Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
Try to bring in a partner with whom you have a committed relationship but might not have lved together in the one place for a year and had a joint lease and bills... forget it.
I'm not sure that's entirely true. I'd have described my evidence of 12 months as borderline (my partner and I had been living apart for 6 months when I submitted the application!)...yet I submitted my application to London and was approved about 3 days later. Never once at either stage of processing did anyone ask me a question or request any sort of information or clarification...about anything...personally I found that surprising.
I understand your point about mail order brides...but immigration can't offer anything similar to same sex couples because there is no legal union for them to prospectively enter into, not at a federal level anyway! If that changes, I'm sure immigration will catch up...for now, it's about as 'progressive' as it can be.