British citizen with Algerian partner (overstayer)t

Hi all, I'm new to this so apologies if I haven't quite followed the correct posting procedures.

To give you a basic breakdown I am a female British citizen in a relationship with an Algerian Overstayer, he arrived on a tourist/visitor visa in 2012 and has overstayed since. We've been in a relation for almost 2 years now but have only been cohabiting for 5 months.

I've known since the beginning the status of residence and as times gone on we would like to get th ball rolling and sort out his papers. We'd like to get married before the end of the year and have already consulted a solicitor about the situation in general. The solicitor told us that the only way to sort out his status was via the EU/surinder singh and route as I do not meet the financial requirements . Before we even get to that phase, the bit that concerns me is marriage. If we have a register office wedding I'm pretty sure that home office/ukba will be alerted immediately when we give notice. the solicitor said we could either get married via Church of England or Ireland- what I don't understand is how does getting married in the Church of England exempt us from giving notice and bringing my fiancé to the attention of HO when I've read that when one or both of the couple are non EU members , when applying for marriage it will have to be done via civil preliminaries!?

On top of all the confusion and stress, I think I may be pregnant I understand that we are not in the best position to be bringing a child into the equation but could it help my fiancé gain any sort of status or leave in anyway all whilst remaining in the country.??

To get married you need to give notice at one of the HO designation registrar offices. They are obliged to inform HO when a non-EU person wishes to marry and the notice period is likely to be extended from 28 days to 70 days for HO to investigate and question etc. Unlikely you will be permitted to marry.

Your solicitor is worryingly out of date with his information. When he mentions 'marrying in a Church of England' he is referring to the rules which changed in 2011. Before then, a Certificate of Approval (COA) from the Home Office was required to marry in a Registry Office, but not in a Church of England. Now all marriages which involve foreign nationals must be registered in a Home Office designated Registry Office (as advised by CR001). The Registrar is legally required to notify the Home Office of the marriage and the notification period can be extended from 28 to 70 days to enable the HO to interview the couple before the wedding can take place.
Your boyfriend stands a high risk of triggering a removal notice once the authorities are aware of the planned wedding.

If you are pregnant, it may be possible for your boyfriend to apply under FLR(FP) once your child is born, although this is a lengthy path with no guarantee of success, especially as you say you are unable to meet the financial rule. Your best option may be to marry in Algeria and then re-locate to Ireland (or another EU member state) and take the Surinder Singh route.

Edit: Sorry CR001 if I've duplicated your advice.

Casa wrote:Edit: Sorry CR001 if I've duplicated your advice.

No worries, knew you might pop in to offer a more detailed response