Marriage certs question

[wantoosoon]

Hi all,

I've stupidly got myself into a confusing situation.

I'm a British citizen married to a foreign woman. We will soon move to the UK. I will sponsor my wife's settlement visa.

The thing is that we married twice: once in the UK, secretly (some people wouldn't have approved) and again abroad.

We have always used the foreign marriage cert for official purposes (including as a supporting document for a previous UK visit visa).

Now I don't know which cert to submit. If I submit only the foreign one, might the Border Agency check UK records and request the UK cert, slowing down the application or giving a reason to reject it? If I give the UK cert, might the BA have similar reservations due to the foreign cert being used previously? Should I just give both and explain?

As I say, it's a stupid situation and it's all my own fault. We shouldn't have married twice, but we were young and didn't know any better.

I suppose it hinges on whether they are likely to check UK marriage records and supporting documents for previous visa applications. Any ideas? Thanks for your help.

[Kitty]

I am no expert on this area, but one thing I did think of was whether there are any laws in HK that might invalidate the marriage there because you were already legally married? In which case you should use the UK certificate.

The settlement visa comes down to whether you are actually legally married: it seems that you were legally married int he UK so should be fine to use that certificate.

Personally, I don't think it should cause a problem that you used the HK certificate in previous applications, as you were still actually legally married anyway: it's up to the UKBA to decide what evidence it will accept of married status.

[wantoosoon]

Many thanks for that, Kitty.

Does anyone know if they usually check for UK marriages in such applications? Clearly they didn't for the visit visa application, but this is a different situation.

[Gnosis]

Ghosh! You have to check this very carefully. As how is possible you got married abroad if you have already been legally married? (What is meaning of secretly?) They did not ask you provide "Marriage Capacity" ? or whatever is the name of that document what proves you are single or available/capable to get marry.
That is something what is almost "must" to prevent bigamy. Even what is not in your case as u got married twice with the same person...lol
Hope you will sort this out in best way for you and your spouse.

Good luck!