Fiance Visa vs Spousal visa

OK It's too late for me, but I have a question about this. I keep reading things about people getting married in the US then going through a spouse visa app. In the beginning when I was researching I thought I had figured out the proper channel was to get a finance visa, go over, get married and then get a spouse visa (urgh another wad of cash) then go on from there.

IF it is just as easy to get a spouse visa as a finance visa why bother with the finance visa. It's way cheaper to get married in the US if you aren't having a big do, I just don't understand.

Did I just flub myself out of an extra £500+?

Probably because in most cases, you need a visa to marry in the UK if you are going to be living there after and a lot of people seem to like the idea of getting married over there. I was going to marry over there because I wanted to please my future evil-in-laws, but in the end decided it was better for me(my family is nicer, and bigger...so, I wanted it here for MY family, lol) to get married in America since a lot of my family couldnt get the time off/money together to fly all the way to the UK.

It'd be nice to be married over there if your friends and family could afford to all get on a plane and go. If they could have, I probably would have kept my plans to marry on a fiancee visa. But, the hassle just didn't seem worth it to me, personally.

The wedding isn't an issue for me... I guess I am the odd gal out but the idea of spending vast sums of money for one single day seems... silly I guess since we are neither of us rich and I won't be able to work for a while IF I can find work. I did the big gigantic wedding the first time, it was the longest day of my life and I swore I would never do it again... and I won't we are getting married in a registrars office with just the required 2 witnesses, then having a big get together with my DF's family as mine can't afford to fly over.

I was more asking about the... erm legalities probably isn't the right word but close enough. If it didn't matter where you got married or what not, if you don't have to have lived together to be accepted for a spouse visa, why would anyone do the fiance visa, why not just do the spouse one, since at the end of the 6 months you have to do a spouse visa anyway.

I guess there are no real legalities involved in why anyone chooses a fiance visa, really. I'm sure its all just down to what they prefer for a wedding. Thats the only reason I can think of anyway!

- The couple might want to get married in the UK rather than the US
- One of the couple may be in ill health or pregnant and not be able to travel
- The UK spouse may have children and be unable to travel
- The cost may be prohibitive, especially if there are children involved or if this is all    done at peak time when the flights are more expensive than the cost of a flight
- The US national might be in the UK at the time of the proposal, so it may be the choice between one or two flights, again costly
- The UK national might have a job and not be able to get time off work to go to the UK and marry

Vicky

We did a US wedding because it was the easiest option, plus my dad paid for it so he kind of had priority. In a way I do wish we got married over here, but that's more to do with the fact that I didn't have the wedding I WANTED...

But yes - I'd recommend the US wedding/spousal visa route. The only negative thing about it was that hubby and I had to be apart after the wedding for a little over two months. This could have been shorter but I wanted to take my time packing and saying buy to family/friends.

Oooh, another one.

Lots of people would prefer not to have to be apart for any length of time after they marry, and would go the fiancee route because then they can stary together after the ceremony.

Vicky

Great answers, and thanks!
 
I wish I had realized this before, we would have gone the spouse visa route and saved some money =( heh ah well, just another week to go before I should get the answer on my fiancé visa app according to the emails from the LA consulate.

I don't know how much money my fiance would have saved to get married in the US and have me enter on a spousal visa instead. I was worried that it would cost an extra flight for him to and from the states ($1500-2000+), plus time for him off work (£300/wk) and the absence of his parents (which wasn't much of an issue as my mom is deceased and my dad and I aren't too close).

For us, personally, it's less expensive to marry here at the registrar and we don't have to be apart (this after being separated a year already).

Good luck to you, Calamity_Jane? Where will you be moving to in the UK?

Sutton-in-Ashfield (always giggle at the - !)

It's nearish to Nottingham and Manchester... and Derbyshire (I always wanna spell it darbeyshire cause of the pronunciation LOL!)

I love the town, and being from Portland Oregon I love that the little town square is called Portland Square. I seriously look forward to the way of life there, going to market every day if I want, picking up fresh stuff for dinner... all the fun things that are sold at Market days, having the precinct really close, everything within easy walking distance (which i need cause I am way more than pleasantly plump, damn American stereotypes! heh)

We got married in the UK for several of the reasons that Vicky mentioned.  Mainly though, I was over in the UK to check out flats for us to move into.  We decided not to sign a lease without both of us hunting for the flat.  We'd never lived together before and just wanted the experience of picking our flat together.  Then we got married rather than pay for both us to fly back to the US and then back to the UK.

We may have paid more in visa cost, but less in other expenses.

One way you have the Brit going to the US (cost of flight) to marry, but no cost of the visa.  The other way you have one simple clean move, no extra flights of getting to where the the wedding is but don't plan to settle. 

We did the Fiance visa route instead of the Spousal visa route.  The reason being that
I didn't do enough research 

We are doing the spousal visa. I was going to originally go to england and get married over there on a fiance visa but after lots of stress and tears on here  We just decided to go to america and get married. With the spousal visa, my hubby doesn't really need to support me for 6 months as I  can work straight away. I don't think we would have been accepted with the fiance visa. Now, I'm more sure that I will get my visa. Thanks to these guys here!

I basically realized the same thing - that to get married in the UK meant applying for an extra visa, as well as making myself ineligible to work the whole time I was on it.  I wasn't prepared to give up my (online, work from home) US job just to go to England to get married, so he came to the US and we got married here.   Just this last friday actually! 

Of course, the crap part of this is that he's back in the UK already and I am here, waiting for our marriage certificate to arrive so I can do funtime things like change my name and apply for my visa, and so I expect we will be apart for about two months.   I knew it was going to happen but that doesn't mean I am happy about it.  I miss him.

I guess, too, that you should consider that for some people, getting married in the US is just as costly really, once you figure in their flight over from the UK.