Making Notice at Registry on a Fiancee Visa

Hi there!

Once I receive my fiancee visa (...whenever it chooses to arrive...) I plan on flying to England to make notice of our marriage and then flying back to the USA to continue working while on my visa before our wedding.

On the uk.gov site, it says your notice may be extended to 70 days should you be a foreign national and may be referred to the home office for further investigation. My question is, how likely will it be extended if we've already gone through the home office's investigation process and have the fiancee visa as proof? Is there any scenario in which despite not needing to be referred to the home office it will still be extended?

Would love your thoughts and thanks in advance!

Hi there!

Once I receive my fiancee visa (...whenever it chooses to arrive...) I plan on flying to England to make notice of our marriage and then flying back to the USA to continue working while on my visa before our wedding.

On the uk.gov site, it says your notice may be extended to 70 days should you be a foreign national and may be referred to the home office for further investigation. My question is, how likely will it be extended if we've already gone through the home office's investigation process and have the fiancee visa as proof? Is there any scenario in which despite not needing to be referred to the home office it will still be extended?

Would love your thoughts and thanks in advance!

It's extremely unlikely that that would happen as you will have already been approved by the home office for marriage if they grant you the fiancee visa.

But you should be aware that your FLR application will ask for evidence of you living together with your fiancé by way of mail in both your names to the same address and you would be expected to mention any time spent living apart. I don't know if choosing to return to the US to work would be considered a good enough reason not to be living with your fiancé but if it's just for a short time it may be ok.

Yeah, it's odd that you've applied for a fiance visa instead of a marriage visitor's visa.   

Yeah, it's odd that you've applied for a fiance visa instead of a marriage visitor's visa.   

Thanks for the advice!

We didn’t do a marriage visitor visa because ultimately my intention is to settle in the U.K., and we felt it would not look good when applying for the spousal visa. Our soliticitor mentioned this route would be fine but I know how you guys feel about solicitors 

In terms of returning to the US to work, if the notice only lasts about 30 days, I’ll probably only work for a little bit longer than that.

Thanks for the advice!

We didn’t do a marriage visitor visa because ultimately my intention is to settle in the U.K., and we felt it would not look good when applying for the spousal visa. Our soliticitor mentioned this route would be fine but I know how you guys feel about solicitors 

In terms of returning to the US to work, if the notice only lasts about 30 days, I’ll probably only work for a little bit longer than that.

Eh, it would have been fine when applying for a spouse visa.  Loads of people do it that way.  Just would have saved you a couple of thousand pounds. 

But that's neither here nor there.  It will complicate your FLR(M) a bit as you are supposed to have proof of living with your spouse during the duration of the visa.  But hopefully your lawyer has a work around for that?

Eh, it would have been fine when applying for a spouse visa.  Loads of people do it that way.  Just would have saved you a couple of thousand pounds. 

But that's neither here nor there.  It will complicate your FLR(M) a bit as you are supposed to have proof of living with your spouse during the duration of the visa.  But hopefully your lawyer has a work around for that?

When you say "proof of living with your spouse during the duration of the visa" are you talking about the fiancee visa or the spousal visa? I'll be living with him a bit before our wedding and after, and I have a bank account there that will send me mail to his flat. I just want to return to the US and get the last few weeks of income before we're married. Is there anything else I'd need?

When you say "proof of living with your spouse during the duration of the visa" are you talking about the fiancee visa or the spousal visa? I'll be living with him a bit before our wedding and after, and I have a bank account there that will send me mail to his flat. I just want to return to the US and get the last few weeks of income before we're married. Is there anything else I'd need?

As UKVI will be able to see that you've exited and re-entered the UK during the duration of the fiance visa, you'll need to explain why you weren't living together during that time.  I suspect that returning to a job in the USA will be "okay".  I would try to limit it to a matter of weeks though, not months. 

Yes, you will need proof of living together during the duration of your fiance visa.  Supposed to be six items of post addressed to you jointly or 12 individually during that time.  If you are unable to provide that, you'll need to explain why on the FLR(M) visa.

But yeah, we don't like lawyers.  This lawyer is costing you guys a couple of extra thousand ££'s versus if you had done a marriage visitor visa.  You wouldn't need those few extra weeks of work if it wasn't for his/her advice.