Complicated situation-spouse visa query

[Maham28]

Hi everyone! Hope all of you are well. I have a spouse visa related question please! So, my husband is British. I am non British and live outside UK. We both got married 3 years ago during covid times. My husband was separated from his ex wife for almost a year at that time but he had yet to apply for divorce. Due to travel bans and other restrictions, we were stuck in a limbo so in 2022 he advised me to apply for visit visa. We hadnt registered our marriage anywhere by that time so i wrote my marital status as single. In may 2022 i visited him in UK and got pregnant within a week. It wasnt planned at all. In June, he applied for divorce in uk from his first wife (US national). In july i went back to my home country. In 2023 i gave birth to our son in my home country while my husband was present. Sorry for such a long story but my question is now that we are applying for spouse visa (as his divorce is now finalized). Will that visit cause issues for us? Because i will have to mention it of course. If yes, can anyone please suggest the best way forward? I am super stressed and so tired of living apart:( We both are so helpless because had to wait for divorce. Its so hard to raise a child alone without a partner:( huge respect for single mums and dads!

[CR001]

Your marriage won't be recognised in the uk as your husband was not divorced and free to marry at that time.

You will likely have to apply for a 6 month fiance visa and then marry in the UK and then switch to a 2.5 year spouse visa.

[Maham28]

Thank you so much for such quick response. We applied for our son’s British passport in March 2024. We have passed the interview stage and waiting for the passport. If i apply for fiance visa, can my child accompany me as well? Shall i apply for fiance visa now or shall i first take a formal legal advice. What do you suggest please? Also do you have any idea about the time it takes for fiance visa’s decision to come?

[Ticktack]

Thank you so much for such quick response. We applied for our son’s British passport in March 2024. We have passed the interview stage and waiting for the passport. If i apply for fiance visa, can my child accompany me as well? Shall i apply for fiance visa now or shall i first take a formal legal advice. What do you suggest please? Also do you have any idea about the time it takes for fiance visa’s decision to come? 12 weeks

Once your child has the British P, nothing stops him from entering with you. You might want to wait to get your son's passport first, as it could take a long time (applying from abroad).
If you apply for a fiance visa and it's approved, it has a time limit you have to enter the UK. I'm sure you don't want to leave your son behind.

[Maham28]

Thank you so much for this advice. We will definitely wait then. I can get my documents ready meanwhile. Really appreciate this!

[Maham28]

Hi, so my husband who is British and i got married (nikkah) in early 2021 during covid times. We had a lot of arguments during the year as it was long distance. Most of the arguments were related to him still not divorced in UK (was separated at that time). We were about to call it off when his sister suggested that i apply for visit visa to UK and spend some time together so things get resolved between us. So when i applied my visit visa through an agent. They advised that i will have to put divorced in my application (as this was my second marriage as well) because our nikkah was only registered in council at that time but not with the national database as my husband was out of country. So i did not mention that my husband was in uk and went to visit. As i have lived in uk for 1.5 years previously and have a very clean record and a good travel history. Due to covid, there was a backlog and i kept waiting for visa. In early 2022, he visited me and through elders of the family, we reconciled! In mid 2022, my visit visa was approved so i visited him and came back in 2 months. I was doing a full time job in my country back then. Exactly after 9 months of my visit, we had our first child born in my country. He was also with us at that time. After that he kep visiting us twice a year andin 2024 his divorce (previous marriage in uk) was finally approved so we applied for British passport for our child. Which we gave now received. Now we want to apply for spouse visa. My question is how can we not get penalized on the visit thing. I consider it as our huge mistake but we had no guidance whatsoever and completely regret it. We dont want out family to suffer because of this. Our child is already about to be 2 soon and we are still living apart because of so many legalities and complexities in our situation. Please guide me. Also its legal in my country to do second marriage. Any guidance will be truly appreciated .

[CR001]

Topics merged.

You were already given advice earlier in June!