Certificate of Approval but visa expiring soon!

[xyzpaul]

I'm exploring the possibility of my girlfriend and I marrying in the UK, though our original plan was to get married in her home country. She has a a student visa which expires in 10 weeks. We need to have the Certificate of Approval at least 15 days before that so we can give notice to marry, plus we will then need to submit an FLR(M) application, so realistically we need the Certificate of Approval back 7 weeks from today.

What happens if the COA takes longer than this? Will the Border&Imm Agency extend her student visa, or will we have to get it returned urgently and abandon our COA application? If they don't extend her visa then surely she will be an overstayer, causing more headaches in the future? And if we do successfully get the COA and marry, we surely won't have her FLR(M) issued before her visa expires - what happens then?

So many questions!! Any help much appreciated.

[vinny]

It's important to either apply FLR(M) or FLR(S) before her current leave expires. While her case is being considered, her leave to remain will be "treated as continuing". Else, she may have to make the application from her home country.

[xyzpaul]

I know each case is different, but will anyone care to guess how long our CoA application will take to be processed? We need it back in 7 weeks, guidelines say 70% should be returned in 4 weeks so the odds are in our favour.

Except that we don't meet the requirement to have more than 3 months leave remaining. Is that likely to increase the delay, e.g. will they ask for more evidence from us?

Thanks again.

[xyzpaul]

Ok, three weeks ago we applied for a COA. Today we got a letter from the Home Office asking for evidence that our relationship is genuine. They want this because when we applied for the COA my girlfriend had less than three months remaining on her student visa.

They ask for the answers to their questions to be in two sworn affidavits, can someone please explain to me how we do that? Do we write the letter first, take it to a solicitors, get it sworn in my name, then get an identical letter sworn in my girlfriend's name?

Or do we go to the solicitor with our answers and he/she will write the affidavits? Roughly how much should we expect to pay?

Any help appreciated, I'm a when novice dealing with legal matters!

Paul

[tusken]

an affidavit is a statement in a special form, with particular declaratory wording, so you will need a solicitor to draw it up properly. It will contain everything that you have got to say about your relationship, to prove it is genuine. you can help the solicitor by writing this out, in date order, in short numbered paragraphs in a typed document which you can email to them- so that hopefully the solicitor can just insert your wording into the correct format, without much amendment.

This will help to keep the costs down, but you should expect to pay at least an hour's time for this, perhaps two. cost could be 150 - 300 plus vat

your girlfriend should do a similar statement. dont make it exactly the same - try to make it different from yours, eg, putting in stuff about holidays you have been on , etc

Be warned, you will need to work hard to show your relationship is genuine, because you have missed the usual deadline for a coa at three months

[xyzpaul]

Thanks for your reply tusken.

[xyzpaul]

On Saturday we got our COA Took just 5 days from sending the extra info and some photos to the HO. So total time was 4 weeks 2 days.

Now we are finally relaxed and can make plans which don't depend on the decisions of others.

Thanks to everyone who helped with advice!

[cutepearl]

Well congrats mate... i guess that they had made the decision before they got your additional documents . dont you think so.. i had the same case... my visa was issued for less than six months and i had submitted my application form for COA just one day over three months and got the COA in three weeks...

Now i am married to a swedish citizen and have applied on form EEA2 which might take upto six months ...

Good Luck with your wedding...

XX

[AustGreek]

On Saturday we got our COA Took just 5 days from sending the extra info and some photos to the HO. So total time was 4 weeks 2 days.

congrates!
we got ours in 3 weeks and 5 days, and the letter was received 4 days after HO got our additional affidavit documents.

Well congrats mate... i guess that they had made the decision before they got your additional documents . dont you think so.. i had the same case... my visa was issued for less than six months and i had submitted my application form for COA just one day over three months and got the COA in three weeks...

Now i am married to a swedish citizen and have applied on form EEA2 which might take upto six months ...

Good Luck with your wedding...

XX

congrats too you too. were you as stress during the decision time?
I will be applying for the EEA2 soon (gotta do the civil ceremony first), can you give me some handy tips about EEA2?
are you able to seek employment during the EEA2 processing time?
thanks.

[cutepearl]

well what i know is that once u r married u can take employment.. dont have alot info but maybe someone else can help more... sorry..im still waiting for acknowledgement letter which will make it clear, i'll let u know once i get that..