Marriage and settlement! ILR holder!

[UK Resident]

Hi - I am currently an ILR holder in the UK. I got my ILR this Jan 2004, and i am eligible for British citizenship this coming Jan 2005.

I am now engaged and am getting maried next year Feb.

My fiancee is currently in the UK and is on a Work permit!
I run my own consulting firm in the UK and am doing very good - professionally and financially.
We live together now and share the same residentail address for more than 6 months now.

Please throw some lights on my questions as below:

My questions are:

1. If we wanted to register the maraige in the UK and then perform a customary marraige back home in my country, what are the steps I need to take.

2. If we went to our country and got married there (customary marraige) and register our marraige in our native country and come back to UK, my wife coming back on marriage visa, what are teh steps to take.
She would like to resign from her job when we leave to our country to get married. THis means she will ahve to take a marriage visa to come back with me to UK. Please advise what steps to take to get the visa and any procedures i nee to be aware of.

3. If I apply for my British citizenship and in while the application is being processed, we go to our native country to get married as in option 1 or 2 above, is there anything specific in terms of procedures that I need to take care of - considering the fact that I would not have sent my current original passport with my UK citizenship application. I would have just sent a notarised copy of my passport (just to secure my travel for marriage)

Please advise. Thanks for everybody's time.

[John]

Hi, you ask quite a few questions. Hope the following helps :-

1. You entitled to get marriage in the UK and will not encounter a problem at the moment. However be aware that from a date in the not too distant future if a non-EEA Citizen wants to get married in the UK they will need to give Notice of Intention to Marry only at certain designated Register Offices, and even once there, there will still be a procedure to go through. The legislation is already on the UK Statute Book but that particular provision has yet to be activated.
   
   Accordingly if you intend to marry in the UK, give the required notice as soon as possible at your local Register Office. After two weeks or so they will issue you with the necessary permission to marry, and that permission is valid for 12 months.
   
   The implications of a UK marriage "back home in my own country"? You don't actually say what country that is! Accordingly it is impossible for anyone to answer that question at the moment. It will of course depend upon how the law of your country treats a couple already marriage, and whether a traditional marriage is legally valid as a marriage at all.
   
   For example, Thailand. Any religious marriage has no legal significance at all. To get legally married the couple need to register their marriage at the equivalent of a Register Office. So, for example, if your home country is Thailand, if you get legally married in the UK, there will be no problem whatsoever having a religious marriage in Thailand.
2. From your no. 2 it sounds as if the customary marriage does not have legal effect as you also say "register our marriage in our native country".
   
   Applying for a 2-year spouse visa after marrying abroad? Issues include the delay for getting a settlement visa interview. That varies considerably. Your wife, as she will then be, might be stuck outside the UK for a number of months.
3. I don't think there is an issue. As regards the 90 day and 450 day tests, those are in respect of the one year and 5 year periods up to when IND receive the application. So going abroad just after submitting the application should not have any effect.

All in all, and assuming a customary marriage in your country has no legal effect, the easiest option might be to get married in the UK, after giving notice of intention to marry as soon as possible ... phone your Register Office on Monday! ..... get married in the UK .... followed by application for a 2-year spouse visa in the UK (I assume your fiancée's current visa is for a period exceeding six months duration) .... you can make the application in person at a PEO ... cost of applying £250 ... or by post £155 .... and later travel to your country for the customary wedding. Armed with the spouse visa your wife would of course have no problem returning to the UK, and neither would you.

[UK Resident]

Hi - thanks for your answers.

I am from India. Sorry I should have mentioned this before. Does it mean any changes in your answers? Please help with answers.

Thanks for your time.

[John]

Hi, OK India. No I don't think it makes any difference.

Sorry I simply do not know about Indian marriage law. Is it the case that the religious ceremony has not legal effect whatsoever? And to be legally marriage the couple need to register their marriage at some sort of Register Office?

If the answer to both of those questions is Yes, then there would be nothing to stop the two of you getting legally married at a Register Office in the UK, and then in a religious ceremony (only) in India.

As regards the possibility of getting legally married in India, followed by application for a spouse visa, it is of course a big country with a number of different British Consulates. You would need to contact the appropriate one and find out the time delay for getting a settlement visa interview. Around the world the time varies from just a day or two, to a year.

[UK Resident]

Finally, i have decided to go to India and get married.

Does anybody know how long does it take to get the settlement/Marriage visa for my wife. This will help me to plan her return to UK. I will need to back ASAP to UK to continue my consulting work. So the question is when will she be ready to come to UK on a marraige visa.

The BHC in India tells us it can take anywhere between 1 day to several months - well. this does not give us any sensible time frames as such

Anyway, if there has been anybody who had taken a marraige visa in india recently, please throw some light.

Also does anybody know what is different in a Townhouse as compared to a flat - I have lived in the UK throughout in flats, so i don't know the intrecacises of a townhouse - since i am looking to move in to a townhouse, which looks spacious for our new family, although its a bit more costly.

Any help on this would also help.

Thanks.

[John]

I have no experience about getting a spouse visa in India ... but do in Thailand. If the procedure is the same in India ... and you can ask the BHC if they allow the same procedures .... then you can submit the application for the spouse visa before the marriage has been registered. The application needs to be submitted with a covering letter saying that the marriage has not been registered but that will happen on or about (date) and could they kindly allocate an interview date or after after (a slightly later date).

Another possibility in Bangkok, and you will need to check if the BHC in India do the same, is to try and get a "Short Interview" allocated. That is, when the VAF2 application form is submitted, submit it with all the the needed supporting evidence. Hopefully they will be "minded to grant" the application and will then invite the applicant to come back to the BHC for a short interview at the counter.

Combining the above two, you would submit the application, with its covering letter, in the near future ... with all the supporting evidence .... except of course the marriage certificate ... if they agree Short Interview treatment your wife (as she will then be) will wait until the marriage certificate is indeed available to show to the embassy before going back to the BHC to get her visa.

Hope this helps.

[chealseaforlife]

Hi,

I was just wondering if it is wise to go all the way to indian to get married, and then start looking for a way to bring ur wife back to the UK, when u can easily get married here in the UK, get the right status, and then do the customary marriage in India. This way she would have no problems getting back into the country

[UK Resident]

Hi - If my would-be wife continued her job in the UK, and took a month's time of leave from her employer and we go to India and marry, get marriage registered there (in India) and then she comes back with me on her continuing Work permit based FLR (which would be valid since she is continuing her job), can we get her Marraige visa here in the UK in one of the PEOs on the same day processing system (i.e after we come back to UK)?

Is this advisable and possible?

Because if she applies for marraige visa in India and it ends up taking time, she may not be able to travel quickly to UK to continue her job! That's why I ask if she just comes back on her current and continuing FLR (based on her Work Permit), and then once in UK, apply and get her Marriage visa in UK, would it be possible?

She asked her employer and they have accepted to give her a one month leave (because she has informed 4 months in advance now) and then to come back and continue her job here!
Also, she will have the leave letter from her employer!

Please advise.

[John]

Yes, totally possible I feel but let's just look at the underlying principles here.

There is a simple question to ask ... the total length of validity of your wife's current UK visa? If more than six months then the visa can be converted into a 2-year spouse visa in the UK. If for six months or less then, no, it is not possible to convert in the UK unless it is a fianc‚(e) visa .... application would need to be made in, in your case, India.

This rule was put in place to prevent those who came to the UK on visitor's visas ... never more than six months in duration .... converting to a spouse visa in the UK. Now such persons need to return from whence they came in order to apply for their spouse visa.

A further point ... your marriage certificate might be in an Indian language ... do ensure that you get it translated into English. Easier to do in India than in the UK? And then, whenever it is necessary to produce the marriage certificate, always produce the original and also the certified translation into English.

A final point ... do ensure the application for the spouse visa (FLR) in the UK is received by IND no later than 31.03.05. Why? The application fees increase substantially as from 01.04.05, although the exact new fee levels are not yet known.

[Rasol Safi]

Hello I have ILR in uk . I notice that my name was in the wrong order. I got soulistor and send lettr to homeoffice . I also got married in Afghanistan on 2014. I travile twice. Each time stayed for 2 and half months . Now home office told me to send my Afghanistan pasport which I used to go to Afghanistan. I lost my pasport . So they aske me to send them the pasport or the application will be refused .. Ist good idea to send the weeding photos to prov I got married that's y I went there ?

[Casa]

Welcome to the forum.

You have posted this on the end of a 13 year old thread and much has changed since then. Please open a new topic and post your questions there.