Fiance Visa Refusal

I am a British citizen and I decided to marry a Canadian, I had to do this in Canada over the course of a visit for 5 days so she applied for a fiance visa in advance. Now it was my fault that we did not seek advice from a lawyer in the first place but basically things got a bit muddled and she ended up applying for a fiance visa because we were not married as yet but disclosed that we were to be wed in Toronto when I arrived there. Hence the UK border agency refused entry citing paragraph 290 (I) saying that since she submitted a wedding room rental contract as well as n application for a marriage license indicates we intend to be wed in Canada thus they were not satisfied that we will enter the UK for marriage which obviously now makes sense to me. So since then I have been to Canada and performed the islamic nikkah (marriage) and got a marriage license. We cancelled the civil ceremony but I now understand that because the Imam was registered we did not need a civil ceremony so we technically fully married as per Canadian law. My mrs had already put in an appeal by this point stating that we were going to cancell the civil ceremony and that I have contacted Kent county council to show that we intend to wed in the UK.

We got a letter about the notice of pending appeal and that the tribunal will write to us after 9th March 2012 with further details on how and when the appeal will proceed. This is obviously far too long as we are a newly married couple and just want to be together. I spoke to a solicitor and he is telling me to withdraw the appeal and reapply for the fiancé visa or for a settlement visa if we are actually married as per Canadian law.

My question is whether it is worth instead telling her to just come over to the UK and we get a civil ceremony done here and apply from within the UK. Obviously she is back in Canada at the minute and I am here in the UK. We are worried that she will get stopped at the border and refused entry.

Also has anyone had any similar problems or applied for a settlement visa like this? How long will it take? I really want my wife to come over as soon as possible and just trying to figure out the best possible way to do so. She just finished her masters in English and a course to teach English as a foreign language. She was planning to work at a college that a friend of mine owns in s.london. Now would it be faster if I got him to write an offer letter for work and she applied for a work permit and then we got married as per UK law?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Seenan

you start off by saying that you realise that you should have sought legal advice before applying before, but then proceed to seek to ignore the perfectly good advice you have now been given!

It's simple:

If you are fully married according to canadian law then your wife should withdraw the appeal and apply for a spouse visa

If you are not legally married in Canada then you should either go back to Canada and have a civil ceremony, or your wife should apply again for a fiance visa showing that you are not yet legally married. (you could of course wait for the appeal but it would be quicker to do the former).

Your wife should not attempt to come to the UK (presumably as a visitor) as she will just be refused entry, as she has no intention of returning to Canada. Further it is not possible to apply for leave a spouse from within the UK if you enter as a visitor.

Thanks for the advice, has anyone got this settlement visa in this situation recently? I would like to know how long I can expect it to realistically take and if there is anything I can do to speed it up. So the work visa would not be quicker if she had a job offer letter to teach in the UK?

salam0506 wrote:Thanks for the advice, has anyone got this settlement visa in this situation recently? I would like to know how long I can expect it to realistically take and if there is anything I can do to speed it up. So the work visa would not be quicker if she had a job offer letter to teach in the UK?

you can't come to work in the UK on the basis of a 'job offer letter'. Your wife's employer would need to sponsor her under tier 2. Applying for a spouse visa is the most staightforward way for her to come to live with you in the UK.