Has anyone successfully applied for an Unmarried partner visa without 2 years of a romantic relationship?
Hi everyone
I'm hoping to hear from people who may have been in a similar situation, especially after the recent changes to the Unmarried Partner Visa rules.
I'm a Peruvian citizen (F27), and my partner is British(M30). We have a genuine relationship and want to build a life together in the UK, but we don't want to get married yet.
We first connected online in June last year, and from August we spoke almost every day through WhatsApp and video calls. Our friendship developed into a romantic relationship in April this year.
We then spent 5 days together on holiday in Manchester and Liverpool, and two weeks later I returned to the UK, where we lived together for about 6 weeks. We have thousands of messages, regular calls, travel bookings, photos together, and I've also met his family and have photos with them.
Financially, this isn't an issue. My partner meets the financial requirement through his full time job, and I work online as a Spanish teacher.
Earlier this year, I had to leave the UK because I had been working remotely while visiting as a tourist. I left voluntarily (I wasn't deported), and now we want to make sure everything we do is completely legal.
We considered the Fiancé Visa, but after thinking it through, we both feel we don't want to get married purely for immigration purposes. We'd rather marry naturally when we're both ready.
I've read that the Unmarried Partner Visa no longer requires two years of cohabitation if there were valid reasons for living apart. What I'm unsure about is whether the relationship itself still needs to have lasted two years, or if there's any flexibility for genuine couples like us.
Has anyone been in a similar situation or received legal advice after the rule changes? We're already planning to speak with an immigration solicitor, but I'd really appreciate hearing about real experiences.
Thank you so much 🙏🏻