Unexpected proposal. In need of some advice.

[seek]

Here's the quick low-down on my situation.

I've come to the UK from Canada on a Working Holidaymaker Visa to be with my boyfriend who is a UK citizen. My previous plan was that once my 2 years were up, to return home to apply for a settlement visa (ILR), eventually returning (I've heard it can be quite the waiting game to process applications) and even further down the road applying for naturalisation. My partner has recently proposed to me (delightfully unexpected) which has created a new string of unanswered immigration questions.

We're planning on tying the knot shortly after the halfway point on my WHM visa. Will this at all affect the terms of my current Visa? More specifically, will I be able to continue working legally for the remainder of my stay until I have to return to Canada to apply for ILR? I am currently only allowed 365 days of work.

I figure this one is also a long shot, but in hopes of speeding up the process, can I apply for a settlement visa before this current visa is up? I'm trying desperately to find a way to keep the time we're apart to a minimum.

Any help will be greatly appreciated - thank you.

[ppron747]

Congrats, Seek!

Your marriage won't make a difference to the terms under which you have been admitted, I'm afraid. You'll need to get a spouse settlement visa in order to continue to work beyond your 365th day. I also think that, in the context of your eventual application for ILR - around two years after your marriage - it could be important to show that you haven't worked without permission at any time.

What I'm not certain about is whether you can switch from WHM within the UK - I hope someone else will chime in at this point... If (as I suspect) it's not possible, and you want to work continuously for the same employer, I can't see any alternative but to marry shortly before the end of your first year and then apply in Canada for for your settlement visa. You certainly don't have to wait until the WHM visa has expired, and I don't think BHC in Ottawa should be particularly difficult over the application - the fact that you've already got a job will make the "support" requirement pretty straightforward to satisfy...

[John]

Seek, I add my congratulations to those already given by Paul.

I think from what you post that you intend to get married in the UK. Right? You talk about going back to Canada to apply for a visa there, so I think you mean the marriage to happen in the UK. If that is correct then that is entirely possible but as a non-EEA citizen you will first need to apply for, and get, a Certificate of Approval to Marry ("CoA"). Click here to download the application form. Get that completed and submitted as soon as possible. It will take about two months to get your CoA, and after that the two of you need to go along to a designated Register Office and give the needed Notice of Intention to Marry. Only 15 days after that will they issue the needed permission to marry, such permission being valid for 12 months. In other words given that it is valid for so long, get the CoA application and Notice of Intention to Marry out of the way as soon as you can.

Following the marriage in the UK you can then apply for a 2-year spouse visa in the UK. There is no need to wait until near the end of the current visa. You can apply as soon as the marriage has happened. You will use form FLR(M) to get that visa. Then near the end of the resulting 2-year spouse visa, you will apply in the UK for ILR.

Applying for Naturalisation as British? Assuming you have ILR by then, you can apply for Naturalisation any time after three years in the UK ... counting from when you arrived in the UK on the WHM visa! Oh, but you will need to pass the Citizenship Test before making that application!

Seek, if I was wrong in the assumption about the marriage in the UK, and instead you plan to get married elsewhere, for example in Canada, then let me know and I shall post the differences that will make.

Oh, and if you intend to get married in the UK, but in a Church of England Church, when let me know that, because that will also change the procedure a bit.

I'm trying desperately to find a way to keep the time we're apart to a minimum.

There need not be any time apart!

[ppron747]

One of these days I'll get my head around the categories where you can do an in-country switch, and the ones where you can't!!

[John]

You and me both Paul! Don't think I have got this totally sussed in my head!

[seek]

What great news!

Thank you both so much. Wonderful prompt replies. I can't fully express my gratitude in these few short sentences but you've been a great help. (If the info wasn't so much in my favour you might have been spared some gushing!)

Thanks again - happy long weekend!

[John]

Hi Seek, so do you intend to get married in the UK .... but not in a Church of England Church?

[seek]

Yes, we'll be getting married in the UK for certain. As for the church of England: 0% chance of that. Probably not in a church at all for that matter - likely to be on a mountain or some place out of the ordinary!

I take it the England Church complicates things?

[John]

I take it the England Church complicates things?

No in fact just the opposite ..... says the law at this moment in time .... but a change to this would not be unexpected.

The law at the moment says that you would not need to get a CoA. Why is that? Because those getting married in a Church of England Church do not need to give Notice of Intention to Marry at a Register Office. And that is where the check is made on the immigration status of anyone giving that notice.

For very historical reasons those intending to marry in a Church of England Church have to have Banns read on three Sundays. That is, the Vicar of the Church .... during Sunday service .... will read out that Miss X is intending to marry Mr Y .... and that is supposedly giving the public as much notice about the intending wedding as a notice being posted on the board at a Register Office for 15 days!

When lots of people went to Church that was probably true. Now it is, well, a bit of an anachronism.

Why might the law of this change in the foreseeable future? Because the Government has just lost a test case concerning CoAs. Someone refused one, because in accordance with the Home Office guidelines they could not have one, took the Government to Court and won, well won at least a review of the law. One of the reasons they won was that the current law is discriminatory, in favour of members of the Church of England!

You need not concern yourself about this. Your current visa was issued for a period exceeding six months, and has more than three months validity left on it, so there is no reason to think that your application for a CoA will fail. Have you applied for that today? Or will you do that over the Bank Holiday weekend break?

[seek]

Thanks for the excellent information John. That's very interesting. There can be so many twists and turns in the rules that it's easy to see how it gets confusing...quickly!

I'm coincidentally at a wedding this weekend, so the CoA application will be made on Tuesday, most likely.