Urgent advice needed, please help...

I'm a PhD student (under the "old rules", before March of 2009) and my visa expired at the end of March, 2011. My wife currently holds a PSW visa. Her visa expires at the end of Januray, 2010 and she wants to switched to a dependant of mine. We have lived together in the UK for more than 2 years and we just get married two days ago in our home country(China).

We intend to apply within the UK after we came back to the UK, however today someone told me that the although the chinese marriage certificate is legal in Chinese laws, it might not be accepted in the UK(someone said they got their visa by using marriage certificate from other nations but others said they got refused). I am uncertain that we need to apply for a certificates of approval for marriage(COA).

If we do need to apply for COA and in case we cannot get the COA on time, I have two ideas: one is that applying within the UK, and writting a letter saying that we have the chinese legal marriage certificate and waiting for the COA and will send it as soon as we get it; another is applying in China, but my wife may lose her job in the UK due to the waiting period in China and we have to buy another ticket get other supporting documents in the UK.

Thank you very much for any replies in advance. Any help really appreciated...

How to register a marriage[/url] > [url=http://ukinchina.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/word/3900488/marriage-to-chinese]Marriage to a Chinese National wrote:A marriage that takes place in China is recognised under UK law.

You may need to have the English translation of the marriage certificate certified by the British Embassy.

vinny wrote:

How to register a marriage[/url] > [url=http://ukinchina.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/word/3900488/marriage-to-chinese]Marriage to a Chinese National wrote:A marriage that takes place in China is recognised under UK law.

You may need to have the English translation of the marriage certificate certified by the British Embassy.

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Thanks for your reply. But we are both Chinese, and this is a guildline of How to get married (UK national to Chinese national), does this apply to our situation?

See also SET3.14 Assesment of validity of marriage and SET3.15 Evidence of marriage.

I think I'm correct in saying that one cannot normally switch to dependant in-country, so ur wife may have to return to China anyway.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/worki ... ependants/

It depends.