new to the visa process.. please help!

Hi! I’ve been referred to this forum multiple times the past couple weeks as I have been searching for help with my situation. I hope you all can give me some advice!

A little background about my situation. My fiancé and I met online about 6.5 years ago. He lives in Milton Keynes and I live in Arizona. We have begun researching the visa process so I can move over there and join him. Initially, we had planned on the fiancé visa, and were planning on me moving over there around June 2019 and getting married September 2019. However, several people have told me to consider doing a marriage visa instead & having a quick ceremony in the US before I move & then just doing a celebration in September. Here’s my question. He makes enough money on his own to meet the financial requirements, we weren’t planning on including my income (i’m a nanny and paid off the record so it’s a little tricky to prove my income.); I have lots of pictures of us together, boarding passes, a couple letters, and i’m actually in contact with Skype to get our call logs from 5+ years ago lol. So i think we have enough to prove our relationship and the financial aspect? However, he currently is living with his parents to save on costs since we have a lot of financial things coming up.. he was planning to get his own place for us a month or two before i move out there.. are we going to have any problems proving adequate accommodation if he waits to get our place until then?

 Also, if we choose to pursue a marriage visa, our plan would be to get married in early April 2019 when he is here. If we get married and immediately apply for the marriage visa (like as soon as physically possible lol, as soon as we get the marriage certificate) and get everything mailed in, and pay for priority, do you think it’s possible itll be approved in time for me to move out there before the end of June? We would love to move forward with our wedding celebration date in september if possible and moving in June would be helpful so i can finalize any vendors etc.

Please give me any advice you have because I have no one in my personal life who has gone through the process and i’d really rather not hire a lawyer, but i’m really struggling trying to do this on my own. I am looking forward to hopefully hearing from some of you!

xx

Hi! I’ve been referred to this forum multiple times the past couple weeks as I have been searching for help with my situation. I hope you all can give me some advice!

A little background about my situation. My fiancé and I met online about 6.5 years ago. He lives in Milton Keynes and I live in Arizona. We have begun researching the visa process so I can move over there and join him. Initially, we had planned on the fiancé visa, and were planning on me moving over there around June 2019 and getting married September 2019. However, several people have told me to consider doing a marriage visa instead & having a quick ceremony in the US before I move & then just doing a celebration in September. Here’s my question. He makes enough money on his own to meet the financial requirements, we weren’t planning on including my income (i’m a nanny and paid off the record so it’s a little tricky to prove my income.); I have lots of pictures of us together, boarding passes, a couple letters, and i’m actually in contact with Skype to get our call logs from 5+ years ago lol. So i think we have enough to prove our relationship and the financial aspect? However, he currently is living with his parents to save on costs since we have a lot of financial things coming up.. he was planning to get his own place for us a month or two before i move out there.. are we going to have any problems proving adequate accommodation if he waits to get our place until then?

 Also, if we choose to pursue a marriage visa, our plan would be to get married in early April 2019 when he is here. If we get married and immediately apply for the marriage visa (like as soon as physically possible lol, as soon as we get the marriage certificate) and get everything mailed in, and pay for priority, do you think it’s possible itll be approved in time for me to move out there before the end of June? We would love to move forward with our wedding celebration date in september if possible and moving in June would be helpful so i can finalize any vendors etc.

Please give me any advice you have because I have no one in my personal life who has gone through the process and i’d really rather not hire a lawyer, but i’m really struggling trying to do this on my own. I am looking forward to hopefully hearing from some of you!

xx

Welcome!

You're definitely doing yourselves a favour by getting married in the US first. But you will be applying for a spouse visa in that case, not a marriage visa, which is synonymous with a fiancee visa as it happens!

Providing the parent's house is large enough to accommodate you both without overcrowding and you provide proof of their ownership and a letter granting you permission to live there, then you will be all set for the accommodation requirement too.

Your employment income can't be taken into consideration in any case so only his financial information is required.

Welcome!

You're definitely doing yourselves a favour by getting married in the US first. But you will be applying for a spouse visa in that case, not a marriage visa, which is synonymous with a fiancee visa as it happens!

Providing the parent's house is large enough to accommodate you both without overcrowding and you provide proof of their ownership and a letter granting you permission to live there, then you will be all set for the accommodation requirement too.

Your employment income can't be taken into consideration in any case so only his financial information is required.

so we won’t have any problem if we tell them we’re going to be living with his parents but then move out & and get our own place? and thank you for the help! the names of all the different visas can be a little confusing lol. So yes, a spousal visa is our plan now then! Thank you!

Welcome to the forum .

As larrabee said, actually a fiance visa = a marriage visa... as there's actually no such thing as a 'fiance' visa, it's officially called a 'marriage' visa (a visa for the purpose of getting married in the UK).

So, if you marry first, you will be applying for a spousal visa, as the Wife of a UK citizen (so on the visa type when you apply, you select Settlement -> Wife, not Settlement -> Marriage).

so we won’t have any problem if we tell them we’re going to be living with his parents but then move out & and get our own place? and thank you for the help! the names of all the different visas can be a little confusing lol. So yes, a spousal visa is our plan now then! Thank you!

Yep, perfectly fine .

You just have to provide:
- a letter from his parents giving you permission to live with them and stating the home will not be overcrowded
and
- his parents' Land Registry document
Optional extra:
- his parents' latest original mortgage statement

Welcome to the forum .

As larrabee said, actually a fiance visa = a marriage visa... as there's actually no such thing as a 'fiance' visa, it's officially called a 'marriage' visa (a visa for the purpose of getting married in the UK).

So, if you marry first, you will be applying for a spousal visa, as the Wife of a UK citizen (so on the visa type when you apply, you select Settlement -> Wife, not Settlement -> Marriage).

Yep, perfectly fine .

You just have to provide:
- a letter from his parents giving you permission to live with them and stating the home will not be overcrowded
and
- his parents' Land Registry document
Optional extra:
- his parents' latest original mortgage statement

thank you so much! i’ll talk about that with him and make sure his parents can help us out LOL. I don’t see why they wouldn’t.

 Does anyone have any suggestions about the timeline i posted?    i’m worried we aren’t going to be able to get everything done and processed in 2 ish months.

Does anyone have any suggestions about the timeline i posted?    i’m worried we aren’t going to be able to get everything done and processed in 2 ish months.

If you purchase priority processing (currently £573 extra on top of the visa fees, but this may rise in April when the fees go up), you may get it within 2 months. Priority processing gets your application put to the front of the line ahead of non-priority applications, but behind the priority applications already in line.

- Current priority processing times are about 20-30 business days (from your documents arriving with UKVI).
- Current non-priority processing times are about 60 business days (from your documents arriving with UKVI).

I'm just curious...If you've already checked out Milton Keynes, what did you think?

I'm interested in the "new town" movement in the UK, and I spent a weekend up there just checking it out. I have to say it's unlike any other city I've been to in England. And a whole world apart from what I experienced spending time in Arizona.

If anyone would like to learn more about the city's quirks, check out this link from the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jan/20/50-reasons-love-milton-keynes-concrete-cows-wd-40

I don't have anything to add to your visa queries. I just saw the words "MILTON KEYNES" and had a nostalgic smile. :-)

Welcome to the forum .

As larrabee said, actually a fiance visa = a marriage visa... as there's actually no such thing as a 'fiance' visa, it's officially called a 'marriage' visa (a visa for the purpose of getting married in the UK).

So, if you marry first, you will be applying for a spousal visa, as the Wife of a UK citizen (so on the visa type when you apply, you select Settlement -> Wife, not Settlement -> Marriage).

Yep, perfectly fine .

You just have to provide:
- a letter from his parents giving you permission to live with them and stating the home will not be overcrowded
and
- his parents' Land Registry document
Optional extra:
- his parents' latest original mortgage statement

You are again getting false information here.
Officially it ia fiancee visa -- officially, in the immigration rules, entry clearance as a fiancee.
Some users on this forum are convinced that it is called "marriage visa" because it is called that in the online visa4 uk system. But officially there is mo such thing as "marriage visa"  other than "visitor for marriage", and it really really drives me mad that the same user here keeps posting teh same false information in response to multiple posts about what things are called "officially". have you considered reading Appendix FM ONCE mate, if you are going to give people legal advice which you are clearly not qualified to do?

Fiancee visa might even make sense from the US because that way the sponsor doesn't have to fly back and forth so in a way this really is down to where you want your ceremony.  The only reason to marry first and apply as a spouse is either when both are already in the same country or will be, and no extra flight are involved in getting this done, or if theh applicant has multiple derivatives in which case indeed that route will cost a 1000 quid extra per person.

But if one of you is to fly RT across the atlantic vs extra 1000 quid, really could be either. Nothing else wrong with fiancee visa and many of my clients do get it.



***********
Disclaimer: I am a Level 3 OISC advisor and so my opinions are informed by knowledge of the law and years of practice. Yet, no opinion given without detailed review of an individual case should be taken or treated as competent legal advice.

Olga, I'm not sure why you're coming onto a board as an immigration advisor to confuse the people posting here for help? Our members only quote the official guidelines from UKVI and always link back to that where appropriate. It seems like you are trying to increase advertising revenues on your YouTube videos?


I am a Milton Keynes fan, its in a grid system like US cities. And I still need to get to Bletchley Park!

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

You are again getting false information here.
Officially it ia fiancee visa -- officially, in the immigration rules, entry clearance as a fiancee.
Some users on this forum are convinced that it is called "marriage visa" because it is called that in the online visa4 uk system. But officially there is mo such thing as "marriage visa"  other than "visitor for marriage", and it really really drives me mad that the same user here keeps posting teh same false information in response to multiple posts about what things are called "officially". have you considered reading Appendix FM ONCE mate, if you are going to give people legal advice which you are clearly not qualified to do?

Fiancee visa might even make sense from the US because that way the sponsor doesn't have to fly back and forth so in a way this really is down to where you want your ceremony.  The only reason to marry first and apply as a spouse is either when both are already in the same country or will be, and no extra flight are involved in getting this done, or if theh applicant has multiple derivatives in which case indeed that route will cost a 1000 quid extra per person.

But if one of you is to fly RT across the atlantic vs extra 1000 quid, really could be either. Nothing else wrong with fiancee visa and many of my clients do get it.

here is a video on choosing which visa



***********
Disclaimer: I am a Level 3 OISC advisor and so my opinions are informed by knowledge of the law and years of practice. Yet, no opinion given without detailed review of an individual case should be taken or treated as competent legal advice.

This is making my blood boil.  Our forum is better than this.

Olga, when a person completes the application at visa4uk, if they selected a marriage visa after they were married, it would be refused.  THERE IS NO VISA CALLED A FIANCÉ VISA ON THE VISA4UK WEBSITE.

Please, do NOT give incorrect advice, particularly around our most trusted expert in this forum.  She has personally helped THOUSANDS of people get their U.K. visas and has never accepted one penny for their help.

I’ve reported your comment to the moderators and I hope your IP address is banned - quickly.

Welcome chickbrownie!  I’m sorry your first post has been highjacked by someone looking for business who is neither from the USA or U.K.  we are doing what we can to get her misinformation removed.

Regarding your timeline, I think April to June is a bit tight.  Are you able to pull the “paper bit” forward to Feb-ish?

If you want to change your name, this is best done before the application which will add a few weeks to your timeline.

You do NOT need to change your name, but if you do want to, before applying is by far the best time.

But officially there is mo such thing as "marriage visa"  other than "visitor for marriage", and it really really drives me mad that the same user here keeps posting teh same false information in response to multiple posts about what things are called "officially". have you considered reading Appendix FM ONCE mate, if you are going to give people legal advice which you are clearly not qualified to do?

I do not give false information and I have read Appendix FM multiple times since it was published in 2012.

While the UKVI website mentions applying as a fiance, when it actually comes to the visa being applied for and issued, there is no option to select a fiance visa as the visa type... because it is not officially called that. The visa type you have to select in order to apply for a fiance visa is MARRIAGE. Several people have accidentally ended up applying for the wrong type of visa because they thought that a MARRIAGE visa was a spousal visa, when it isn't. It is a fiance visa. Which is why we are careful to clarify that a marriage visa is for fiances and a Wife/Husband visa is for spouses.

When a fiance visa is issued, the visa type printed on it is:
Marriage/CP

And when a Marriage Visitor Visa is issued, the visa type printed on it is:
Visit - Marriage/CP

From the official UKVI visa endorsements and codes guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/262494/endorsement-and-codes_ecb13.pdf

Fiancee visa might even make sense from the US because that way the sponsor doesn't have to fly back and forth so in a way this really is down to where you want your ceremony.  The only reason to marry first and apply as a spouse is either when both are already in the same country or will be, and no extra flight are involved in getting this done, or if theh applicant has multiple derivatives in which case indeed that route will cost a 1000 quid extra per person.

But if one of you is to fly RT across the atlantic vs extra 1000 quid, really could be either. Nothing else wrong with fiancee visa and many of my clients do get it.

No one said there was anything wrong with fiance visas. It's personal choice as to whether people decide to go that route or not.

We just give new forum members all the information so they can decide whether to marry first apply for a spousal visa, or to apply for a fiance visa and marry in the UK.

For example:

- a spousal visa will allow them to work, study and access the NHS for free immediately, while a fiance visa does not allow any of those things... so that may be a factor in the decision-making process if the applicant wishes to be able to work right away, or doesn't want to have to worry about health insurance and paying for treatment while on their fiance visa.

- applying for a fiance visa means filing and paying for 2 visa applications in the space of a few months, whereas marrying in the US means only having 1 visa to apply for, which means a saving of at least £933 in visa fees and less visa application stress. If the UK sponsor already has plans to fly to the US for a visit, or they can fly over for a similar or cheaper amount than this, then it may benefit them to marry in the US first.

- marrying in the UK is a long-winded process which requires a visa, and various residency/waiting periods between arriving, giving notice and being able to marry, so it can be a tedious process and difficult to plan, whereas if you marry in the US, only an ESTA or visitor visa is needed and the wedding can take place within a few days.

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