Kenya - Immigration and marriage forms and advice

Kenya Immigration So you want to come to Europe?

Immigration from Kenya into Europe is not that easy. Just getting a visa to leave the country is hard enough, let alone be granted European entry. Despite its long British history, if you are from Kenya and want to come to UK, its a minefield of obstructions and delays.Your first approach and the best way to get a feel for European countries like UK, is to seek a two year working holiday maker visa. These are the easiest to obtain but only if you are between 17 and 30 years of age.

WARNING: Unfortunately the ECO's in Kenya are a law unto themselves and have some bad habits of reading immigration or visa applications laws and regulations differently to everyone else! If you submit a visa application with absolutely everything correct, they will decide to either misread a document, regulation or, say they never received the document with your application. Also be prepared with child visitor applications to submit much more than requested on the form. Example, include letters from school, other gaurdians (grandmother etc), local doctor. Even if its a simple visa with the natural parent/s accompanying the child. They are very naughty in Nairobi and will seek to deny your visa without care of immigration regulations by making up an endless additions list of their own.

UK Marriage Visa

Description: A UK marriage visa, or spouse visa, enables your husband, wife or civil partner to apply for leave to enter, or leave to remain in the UK on the basis that they are married to a person who is present and settled in Britain. Settled status means that you are living here lawfully with no time limit on your stay. Your spouse must apply for entry clearance before travelling to the United Kingdom. If you intend to bring your unmarried partner to join you, please refer to our section detailing the requirements for making a UK fiance visa application.

Duration Initially visas for spouse immigration are issued for a two year period. After this time, a person can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) commonly known as permanent residency in the UK. In some cases, settlement entry clearance may be granted allowing a partner to stay in the country permanently; however, this is only applicable to a person who has been married and living abroad with their spouse for four years at the time they apply for entry to the UK.
Benefits: A UK spouse visa allows a person with settled status in Great Britain to bring their spouse to join them in the Country. The applicant will be able to seek and take up employment in the United Kingdom as soon as the document is granted without the need to arrange a UK work permit. British marriage visas do not place any restrictions upon the type of work that can be undertaken.

Eligibility Criteria:

Age For a marriage visa application, candidates must be 16 years of age or over and the partner with settled status in the British Isles must be 18 years of age or over.
Relationships To be eligible for the marriage visa service, partners must forfill the following requirements:

	- Parties must be legally married to each other.
	- Plan to live together.
	- Have met each other.
	- Be able to support themselves entirely without recourse to public funds.
	- Have adequate accommodation where dependants can live without recourse to public funds.

If a person has more than one husband or wife, a visa for spouse immigration will only allow one of them to come to the British Isles as their husband or wife. If a UK visa application is being made by a person within the United Kingdom for leave to remain on this basis, at the time of the application the person must have leave to remain in the UK on a visa category that was initially issued for a period of more than six months.

Dependants: Children of the marriage who are under 18 years of age will be granted entry to the UK as dependants. They will be able to make their application at the same time as the main applicant. After a total period of three years in the country if you meet the residence requirements you may then apply for British naturalization in order to remain in the country under a grant of UK citizenship.
If you are an HSMP visa holder, having embarked upon the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, your spouse/unmarried partner may be able to apply for a Dependency Visa. For more information on this route to UK immigration please visit our section on how to apply for the Highly Skilled Migrant Program.

Additional Information: As of 1st February 2005 people who are subject to immigration control and wish to get married in the United Kingdom must give notice to marry to a registrar at one of a number of designated register offices throughout Great Britain. The General Register Office can provide you with details of your local register office.

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