American Marrying German (working in London)

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

To deal with marriage in the UK first; the UK Government have a UK Gov webpage that deals with marriage and civil partnerships; this link will take you there.

With regards to immigration; your partner, being an EU citizen, is not currently an issue (although Brexit may change things in the future).  For yourself, Tier 2 visas cover a multitude of disciplines, but I'm wondering that as you have a "top university and masters degrees and work in banking/consulting/law", whether you trying to get a job described on the shortage occupation list (link), would be a much quicker/better option so you would be in the UK in your own right (avoiding any potential Brexit issues).  Family visas can be difficult and protracted to try and get; many see them as marriages of convenience and you could be forgiven for thinking that they and the process they use were trying to actively discourage you from coming to the UK.

Anyway, to answer your specific request for a link regarding visas, this link will take you to the UK Gov website that lists all the potential visas you could apply for.

One other comment; if ultimately your desire is to move to Germany, why waste 5 years of your life in the UK; there are no advantages to doing this and having lived in both countries, it certainly wouldn't be the way I would do it.

I do wish you both the best of luck in your journey whatever you chose to do.  If you have any further specific questions, please come back to us.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Hi Cynic,

Thanks for the quick and helpful response. I am currently in New York (which is home) at the moment so it might actually be where my boyfriend and I intend to marry. I previously was on tier 2 for a finance job but have since moved back to New York. Unfortunately my job doesn’t fit into the shortage list even though I had zero issues getting a tier 2 visa.

The reason I want to first get “settled” in the UK is because I don’t speak German and thus may not command the same salary in Germany.

Is it really that difficult to get a family visa? My boyfriend alone can tick off the income requirement and already lives in London at the moment.

My plan was originally to move over to London and then find a job but based on your response, that doesn’t seem likely?

Hi again.

It's not impossible to get a family visa, I'd describe it as "not being user friendly"; the thing that most find difficult is the requirement for having lived together for 2 years prior to the date of application, plus it can take 3 months to come through and cost you £1,500 for the privilege; the shortage visas have none of that - no family aspect, is quick and the boss pays the fee; the downside is that these visas have regional quotas which are not in the public domain - we recently had over 700 urgently needed doctors waiting for a visa to come and work in the UK, only for the quota to block them all.  I suggested them to you as alternatives to being caught up in the family visa - many are.  Anyway, you now have the links you were asking for.

With regards to Germany; you will definitely learn German quicker and better in Germany; there is no better way to learn any language than to speak it; that's how I learnt it, a week-long full-time course at a school, then unleash yourself on the unsuspecting public at large.  I learnt German and Dutch that way, you'll make mistakes, people will laugh at you, it's all part of the fun.  To be honest, my opinion is that Germany is a much nicer place than the UK, but I did live there for 15 years, so am probably a bit biased.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Thanks Cynic! Yes that is super helpful to know. I wasn’t aware of the 2 year living requirement for family visas in the UK. I thought spouses of EU citizens could automatically work in whichever city their spouses worked? My boyfriend currently works in London.

Re: Germany, I agree. That is something to definitely look into.

According to this link:
https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/partner-spouse

What you’ll need to prove
You must be able to prove one of the following:

- you’re in a civil partnership or marriage that’s recognised in the UK
- you’ve been living together in a relationship for at least 2 years when you apply
- you are a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner and will marry or enter into a civil partnership in the UK within 6 months of arriving

I don't have to prove that I have lived with him for 2 years as long as I fulfill the other criteria? (i.e. that we are officially married).

Or is the 2 year co-living a hidden requirement that despite not being explicit, still greatly affects my chances of getting a  family visa?

Hi again,

I think not; it is the marriages of convenience they are trying to catch out; that being so, the first statement invites all marriages regardless of status, which is clearly not the case.  If you read on, it goes on to say:

If you’re applying as a spouse or partner, you’ll be asked about:

Your relationship with your partner, for example how you met and how often you see each other
How long you’ve lived together - you’ll need to send proof like council tax bills
Things you pay for together
Whether you’re your partner’s carer

We have had many people on here complaining of what you're hoping for and it's unfairness.

It would be helpful if you could let us know how you get on with this?

Thanks, Cynic and I will definitely update this forum/thread once we go through the process. 

I guess for now we will just apply for the EEA permit which will allow me to live with him for 6 months in London while looking for a job and then apply for the UK family visa.

I'm really hoping they may relax some of the requirements especially because my boyfriend alone makes more than the required amount by quite a bit (and once I start working again, based on my last salary, it will be obvious we will not use public funds, which seems to be their concern). Additionally, I've previously worked in London and paid taxes, etc.

We haven't lived together for more than 3 months. We met over 3 years ago when we were part of a graduate trainee type of program.

All of this seems riskier than we expected given we haven't even married yet and are living in separate cities (he, in London and me, in New York). It definitely isn't a marriage of "convenience" but it will be very inconvenient because quite a substantial part of my career decision (And thus, future earnings) will be based on how my boyfriend and I can navigate this.

I'm also curious how inter-national couples navigate the job change? I mean, I doubt most people work in jobs whereby their employer/firm can just sponsor their visas (even some global investment firms don't). So how do they navigate this tricky phase of moving to one of the spouses' countries?

meredith19 wrote:

I'm also curious how inter-national couples navigate the job change? I mean, I doubt most people work in jobs whereby their employer/firm can just sponsor their visas (even some global investment firms don't). So how do they navigate this tricky phase of moving to one of the spouses' countries?

Hi again.

I've posted this many times, but for what it's worth:

To get a decent job anywhere, you need 4 things:

Relevant experience
Relevant qualifications
Speak the local language
Luck

The more of those you have, the better your chance of getting a decent job; at the end of the process, it's normally luck that screws you.  That said, only the applicant knows how many of those they (and their peers/competitors) can tick off and where they really stand in that list.  Unless you have a unique skill or qualification that is in short-demand where you are moving to, long-distance job searching can be problematic, especially when who you are applying to realise you either don't speak the local language, or aren't available for an interview tomorrow for a job that starts the next day; these are the kind of deadlines that the agencies are pushing themselves into.  This is also affecting us all in that the salaries for us mere mortals are being deflated by the rising cost of the stars and our peers who will do more for less.

We hear stories frequently on here from people who although professionally qualified and you would ordinarily think stood a good chance of getting work, wondering if their CV got lost in the post, or even worse thrown in the bin, because they hear nothing.

So, what can you do?  Reach out to former friends at Uni, ex-colleagues and peers, use things like LinkedIn to see what's going on in the market place; anything you can do to make sure your name at least gets put on the table.  Many people find themselves stuck in a place because they can't afford to move unless they can find a job first, some succeed, some crash and burn.  Many people say "sod it, I'm off", take the plunge, get there and within a week have found their dream home and job (my daughter did it 2 years ago), so it can be done, but you have to be realistic while at the same time have absolute faith in your abilities.

Speaking personally; we're an International couple (I'm a US/UK citizen, my wife is Dutch), our kids are all dual nationals and multi-lingual.  I retired 12 months ago; I'm still getting calls from different organisations asking me to come and talk to them, so networking does work, many of these people don't know me from Adam, but my name somehow got on the table.

One last point, watch out for scammers.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Thanks, Cynic. Greatly appreciate your comments; they are a lifesaver in this situation.
I am more curious about the weird limbo I am in where I will already be in the UK on the 6 month EEA permit but have quit my last job. If I am not mistaken, whatever job I take in London will still need to sponsor my Tier 2 visa, correct? Tier 2 is for "skilled" workers, but how about the non-"skilled" workers?

Hi again - yes, you're correct.  Unless you qualify as a highly skilled migrant (that list I linked to previously), or maybe one of the other strange visas i.e. actress, dancer, sportsman, religious group (yes, they let Tom Cruise and the Mormons in) etc, you won't get a Tier 2 visa.  You would be forgiven for thinking that the UK is actively trying to discourage US citizens from coming to work and live here; they have even withdrawn the retirement visa (albeit, in this case, nobody can apply for one, so they are being nasty to everyone).

Hence my original post suggesting highly skilled migrant, or family as being your options.