UK guy marrying his US girlfriend in England...please help!

Hi everyone, newbie here....

I would love to pick your brains if at all possible?!!

I am a UK Citizen and my US girlfriend has been over here in London for 2.5 years now (on study visa and more recently a BUNAC visa).

Her BUNAC visa ends in March and she is trying to apply for the Highly Skilled Migrants visa. At best she'll be out of the country back home in the States for 3 months, at worst 5 months.

We have now been together for 1.5 years and will be looking to get engaged within the next year (obviously when she is back here on her new visa later this year).

What kinds of hurdles/headaches have we got facing us??! How do we first apply for the correct marriage certificate visa etc. Should we get joint bank accounts/utility bills sorted as soon as poss....we only have a few random photos to 'evidence' us being together for 1.5 years...

We are starting at step 1 here and are desperately trying to gather information as to what we need to do and would be most grateful for any tips/advice! T

his looks like a horrendously painful and long process...please tell me it' s not?!

Many thanks for all your help.

first of all, relax!  The UK visa process isn't usually horrendously painful and long for Americans.

If she's coming back to the UK on a Tier 1 visa, then once you decide to get married she'll need to get a Certificate of Approval in order to marry you in the UK (takes about 4 weeks to get.)  Then you give notice and get married as normal, and then she can apply to remain as a spouse if she wishes, using form FLR(M).

Alternatively, once you've been living together for two years and have the documents to prove it, she can apply for an unmarried partner visa even before you marry.