You can apply for a UK fiancé(e) visa if you want to marry your partner in the UK.
If the application is granted, you are allowed to enter and stay in the UK for 6 months. You have to get married to your partner in those 6 months.
Before a fiancé(e) visa is granted, you have to meet the following requirements:
- Your fiancé(e), as your sponsor, must be British, have indefinite leave to stay in the UK, or have refugee/humanitarian protection.
You must:
- Be in a genuine and subsisting relationship
- Intend to live together permanently in the UK
- Intend to get married within 6 months of you entering the UK
- Have met in person
- Both be over the age of 18
- Both be free to get married
- Be maintained in the UK without using any public funds
- Have adequate accommodation for you and your dependents
- Speak and understand English to the required level
- Any previous relationships must have broken down permanently.
Depending on your circumstances, there may be other requirements as well.
What happens if you do not get married within 6 months in the UK?
Depending on the circumstances, you may be able to apply for an extension of your visa.
This could be done from inside the UK, or from your country of origin.
Extension from inside the UK
The Immigration Rules state that you can apply for an extension if the marriage didn’t take place for a good reason during the initial 6 month period. You must also present evidence that it will take place within the next 6 months.
What constitutes a ”good reason” will be assessed on a case-to-case basis – there are no fixed guidelines. The onus is on you to submit evidence to satisfy the Home Office that there were good reasons.
The onus is also on you to submit sufficient evidence that the marriage will indeed take place in the next 6 months.
In addition to the above, you need to show that you still meet all the initial requirements for entry.
Be warned that the Home Office will pay more attention to whether you are indeed in a genuine and subsisting relationship. Depending on the reason why the marriage didn’t take place, they will scrutinise whether your relationship is real.
UPDATE- If you are unable to get married in the UK due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Home Office has stated the following:
If you’re here with 6 months’ leave as a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner and your wedding or civil ceremony has been delayed due to coronavirus, you can either request an extension until 31 July 2020 by updating your records with the Coronavirus Immigration Team, or apply to extend your stay for a further 6 months to allow the ceremony to take place
A new entry application from outside the UK
You have the option of returning to your original country to re-apply for entry as a fiancé(e).
The Entry Clearance Officer will question your relationship and intention to get married. You will have to address the reasons why you didn’t get married in the 6 months while you were in the UK. Plus, you will have to show that you intend and will be able to get married within 6 months from re-entry. Include as much evidence as possible of your plans to get married.
You need to comply with all the initial entry clearance requirements.
If the application is successful, you may re-enter for 6 months and would need to get married during that time.
Once you are married, you can apply for leave to remain in the UK as a spouse. You will need to apply before your fiancé(e) visa expires.
What if you don’t have a good reason why you didn’t get married, or it is unlikely that you will get married within 6 months after an extension or re-entry?
In this situation, you should consider getting married outside of the UK and then apply for entry clearance under the spouse category.
Take note, even though you are now married, you still need to meet all the other requirements, including financial and accommodation requirements. You also need to address the reasons why you didn’t get married during the 6 months and convince the Entry Clearance Officer that your relationship is genuine.
If your application to enter as a spouse is granted, you will be allowed to remain in the UK for not more than 33 months, after which you can apply for an extension.
WH Solicitors have extensive experience in fiancé(e) and spouse applications. We are here to help you.
You can contact us on +441483 608 786 to discuss your matter further.