Just to let anyone know who is interested, I got my COA back on the 19th of September.
I was really expecting it to take longer than that, but it was less than a month (sent on the 22 of Aug, received back on the 19th of September).
Think it helped that we had the paperwork and photos all in order, plus my work permit is good through 2009 and fiance is a British citizen, so hardly a difficult case.
Anyhow, good luck to anyone who has to do this.
And, at 135 pounds per COA, it is a very valuable piece of paper, so don't lose it! It is also only valid for 3 months so better make that appointment to give notice (otherwise after the 3 months you will have to apply for another one. Yikes). But, the notice is good for 12 months, so you can still wait a while for the actual marriage ceremony.
My advice is to get going on it if you need it - We are having our "real" wedding overseas in a year and a half and it is really complicated where we are getting married. My work permit is good until 2009 but once I found out how complicated the marriage process is over here for non-Brits who are already in the country on a WP or other visa, I thought far better to just do it asap. This way if I were to lose my job or something else were to change, we already have that sorted and don't have to run around like crazy trying to work things out.
Best wishes to everyone getting married!
x Katie
