Spouse visa application queries

[Nhbe2015]

Hi all,

I’m a British citizen and have been with my fiancé for 3 years now. He has never visited the U.K. but I spent just under a year in his home country living and working as a teacher. However I had to come back to the U.K. as he had to complete his compulsory military service for 14 months. I will be visiting him in a month as he has now completed his military service and I haven’t seen him for 18 months. We kept our relationship alive during the period of being apart through FaceTime, WhatsApp, Viber etc.

Our plan is to get married in the U.K. and have our wedding here, then apply for him to settle here as a spouse. I don’t feel safe in his home country after I experienced living there and my family were not happy about it either. I meet all the requirements to sponsor him to come over.

However, my confusion is whether to get legally married without a wedding in his home country since I’ll be visiting there soon, and then come back to the U.K. and apply for a spouse visa. Or apply for a fiancé visa and getting married here in the U.K. then switch to a spouse visa, which I understand is more expensive. I’m worried that we will be rejected if we get married without a wedding when applying for a spouse visa, as I’ve read before that the ECO requires proof of a wedding with pictures, invitations cards etc. I don’t want our application to face scrutiny from the HO with just a marriage contract as proof of our marriage.

Will it be more easier and straight forward to apply for a fiancé visa? Or is there a chance for us to be accepted for the spouse visa without having a wedding or any kind of celebration first?

Your opinions and advice would be much appreciated

[Londoner007]

Get married in your husbands country - your best proof of marriage is your marriage certificate. Whilst getting married have a small gathering with close friends etc and just take some photos.

You can get a few wedding cards as invites to close friends. Then add other relationship proofs such as all chat logs, visits together etc when applying.

Surely, if you are going to his country and have a camera you can take some photos.

[Lulu65]

I would suggest getting married as well. It's much more expensive to go for the fiance visa and it's not easier than applying for a Spouse visa. As Londoner007 said, you'll have your marriage certificate. Just make sure you include all documents relevant to the requirements and more. Chat logs, pictures, airline tickets, etc...

Good luck

[Nhbe2015]

Thank you for your replies.
I’ve just returned back to the U.K. and have successfully got married in my husbands home country
We had a civil marriage ceremony in a registry office with two witnesses, but unfortunately were unable to have a wedding celebration afterwards due to lack of time and mainly because all of my husbands family and friends live in a city hundreds of miles away from the capital where we got married.

We took pictures of us signing the marriage contract and on another occasion with 2 of his friends on a night out.
We also had a photo shoot done where I dressed in white and took pictures with my husband in a studio. My worry is now whether we have enough evidence of our marriage as we didn’t have a wedding, due to our plan to have a wedding in the U.K. later on in the year. We plan to apply for the spouse visa as soon as I gather all the paperwork together. What could we do to strengthen our application?

[lutga]

Most important thing is by far and away the marriage certificate itself. Photos and everything else is just an added extra.

Make sure you get the marriage certificate translated into English by one of the approved translators listed by UK Gov.

[Londoner007]

Yes, as stated marriage certificate and few photos to show you have met in person should fulfil to satisfy the ECO in this regard.

[Casa]

Yes, as stated marriage certificate and few photos to show you have met in person should fulfil to satisfy the ECO in this regard.

Evidence of contact between you before and since the marriage is also essential.

[Londoner007]

Yes that was for the satisfying marriage took place and met in person. But for genuine relationship bit of course you need different docs such as call logs whilst apart, visits together, gifts exchanged etc etc

[Nhbe2015]

Hi all,

I'm just gathering my documents together to apply for a spouse visa for my husband, however there are a few things I would like to clarify before I send everything off.

1) I have all our Whatsapp, Facebook and Viber chat logs since the beginning of our relationship, and plan to print off chats from 2 days out of each month. Do I need to include the chat log from the entire day or would a extract be sufficient?

2) I plan for my husband and I to live with my mother and sister in a 4 bedroom flat owned by a housing association until we get our own place. The flat is not overcrowded and is in my mother's name. Do I need to provide a housing report? Or would a letter from my mother and our housing officer be sufficient?

3) I plan to prepare all the documents and send them off from here in the U.K. Will this be a issue as I read online that my husband will need to bring these documents to his bio-metric appointment to be scanned?

4) I would like to pay for priority service and want to know if its possible to pay the visa fees and nhs surcharge on a different card to the priority service.

Thank your help and advice in advance.

[CR001]

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