Get married in the UK or in Vietnam?

[michaelh]

Hello. I'd appreciate some thoughts about this:

I live in Vietnam. I'm planning to marry my Vietnamese girlfriend. We're wondering if it makes any difference whether we get married here and then register it with the British Embassy in Hanoi, or try to get a marriage visa and get married in the UK. Foolishly, we have just got a Visitor Visa for her so we won't be able to get married in the UK this year anyway - we would have to go back next year.

We don't have any plans to move to the UK in the forseeable future. Will it make things any easier for visiting the UK and travelling in the EU if we get married in England?

Thanks.

[ohara]

We don't have any plans to move to the UK in the forseeable future. Will it make things any easier for visiting the UK and travelling in the EU if we get married in England?

No.

[Casa]

If you don't intend to settle in the UK you could apply for a Marriage Visitor Visa which would grant a 6 month period in which to marry and then leave the UK before the visa expires. This would have been an option instead of the sub-category of visitor visa you've applied for. The fee is the same @ £87

As far as travel within Europe is concerned, it won't make any difference whether you marry in the UK or in Vietnam.

https://www.gov.uk/marriage-visa/overview

[michaelh]

Thanks for your replies.

Since my partner's already got a visitor visa and there's no administrative reason to get married in the UK, I think we'll get officially married in Vietnam and then register with the British Embassy.

[ohara]

You don't need to register anything. As long as your marriage is legal in Vietnam, the UK government will recognise it.

2. Marriage overseas
2.1 For a foreign marriage to be valid in English law, the following conditions must
normally be fulfilled:
• The marriage ceremony must be recognised as a valid form of marriage by the
law of the place of celebration (mixed marriages and "common law" marriages
are sometimes excepted - see paragraphs 9-10 below)
• Each of the parties to the marriage must have the capacity, under the law of the
place where he or she is domiciled at the time of the marriage, to marry the other
party in the manner proposed (see DOMICILE)
• Any previous marriage of either party must first have been validly terminated in
the eyes of English law (but see paragraph 8 below)

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... rriage.pdf