Hello!

Hello one and all,

After a long look through a lot of the posts and help this community gives, I thought it would be a real benefit to me (UK) and my fiancee situation (US) as we start the transition of her moving from Minnesota to N.Ireland. We recently got engaged, so we will be looking at the Fiancee visa and then applying for the marriage visa. We will be getting married here in N.Ireland.

I am starting to have some questions in mind, but before I get to pestering I thought I would introduce myself

from Minnesota to N.Ireland.

Throw the snow shovel away!!

Hello one and all,

After a long look through a lot of the posts and help this community gives, I thought it would be a real benefit to me (UK) and my fiancee situation (US) as we start the transition of her moving from Minnesota to N.Ireland. We recently got engaged, so we will be looking at the Fiancee visa and then applying for the marriage visa. We will be getting married here in N.Ireland.

I am starting to have some questions in mind, but before I get to pestering I thought I would introduce myself

Hi Adam! 

Hello Adam.

Welcome to the group!


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Welcome!

We will do our best to talk you out of the fiancé visa...  just a heads up. 

I got married here on a Fiance visa... it is not worth the hassle. 

Unless you have a real need to do it in the UK, it's so much easier and takes less time to get married in the US. (And you'll save at least £2000 by getting married in the US). One less visa. You could always have a ceremony here without the actual marriage.

Welcome!

We will do our best to talk you out of the fiancé visa...  just a heads up. 

Ahah facts!


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I got married here on a Fiance visa... it is not worth the hassle. 

Unless you have a real need to do it in the UK, it's so much easier and takes less time to get married in the US. (And you'll save at least £2000 by getting married in the US). One less visa. You could always have a ceremony here without the actual marriage.

Same.  Got married over here on a fiance visa.  I started my visa journey just a few months after the New Rules kicked in, and the last five years I've regretted 1. Not starting before the new rules, and 2. not having a super-sneaky wedding in the US so we could skip the fiance visa.  Ugh.  But, in my case, it's over now.

Here's a table that illustrates the difference between fiance visa path and spouse visa path:

Welcome!

We will do our best to talk you out of the fiancé visa...  just a heads up. 

I got married here on a Fiance visa... it is not worth the hassle. 

Unless you have a real need to do it in the UK, it's so much easier and takes less time to get married in the US. (And you'll save at least £2000 by getting married in the US). One less visa. You could always have a ceremony here without the actual marriage.

This has certainly been an introduction 

What was the issue you specifically had with it?

We have friends who did the 'sneaky US marriage' and they've been turned down for their marriage visa to have her come here. Their circumstances are different of course (they didn't provide enough proof of relationship and his job as a "musician" wasn't accepted), but it put me off the idea.

We have been initially looking at the fiancee visa, so nothing has been set in stone yet, but we have been looking at the practicalities of it all.

Welcome to the forum .

This has certainly been an introduction 

What was the issue you specifically had with it?

Generally the issue is that you can’t give notice to marry until the fiancé visa has been issued, and you have both been resident in the U.K. for 7 days (unless marrying in Scotland where there’s no 7-day wait). Then you have to wait at least another 28 days before you can marry... but this may be extended to 70 days if they refer the case to UKVI.

So, you could potentially have a 2-3 month wait to marry in the UK after arriving on the fiancé visa.

Not to mention, the fiancé visa does not allow work of any kind, and gives no free NHS access, so you’ll need health insurance and will have to pay for any treatment.

Alternatively, if you marry in the US, there’s no waiting period (except maybe 24-48 hours, depending on the state requirements), and no visa needed to marry as long as you don’t intend to live in the US afterwards, so you could fly over and get married in a long weekend if you wanted.

Then you would just apply for the spousal visa directly, which would allow working and full NHS access right from day 1.

We have friends who did the 'sneaky US marriage' and they've been turned down for their marriage visa to have her come here. Their circumstances are different of course (they didn't provide enough proof of relationship and his job as a "musician" wasn't accepted), but it put me off the idea.

That has nothing to do with them getting married in the US though. If they had applied for a fiancé visa instead, it would also have been refused, because they didn’t meet the financial requirement and didn’t show enough relationship evidence.

We have been initially looking at the fiancee visa, so nothing has been set in stone yet, but we have been looking at the practicalities of it all.

My advice: get married in the US and apply directly for a spousal visa.

It’ll save about £1,000 in visa fees, plus several months of waiting, and will allow work and NHS use immediately.



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Alternatively, if you marry in the US, there’s no waiting period (except maybe 24-48 hours, depending on the state requirements), and no visa needed to marry as long as you don’t intend to live in the US afterwards, so you could fly over and get married in a long weekend if you wanted.

Thanks for your detailed information, really helpful

When you say no waiting period, what do you mean specifically? Waiting to get a marriage certificate issued?

When you say no waiting period, what do you mean specifically? Waiting to get a marriage certificate issued?

No, I mean waiting period between applying for the marriage licence and actually having the ceremony.

I believe some states allow you to marry on the same day as getting the licence, while others may have a 24 or 48 hour waiting period. Just depends on the requirements in the city and state you marry in.

There may be a bit of a wait between marrying and getting the marriage certificate, but again that depends on the city/state. You may get it at the end of the ceremony, or you may need to wait a few days to get it by mail.



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No, I mean waiting period between applying for the marriage licence and actually having the ceremony.

I believe some states allow you to marry on the same day as getting the licence, while others may have a 24 or 48 hour waiting period. Just depends on the requirements in the city and state you marry in.

Got you thank you 

The ball is definitely rolling now with questions haha! Shall I open a new topic under Visa and Immigration? I still have some questions around the fiancee visa too

Got you thank you 

The ball is definitely rolling now with questions haha! Shall I open a new topic under Visa and Immigration? I still have some questions around the fiancee visa too

No problem .

Yeah, go ahead and start a new topic in the visas section. It’s easiest if you just start one topic for your situation (regardless of which visa you end up applying for) and then keep all your posts and questions in that thread... that way we can easily go back and check your circumstances and what advice you’ve already been given.


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