Russian partner- where to start

[samift]

HI everyone i need some help to bring over my Russian partner to the UK.

We have been in a long distance relationship for a while and i went to Russia and had an Islamic ceremony conducted.

I have found the whole process around getting married in Russia officially confusing so was wondering what would be the best course of action.

1. Getting a fiance visa and calling my partner to the uk and then getting married here.( would this circumvent the need to register the marriage in Russia for spouse visa purposes?), what would be the requirements to get a fiance visa?

2.getting a marriage visa only .

3.registering the marriage in Russia and then applying via the spousal route.

if the best is no 3 then does anyone have a detailed step by step approach to getting a marriage registered in russia.

i have since been to russia again and keep in touch with my partner by phone daily

many thanks in advance

[Katie_France]

Hi samift,

Welcome to the forum

1. Getting a fiance visa will enhance paying spouse visa fees twice. From the financial point of view, it's better to register the marriage anywhere and apply for a spouse visa. To apply for the spouse visa you will need to suit Financial requirement (you should earn at least 18600 GBP in the UK), English language requirements (your fiance should pass Life skills A1), get TB certificate, confirm your accommodation, confirm your relationship. You can start by reading this https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa and then ask your questions on the forum

2. Marriage visa will not allow her to change her status inside the UK and she will have to come back to Russia to apply for the spouse visa.

3. You can register your marriage anywhere, for example, Gibraltar should be an easy way out in terms of documentation as well. I am Russian, I lived in France, and we registered our marriage in the USA not to translate the documents into French for my husband.

keep all your tickets, you will need to show it as a proof of relationships.

[Davit]

Hi,
Getting married in Russia is not too difficult... I'll try and give you the steps we followed...

1) get a certificate of no impediment (CNI) from UK registry office, takes about 30 days.

2) get an apostille on the certificate, takes about 3-5 days.

3) Travel to Russian

4) Take your passport, CNI & apostille to a translator and get them translated to Russian. You need your bio page of passport translated also.

5) You then need to get the translations certified by a solicitor in Russia, this can all be done in 1day, total cost £20 for translations & solicitor work.

6) Get a registration slip for your visa, usually from a hotel or you can ask a hostel to make you one for a small fee.

7) Make an appointment at a ZAG's office in the city your partner is registered to live in.

Take all your documents along with your partners international passport & internal passport to the Zags office. Get ready for the jokes that you know how to say yes in Russian...

9) pay the fee £4 to get married

10) They will set a day for about 30 days in the future(sort of a cooling off period if you change your mind ) but if you say you have a short visit, explain you have to return to UK you will get a date within a few days.

11) Get married, get your marriage certificate

12) Take the marriage certificate to the Head Zags office in your partners city and get an apostille put on it.

13)Go to the translators again and get the marriage cert & appostile translated to English.

14) Go to solicitors and get the translations certified all in 1 day again.

All done !!
Most translation agencies will have a list of solicitors that can certify your docs.
Hope this helps