Certificate of Approval for Marriage - Advice Needed

[spatel07]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone could help me with the following:

A friend of mine is currently in the UK on a visitor visa. Well, he has multiple visas for the UK for 5 years. He has been in the UK for about 1 week now and his aunt who lives in the UK has found him a prospective future wife!

The girl is known to the family for a very long time and she has agreed for a hand in marriage. Now, since my friend holds a non-EU passport and his future wife is a British citizen, does he need a certificate of approval from the Home Office to register his marriage bearing in mind he is in the UK on a visitor visa?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[John]

He will not be issued with a CoA if he only has a visitor visa. It would be a total waste of £135 even applying for a CoA.

He will need to go back to his country and either :-

• apply for a fiancé visa, and once that is issued, return to the UK, get married in the UK, and then apply in the UK for a spouse visa, or
• get married in his country, his fiancée of course needing to go there as well for the marriage, then after the marriage, apply for a spouse visa, and armed with the spouse visa, fly back to the UK

By the way, have the couple actually met?

[spatel07]

Hi John

If he goes back to his country and applies for a fiance visa, will his current 5 year visa for the UK be cancelled? This is because for the time being, his future wife will move back with him to his country.

Thanks.

[John]

Yes, I think it will, but don't overlook that once the marriage has happened in the UK he would apply in the UK for a 2-year spouse visa, and near the end of that 2 years, he would apply for ILR.

And whereas the long-term visitor visa means he has to limit each stay to 6 months, getting settlement-class visas as described above means he can stay here all the time.

But as you say :-

his future wife will move back with him to his country

-: in which case, if the marriage is to happen abroad, the application abroad for a spouse visa would not happen until the family is ready to move back to the UK. That is, just because the marriage has happened does not mean that he has got to apply for a spouse visa immediately.