Advice on timescales for UK spousal visa

I must confess my ignorance here - I am British wanting to marry an American girl - wedding in the US.  I'm trying to balance romance and pragmatism. 

Once we are married and have got all the paperwork together - how long does it take before she can move with me to the UK? 

Does she have access to the UK labour market at that time? 

If the application time is a long one - can she visit on a tourist visa waiver exchange in the meantime?

I realise this is more than one question but advice would be gratefully received.

Hi & welcome to UKY.

Have a look through the posts in this forum, and do a search for "spousal visa" - there are literally hundred of threads that answer pretty much any question you can think of about the spousal visa process, including the ones above! 

This thread might be of particular interest:

Share your visa stories here!

Hi,

It took about 4 weeks from the day I sent my application off to get my visa.  But you can expedite it if you want to pay more.  I also think it can differ by a few weeks depending on the time of year.  I also mailed mine.  In some instances I think you can make an appointment to go in person and get it the same day.

She will be able to work from the day she arrives in the UK with her spouse visa but will have no recourse to public funds.

Have you been here?  http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/howtoapply/infs/inf4husbandswivespartners

Anyway, you've come to the right place.  You'll get loads of answers to your questions from people much more knowledgable on the subject that me so sit tight:-)

Lissa

In some instances I think you can make an appointment to go in person and get it the same day.

In-person appointments are a thing of the past, I'm afraid - partly due to the new biometric requirements.  Options are posting the application and documents or using a courier service.

The general turn-around time these days for the actual application to be processed is about two weeks; however, it can take up to a month to get a biometrics appointment.

I did mine two years ago and it took 10 days from the day I submitted the application online to when I received my visa and supporting documents back in the mail. (see my signature below). In general I'd say two weeks is the norm.

Like the others said she can work from the day she gets here, but can't claim any benefits like job seekers or anything like that.

You can't really say that two weeks is the norm, as it is becoming increasingly cumbersome to get the biomentrics appointment.


Vicky

True, I have no experience of the biometrics bit so was just saying that processing time seemed to be around 2 weeks.

Just wanted to chime in with my biometrics experience. The online biometrics booking feature said I couldn't get an appointment for about 2 weeks. So I just showed up with my details and I was in and out in 20 minutes.

The website said it was fully booked but there was were only about 4 people there and about 6 employees; it was dead and they were twiddling there thumbs. They said it is very common.

There advice was to book the next available date on the computer, and then just show up as soon as you can.

Same here. I paid for my Spouse visa online got the biometric appointment for 3 days later but I just walked in and they did it in 10 minutes. Submitted the application same day. The next day I got my visa just like that! Simple.

That's so weird about the biometrics and appointments stuff being all booked up.  I wonder if its a glitch.

Makes me glad that I was literally one of the first people around here to go through it- They introduced it and like a week or two later I applied for my entry clearance visa and got a biometric appointment immediately.  But if it works for people to just show up, thats good for others to know!

There should be a sticky notification about this, because the Houston office said it's very very common.

I am trying to work on something on this in the advocacy board, partly because of your situation...


Vicky