over-stayer arranged marriage seen as sham marriage by HO?

[Bselinax]

Hi All,


My cousin is a French national (Asian background), she has been living in UK for the past 7 years, been working in a big UK company for 2 years (previous years was studying).
Now that she is 22 her family is arranging her marriage, she is happy to have arranged marriage as she does not have anyone in her mind. She had few proposal already, which she refused for one or other reason.

Now, couple of weeks ago she liked bio data and picture of a guy, however this guy is an overstayer. He has entered the UK 5 years ago on student visa, after he got his degree (2 years ago), he did not go back to his country, therefore he is illegally overstaying. My cousin liked the pictures and spoke to the guy over the phone and because she felt so comfortable she accepted to meet the guy. After they have met, they have liked each other (beauty wise), and now they have been speaking on the phone and they are growing closer.
Her family is happy about this relationship because the guy is very family orientated and has a degree that can use when he becomes legal, he can work, and his family are from a very good background.

The only thing that is stopping my cousin to say yes to have marriage organised (marriage would happen in 5/6 months) is that she would not know how to explain to home office that this is a arranged marriage, because home office would straight away say its marriage of convenience as she is a EEA national and he can become legal through her.

How can this be explained to HO?

And being EEA nation and noon EEA overstayer how would they go about getting married?


Thank you in advance.

[Casa]

This is highly likely to come under close scrutiny. Where does your cousin intend to marry? If this is in the UK the intent to marry can only be registered with a Home Office designated Registry Office.

The Registrar is then legally bound to notify the Home Office who can then extend the registration period from 28 to 70 days in order to interview the couple separately before the wedding can go ahead, should they choose to do so.

Your cousin should be aware that as an overstayer her husband-to-be is at risk of being detained on the day of the interview.

[Bselinax]

This is highly likely to come under close scrutiny. Where does your cousin intend to marry? If this is in the UK the intent to marry can only be registered with a Home Office designated Registry Office.

The Registrar is then legally bound to notify the Home Office who can then extend the registration period from 28 to 70 days in order to interview the couple separately before the wedding can go ahead, should they choose to do so.

Your cousin should be aware that as an overstayer her husband-to-be is at risk of being detained on the day of the interview.

She intends to er married in UK because her whole family is here and he has family members as well. They do understand that they might need to go to have an interview, but being an arranged marriage they might not know every answer that HO will ask...as far as we understand if they detain the guy on interview day he can be released if there is a guarantor having 2-3k in bank account, right?

[Casa]

This is highly likely to come under close scrutiny. Where does your cousin intend to marry? If this is in the UK the intent to marry can only be registered with a Home Office designated Registry Office.

The Registrar is then legally bound to notify the Home Office who can then extend the registration period from 28 to 70 days in order to interview the couple separately before the wedding can go ahead, should they choose to do so.

Your cousin should be aware that as an overstayer her husband-to-be is at risk of being detained on the day of the interview.

She intends to er married in UK because her whole family is here and he has family members as well. They do understand that they might need to go to have an interview, but being an arranged marriage they might not know every answer that HO will ask...as far as we understand if they detain the guy on interview day he can be released if there is a guarantor having 2-3k in bank account, right?

Not as far as I'm aware.

[silvanti_78]

This is highly likely to come under close scrutiny. Where does your cousin intend to marry? If this is in the UK the intent to marry can only be registered with a Home Office designated Registry Office.

The Registrar is then legally bound to notify the Home Office who can then extend the registration period from 28 to 70 days in order to interview the couple separately before the wedding can go ahead, should they choose to do so.

Your cousin should be aware that as an overstayer her husband-to-be is at risk of being detained on the day of the interview.

She intends to er married in UK because her whole family is here and he has family members as well. They do understand that they might need to go to have an interview, but being an arranged marriage they might not know every answer that HO will ask...as far as we understand if they detain the guy on interview day he can be released if there is a guarantor having 2-3k in bank account, right?

This isnt always an option. its a case to case scenario.

If he gets into a detention center than he will need to wait for a court hearing and then they will consider a guarantor.

I heard of a case that a guarantor got rejected as the detained person wasnt able to name the guarantor address.

seems the court want to ensure that there is a link between them but as I said... not every case is the same.

[Bselinax]

Thank you for your replies.

What do you think is the best approach to deal with this situation?
Are they allowed to send the guy back home even if he is about to marry an EEA national?

What if they do Islamic marriage first (not recognised by HO) and live together for 3 months and then they apply to marry in registrar office, would that make the situation any better, they would have proof of living together... ://


As for the guarantor, can any of the bride's family member be a guarantor (her sister is a teacher can easily show 2-3k in bank account)..

[talatsiddiqui]

A possible situation is if they perform Islamic ceremony and than live 2 years together than she could file an application for EEA family member. The risk obvious being that his status will still be an overstayer and he will be liable to be detained and removed in the two years.

The other solution would be for him to move back to his country of origin and she marries him there and invites him over as her spouse still under EEA route. This is the preferred solution.

Hope it helps

[Casa]

A possible situation is if they perform Islamic ceremony and than live 2 years together than she could file an application for EEA family member. The risk obvious being that his status will still be an overstayer and he will be liable to be detained and removed in the two years.

The other solution would be for him to move back to his country of origin and she marries him there and invites him over as her spouse still under EEA route. This is the preferred solution.

Hope it helps

This thread is 8 months old and the OP hasn't visited the forum since Sep 22, 2017