Visitor Marriage Visa for US citizens

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry in advance if these questions have been asked before. I did try searching the website for my answers, but I thought I would create a new post as many refer to a US citizen marrying a UK citizen. A friend of mine who immigrated to the UK from the US suggested this board for my questions.

My fiance and I are both US citizens and are planning a destination wedding/elopement in Scotland at Comlongon Castle. Our wedding date is September 22, 2014. We have paid a deposit for the castle and I have written conformation from the castle regarding our wedding as well as a written conformation from the registrar's office in Annan that they have approved of our wedding on that date at the castle.

I have several questions regarding the visitor marriage visa as well as the registrar documents (if anyone knows the answers to the registrar document questions, I would really appreciate it!).

1. From the reading I've done on Google, we both can only apply for the visitor marriage visa 3 months prior to the date we would go to the UK. We would do so online and then have a biometrics appointment. From there we would mail each of our biometrics information and appropriate documents as well as our passports to the Home Agency. Is this correct?

2. As far as supporting documents go, I've seen various suggestions. It seems they just want to know that you can pay for your trip/marriage in the UK and that you plan on coming back to the US within 6 months. We would be going to Scotland for about 12 days. I've seen suggestions of the following documents: bank statements to prove one can pay for the trip, employment verification from your employer, university verification from your college that you are a student (I will be graduating in May with a second degree, so I figured I would have my college write a letter before that stating I have spent 7 years at their school), house deed copies, official divorce papers (my fiance is divorced), confirmation papers from the registrar's office (which I already have), confirmation papers from the castle and receipts of payment. Any other suggestions? I saw somewhere that people suggested even pictures and receipts of my dress (which I have already) and our wedding bands. We plan on having a celebration dinner when we return to the US. Would it be helpful to include plans of that to show we intend on returning? Also, my fiance has a son. He will NOT be coming with us, but should we include any information regarding him in the supporting documents (the application itself has a spot for children)?

3. It asks your tentative travel dates on the application. It also says you should not book your flight prior to receiving your visa (which makes me weary trying to plan out a honeymoon in Scotland). Would we both write on our application our prospective travel dates and that's it? No flight information? Also, it asks about accommodations in the application. Again, they suggest not booking anything until you get the visa, so how do you give them this information and/or plan that ahead of time? I saw somewhere that you make copies of the final screen before you buy plane tickets so it gives the dates you would go and the itinerary. Is this what we should do? The same with hotels (we were actually hoping to do B&B's so I'm not sure how hotel online bookings would go)?

4. If anyone has done this, how long did it take? We plan on doing this as soon as we can - 3 months ahead of time - in order to get the visas and get back to the registrar's office. Is there a large wait gap between the online application and the biometrics appointment? I've seen that the actual response time once the Home Agency has everything is rather quick.

5. If denied for whatever reason, can we marry here in the US at the court house (which would be 100% legal as we are single and divorced US citizens) and then simply honeymoon in Scotland as a normal tourist (without needing visas at all)? Would the denial of a marriage visa give us problems at immigration even if we have our marriage license with us? We would still like to go to Comlongon Castle and perhaps just have a handfasting blessing instead if this happens but continue with our plans of celebrating there and honeymooning for a week and a half. I ask this because I would really like to plan our plane tickets and hotel accommodations for our honeymoon in the coming months, not in July or August. If they deny us, we could still continue with our plans to honeymoon. I just want to make sure they will not deport us!

Thanks so much to anyone who responds to my questions! I really, really appreciate it. I'm having a difficult time getting the information I need for both of us being US citizens marrying in Scotland.

As far as the registrar questions go... From what I gather, the registrar needs our visas as part of the final forms we send them 3 months prior to the wedding date (but before 15 days from that date - actually, for a divorced person, it suggests 6 weeks before which is why this visa process is making me nervous!). The law in Scotland (correct me if I'm wrong) is that I can mail all this by post up to 3 months prior to the wedding date and we can just show up in Scotland several days before the wedding. There is no wait period as there is in England or Wales. Now, does anyone know how I get a certificate of no impediment for marriage for the registrar's office? The US has no such certificate. How do I go about something similar to this to provide the registrar's office? I called our county clerk's office and the best they could suggest was I have something I have written and signed stating I am a single US citizen than can freely marry and they will notarize it.

Thank you again so much!

1. From the reading I've done on Google, we both can only apply for the visitor marriage visa 3 months prior to the date we would go to the UK. We would do so online and then have a biometrics appointment. From there we would mail each of our biometrics information and appropriate documents as well as our passports to the Home Agency. Is this correct?

Basically, yes.

The process is:

- Gather up your supporting documents

- Apply online for the visa. You will be prompted to pay online and book a biometrics appointment. Print the visa application and biometrics confirmation sheet.

- Attend the biometrics, taking your passport and biometrics sheet. They will take your fingerprints and photo and stamp the confirmation sheet. They will then transmit the biometrics to UKBA electronically.

- Place the stamped biometrics sheet, your passport, the application and your documents in your package and mail it to UKBA in NYC. If you want, you can purchase Priority Processing for $150 each from the Worldbridge website ON THE DAY you mail everything to NYC. This will get your applications placed to the front of the processing line.

- Wait for the visas to be processed and mailed back to you.

- Check the visas for any errors and book your flights.

2. As far as supporting documents go, I've seen various suggestions. It seems they just want to know that you can pay for your trip/marriage in the UK and that you plan on coming back to the US within 6 months. We would be going to Scotland for about 12 days. I've seen suggestions of the following documents: bank statements to prove one can pay for the trip, employment verification from your employer, university verification from your college that you are a student (I will be graduating in May with a second degree, so I figured I would have my college write a letter before that stating I have spent 7 years at their school), house deed copies, official divorce papers (my fiance is divorced), confirmation papers from the registrar's office (which I already have), confirmation papers from the castle and receipts of payment. Any other suggestions? I saw somewhere that people suggested even pictures and receipts of my dress (which I have already) and our wedding bands. We plan on having a celebration dinner when we return to the US. Would it be helpful to include plans of that to show we intend on returning? Also, my fiance has a son. He will NOT be coming with us, but should we include any information regarding him in the supporting documents (the application itself has a spot for children)?

The basic documents you need are:

- evidence of your planned flight itinerary (to show when you will return)
- bank statements to show you have enough money for your trip
- evidence of your job/studies in the UK (letter from employer or official documents showing you are enrolled in college)
- evidence of your home in the US (property deeds/mortgage statements or rental agreements etc.)
- evidence of your plans to marry in the UK (as the evidence you have)

I don't see why you would need to mention his son - unless the application asks about his family.

3. It asks your tentative travel dates on the application. It also says you should not book your flight prior to receiving your visa (which makes me weary trying to plan out a honeymoon in Scotland). Would we both write on our application our prospective travel dates and that's it? No flight information? Also, it asks about accommodations in the application. Again, they suggest not booking anything until you get the visa, so how do you give them this information and/or plan that ahead of time? I saw somewhere that you make copies of the final screen before you buy plane tickets so it gives the dates you would go and the itinerary. Is this what we should do? The same with hotels (we were actually hoping to do B&B's so I'm not sure how hotel online bookings would go)?

The travel date you put on the visa application is the date your visa will be made valid from. So you want to put the earliest date you may wish to fly to the UK - you don't want to get stuck with a visa that isn't valid yet when you want to travel.

The date you put can be no more than 3 months ahead of the date you apply online. If you wish for the visa to be post-dated up to 3 months ahead (instead of being valid from when it is issued), you need to state this clearly on the application.

4. If anyone has done this, how long did it take? We plan on doing this as soon as we can - 3 months ahead of time - in order to get the visas and get back to the registrar's office. Is there a large wait gap between the online application and the biometrics appointment? I've seen that the actual response time once the Home Agency has everything is rather quick.

It takes about 1-3 weeks to get the visa. Or if you pay for priority processing, maybe even as fast as a couple of days.

When you can a biometrics appointment depends on availability at the biometrics center you chose. You can have biometrics done at any of the 129 USCIS Application Support Centers across the US, so it's up to you when you book the appointment.

Most people get a biometrics appointment within 2-5 days of applying online.

You must have attended biometrics and got your application to NYC within 30 days of applying online. But once you have done the biometrics, the documents must arrive in NYC within 14 days of the biometrics appointment.

5. If denied for whatever reason, can we marry here in the US at the court house (which would be 100% legal as we are single and divorced US citizens) and then simply honeymoon in Scotland as a normal tourist (without needing visas at all)? Would the denial of a marriage visa give us problems at immigration even if we have our marriage license with us?

If the visa application is refused, you will need a visitor visa to enter the UK from then on. If you travel without a visa, you are likely to be refused entry to the UK, due to having been refused a marriage visitor visa.

It's essentially like you would be going: "I've just asked for an invite to a party but I was refused one. Never mind, I'll crash the party anyway without an invite." In which case, the party host would probably throw you out if they discovered you weren't supposed to be at the party.

So, you would have to apply for another visitor visa to honeymoon in the UK.