Marriage

Hello everyone!

Thanks in advance for any replies and I hope this is in the correct forum.

I am Scottish and my Mexican girlfriend is looking to move over here. I am training for a job and still have 18 months left which I need to be here for. We have been looking and applying for work over here for her - London being our biggest chance of finding something, but nothing has developed.

If we get a 'low key marriage' (for convenience) to enable her to go for interviews without requiring sponsorship, what are the risks ?

I mean if things don't work out with us......

Believe it or not I I am actually a romantic but "desperate times, desperate measures" and all that. I know this isn't what marriage should be about. It would be a private affair since we are not at the stage in our relationship to commit ourselves.

Please, please offer any advice you can. I'm 26 and don't know any of the legally binding stuff that comes with marriage.

Reading this back to myself makes me sound like I'm crazy. I realise I am opening myself up to potentially receiving heaps of criticism too. I'm actually just a very ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation who doesn't want to give up on love.

Alan x

Wrong place to look for suggestions / advice regarding "marriage of convenience".


regards

No one should ever get married just to ease a visa situation.

Easy for a stranger to say.

But what if you loved someone with all your heart and it was either all or nothing? To commit to each other or seperate and spend the rest of your life wondering.

It appears this site isn't as helpful as it claims..

I'm sorry I ever asked

alritchiejackson5 wrote:Easy for a stranger to say.


I'm sorry I ever asked

i am sorry that people react so negatively to your situation. I am not in completely the same situation, but I do understand it. THe most important question to ask yourselves is ' do I see a future with her'...you never know whats going to happen in life, but if you are a 100 % sure that you love her and you want to have a future with her, then this COULD be the way to go.

I would advice you to seek legal advice...a lawyer might be expensive business, but if you want to know what your options are, find a lawyer that seems trustworthy and go for a consultation. this might cost you 80 quid, but you will get answers.

marriage of convenience or not, you always do it for love. the way the law and society is set up now a days forces us to make these kind of decisions. so where is the fearness? I mean your GF is not coming to the UK to milk out our tax money cus she will receive benefits or something, you guys just want to be together.

I am currently organizing my own wedding (in 2 weeks time), to my brazilian boyfriend. we've been together for 1,5 year and know we want our future to be together - eventhough this marriage was earlier then planned, at this moment it is necessary also cus of visa reasons.

i think people are narrow minded if they think its bad to marry for this reason. unfortunately not everyone is as lucky as us having an European passport and we can walk run and stay where ever we want. we are so priviliged and people dont even realize it.

anyway if you need someone to talk to, i'm a good listener!!

good luck

alritchiejackson5 wrote:Easy for a stranger to say.

But what if you loved someone with all your heart and it was either all or nothing? To commit to each other or seperate and spend the rest of your life wondering.

It appears this site isn't as helpful as it claims..

I'm sorry I ever asked

In your first post you seem to be really doubtful about the whole thing and you referred to it as a marriage of convenience yourself. You didn't exactly expect people to jump up and say "do it"???

You say yourself this isn't what marriage should be all about, so your mind if obviously made up. DON'T DO IT!!! Rather apply for the visa and do it the right way. You don't want to end up being stuck in a situation of convenience...

In the past in the UK there was a magazine called Punch. One thing that makes that magazine famous was the advice it gave to its readers about marriage ..... "If in doubt, don't!"

So alritchiejackson5, when you posted "If we get a 'low key marriage' (for convenience)", it did not sound like much love was involved. It sounded more like you were thinking of doing your girlfriend a favour, to ease her visa situation.

But now you say "But what if you loved someone with all your heart and it was either all or nothing? To commit to each other or seperate and spend the rest of your life wondering. ", to which I say ..... I am very confused about what you are saying. Do the two of you want to live together for the rest of your lives? Or not?

Hi Alan,

I am in a pretty similar situation. my girlfriend is from Peru and we are both 100% sure we want to be together. We have decided to try and have a life together in the UK as opposed to Peru, basically for quality of life reasons. Living and working here, we can hopefully afford to visit her family in Peru once or twice a year..... living and working in Peru, we would only be able to afford to visit the Uk once every 2 or 3 years!

As you probably know, getting any type of visa for a south/latin american citizen isn't easy! I spent weeks on end thinking hard about bringing her here on a Fiance visa.... it seemed like the easiest and quickest option to starting a life together here. I had ruled out Tier 1 or 2 visas as it would be too difficult to find her employment here, I ruled out a student visa as this was an expensive option and she has just studied for 5 years in Peru. In a nutshell, I was very close to proposing, bringing her here on a Fiance visa and getting married within 6 months.... not ideal and would probably be a low key wedding as in reality, the main reason behind it would be to get her citizenship. It seemed like the easy option!!

Anyway, after a few hard weeks of thinking, I decided this was not the route to go down. Too many uncertainties along the same lines as the questions you have asked here (what happens if things dont work out etc). I am now puting together an application for a General Visit visa for her and hopefully she'll be here by mid-december. it will only be for 6 months and it is a short-term solution involving a lot of expense that wouldn't come with biting the bullet and getting a Fiance visa. It just seems like the more sensible option for now, less risk on both our parts and gives her a chance to see if she will adapt to life in the UK before commiting to living here!!

If all goes well with this "trial run" for her in the UK, I'm pretty confident we'll get engaged and she'll come back here on a fiance visa next time. By which point we'll be in a better position to commit to a life together and will hopefully be able to afford a nicer wedding too!

apologies for the essay, thought I'd share this as it seems like your asking a lot of the same questions I was asking!

Paul

Paul, an excellent post. Clearly you have given a lot of thought to this matter.

Can I just throw one extra thing into your situation, that is, after the nearly 6 months in the UK on a visitor visa (which hopefully will be granted), why not get married in Peru? If a marriage is going to happen, why not let it happen in front of her friends and family? Then following such a marriage she would apply in Peru for a spouse visa.

In making this comment I have to admit I know nothing about the marriage law in Peru. How difficult is it? I don't know, but you might.

What I do know is that the UK's Foreign Marriages Act 1892 says that if the foreign marriage is recognised as legally valid in the country where it takes place, the UK also recognises it as a legal marriage.

Hi Paul/John,

Paul - good to hear the choice you've made. Hope all goes well for you. Drop me a PM in the future if you want any advise about fiancee->spouse->citizen or Peruvian adaptation to the UK (in particular where to get sauce spicy enough!)

John - I know this is OT - but for info I asked my Peruvian wife about the marriage in Peru - she told me that as a native - you'll need to get:

DNI (ID card)
Birth Certificate
Blood Test Results
Fee

You can then go and register with the local authority and arrange the marriage. All marriages in Peru are civil - but the ceremony for that is often proceeded by a church service, you then legally 'marry' at your party after.

As a foreigner - she said you'd need:

Passport
Birth Certificate + copy translated to Spanish
Proof of being single + translation

Additionally - if you were intending to have the initial ceremony in church (and she means Catholic church for this):

Baptism cert + first communion and confirmation proof - again - all translated.
If you can't get formal certificates - your local bishop would need to provide a proof letter and again you'd need it translated.

It isn't hard for foreigners to marry - but you do need to know what you need.

M.

P.s. Weddings in Peru are fantastic - although they have a tendancy to produce funny hats (supplied by the groom/bride) at some point in the evening party and then all dance around wearing them.

'Funny hats'...not that much different from a wedding here then!

John - thanks for the comments. And yes, i will strongly consider getting married in Peru when the time comes. Within the 6 months might just be a little bit too soon though. If getting a Fiance or Marriage Visa for the UK is anything like as difficult as getting a general visit visa, then I probably will just go over there and get married!! i understand the we need to be sure Foreigners are coming into the UK for the right reasons, but I think evidence required to prove ties to home country, financial circumstances etc are excessive.

M - thanks for the insight into the Peruvian marriage process! I may well be in touch with a few questions.