Getting married before applying for ILR

[cb89]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone can assist me. My partner has 5 year limited leave as a refugee. She’s eligible to apply for ILR in February. We would like to get married but when we went to give notice of this at town hall the clerk informed us that as she is not British or EU the home office needs to be informed. We weren’t sure on what the consequences of that might be so left.

Now I have been googling and seen that people with other types of leave need to exit and apply for a marriage visa (which would cancel her current status - and as she only holds a HO Travel Document mean she can’t reenter the UK). Surely this can’t be correct? But I can’t find anything that says refugees are exempt from this.

Please help!

[CR001]

No it is not correct what you are reading or you are misunderstanding.

You can give notice to marry. The registry office must inform HO and the notice could be extended to 70 days for them to investigate and or interview each of you.

If HO gives permission to marry, you can marry and it has no effect on current visa or ILR.

[vinny]

It's normal practice with non-settled foreign nationals. They may extend her period of notice. There's no requirement for her to exit the UK.