help plz, me n my girlfriend want to get married

my girlfriend(british citizen) n i been going out for almost 2 yrs now in england, i was on student visa but i overstayed. we want to move in together and settle down n get married now in england,plus she have a 6 years old daughter and she call me DAD. please help us to stay here as a family, i dont want to leave them behind. is there any hopes ?

You can apply for a Certificate of Approval to marry from the Home Office (COA) which is free. However, this may well alert the authorities to your overstay. After you marry you'll have to return to your home country to apply for a spouse visa to re-enter legally. Or you can return and marry there and then apply for the spouse visa.
Are you both over 21?

yes we r both over 21. i dont think we will get that certificate of approval, its very risky . but how about we all go back home and do that ? will the autorities not pick up on my OVERSTAYED ? thx 4 ur reply

donnabrian wrote:yes we r both over 21. i dont think we will get that certificate of approval, its very risky . but how about we all go back home and do that ? will the autorities not pick up on my OVERSTAYED ? thx 4 ur reply

It's a chance that you will have to take. If you leave voluntarily and you get found out at the airport then it is a lot better for you than being found out via the certificate of approval whilst in the country.

Your best bet is to leave the country of your own free will with you buying the ticket, getting married abroad and applying for the spouse visa from your own country. There's no guarantee that the spouse visa will be approved, but again there's no guarantee of it being approved should you marry in the UK. Either way you have to leave the country to apply for it.

Just out of interest, what country are you originally from? My husband is Albanian (I am British). He got removed from the UK in October 2006. We got married in December 2006. He got his spouse visa from Albania to come back to the UK in March 2007 and got granted his Indefinite Leave to Remain in March 2009 – so it can be done, even with an adverse immigration history!

Have you thought about returning to your country and applying for a fiancé visa to come back and get married in the UK? (if it makes it easier for friends/family to attend your wedding etc). My husband’s brother got removed at the same time as him (they were both detained following a routine inspection by the police on my car one evening). His brother applied for a fiance visa which was granted and he returned to the UK within only six weeks – by comparison it took 4 months for my husband to get a spouse visa to come back to the UK!

Good luck with whatever u decide to do anyway!