Argentinian Partner Looking To Settle In Uk...

[sailaway]

Hi all,

I hope this deserves a thread as I cant seem to piece all info together from other threads forums..

I am UK national and have been living in BA for 4 years on a work visa...my girlfriend of 2 years is an Argentinian national.

I need to make a change in my professional career, and want to return to the UK in order to do that. My girlfriend is very keen to go to the Uk, but wants to enroll in a London university (she is working on requisite GCSE/ a levels)

What I am looking for is some guidance as to the best way to put this plan into action. We have discussed many options, including getting married here or in the UK to make process easier and having a "real" wedding someday soon in the future when we are more happy.

However something that recently occured to me is that my girlfriend has a French grandfather (deceased). Am I right in thinking that she would be eligable for an EU passport? and thus be able to gain entry to the UK without a VISA.

Does anybody have any experience/wisdom on how this process works? how long it takes? how straight forward it is ?


Apologies if this is a repeat thread but i havent been able to find much on the subject.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!

 

[joeschmoe1920]

You may be overthinking this. She doesn't need a visa to go to the UK as an Argentinian citizen. She can get on a plane and join you there for six months and see where that takes you. If she enrolls in a UK university, she can get a student visa, which grants her more rights (and for longer) than tourist status. Or you can marry her. A French grandfather won't help her get French citizenship. A French parent would. But in any case, obtaining French citizenship would be the most time consuming option. And with Brexit possibly in the cards, that may not even guarantee resident status in the UK by the time she's done becoming French.

 

[Flay]

The France angle might be worth investigating - it varies from country. There are a lot of people here who got EU passports through having Italian grandparents, but Spain, on the other hand accepts only children, not grandchildren. You'd have to check what the situation is with France through the embassy. In the case of Italy, the process took more than a year for the people I know who did it.

Have you got a new job lined up in the UK? Unfortunately, getting married isn't going to help unless you can pass the financial test to get the spouse visa. You'd probably have to move back to the UK first, start work, and then seek residency for your partner, assuming you meet the minimum income test (I think you need to be earning about 20,000 a year to bring a wife with no kids). Otherwise, I think a student visa's going to be the only option.

 

[Ceviche]

The France angle might be worth investigating - it varies from country. There are a lot of people here who got EU passports through having Italian grandparents, but Spain,

I have seen local Argies with French, Croatian, German passports as well. Just do some leg work.

But going to UK as a tourist is absolutely no problem.

 

[sailaway]

Hi, thanks all for your replies, read them yesterday whilst travelling.

Yes I have a few job options lined up in the UK and they would all be over the minimum threshold, I wonder if your actual salary is taken into consideration during the spouse visa granting process...? i.e. if it is higher your case is more favourable

I am aware that she can visit as a tourist we have done that numerous times until now and she has never had a problem. Although I am not sure she can arrive on tourist visa for 6 months and then enrol at a uni, i believe she must apply from Argentina not when already in the UK.

In terms of an EU passport, in actual fact she has Italian grandparents on her fathers side, I have been reading how people of italian descent can claim citizenship via "jure sanguinis" whereas you can effectively trace lineage back until you find an italian relative and claim citizenship and later a passport. Seems one of most straightforward countries to obtain an EU passport in this way, however by result of this it takes a long time due to backlogs, 12+ months it seems.

All in all i think we might have to start applying for the above and a university visa also and see which progresses fastest.

Thanks all again for your input and attention!