Entry Requirements to UK with Fiancée Visa

After 5 months of waiting it looks like the visa for my fiancée (Fiancée visa) has been approved. She received an email from the visa application centre requesting to send her passport to them (she paid extra for the 'keep my passport' service). We are hoping that once the passport has been received and processed, she will receive an email with the outcome of the application and a visa in her passport. I'd just like to ask a few questions for what happens next:

- Reading online it looks as though UKVI are still offering a 3 month entry window to the UK, rather than the previous 1 month window. Is this true?
- From what date will the 3 month (or 1 month) window start? Is this from the date it was approved, or the date it is stuck in the passport (in our case my fiancée has 28 days in which to hand in her passport to the visa application centre).
- My fiancée has only ~6 months left on her current passport which will contain her new visa. Does anyone know what the restrictions are for entry to the UK? The only guidance I can find online states that a passport must be valid for the whole duration of the planned stay. Well, in our case the 'planned stay' is beyond the 6 months when the passport will run out.

Thanks for your help all!

After 5 months of waiting it looks like the visa for my fiancée (Fiancée visa) has been approved. She received an email from the visa application centre requesting to send her passport to them (she paid extra for the 'keep my passport' service). We are hoping that once the passport has been received and processed, she will receive an email with the outcome of the application and a visa in her passport. I'd just like to ask a few questions for what happens next:

- Reading online it looks as though UKVI are still offering a 3 month entry window to the UK, rather than the previous 1 month window. Is this true?
- From what date will the 3 month (or 1 month) window start? Is this from the date it was approved, or the date it is stuck in the passport (in our case my fiancée has 28 days in which to hand in her passport to the visa application centre).
- My fiancée has only ~6 months left on her current passport which will contain her new visa. Does anyone know what the restrictions are for entry to the UK? The only guidance I can find online states that a passport must be valid for the whole duration of the planned stay. Well, in our case the 'planned stay' is beyond the 6 months when the passport will run out.

Thanks for your help all!

Congratulations!

With the fiancee visa, you get 6 months for the partner to move to the UK, get married and apply for FLR(M).

 https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/partner-spouse

Hi, thanks for the information, but my question is that her foreign passport will run out during that 6 months she is in the UK. Will this be a reason to refuse entry at the border (for instance, should she renew her passport before she travels) or is it OK that her passport will run out while living in the UK, and she just needs to renew it at the embassy. Thanks.

- Reading online it looks as though UKVI are still offering a 3 month entry window to the UK, rather than the previous 1 month window. Is this true?

That doesn't apply to fiance visas. The visa sticker will be valid for 6 months and she can enter the UK at any time in those 6 months. However, she needs to make sure she has enough time to get married and apply for the next visa before the 6 months is up, and also before her passport expires.

- From what date will the 3 month (or 1 month) window start? Is this from the date it was approved, or the date it is stuck in the passport (in our case my fiancée has 28 days in which to hand in her passport to the visa application centre).

Normally it will start on the Intended Travel Date that she put on the online application form.

If this date has passed by the time the visa is issued, and they have your passport, they usually make it starting 7 days after they make the visa decision.

However, as she has kept her passport, I'm not sure what date they will start the visa - I guess maybe either the date they put it in the passport, or maybe a few days later than that?

- My fiancée has only ~6 months left on her current passport which will contain her new visa. Does anyone know what the restrictions are for entry to the UK? The only guidance I can find online states that a passport must be valid for the whole duration of the planned stay. Well, in our case the 'planned stay' is beyond the 6 months when the passport will run out.

I believe she just needs a valid passport at the time the visa is issued - I don't think there is a restriction where it has to have  months left on it.

So, I assume she will be fine to enter the UK, as long as she enters before her passport expires, since I would guess that if there was an issue with the passport validity, they wouldn't have issued the visa in the first place.

It may be good timing anyway, since if she is planning to change her name on her passport after the wedding, she can do this when she renews it, before applying for her FLR(M) visa (as the visa can only be issued in the name on her passport).

Hi, thanks for the info. Very helpful.

The intended travel date on the application is 1st December. I called up UKVI hotline and asked when the start date would be, considering my fiancée used the 'keep my passport' service and hasn't handed the passport back yet (the email says she has up to 28 days to send in the passport). The reply was that the date will start from when the vignette is put into the passport.

I also asked about the entry requirements with regards to passport validity. The person on the phone couldn't give a clear answer, but suggested that 'probably 3 months validity is OK'. He suggested one option could be to renew the passport and transfer the visa to the new passport before travelling, but I have no idea how long that would take.

The gov.uk website seems to be clear that visas in old passports can be used with renewed passports, so I'm wondering whether the safest option is for my fiancee to renew her passport before travelling, and enter the UK with her new passport but show the visa vignette in her old passport. I assume this is OK?

From gov.uk website:
Travel to and from the UK
You can use the valid visa in your expired passport when you’re travelling to and from the UK. You’ll need to travel with your expired and your new passport.