marrying a british woman

[niksinif]

Hi. I am currently in the UK visiting my girlfriend. We have decided to get married. I have talked to the lawyer and I am supposed to go back to my country and apply for permanent residency from there. Should I get married in the UK before I go back or come back and then get married?

[avjones]

If you are here on a visitor's visa, you will not be able to marry now anyway without permission from the Home Office. The exception is some C of E churches.

[Docterror]

You cannot get married in UK whilst on a visitor visa without getting a CoA or 'Certificate of approval' first. While there has been a ruling against this, I do not think the HO issues it to people on the visit visa.

So your options are to go back and obtain the 'Fiance visa' or to take your fiance along, get married in your country and then get the 'Spouse visa'. For information on any of the above, search

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/

[niksinif]

id also like to ask whats a reasonable price to pay a lawyer to represent me from begining to end

[niksinif]

what documents should one expect to present when applying? ive heard of people required to have bank statements, photos, letters, etc.

[John]

The exception is some C of E churches.

Even the Church of England route has now disappeared :-

Church of England Prepares New Guidelines to Tackle Bogus Marriages

As I understand it, technically the law has not been changed .... yet ... it is just that the Church of England has made a discussion not to marry non-EEA nationals unless they are in one of the categories ..... has CoA ... or has fiance(e) visa .... or has ILR or some other "settled" status.