Fiancée’s visa

I am English and my Fiancée’ is American. We want to apply for a Fiancée’s visa so my partner can come to the UK. I should have my degree nisi through from my divorce on January 9th. The degee absolute will be 6 weeks later. I have a few questions.
1. Can we apply for a fiancee's visa with my degree nisi or do I have to wait for the absolute.
2. How long does it take to get the Fiancée’s visa. We are intending booking the flights for April and want to ensure we have the visa before travelling.
The plan is that we both return to the USA in September and get married over there rather than in the UK. My partner was once refused entry has a visitor to the UK in May 2005 so I doubt whether she would be allowed in. Hence the reason for the Fiancée’s visa even though we are not planning to get married in the UK.
Once married we will apply for the spouse visa so my partner can return to the UK to live.
Hope someone can answer my questions.
Happy New Year to everyone who reads this post.
Lawren

I think it is worth having a read of paragraph 291 of the Immigration Rules :-

Leave to enter as a fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner

291. A person seeking leave to enter the United Kingdom as a fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner may be admitted, with a prohibition on employment, for a period not exceeding 6 months to enable the marriage to take place provided a valid United Kingdom entry clearance for entry in this capacity is produced to the Immigration Officer on arrival.

(with my emphasis)

But Lawren your plan is somewhat different and accordingly I don't think it is at all appropriate that a fiancée visa is applied for. That is, it really does need to be part of the plan for the marriage to take place in the UK .... that is why a fiancé(e) visa is issued!

But it is needs to be accepted that sometimes plans change! That is, if the two of you plan to get married in the UK and then there is a change of plan and the marriage ends up happening in the US .... well that would be a totally different matter, wouldn't it!

But make the application for a fiancée visa in the US and openly admit that there is no plan to get married in the UK .... the application will get refused IMHO.

Visa applications in the US? Have a look at this website. You will see that the application can be made online. Expect it to take say a week. Ordinarily the EC will have a start date of the date of issue but you can make a specific request to have this deferred for up to three months. For example, as long as that request is made, if the intended entry into the UK date is say 1st April then there is no problem the application going in now. Of course the application will need to be supported by adequate financial evidence, accommodation evidence and "evidence of contact".

But of course you are not free to marry at this moment in time. Given that the visa application in the States will only take say one week there is no problem your fiancée waiting until your Decree Absolute is issued before submitting her visa application. If submitted say late February it could still have a desired start date of April.

Slight word of warning about deferred start date! Having got the EC in the passport it will not be possible to amend that. For example if an EC is issued with a start date of say 1st April and then it transpires that travel is desired say mid-March ... well forget it!

If we don't have to wait for the degree absolute from my divorce and we can apply for the Fiancée’ showing just my degree nisi then we would feel happier if we had the visa in our possession. We can get it post dated for April.
When applying for a Fiancée’ visa are we supposed to show that we have made the necessary arrangements to get married. ?
Another possible alternative would be :- If my partner is intending returning to the USA within 6 months do you think she would be admitted into the UK as a visitor. On the Britain/USA web site it talks about "Entry clearance as a Visitor-for-Marriage (if you intend to leave within 6 months)" As previously stated my fiancee was refused entry as a visitor. (she exceeded the maximium 6 months in any one calender year rule although she never exceeded six months in any one stay) Bearing in mind her previous refusal of entry to the UK do you think she would be admitted as a visitor again. If she would be we wouldn't need to apply for a fiancee's visa at all. She could come here in April, we could return to the States in September, get married there and then apply for a spouse visa.

If we don't have to wait for the degree absolute from my divorce and we can apply for the Fiancée’ showing just my degree nisi

I think the problem is that there is not a guarantee of just six weeks between nisi and absolute. Are you the Petitioner or the Respondent in the divorce proceedings? Is there any possibility of the Judge ordering that no application be made for the Absolute until ancillary matters are disposed of?

I know of someone whose nisi was granted about 18 months ago and the absolute has not yet been applied for, until ancillary matters are concluded.

Put yourself in the shoes of the ECO ... would you be happy to issue a fiancée visa where one party is not yet free to marry? At the very least an application going in now will get deferred until the absolute has been issued.

Wedding visitor? That is to enable a person who does not wish to settle in the UK to come to the UK to get married in the UK, and then return from whence they came. Accordingly ... not appropriate at all. For example, if two Americans want to get married in a Scottish Castle, both would apply for Wedding Visitor visas, get married, then return to the States. If they entered the UK as ordinary visitors they would not be allowed to give the needed Notice of Intention to Marry at a Register Office.

Visitor to the UK? Given the previous refusal they is clearly no guarantee. However if there is no recent visit to the UK then the chances of being admitted as a visitor might be good.

Thank you for the advice. I am the Respondent and I can't forsee any problems with the degree absolute. My ex partner and I have been separated for over 4 years and we have agreed everything between us. She also wants to push things through because she also wants to remarry. I just thought I could apply for the fiancee's visa with the degree nisi rather than wait for the absolute.

Lawren, I would say, don't overcomplicate things ... unnecessarily! And given that you are the Respondent you don't have absolute control over the timing of the Decree Absolute .... you are dependent upon the Petitioner to an extent .... and although you say the Petitioner is minded to proceed with due haste ... again, if you were the ECO, you would be nervous about this.

Anyway, are you going to chance her trying to enter as a visitor? And of course not necessarily direct from the States. A couple of days in Paris? Then take the train to London? That might possibly show a little bit more credibility that she is a tourist?

My American partner once had problems entering the UK after one trip returning from Barcelona. On the next occasion she was actually refused entry to the UK flying in from the States. We wouldn't want to chance her being refused entry because the last time we were made to feel like criminals by the immigration people. It was a very traumatic experience. We need a cast iron guarantee that she will be admitted. She already has one refusal stamp in the passport and we can't risk getting another one. I think your right and we should really wait for my degree absolute to come through before applying for the fiancee's visa. We are both very impatient to be together and I was hoping we could speed things up. Another possibility is that I fly to the States, we get married over there and then my partner applies for a spouse visa to come to the UK.
Lawren

Another possibility is that I fly to the States, we get married over there and then my partner applies for a spouse visa to come to the UK.

Well that really would speed matters up! And indeed cut out any problem applying for a fiancée visa when there is no real plan to get married in the UK.

It would also mean that your wife (as she would be) could work in the UK as soon as she arrives ... compared to a fiancée visa where she is not allowed to work.