Marrying my American girlfriend in the UK

[Damasene]

Hoping someone might have some advice for our particular situation...

My girlfriend and I have been going out for a relatively short time, six months, but we are very much in love and want to get married. She has been living in the UK on various student and post-student visas for nine years but she is about to fall foul of the new points-based system. Although she has been working for the BBC for nearly 2 years she does not earn enough money (ie £25,000 in the last year) to get the extra 5 points she needs to qualify for a 2 year tier 1 visa. This means that a marriage visa is her only option. I won't go into too much detail here as we are fully satisfied that this is the case.

So we have decided to get married. I earn £38,000 and we will be living together from the end of August/beginning September. She earns just under £25,000. Clearly we are both capable of supporting ourselves. We do not have any shared finances and normally we would not consider sharing our finances (why would we? - we are independent people) but we would do it if it was necessary for our application to be successful. Considering the fact that we've only been together since the beginning of this year, and that her current visa runs out in December, are immigration likely to be suspicious that this is a marriage of convenience? What should/can we do to convince them otherwise?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Casa]

It will be the registrar who will perform the marriage who you need to convince first.

[Damasene]

Thanks for the reply. I didn't think that that was an issue at all. As the certificate of approval has been abolished as of this year, what right/responsibility does the registrar have to approve our marriage?

[Greenie]

Thanks for the reply. I didn't think that that was an issue at all. As the certificate of approval has been abolished as of this year, what right/responsibility does the registrar have to approve our marriage?

that is the registrar's responsibility!

[Damasene]

Thanks for the reply. I didn't think that that was an issue at all. As the certificate of approval has been abolished as of this year, what right/responsibility does the registrar have to approve our marriage?

that is the registrar's responsibility!

Ok, let me put it another way. On what basis, bearing in mind the information I have given above, would the registrar NOT approve our marriage? Thanks for replying and thanks in advance for any useful information you can give me.

[Casa]

The registrar is now legally bound to conduct an interview to determine whether the marriage is genuine or not. If they aren't convinced they will contact the UKBA to advise of their concern.

[Damasene]

Hi Casa. I understand. But what exactly constitutes a "genuine" marriage? Given what I have said above, would this be considered genuine? I mean, they can quiz me on her birthday and things like that but none of that proves the marriage is genuine. I can't see how you can prove that at all - they can't read my mind. I mean, should I get a tattoo? Get her pregnant? I jest, of course, but you see my point.

[Casa]

No, but you will be asked question that most genuine couples should know about each other...in which case there's not reason you should have a problem.