Getting married on a Tier 4 visa -- is it illegal?

Just searching for clarification here: I'm a US citizen married to a UK citizen — I came to England on a Tier 4 visa (valid for 1.5 years), met a guy in my program, and we got married shortly before my visa expired. A few weeks ago I was refused entry at Heathrow, and they explained to me that our marriage is invalid because you're not allowed to get married on a Tier 4 visa and that since I'd violated my visa they were sending me home to the US. They also accused my husband of forging papers to allow him to marry me.

Is this right? Obviously I did a fair amount of research before getting married, and nothing indicated that it was illegal as long as we got married at a registry specially listed for dealing with immigration-related cases, which we did. We've contacted the registry that married us and they said everything was legal and valid, that they checked all our documents and we're fine. Is this a thing? Should we complain? I've just now been denied a spouse visit visa (I applied from the states) but won't know exactly why for a couple of days.   

Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

There's something you aren't telling us.  When does your Tier 4 expire?  Did you apply for FLR(M)?

Does your spouse meet the financial requirements to sponsor you?

Yes, your marriage is legal but does not give an automatic right to live in the UK.

My Tier 4 has already expired. I wasn't expecting the automatic right to live in the UK -- in fact, we don't want to live in the UK -- but was traveling with my husband and since I was not planning to work or study while there for a few months, was told I wouldn't need a visa to re-enter.

I was stopped for not having a return ticket (we hadn't firmed up our travel plans) but the reason they gave for refusing me entry was that getting married was a violation of my Tier 4 visa. I'm just trying to figure out if that's a real thing.

Did they give you a written explanation of why you were denied entry?

Yes, I have the paper they issued me explaining that getting married was a violation of my visa.

Unfortunately a return ticket is the most important thing to have when trying to enter the UK as a visitor.  Plus strong ties to the US.  I'm sure you can see where it looked suspicious in the UKVI's eyes.

But why was your application for a spousal visa refused?

Getting married is not a violation of a Tier 4 visa. They made that up.

As I understand it, they're allowed to send me back for just about any reason. I'm just trying to figure out if this particular reason is consistent with the law, if only because if our marriage actually is invalid we would need to figure out the process for getting properly married.

I'm not sure why they denied my visitor visa application -- my materials haven't been returned, but I should know more in a few days.

If this wasn't a violation of my visa, does anyone here know what the complaint process is like? We didn't want to start it until my visa application was processed, for fear it would affect that application.

Yes, I have the paper they issued me explaining that getting married was a violation of my visa.

What exactly does it say? It should reference immigration rules.

There is no way that your marriage is invalid. That's absolutely not possible, so don't worry about that.

Denying a visitor visa is very different to denying a spouse visa.  I would imagine you didn't show enough ties to the U.S. to not be considered an overstay risk.  Why did you not apply for a spouse visa instead?

My husband has not held his current job for long enough to sponsor me for a spousal visa  under the new rules -- and honestly, it seems less hassle to move abroad, at least for now, and live in the EU together where our rights are more protected. We just wanted to stay in the same country for the few months until his contract is up and then move together.

Exact wording: "You were issued a Tier 4 (general) student visa, which expired on [date] and on [date] you registered your marriage to [husband], a British citizen at [registry] in breach of your visa conditions, and you would have required an entry clearance for this purpose. You started that you and [husband] planned your marriage in [preceding month], but yet you made no attempt to attain the correct visa to marry in the UK." 

Also just noticed that in the stack of paperwork they gave me is the paperwork of another guy who was detained at the same time I was. Good to know our privacy is protected.

Plenty of people have got married whilst on a Tier 4 visa, and then successfully switched to a spouse visa within the UK. It is definitely not illegal. The problem is proving that. I just had a look at the Tier 4 guidance, and while it doesn't say you can't marry it also doesn't say you can. The policies for marriage have changed a bit recently, and it seems like your IO just had the wrong end of the stick, but I don't know how you'd go about demonstrating that.

I'd be interested in seeing why your visitor visa was refused.

Did your Tier 4 expire before you married?

No, my Tier 4 was valid when we married.

I’ve never heard of it being illegal to marry on a Tier 4 visa before and I recall several people here on the forum doing it and then switching to FLR(M) from their Tier 4 visa with no issues.

A couple of years ago, if you wanted to marry on anything other than a fiancé visa or a marriage visitor visa, you needed to apply for a Certificate of Approval (COA) to get permission, which took about 6 months to be processed. However, they abolished the COA about 3 years ago, which meant that people on work visas, student visas or even visitor visas could just get married in the UK anyway without any extra paperwork.

So, now, while you’re not supposed to marry in the UK on a visitor visa, there’s nothing legally stopping you from doing so if the church/registry office will allow it. As far as I’m aware, the same is true for Tier 4 student visas too.

However, I believe they are cracking down on marriages in the UK, by extending the amount of time for giving notice and I think they are aying particular attention to people on temporary visas who try to marry just before their visa expires in order to try to stay in the UK (i.e. trying to weed out sham marriages where the Tier 4 visa holder will do anything to stay, including marrying someone they barely know).

The new rules for giving notice to marry are here, but they don't come into effect until next week - they don't say that you can't marry on a limited leave or temporary visa, just that you may have to give much more notice before you can marry (up to 70 days): https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/377482/Marriage_notice.pdf

Unless there’s a new rule we’re not aware of, it could be that the IO at the airport was mixing up these new rules and not fully understanding them. There’s no way that the marriage can be illegal, since a marriage certificate is a valid, legal document. The only debate here should be whether or not you should have been allowed to marry on the Tier 4 visa in the first place (which I believe you should have) – but that doesn’t invalidate the marriage.

I know that you don’t have your visitor visa refusal information yet, but what documentation did you send with your application? There are various requirements you need to meet for a visitor visa and you would have needed to provide physical, original evidence to meet them in order for the visa to be approved.