Spouse visa Need suggestions

[Malik0404]

Hello all, I hope you all are doing great. I would really appreciate some suggestions in my case. My wife is in UK, she is a doctor there, she has been there for the last 2 years. We have known each other for last 5years. I am from Pakistan and She is from India. We married in February (2024) in Saudi Arabia, we had beautiful wedding events there with our families members. We couldn't register our marriage in Saudi Arabia as they don't have a rule to register marriages on visitors/Umrah visas. I am now planning to register our marriage in Pakistan and use that certificate for visa purpose. She has not been to Pakistan as there are travel restrictions in both countries. Will this marriage registration certificate help me in getting Spouse visa or will it create hurdles as she has not been to Pakistan? what are the other options or ways that I can prove our marriage. I completely understand that immigration checks are to stop fake entries in UK but our case is a genuine one. We are a bit stressed over this issue, we would really appreciate some good feedbacks from you guys and if someone went through similar case.
waiting for responses. Regards

[Ticktack]

Hello all, I hope you all are doing great. I would really appreciate some suggestions in my case. My wife is in UK, she is a doctor there, she has been there for the last 2 years. We have known each other for last 5years. I am from Pakistan and She is from India. We married in February (2024) in Saudi Arabia, we had beautiful wedding events there with our families members. We couldn't register our marriage in Saudi Arabia as they don't have a rule to register marriages on visitors/Umrah visas. I am now planning to register our marriage in Pakistan and use that certificate for visa purpose. She has not been to Pakistan as there are travel restrictions in both countries. Will this marriage registration certificate help me in getting Spouse visa or will it create hurdles as she has not been to Pakistan? what are the other options or ways that I can prove our marriage. I completely understand that immigration checks are to stop fake entries in UK but our case is a genuine one. We are a bit stressed over this issue, we would really appreciate some good feedbacks from you guys and if someone went through similar case.
waiting for responses. Regards

You can use any marriage certificate. Not sure it has to be registered in your home country as you didn't marry there. If not English, it would need to be officially transcribed ,certified in English and endorsed by your embassy though.

If already in English, just use it as it is.

[Frontier Mole]

A marriage certificate has to be recognised in the country of issue and be valid as a full and legally binding in that country. If you meet those requirements and the marriage is binding then you should be fine. Saudi marriage is a very difficult and complex if you are non residents or don’t hold citizenship.
I have doubts that your marriage documentation will meet the need to qualify as valid for the purpose of a U.K. visa. Was it a religious ceremony only? Did you receive a government issued marriage licence?

The other more important point - does your wife have U.K. residency or citizenship? If not you will be applying for a skilled worker dependent visa I am assuming?

[Malik0404]

thank you for the comments. @frontier mole, it was a religious ceremony and our parents and close relatives attended the event. No we couldn't receive any marriage registration certificate from Saudi Arabia as they don't have any rule for Umrah visitors marriage registration. My wife is on a health care worker visa tier 2 in England at the moment.

[Frontier Mole]

Then you are not married for the purposes of meeting the immigration requirements. Even if the marriage is somehow able to be registered in Pakistan, the paperwork will just not stack up. A religious ceremony without the supporting documentation to show that it is officially registered in the country the ceremony took place is basically worthless. Can I ask why did the marriage not take place in India or Pakistan, that would have made everything so much easier?
You are not applying for a spouse visa as your partner does not hold ILR. So you would be going down the dependent route in any case. The best you could hope for would to be considered as her partner. Have you lived together for two or more years? If not that is a non-starter.

[AmazonianX]

Spouse visa application requires marriage certificate which shoe the marriage is accepted as legal in the country where it was contracted.
A registration certificate does not meet this requirement.