please need some advice

i want to marry my kosovan girlfriend and bring her back to the uk, im a british citizen she's obviously kosovan, is it better to get married in albania or apply for a visitation for her in the uk and then get married here if that is allowed or not, and the quickest way possible, thanks for your help

The best way would be to marry her in Albania and apply for the Spousal Visa at the British High commission there.

It will not work if you bring her to the UK, she would have to go back home and apply there, and in order for her to be able to marry you in the UK, she would need a COA, which can be difficult and time consuming to obtain.

I wish you all the best.

Are you both over 21?

Yes as has been said you could get married in Albania and then she can apply from there for a 2 year spouse visa to come to the UK. My husband who is Albanian did this as we married in Albania in December 2006 - he had to wait nearly 4 months to get his visa though!

Alternatively, your girlfriend could apply from Albania for a fiance visa if you can get married within six months of her coming to the UK. Once u get married in the UK she can apply from here for a 2 year spouse visa. My husband's brother did this around the same time my husband and I got married (they were both removed from the UK together as illegal immigrants in October 2006). His brother got a fiance visa and returned to the UK within six weeks.

I would not recommend though your girlfriend applying for a visitor's visa to the UK, it might complicate things and get refused anyway once they discover she has ties to the UK in the form of an English boyfriend! The idea of a visitor's visa is that the person would be sure to return to their country when it expires and if the authorities know that she has you here in the UK they might not believe that she would return and refuse her a visitor's visa in which case you'd be wasting your money!

If you really want to get married in the UK, apply for a fiance visa to get your girlfriend here initially but u must get married and apply for the spouse visa within six months of the start of the fiance visa!

Good luck anyway with whichever route you decide upon!