Getting Married in the UK

[fiona_lenore]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me figure out what we must do in order to get married in the UK.

I am a foreign national (New Zealander / Canadian dual citizen) currently in the UK on a skilled worker visa, so leave to remain, but not indefinite leave to remain, my visa is sponsored by my Employer. My fiance is British.

We thought that we could just get married, but looking at the government website, I'm now concerned that I must change my visa to a family / marriage visa in order to do so, and I'm unsure how this will affect my right to work in the meantime as you can't work under the fiancee visa. We wouldn't want to do the wrong thing as that might mean we aren't able to get married at all.

We have been together for 1 and 3/4 years and have been living together for just over a year, so I probably would not qualify for a partnership visa, only the fiancee visa. It's difficult because we want to begin planning our wedding with confidence that it can go ahead, as we will need to give our overseas guests (of which there will be many) plenty of notice.

I look forward to hearing any thoughts anyone might have on this one, not sure if I try to change visas first or just give notice of our intention to marry with a potential home office investigation to allow our marriage.

Thanks,
Fiona

[Casa]

You don't need to switch from your Skilled Worker visa in order to marry in the UK. However, when you give notice to marry the Registrar is legally bound to notify the Home Office, who can then decide within 70 days if they choose to interview you both before the marriage can take place. Not all couples are interviewed.