I know that this probably isn't the greatest place to ask, but I want to throw some ideas around see what bites and what gives me further inspiration without potentially risking my current job by posting it where someone from work my recognise me.
My girlfriend from Vietnam has now been in the UK for just over 5 years and we are finding it difficult to obtain a visa for her as she is neither married or has any real degree level qualifications she can use to get a job that would sponsor her for a working visa in the UK and after several attempts to apply for a visa the chances of getting one seem to be getting increasingly slim. (Although we have known each other for the 5 years we didn't really get together until about 10months ago, and neither of us is really ready or prepared to get married just so we can obtain a visa.)
However some of my research shows that the UK is probably one of the hardest countries to get a visa in to allow you to stay indefinitely and potentially work full time.
So I was wondering about potentially either moving to Vietnam or to another country (English speaking) (Canada, Australia, New Zealand for example) where we could both get visa's and right to remain and work .
Has anyone been in a similar situation or either have any experience of moving out of the UK to work abroad long term or obtaining a visa in the UK for someone without going down the marriage route.
Unfortunately while we can get by on just my salary, I couldn't afford at this point to put her through university to get a student visa for her. I work in IT as a Systems Administrator / Technical Support role and given the amount of growth in that sector I'm not overly worried about being able to find work in any English speaking country, however I would be looking to secure a job before moving from the UK and quitting my current one. (Vietnamese being probably one of the most difficult languages in Asia to pick up.)