Changes to LTSV pass?

[migratingbird]

My partner, our daughter and I are moving to Singapore in August. I will enter employment, and so my company have applied for EP for me, DP for daughter and LTSV for partner. We received info that the MoM required Embassy confirmation of our relationship. But the UK doesn't recognise common law spouses, so is unable to so this. The British consulate looked into this for me, and said the rules regarding LTSVP changed on 1st March, and without this confirmation we have no chance of the pass being approved. We have an affadavit from the country we are currently living in (and my partner's country of birth), which has been publically notarised and we have a certificate confirming the relationship. Has anyone gone through this process since the changes came into effect? Do we have any chance of obtaining the pass or will we now have to marry (which we want to do at some point - just wanted time to save and do it properly!)

[sundaymorningstaple]

If you have a birth certificate for the child with both names on it, this will help. Normally, if there is a family unit and a real de facto relationship, Immigration here will generally accept a notarized statement of the relationship and guarantee that the trailing partner will be sponsored by the EP holder or the Employer (better).

[migratingbird]

Oh I really hope you're right! Yes, the employer is applying for all the passes, so fingers crossed.

[westcountry]

Migratingbird, did you have any success with your application?

I recently applied for an LTVP for my girlfriend who was on an LTVP under me when we moved to Singapore 2 years ago but cancelled as she got an S-Pass (that time we simply submitted a notarised Statutory Declaration). She is not working now so we needed a new LTVP…

We submitted as before on the 17th Feb with a statutory declaration, but on the 4th March they wrote to say we now needed our letter to be notarised by the UK Embassy as being equivalent to a common-law marriage in the UK, who gave me the same message as you have received - they cannot do this as common-law marriage is not recognised in the UK (and they don't offer this service anyway in Singapore).

We instead submitted a publicly notarised affidavit as advised by MOM, but got a reply from them saying 'your country does not recognise common-law relationship although you have furnished a notarised affidavit to us', and that our application was rejected.

We have appealed but am not confident it will be approved and are currently having to live in a hotel in JB as my partner is Malaysian and can only spend 60 days out of 90 in Singapore, while our rented apartment in Singapore lies empty and I have to sit in a 1.5 jam every morning and evening...

This new rule change is looks like being a major issue for British citizens who are not married. We have thought about getting married to solve this issue (like you want to do it properly) but have read it may still be rejected as you generally need to married for 2 years...

[migratingbird]

Hi- yes I found out two days ago that it was rejected. Gutted. Sorry to hear about your situation, if anything it must be worse for you having been allowed to set up your life and then having it denied. We're currently debating marriage, the lady processing our visa applications was confident it would be successful but if what you've said about two years is true then we're in a real jam. My partner is going to ask the uni he's applied to if they have made a decision regarding his placement yet, because that would give us a bit more breathing room. It's all very frustrating and I imagine there are many others out there besides us who are affected. Keep in touch and let me know if you hear anything else.

[westcountry]

Sorry to hear yours was rejected as well. It's not a nice feeling at all is it?

We didn't ask about the marriage question, my comment on 2 years comes from other threads on different forums my partner found so if you have spoken to them yourselves it may not be so bad. I think they probably base it on other factors (salary, nationality etc…) and use 2 years to some people as a more sensitive reason…

As a side note and typical Murphy's Law - I finally closed a large project here in Singapore last week, which I have been working on for the past 2 years and finally means my employer is going to set up an operating entity in Singapore and train up locals to help improve the efficiency of the water supply. Talk about timing!

Am sure in the future we will look back and see how our lives suddenly being thrown up into the air was a good thing, but it certainly doesn't feel that way right now.



Let's keep chatting. Not sure if I have posted enough to PM on here yet, but am keen to hear how it goes and hope you are successful. All the best.