The U.S. or the UK? That is the question. (Confused Fiancee!)

Hi all,

I am new to this site and I have about a million questions about settling in the UK. I am an American and my fiance is a British citizen, and we are trying to decide whether it will be best for me to get a fiance visa and get married in the UK, or get married in the U.S. and then apply for a spousal visa. (By best I mean what is better cost wise and with general complications) If anyone has had experience with this, and knows the pros and cons, I would really appreciate the advice! Also, I am curious about getting this mysterious further leave to remain thing that you have to apply for once you are married in the UK.  Where do you get it at? How much does it cost? How long does it take? If anyone can decipher this I will consider it a miracle, as I am very confused by this whole process, and am probably not making much sense.

Fiance visa -- pro, you can move to the UK right away-don't have to wait for a wedding, and you have 6 months to get used to living with your fiance before you get married

Cons - you have to pay twice: once for the fiance visa, and once to get your FLR after marriage (I'm not counting ILR after 2 years of after marriage, which you'd have to pay for either way); you can't work on a fiance visa

Spoual visa: pros - You only have to pay once; you can work right away
Con: you can't live with your fiance until after you are married

I chose the fiance visa route because I thought getting used to living with each other (e.g. starting the relationship off on the right foot) was more important than money. It was also useful for us to be living together while we were planning the wedding. And by the time I was able to look for a job, I was already somewhat settled, so I didn't have the stress of looking for work and getting to know my way around at the same time. (I was fortunate to have savings to last me the two months I had in between moving to the UK and marriage.)

But everyone will have made their own choice for their own reasons.

Another pro for the fiancee visa--- you pay one plane ticket for you to fly to the uk. With spousal visa....your fiancee has to first fly to US then you both fly back to the UK---I find that counteracts the cost of having to pay the second visa.

(did that make sense!?!)

I think there are true pros and cons to both----- I went the fiancee' visa route and don't regret the decision.

Helena

Another thing to take into account is the cost of a wedding in each place and where the money to pay for it will come from.