Going to do a Register Office wedding here.. (married in US already)

Well, a little background.. I am already married as of 18 April, 2007 in Illinois, living here in UK since April. I am American and my hubby is British.  We didn't tell his children that we we're married because they first had to accept that he had divorced their Mum, COMPLICATED. Adult children but it was still hard to take in that parents do get divorced. Anyway, they finally accepted that Dad was involved with someone, and the grandkids have asked if Grandad marries THAT lady can I be an usher and or bridesmaid.  Well, he didn't have the heart to say no nor could I, because we was already married, so we decided to do one here so they could be involved. We wanted them to be involved from the beginning but it wasn't all that feasible with his EX lurking in the shadows.  Plus in order for me to be here with my hubby on a longer term visa we had to get married in the States. From a fiancee visa into a spousal visa.
     So.. on Xmas day my hubby gave me an (engagement/eternity ring) and then told the children on Boxing Day that  I accepted his proposal.  They all took it great and are so excited for us. The granddaughter has already started to look at dresses. 
    Anyway, my question is this... We want to get married in the Ealing Registrar Office.. What do I need to do in order to do this legally since we are already married in the States.  Do I need Approval from the home office and all that stuff? What type of Documents or anything do i need to provide.  I do ask some pretty hard questions. Please any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

I'm fairly certain you can't get legally married twice, as the registrar needs to be satisfied that both of you are free to marry before they can perform the ceremony.  And obviously, if you are already married (even to each other) you're not free to marry.

(Not to mention the fact that if you're here on a visa but don't have ILR, you do need permission from the Home Office in order to marry in the UK- but you're already married so I don't think applying for a COA to marry the same person again is going to work.)

Some registrar offices will do vow renewal ceremonies for already married couples though (at least the Derbyshire one does anyway!), so check with them to see if you can do this at your office.

Springhaze is correct, if you're already legally married you can't undergo a second legal ceremony. You can do a renewal of vows or have a religious blessing ceremony though.

NM, I re-read your post. Just do a vow renewal ceremony somewhere and you can avoid complicated situation with the goverment. However, might want to just tell the relatives the truth of the matter beforehand, cause if you don't, and the officiant mentions it during the ceremony, it'll be way harder to explain.

Check it out some more, Ducky... I got married twice, legally.  In Canada and Japan, so different governments, but no problem.

You definitely cannot legally do this in the UK.

Vicky

We were considering the same thing and when we went to the registry office here they said you can do a renewal of vows-- but cannot say the actual wedding vows again because it is as if you are not taking your original wedding vows seriously.

I believe if you renew your vows, it won't be the same ceremony (vows) as the legal wedding and will probably lead everyone to believe you're already married.  

IMO its time to be truthful and tell everyone you're married.  Your step-children are adults and they should be able to act like it.  Then, if you do renew your vows here, everyone can still be involved and you won't have to worry about his family finding out.

Good luck with whatever you do.

ETA: Sorry didn't see Chrissy's post regarding renewing vows!

You are already married, and won't be able to remarry each other legally again. The UK recognizes marriages that occur in the US, but you can have a humanist ceremony, which may be even better. You need to come clean to the adult children. They should be clever enough to already have figured out that you couldn't have remained here for as long as you have without being married.

I wonder why it was OK for me.. of course, neither Canada nor Japan has vows, just paperwork and fees.  We also did two religious ceremonies, but they just had us take off our rings for the second one.

There was paperwork at the US embassy, something about 'no impediment', but the staff said it was nothing to worry about.

I wonder why it was OK for me.. of course, neither Canada nor Japan has vows, just paperwork and fees.  We also did two religious ceremonies, but they just had us take off our rings for the second one.

There was paperwork at the US embassy, something about 'no impediment', but the staff said it was nothing to worry about.

The law must be different in Canda and/or Japan.  Do you have two marriage certificates? In the UK you have to give your marital status before the wedding to go on your wedding certificate ... if you said you were already married then obviously they couldn't marry you.

I only have one certificate, Japan doesn't have them.  They have a family register that I was added to.

I only have one certificate, Japan doesn't have them.  They have a family register that I was added to.

That might be why then. I don't know about Canada but it seems that in some US states you can get married again to the same person if you've already married overseas.  But in Australia and New Zealand it's illegal. Seems like it varies a lot depending where you are. Unfortunately for Ducky_UK you can't do it in the UK.

In the UK you have a blessing at a church, I don't know if you can have another venue other than a church.

It is not that expensive we would like to have our marriage blessed and have a party or something after it would be really nice but we are waiting till I get my next visa (money) once we have the visa out of the way we can save for that next and its exciting to think about and plan.

Indy

I'd come clean with the stepkids and plan a celebration of the marriage with a sort of renewal of vows at a nice venue or something. If they were excited to learn of your engagement they should be able to deal with the fact that you already legally married but want to have a ceremony/celebration including them.  I know of plenty of people who have had two receptions (one in the US after the ceremony, one in the UK for those who couldn't travel) or even people not in a US-UK situation who have done the courthouse thing on one date and then had the ceremony of their dreams on another (without having to worry about residency requirements or legalities).