to protect Meghan from the wrong advice and explained it’s 5 years. Some of our audience commented it’s 6. Who is right? Interestingly, each answer can be right depending on the circumstances.  3 years. It is still the current rule in the British Nationality law on Naturalisation when it comes to spouses of UK citizens. But... 5 years. There’s another rule - to have permanent residency status , usually referred to as Inde...

We are delighted to hear the news of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement! The newspapers finally have something to write about other than Brexit, and this article in The Daily Mail has caught our attention today:  A REAL American Princess: Meghan will still be a US citizen when she marries Harry after starting the three-year process to become a fully-fledged Briton The article claims Meghan won’t become a British citizen automatically by having a British spouse  (correct !). Then they insist Meghan would become “a fully-fledged Briton in 3 years”. Meghan is not a client of ours (but who knows after this post!), yet we are concerned about Meghan following this unqualified immigration advice by The Daily Mail (they are not even regulated by the OISC!). So, we have decided to write this post to offer the happy couple a free UK immigration law consultation (normally worth £150!). Firstly, Meghan needs a UK Spouse visa , which will be for 2.5 years.  The coupl...