In between fiancé visa & getting married/FLR visa. Delayed & stressed.

Hi guys. After a lot of help from this forum, my fiancé received his fiancé visa in January and flew in on 1st February. The week after, we went to the Registry Office to find out about getting married. Because of the new rules coming in about sham marriages, they wouldn't see us till they'd found out more.

A few weeks later in March, we got a form to complete and dropped it in by hand so we could hopefully book an appointment. They advised us that they were now the main hub for quite a wide area and were also having to deal with applications from London, so the earliest they could see us would be May! They called a couple of days later to confirm a date.

I can't believe how long we've had to wait and at this rate, we probably won't be allowed to get married until June at the earliest because the notice period is now 28 days instead of 14. It's pretty stressful, knowing that we still have to apply for another visa straight after, within the six-month period for a fiancé visa. Romance goes out of the window slightly, especially as the long delay means my fiancé has been unable to work and obviously, living costs aren't cheap.

I wondered if many other people had experienced something similar at the moment, or are we just unlucky?!

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While your case is a bit more extreme, this is common to take a long time before you can marry.  It's why we recommend people get married in the US.  There you can marry in a couple of days at most.

I hope you get your date soon.

Yes, we would have, but the cost of taking my three kids, flights, accommodation etc seemed to be a lot more expensive than doing it this way. I guess we should be looking at the FLR visa application right now?

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If you're tight on time, go through the application now and be sure you've got all the docs you'll need (and that they're original).

You'll probably need to top it up with new docs when you're married (payslips and bank statements for the most current months) but that will save a lot of stress later on.

As long as your visa application is sent in (or does it need to be received by them? I can't remember now) by the expiry date of the current visa (or you have an in-person appointment by the date of the expiry), you'll be fine. The terms of the current visa carry through while the new visa is being processed, so that's not something to worry about.

Yes, romance kind of goes out the window when you have to apply for visas. We had a small registrar office wedding and I told people I didn't want to plan a big wedding because the visas (fiance and then FLR) were stressful enough. I don't think people who hadn't been through the process really understood how much work it is.

They advised us that they were now the main hub for quite a wide area and were also having to deal with applications from London, so the earliest they could see us would be May!

Is it possible you could go to another designated office?  We couldn't give notice at our local registry office because of the visa situation and they suggested we take a look at the list of Designated Offices (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/224796/DROs_GOV_UK..pdf) and choose the one that is convenient for us.  I don't know if it is a possibility, but maybe there is another office that you could give notice at.

If you're tight on time, go through the application now and be sure you've got all the docs you'll need (and that they're original).

You'll probably need to top it up with new docs when you're married (payslips and bank statements for the most current months) but that will save a lot of stress later on.

As long as your visa application is sent in (or does it need to be received by them? I can't remember now) by the expiry date of the current visa (or you have an in-person appointment by the date of the expiry), you'll be fine. The terms of the current visa carry through while the new visa is being processed, so that's not something to worry about.

Yes, romance kind of goes out the window when you have to apply for visas. We had a small registrar office wedding and I told people I didn't want to plan a big wedding because the visas (fiance and then FLR) were stressful enough. I don't think people who hadn't been through the process really understood how much work it is.

Good idea. We need to look at the application. Haven't even done that yet as it's been so hectic. Is there a link somewhere on a sticky on the forum, or should we look at the Home Office website?

Yeah, I'm thinking the same. I definitely don't want to think too much about the stress of the wedding on top of the visa. Sigh. They really push you to go for it so soon. It would be lovely to have a breather after the stress of the fiance visa but oh well!

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Is it possible you could go to another designated office?  We couldn't give notice at our local registry office because of the visa situation and they suggested we take a look at the list of Designated Offices (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/224796/DROs_GOV_UK..pdf) and choose the one that is convenient for us.  I don't know if it is a possibility, but maybe there is another office that you could give notice at.

Thanks - it's probably a bit too late now. It's nearly the 6th!
Just had a look. Is this up-to-date? If so, the registry office I'm referring to isn't on the list!!

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Yes, that is the correct list of registry offices that can take notice from a foreign national...  sounds like you need to phone your closest one today!

Woah! Well, we're in town so we're going to pop in to the Chelmsford one to find out!

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We went to the registry office and the list is wrong! Brentwood definitely isn't the designated registry office for Essex.

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We gave notice on 6 May and have a wedding booked on 4 July! Getting there!

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