Marriage to Turkish citizen in UK - cert of no impediment?

[nipper88]

My partner of several years is Turkish. I am a UK citizen. We are currently living together in the UK and have been for a year when we moved from Turkey to both study here. She has finished her course and only has a few months left of her tier 4 student visa. We are thinking of marrying, but I have a few questions.

It seems we need a Certificate of No Impediment which my partner must get from the Turkish consulate in the UK. Is this a MUST to get married in the UK? I have not seen that listed as a requirement on any home office or UK government site about marriage.

We are supposed to, once married, to inform the Turkish authorities no later than 90 days after or we face a fine. But if we get a Cert of no impediment from the consulate then surely they would know already and then fine us if we went over the 90 days? Ideally we don't want to inform the Turkish authorities because its such a bureaucratic hassle, but want to know, if we do indeed HAVE to get a cert of no impediment, they will know that we are going to get married in the UK and will pester us and fine us until we register it in Turkey? In short if there not a way to marry in the UK and not make it known legally to the Turkish authorities?

Finally, we might move to Turkey in 2 or 3 years time. If we get married then by then we will have been married and in the UK for 2 or 3 years also. One of the requirements to marry in the UK is that we intend to settle and live in the UK - does that mean ANY unforseen years of living abroad will invalidate the marriage?

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As a final note, I know we can apply for an unmarried partner visa if we can prove we were together in a relationship akin to marriage for 2 years or more. One and a bit of those years is provable in the UK but the rest is in Turkey. I did ring a visa company up and they said that if we had any photographic evidence of our togetherness in Turkey then we could still be granted the unmarried partner visa, and that many applications are treated with discretion where if it's clear we are not begging scroungers and are educated then they may well issue it to us. Is this indeed the case? Besides what would pass a photographic evidence? isn't it really easy to fake dates on photos or lie about whereabouts or give photos of holidays rather than living together for example?


Thanks in advance!

[Lucapooka]

This is not a requirement for UK marriage. It's very common in other parts of the world and sometimes people, such as yourselves, get carried away by the rhetoric and assume it's something the UK demands also - it doesn't!

[merlenee]

hi.. my sister was married in Turkey but never registered the marriage in the UK. If she divorce in Turkey do she need to divorce in the UK? https://www.rx247.net/levitra.html

[Lucapooka]

No.

[Lucapooka]

No. The UK don't register marriages that were contracted overseas, in any case.

[nipper88]

This is not a requirement for UK marriage. It's very common in other parts of the world and sometimes people, such as yourselves, get carried away by the rhetoric and assume it's something the UK demands also - it doesn't!

Right, so for us to get married in the UK - her as a turkish citizen - we do not need the certificate and therefore the Turkish state will not and cannot know of our marriage?

Edit, and what about the last bit of my post about unmarried partner visa?

[nipper88]

Also, and i am only asking this to get an idea on ALL possible scenarios, no matter how unlikely, if we for some reason decided to get divorced in 2 years say, my partner would obviously loose her right to remain in the UK. However will this leave a 'mark' on her record and lead to difficulties in being granted touristic visas in the future for example?

Cheers in advance.

[nipper88]

Any advice please!?

[MPH80]

On the unmarried partner visa ... I think the best response is to ask yourself "If I were a visa agency ... would I a) encourage someone who's about to pay me fees ... and then possibly pay me a load of money on a fruitless appeal or b) tell them the truth straight out?"

That'll tell you whether or not a risky application is sensible or not.

I think your instincts about photographic evidence is bang on.

On the possibility of visa problems later on - not officially.

However, it might cause problems immediately after the initial visa expires - for example - think about how a ECO might view it if they attempted to get a new tourist visa immediately after the spouse visa expired ... the ECO might not believe they'd leave. But then - if the application was after a year or more back in Turkey ... it's less of a problem.

[nipper88]

On the unmarried partner visa ... I think the best response is to ask yourself "If I were a visa agency ... would I a) encourage someone who's about to pay me fees ... and then possibly pay me a load of money on a fruitless appeal or b) tell them the truth straight out?"

That'll tell you whether or not a risky application is sensible or not.

I think your instincts about photographic evidence is bang on.

On the possibility of visa problems later on - not officially.

However, it might cause problems immediately after the initial visa expires - for example - think about how a ECO might view it if they attempted to get a new tourist visa immediately after the spouse visa expired ... the ECO might not believe they'd leave. But then - if the application was after a year or more back in Turkey ... it's less of a problem.

Hmm thanks! That is good. So should not have any issues if, for example, we did get divorced in a year or two and my partner decided to go back to Turkey immediately? No issues also if a while after than she looked to come to the UK on a tourist visa from Turkey either?