Can my Indonesian girlfriend's daughter come to the UK to live with us after the marriage?

Question

I plan to marry my Indonesian girlfriend in Indonesia within the next couple of years or so. She has a 4-year old daughter from a previous relationship, they were never married and he vanished pretty much as soon as the daughter was born. Since then my girlfriend and the father of her child have never made any contact what so ever nor has he made any attempt to contact her or his daughter.

I pretty much know the process of getting married so what I need to know is can I or my wife apply to have both the mother and daughter come to the United Kingdom together or is she only allowed to join me first, then after the first two or so years she is able to bring her daughter to join us in the United Kingdom?

The daughter is so adorable it breaks my heart to think I'm separating them, from birth she hasn't had a dad and now her mother has met me and I've half kind of become a fatherly figure, it may look like to the poor thing I'm taking her mother away from her, it's just heartbreaking so surely there is a system in place for both mother and daughter to come here in the UK together right?

Answer 1

From the UK's official site describing eligibility requirements for those applying to join family living permanently in the UK:

Bringing your children

Your children must be under 18.

You must name your children on your application, but you’ll need to apply for them separately.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/join-family-in-uk/eligibility

This page also lists other requirements, including the financial criteria the family must meet to qualify for the visa:

Joining your partner

You must prove that you and your partner are 18 or over and in a genuine relationship.

You must be one of the following:

• married or civil partners
• living together in a relationship for 2 years
• engaged to be married or to become civil partners

You must prove that any previous relationships you or your partner had are permanently broken down.

You must also meet the financial requirement of:

• £18,600 per year if you’re applying only for yourself
• £22,400 per year for you and one child
• £2,400 per year for each additional child

There is more information on this page, along with links to other documents. It is also one of several pages that describe other aspects of the program, so you will definitely want to visit the site yourself. The landing page for family visas in general is https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/family-visas.