Wedding in UK next Summer

[cca123]

Hi

Please help me with this question if you can
I am a UK citizen currently living with my fiance in the USA. We plan to get married next summer in the UK and only intend to stay in the UK for about a month and head back to the USA after we get married. My understanding is that he will still need a 6month visiting visa right? Which is about 75 pounds..
I am unsure as to when we should apply for this. Nothing should get denied but I want to make sure that we have the visa before paying for wedding stuff in the off chance that something could go wrong. But how long can you have your visa without it expiring? If we sent off for his visa in December and didnt go to UK to get married till mid-june would this be too long of a wait? Also, what are the processing times on average for this type of visa?
Thanks!!

[Lucapooka]

She needs a marriage-visit visa. She can't simply enter as a US passport holder as would a regular US visitor.
You can request a deferral of the start date by up to 3 months.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas ... rriage-cp/

[John]

We plan to get married next summer in the UK and only intend to stay in the UK for about a month and head back to the USA after we get married.

As well as the excellent answer posted above, about the type of visa needed, do appreciate that your time-scale is very tight. There is a legal procedure to go through, in order to get legally married in the UK.

Have a look at this Register Office webpage. There you will see that there is a requirement to live at a UK address for a number of days, before being able to give the needed Notice of Intention to Marry, and then after that Notice is given "the Authorities for marriage will be issued on the sixteenth day", so in total no ability to get married until nearly a month after arrival in the UK.

[cca123]

Thank you both for your responses. My plan is to apply for his visa (which is a 6month tourist visa right) around Feb This will give around a month for approval and then be able to go into the country in June. This sound OK? If we only have 3months to enter the country after receiving the visa, its hard to really anticipate when to apply as the processing times could be short or long (any suggestions??)
As for the notifying the Registar THANK YOU! I had no idea we had to do this!However, we plan to get married through the Church of England not a registra and they have a legal prodecure called Banns of Marriage. Is this instead of notifying my intention to registara or do I have to do that on top of this? I got through US immigration and that seemed easy compared to this. Totally different procedures!

[John]

You are right about the Church of England having a different procedure, and banns normally need to be read in Church on three consecutive Sundays.

However see this webpage and in particular the way it includes the words "... or in the case of the marriage of people whose nationality is not British, or if one or both of you do not live in England ...".

If you have not already done so I think you need to speak to the Vicar of your chosen Church of England Church.

These Church of England procedures are instead of needing to give Notice of Intention to Marry at a Register Office.

[cca123]

Yea, I saw that wording too. I am calling my local (well, where I grew up) county Registry office to see exactly what needs to happen. I am hoping that just the Banns will be good I spoke to the Vicar and she wasnt sure so guess im on the quest to find out on my own

My main thing now is when to apply for the visa. Any suggestions? We want to be in UK at the end of June 2014 for our July 26th Wedding

Thanks!

[John]

You do not need to contact the Register Office, but you do need to ensure that the Vicar is up to speed about getting the required licence.

The Vicar should contact her local Diocesan office, who should be able to help.