I am an American and I am temporarily living in London. I am currently attending school here. I do not have a student visa becase my course is only 10 weeks, so I wasn't required to go through the hassle of obtaining a student visa. So I just came on my passport basically, and was just granted the usual 6 Months... (I came in Decemeber so my 6 months will be up in June.)
My fiance is British and lives in London as well. We have decided to get married while I am in London now (we have been dating for a year, this is not someone that I just met or some internet relationship or anything like that, fyi). I plan to settle in the UK with him after we marry, of course.
It is my understanding that for us to get married here, we need the Certificate of Approval. However, it states that if I do not have permission to be here for more than 6 Months, which I do nt, then they 'may' require additional information, such as solid proof of our ongoing relationship. I have seen posts in this forum about Spouse Visas and the proof that people are gathering for this. Is this the same thing that I am going to be required to do, or is this Spouse Visa different?
It is also my understanding that after we marry in the UK, my visa status that I am here on cannot be adjusted, and that I will be required to return to the US after my 6 months is up, and from there I will have to apply for the Marriage Visa, since I will by then already be married to a British citizen. Does anyone have any have any experience with that and what that entails? I am scared that I will go back home and be denied my marriage visa and be away from my fiance/husband.
I phoned the UK Border Agency but they were not the most patient and helpful and this is the info they gave me, so hopefully this information I gathered is in fact correct. I just wanted to check my facts and see if anyone can offer any sort of advice for my situation?
Also, my boyfriend is in the British Army if that helps at all. I would think it might, since they are usually pretty big on not keeping spouses apart....?
Thanks to anyone who read all of this