Short-term study visa marriage in Isle of Man

[british2222]

Hi,

My partner is currently on a short-term study visa in UK, and I understand that she is not permitted to get married in UK. However, can we get married in the Isle of Man? I had a look at the Isle of Man government web-page and I did not see any explicit restrictions on marriage. Many thanks for your help.

[Morning Boat]

This is a tricky question. Some Googling led me to this document: http://www.gumbley.net/ukba_marriage_iom.pdf

Legal Position
A person travelling to the Isle of Man to marry either a British citizen or an EEA
national requires entry clearance. This will take the form of a fiancé(e) visa or an
EEA Family Permit depending on the nationality of the intended spouse. This is the
case whether the couple plan to marry in a church or elsewhere. Entry clearance will
take the form of a visa placed in a travel document and will normally have been
issued at a British Embassy, High Commission or visa station in the person’s country
of origin.
2
Persons seeking to marry in the Isle of Man otherwise than according to the rites and
ceremonies of the Church of England must do so via the civil preliminaries which
involves giving notice at a Register Office. All persons seeking to marry via the civil
preliminaries must provide proof of their nationality and Third Country Nationals
currently must provide additional documents demonstrating their eligibility to marry
in the Isle of Man.
The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 places civil registrars under a legal obligation
to report any suspicions they may have of a marriage or civil partnership being
conducted for the purposes of evading immigration law to Immigration Office. The
Immigration Office can then take action in the form of refusing to grant leave to
remain in the Isle of Man or, if a criminal offence has been committed, prosecuting
the persons concerned. Non British citizens can also be removed from the UK and
barred from re-entering the country.
This law does not cover persons who wish to marry according to the rites and
ceremonies of the Church of England and places no such legal obligation on
members of the clergy. However, members of the clergy who suspect a couple may
be marrying for immigration purposes can still report their suspicions to the
Immigration Office on a voluntary basis. The police can also be contacted if a
member of the clergy suspects a marriage they have conducted or have been asked
to conduct is for the purpose of evading immigration law or if they feel they are
being put under undue pressure to conduct such a marriage.
Any report to the Immigration Office should be addressed to the Passport and
Immigration Office, Government Office, Bucks Road, Douglas IM1 3PU (telephone
685203, email immigration@cso.gov.im).
It is recommended that members of the clergy keep records of any identity or
nationality documents provided when non-British nationals approach them seeking to
marry.

To sum up, it's not entirely clear whether simply being ineligible to marry in the UK means she is also ineligible in the IOM, but marrying when your intent is to evade the immigration restrictions will definitely not work. Marriage for some other reason might be possible though it probably faces a very heavy burden of proof. It is probably best to be up front and email the immigration office directly.

[secret.simon]

The Isle of Man immigration rules are substantially similar to the United Kingdom’s rules but not identical.

What to do first
...
If either of you are subject to Immigration Control, you should contact the Isle of Man Passport, Immigration and Nationality Office in the first instance informing them of your intention to marry or register a civil partnership on the Isle of Man.

[british2222]

Thank you so much Morning Boat and secret.simon! Just to clarify that our intention for marriage is genuine, and of course we don't want to evade the UK immigration rules. But Isle of Man, in some sense, is a country on its own, and we thought we could travel there and get married without breaking UK immigration restrictions. We could travel to some other country and get married, but the Isle of Man possibility (if at all!) seems much easier. Many thanks!

[someguyIguess]

I know I'm bumping an old thread - but this was literally all I could find online when I had this idea with my then fiancee who was a few weeks away from her visitor visa expiring.

As of Monday, she is now my wife. So the answer (too late for the OP, but for anyone else searching) is that so long as you didn't enter the CTA with the intention of getting married, once you're in legally then marriage is fine. And only 8 days notice is required. So go for it!

Plus the Isle of Man's lovely and has many roads without speed limits, so it's great to go there anyway

Now my wife has to go back to Zambia for a couple of months while we get the spousal visa sorted, oh what fun...