u/AnishAdvani

Hi all,

I am currently on a UK Graduate Visa which is expiring in September 2026, and am considering applying for the UK Unmarried Partner Visa.

For context, I have been with my partner, a UK national, for the past 4 years. We met at University and have been together since. We lived together for a year (2022-2023) in a Twin Room on our university campus, we both had separate contracts. They graduated in 2023 and move out to their parents while I finished my final year. After I graduated in 2024, my partner started pursuing their PhD and had to move to a different city for their training year, before they started their thesis in their primary university. Since I was job hunting at the time, I decided to move to this city and we rented out a studio apartment. This accommodation was part of the student housing and though I was legally living there (the university was aware and we were paying a little extra for me to stay there), I was not mentioned on the contract. Funny enough, during that year I found a job in the city we were living in but my partner had to go back to their primary university after their training year had concluded. Since then, we have been meeting atleast once every month and have been calling atleast once everyday. I am trying to find a job near them but the job market has been really tough, especially for international applicants. Hence, we have decided to apply for the unmarried partner visa to increase my chances of getting a job closer to them. My current job doesn’t sponsor visa either.

I have looked into the process but wanted advice from people who have been successful with their application. I was wondering what documents evidences you submitted that are vital to the application.

My partner and I are in a gay relationship and their parents aren’t aware of our relationship or my resistance. If my partner came out to their parents, they’ll be disowned and worse things could happen.

Since my job is in a city far away from them, I am not sure how to provide evidence that we will live together after the visa has been approved. I do not want to leave my current job until I find a new one closer to them, would this cause an issue? Since they are doing a PhD I need to have my job in order to qualify for the financial criteria. Would it be okay to mention in the supporting statement that we will live together as soon I find a job closer to them or would it be better to just rent out a place that can accommodate the two of us?

I would appreciate any advice that you all might have. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this post and for helping me out. :)

Dear fellow audiophiles,

After have tried and tested everything I come to you all for some guidance and advice. I am new to record playing and own a Fluance RT81 turntable. It’s just been under a month since I bought it but am having issues with static noise when I play my records. It wasn’t always like this, and is a recent development.

I believe it began when I played one of my new records that had so much static that it wouldn’t come out of its sleeve. I somehow managed to get it out and it played without any issues. After a few days I started getting zapped and my other record got stuck to the rubber mat. Thinking it was because of the static I just removed the record without much thought. The next day when I played my newly bought record, I heard some static on it. Originally thinking that it must be the record that’s not pressed as it should have been, I tested my other records that I knew didn’t have the static sound. Unfortunately, they all made the same background static sound.

Since then, I have tested everything in my hand to make sure that it wasn’t my records player or stylus that was damaged, but nothing has worked. I washed the rubber mat with soap and water to remove any residual static that might have transferred onto it from my high static records, wet cleaned all of my records, wet cleaned the stylus and record platter, changed my setup orientation (my speakers were originally under the shelf that my player sits on as I have a small room), grounded the cables (even though I don’t need to do that as I have a built in preamp), isolated speakers to make sure they aren’t the one with the issue, and also checked the stylus. I am unable to figure out what’s wrong with it and it’s driving me crazy. I can still return it as I got it from Amazon and it hasn’t been a month yet. Additionally, I also have a two years warranty. I was just wondering if I’m doing something wrong and would also appreciate if you all could inspect my stylus to see if it’s fine. Like many new audiophiles, I made the same mistake of not cleaning the stylus in back to forward motion and am worried that could have potentially damaged it? There have also been some accidents where I have dropped the stylus on the record… very ashamed and sad about it.

If you have faced this issue before or have any suggestions for me to try, please let me know, I would appreciate it!!

Thank you for your time and assistance!! :)

Looking for answers and tips regarding the Unmarried Partner Visa

Static, crackling and pop sounds on new records and player, is my stylus damaged?