Is a UK visitors visa required for a religious wedding?

My friend (UK citizen) is civilly married in the US (to a US citizen) but now they want to come to the UK to have a religious/ceremonious wedding. They will be returning to the US straight after the wedding (she has already obtained a green card).

Is a UK visitors' visa required in this case? The UKBA site says that a visa is required if coming to the UK to get married, but since they're already legally married in the US, is the visa still required?

Many thanks

No because they're already married.

That's kind of what I thought. Do you think there could be a problem at the PoE, if they say they're coming for their wedding ceremony though?

That's kind of what I thought. Do you think there could be a problem at the PoE, if they say they're coming for their wedding ceremony though?

I wouldn't have thought so, as long as they can provide their official wedding certificate from the US to show that they are already married and that the ceremony in the UK is not an official wedding.

They should refer to it as a "blessing" ceremony.  As you can only be legally married once.  They are essentially tourists.  If they tell immigration they are here to get married, when they are already married, that will create confusion.

I was going to say the same as KF Dancer. We had our wedding in the US, but initially were going to do a blessing ceremony for our marriage at a UK church to help his mother. We ended up not doing it in the end and just had a second UK reception, but I would have your friends use that kind of terminology--a blessing ceremony.