@ksand24, @KFDancer, thank you for the detailed responses! From the research we've done it seems like the process of giving notice you describe is not available to us if we wish to get married in the chapel, since the chapel wedding requires a special license from the Archbishop (!) and the church license process and the civil notice process are mutually exclusive. From your knowledge, is that accurate or are we misunderstanding something?
Everyone has to give notice to marry - it's a legal requirement. The notice must be displayed for a minimum of 28 days before a wedding can take place.
I haven't heard of a special marriage licence before, though I'm just looking it up on Google. It looks like one is needed if you do not have personal connections to the particular chapel that would normally qualify you to marry there. It sounds like it is very rare to get one and will cost at least £310! I'm not sure if it is done instead of giving notice or if it is considered the same as giving notice.
From what I can tell, you would need to:
- apply for the Marriage Visitor Visas showing evidence of plans to marry
- fly to England
- apply for the Special Marriage Licence (you need a copy of your visas for this)
- attend interview for Special Licence
- (give notice to marry in person... both of you must attend) - not sure if this is done as well
- wait at least 28 days (maybe 70 days)
- get married
What I'm not sure about is the exact order or timing of everything - whether you give notice too or if the special licence is instead of it.
Also, we are happy to do all of this as far in advance as we can and wait as long as necessary, but from what you have said it seems we have to do so in the UK? I had been under the impression we could make one trip to acquire the special license and then another to actually get married.
I'm not sure exactly - you will need the Marriage Visitor Visas first before you can apply for the special licence... but those are multiple entry - so you might be able to fly over on the visa, apply for the licence/give notice, then fly back, then enter again on the visa to marry... but I don't know how long it will all take.
You might find that you need to be in the UK for several weeks during the licence application, in order to attend the interview - the license information pages mention delays of 4 weeks for the application to be processed before you will be invited to an interview. Not sure whether you could apply for the licence from the US after you get your visas and then travel to the UK for the interview and signing of the affidavit, or if you would have to be in the UK for the whole process.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk