[spmab]

Hello colleagues,

First of all, thank you all for the brilliant input that is given in these forums. They are great! I had a look around but could not find exactly my doubt...

So, I have a minor question. I am a Belgian citizen living in Belgium with my Brazillian girlfriend. We are already here for almost 7 years and have a legal partnership for the last 5 years. We are together for over 11 years but are both dead afraid of getting married as we think it will ruin everything

Currently, she is negotiating a post-doc position in Cambridge and we are considering moving to the UK. I currently work with IT and speak reasonable English, so I guess I would be able to find something around the area we would be moving to.

From what I read, she would be able to apply for a EEA family permit as we have a legal partnership (that I also found out is automatically recognized by the UK). The other option would be for her to go on a student visa.

What do you experts think it´s the best solution? Should I go before and find a job? Should we go together? Do we apply for the EEA family permit before leaving Belgium? Should she go as a student and change the status there? How long before should we do that? Should we have a lawyer involved to facilitate things?

Thank you in advance for any help and all the best for you all!

 

[jlms]

I think your EEA permit should be straight forward, you don't really need a lawyer, just go to the Home Office website and follow the instructions for your application (what don't you get married? It makes it much easier to go through this kind of ringmarole. Trust me, you'll be fine )

Reading your post what worries me is that you would come to try to find an IT job over here: the market is really depressed, so keep that in mind, maybe you should get a job first before going through the hassle of relocating just to make sure you will be ok.