Intention To Marry Abroad

[ShugNorris]

I read a document on the Home Office site detailing persons from the UK who wish to marry someone abroad will have to submit an application and declare it before they go.

Something to do with stopping forced marriages etc

It says it'll be implemented in the Autumn but can't find any other information on it.

Has this been implemented yet? If not, does anyone know when?

Oh, this is for the United Kingdom.

Thanks

- Shug

Edited November 23, 2008 by ShugNorris

[Merangue]

Any chance of a link to that document mate? I would be interested in it as will be Marrying in March myself.

[Mario2008]

As said, it applies to getting married in the UK, not to UK nationals getting married abroad.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visiting...cateofapproval/

Edited November 26, 2008 by Mario2008

[phaethon]

The OP may be referring to the press release of 23 Junne, 2008 which contains:

Any British citizen applying to 'sponsor' someone to come to the UK as their spouse will have to declare their intention before they leave the UK and marry abroad. This will mean that a young person will know in advance that a marriage will take place overseas and who their prospective partner will be.

The age limit increase from 18 to 21 is now in force but I cannot find any further mention of notification of intention to marry abroad.

The idea behind this is that people going abroad to marry should a ) be aware that they are going (being taken) abroad to marry and know the person they are going to marry.

It wouldn't prevent you marrying on impulse but may affect your ability to sponsor your new spouse to return to the UK.

[ShugNorris]

A bit of a long link but that's where I read it,

there's a lot of pointless information in there (from my perspective, facts and figures etc) but it does mention that.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecont...ewayforward.pdf

I just can't seem to find anything more indepth about it and searching through both the Home Office and UKVisas.gov.uk websites couldn't find anything more so I'm assuming it has not been implemented yet, as the above said I realise that it doesn't stop you marrying abroad but may affect your sponsorship application.

I just wondered if anyone knew more about this.

Thanks again.

- ShugNorris

[phaethon]

The ideas in the june release were supposed to be implemented "by the end of the year", but I wouldn't be surprised if some of them hadn't been quietly dropped.

An email to the BPA might get a response... eventually...

[ShugNorris]

Yeah, I'll get onto emailing them but I'm sick of waiting days or weeks for responses from these 'Contact Us' services, the main number always tells me they're busy and then closed.

I'd take my chance not to bother though, I had a marriage ceremony on 08/08/08 but just didn't get the documentation raised (lack of time/research) so I could just stick that information into my visa, pretty sure that's pretty good intention anyway.

Anyway, like most government things it'll probably end up being the end of NEXT year.

Thanks

- Shug

[phaethon]

I don't think you'll have a problem providing you're both grown-ups and can show a prior relationship - this is just an attempt to stop people marrying complete strangers for a visa.

Good luck, BTW

Edited November 27, 2008 by phaethon

[ShugNorris]

I don't think you'll have a problem providing you're both grown-ups and can show a prior relationship - this is just an attempt to stop people marrying complete strangers for a visa.

Good luck, BTW

Thanks mate,

I'll need a lot of luck, I'm supposed to be flying out on Sunday 30th, two days time so, as it turns out, this is the least of my worries!

Cheers again

- Shug