Fiancee/Spouse Visa advice...

Hi all,

looking for a bit of advice on where to go next regarding marrying and living in the UK with my Peruvian Fiancee.

She recently returned to Peru after 6 months here on a tourist visa. Shortly before she left we got engaged and are both over the moon.... but a bit confused as to what to do next. We are sure we want to live together in the UK but other than that,

Having done I bit of research, I am starting to think it looks quite complicated, expensive and time consuming to apply for a fiance visa, get married here and then apply for a spouse visa. Does anyone have any epxerience of going through this process? ie the costs involved and how long it might take?

The easier option appears to be to get married over in Peru, then apply for a spouse visa. Does anyone know, or have experience of how complicated it is for us to get married over there? At the moment, the idea of asking family/friends to travel to Peru for a wedding is not appealling..... I feel I would need to give people about a years notice to save up and the prospect of waiting over a year before we can live together again is definately not appealling!

Another concern is the proposed immigration changes coming in next year. Does anyone know if these are likely to affect Fiance/Spouse visa regualtions?

my fiance is starting english classes in Peru at the moment so I hope she will be in a position to sit the English test when I go over there in january.... is this a realistic timescale to be proficient enough pass?

Apologies for the lengthy post and questions.... I guess I am just looking to get enough info to make a decision on whether to marry in Peru or the UK first of all. That should help eliminate a lot of the other questions!!

thanks!

If you're going to Peru in January, then marry her there. Subsequently, she may apply for a spouse visa. 

Have a reception party in the UK afterwards for family and friends.

Thanks Vinny.
After a lot of thought and discussion/argument, we have decided that the best option is to get married in Peru and then apply for a spouse visa. Does anyone have any experience of going through this process either in Peru or any South American country? At the moment, i’m not at all sure where to start with planning and researching this?! If anyone can advise of what we need to prepare in advance or what permits/certificates we need, that would be much appreciated!
I previously used an immigration agency to assist with our application for her 6 month tourist visa and afterwards, I felt that it was a lot of money for not a great deal of work on their part. At the time I was working very long hours and did not have much free time to put the application together. I also had no experience at all with visa applications and did not want to risk it being rejected. Can anyone advise if the spouse visa application is much the same? I have a better understanding of the process and feel like we were in a better position to demonstrate it is an existing relationship now.
As i mentioned, our foremost priority is really just minimising the amount of time living apart. I am hoping to go over there in December to plan the wedding, get any permits/certificates we need and hopefully start putting together the spouse visa application. I plan to return in March or possibly February to get married and then I hope she can be living here in the UK by the end of March..... is this realistic? First of all, is two weeks enough time in Peru to sort out all the paperwork to get married lets say 2 or 3 months later? And secondly, once we are married, can she come here more or less straight away?
Thanks in advance for any advice and guidance. Are there any websites listing the requirements for uk citizens getting married in Peru?

Hi Pauldm21,

I've been reading these forums for quite a while but felt compelled to sign up when I read your post, as I found myself in the same situation a couple of years ago. I thought I'd share the steps that I had to go through, the rules have no doubt changed slightly, but I thought this would be of use to you.

I live in Manchester but I met my wife whilst backpacking in Peru where I worked on an alpaca farm. We had a whirlwind romance and could not be separated. After a couple more trips to visit each other I proposed to her in the UK, similar to yourself, just before she returned to Peru and we finally got married in Peru. Initially I was sceptical about getting married over there due to the immense differences in our cultures but we were in love and were determined to make it work. Another problem was my friends and family were reluctant to come as we hadn't been together long but thankfully a couple of my best friends and my parents made the trip and we eventually decided to go for it.

I needed to get a certificate of no impediment, submit a form called the Oath-Affidavit, and a note of marriage. After we got married she then had to apply for a spouse visa.

I found this website particularly useful:

http://ukinperu.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for- ... arriage-or

Let me know if I can help further, I'm not on here much but feel free to drop me an email at leebisfid@gmail.com

Cheers,

Lee

Hi Paul, I got married in Colombia so I dont know if its the same or similar. As the previous post said you need a certificate of non impediment from your local registrar. I would get this arranged asap because they can take some time to organise. This is to prove that your not already married and are free to marry. If Peru is a catholic country and your wife is catholic and you want to get married in church then they probably want to to see a baptism and confirmation certificate as well as your birth certificate. You will need to have plenty of evidence of the marriage, so keep everything, receipts to do with the wedding like flowers, clothes hire, copies of wedding invites, we got a letter from the priest who married us to say he believed it was a genuine marriage, evidence of contact with each other over a period of time, letters, emails etc. We also got letters from 2 friends and family on both sides stating they believed it was a genuine marriage
We used a lawyer for the spouse visa but many have done it themselves.
I am sure there is more but i cant think right now.. go through the forum and read some other posts if i remember more i will post.
best of luck

Hi folks,

thanks for the advice. Very useful to hear of other peoples experience with similar situations!

Lee - on the website you posted the link to it states.....

"The British national must have resided in Peru for a minimum of 21 days before submitting the Notice of Marriage."

does this mean I have to spend 3 weeks there, the submit a notice of Marriage, wait for this to be granted and then get married?? I feel this would 5 or 6 weeks and am concerned I won't be able to get that much time off work.

Hopefully I am mis-reading it, and it means that i simply have to have spent 21 days in Peru before the date I sumbit the application? which i would obviously be able to demonstrate with passport stamps.

Also - excuse my ignorance but I am a bit clueless when it comes to the religious side of things. Peru is a catholic country and my fiancee is Catholic. We do want to get married in a church at some point but we were hoping we could simply have a civil marriage (the legal bit) and
have the church ceremony back in Scotland.... is this possible?

Going over there in early december so hopefully will get a few things sorted out then. Is it possible to get the required certificates people have mentioned in December and then return next march to get married? or do they have a validity period? The reason I ask this is that my fiancee lives in Cusco and I assume this certificates have to be applied for in Lima? The fewer trips back and forward between there the better for us both.

thanks