Help My Girlfriend Stay in the Netherlands

We've been dating for 7 years now, most of that time has been in a long-distance relationship. I'm Dutch and live in the Netherlands. Samantha is Australian and lived in Australia. A few years ago we finally managed to get her into the Netherlands on a work visa. This lasted a year, and before it expired we applied for a partner visa. The immigration service took forever to even assign somebody to our case and denied it unjustly. We consulted with an immigration lawyer and appealed, which again took longer than it should have, and they denied for the exact same unjust reason. We appealed again and are waiting for a court date. However, even though the court should rule in our favour, this will just send the case back to the immigration office, who I don't trust to give it a fair review at this point.

We've essentially been stuck in this limbo for a year and a half with no relief in sight.

Important to note is that while the decision is pending, Samantha is not allowed to work, study, or anything of the sort. This has made our financial situation more and more difficult, but so far we have managed.

Our lawyer did tell us that we can do multiple visa applications simultaneously, so we looked into doing a study visa. This all went quite well, and she meets all the requirements. Except one. That is, you need to show a massive amount of money up front to prove that you can meet your tuition fees and living expenses for the entirety of the first year. This amount is 31900 euros. There's no options for installments, or anything of the sort. Proof of income, or otherwise showing that we have been making our living expenses work for several years already are all out of the question.

We had some hope in Samantha's father being able to help us with this. He went to the bank to see if he could take out a loan, but that process has hit a lot of snags and it seems unlikely to happen at all, let alone in time. We need to do the application before the end of the month, and even if the loan gets approved, by the time this happens it'll already be in June. That still ignores how long it takes for money to transfer from Australia to the Netherlands. All in all, it's not something we can count on.

We've both been struggling a lot for a long time, and this enormous amount of time being stuck due to forces out of our control has made things feel bleak and hopeless. We're doing our best to move forward in any way we can, but if this study visa does not come to fruition we are looking at an indeterminate amount of time trapped in this helpless state. Months, maybe another year? Maybe more. After all, if the courts rule in our favour and it goes back to the Immigration service, they can simply reject it again and we could essentially repeat this process ad infinitum.

We're desperate. We have been building to our life together for half a decade, and this time being stuck waiting on a verdict has seen much of that work undone. Being able to get that student visa would allow us to start building again. To start living again, instead of simply surviving. And even just surviving has gotten harder and harder. We would truly be endlessly grateful should this become possible.