Marry In Uk On Vv

[Vulture]

Hello to you all. This is my first post on this forum and I am just hoping that the replies are favourable.

Met a Thai lady in the UK who is here on a six month visitors visa. She now lives with me and we gave notice of our intention to marry in January at the local registry office.

Last week she submitted an application by post to the embassy in Bangkok in which it stated that we were due to be married in February. It is then intended to fly out early March prior to expiry of the vv.

Yesterday the embassy sent a kind email to my girlfriend stating ' under the immigration rules you are NOT allowed to marry in the uk on a visitors visa. Should you go ahead and do so will only create problems for your future visa back in to the uk'.

All knowledge appreciated.

[the scouser]

Hi Vulture,

I'd respond in a vein similar to this:-

"Dear ECO,

Thank you for your e-mail in which you stated that my girlfriend and I cannot marry in the UK as she is on a visit visa and that a marriage will jeopardise her chances of getting a subsequent visa.

I refer you to the Home Office's guidance in this matter which states, inter alia (they won't know what that means), "these provisions (i.e. the new rules) do not apply to anyone who has already given notice to marry to a registrar before 1 February 2005." As you will be aware from my fiancée's settlement application we gave notice of our intention to marry in January, i.e. BEFORE the new rules came in to force. On this basis can you please explain to me what the legal impediment to our marrying is? I can't see one.

As we've now established that my fiancée and I can legitimately marry whilst she's on a visit visa I would be grateful if you can confirm by return that you have taken in the settlement application and arranged an interview date. In the same e-mail please confirm that our marriage, per se, (probably won't understand that too) won't have a detrimental effect upon either the current or a future visa application.

As you evidently haven't read either the Home Office or Foreign Office instructions on this matter, you may care to peruse at your leisure the guidance given on the Home Office website which can be found here.

Yours sincerely,"

Now let 'em put that in their pipe and smoke it

Scouse.

PS Please post any reply you get from the embassy as it should be good for a laugh.

Edited February 4, 2005 by the scouser

[Vulture]

Eternally grateful Scouse not only for the reply but also the speed of it.

Normally I would approach my reply in the manner in which you have suggested but I just think maybe they would lose some paperwork in retaliation or something stupid like that. So I will just take a more polite approach and then do the stamping of feet on the actual embassy floor when I get there. I will definately post any replies I receive. Thanks again.

[Rinrada]

So did you get hitched before the date?

[Vulture]

So did you get hitched before the date?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Rinrada, two separate issues and answers.

1. Notice of intention to marry had to be given to registrar before Feb 1st not the actual marriage. Done that.

2. Married yet. No just taunting the government first. Watch this space!

[Rinrada]

[Richard W]

On an important legal technicality, will a marriage in the UK be valid if it should not have been celebrated because of the couple's immigration status, but would otherwise have been valid? I don't know where I can easily get hold of a copy of the Marriage Act 1949, especially outside my working hours.

[Rinrada]

mines is and k.wife was on an overstay at the time:D

[the scouser]

On an important legal technicality, will a marriage in the UK be valid if it should not have been celebrated because of the couple's immigration status, but would otherwise have been valid?  I don't know where I can easily get hold of a copy of the Marriage Act 1949, especially outside my working hours.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In theory this eventuality should not occur as notice has to be given to one of 76(?) designated registrars who will presumably make sure that the applicants have the requisite authorisation to marry. However, if one were to slip through the net then, as a general legal principle, the law does not allow you to benefit from something that is forbidden by the rules. How this actually applies to the above situation remains to be seen.

Scouse.

[Richard W]

On an important legal technicality, will a marriage in the UK be valid if it should not have been celebrated because of the couple's immigration status, but would otherwise have been valid?  I don't know where I can easily get hold of a copy of the Marriage Act 1949, especially outside my working hours.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In theory this eventuality should not occur as notice has to be given to one of 76(?) designated registrars who will presumably make sure that the applicants have the requisite authorisation to marry. However, if one were to slip through the net then, as a general legal principle, the law does not allow you to benefit from something that is forbidden by the rules. How this actually applies to the above situation remains to be seen.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The nightmare situation here is that barring a church or foreign wedding, the Britishness of my daughter, her daughters, their daughters and so on ad infinitum, and of the brothers of these ladies, is going to depend on establishing the legality of my marriage. The same will go for many, many families. Before this recent change in the law, the settled status of either parent in the UK would have sufficed for legitimate children, but now the validity of marriages is going to be called into question. It seems that my children only be able to validly marry in a registry office if my marriage is valid. I believe it is, but I am not sure that my great-great grandchildren could prove that it is.

This sounds like an issue for MPs.

[the scouser]

The new rules are not retrospective so the status of a marriage conducted on the basis of a notice of intention given prior to 1/2/05 will remain unchanged.

In terms of future events, I don't see why the authorities would ever challenge the legality of your marriage unless they had some reason to think it may have been unlawful. Even then the onus would be on them to prove it was not valid rather than upon you or your offspring as you would be in possession of a piece of prima facie evidence of its legality; i.e. your marriage certificate, copies of which can readily be obtained.

Scouse.

[Richard W]

Even then the onus would be on them to prove it was not valid rather than upon you or your offspring as you would be in possession of a piece of prima facie evidence of its legality; i.e. your marriage certificate, copies of which can readily be obtained.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Things do seem to have improved. It seems that the General Register Office can now find a marriage certificate without knowing in which country the marriage was celebrated. (The odds are high that my great-great-grandchildren in the female line (if any) will not know who we are until they have to research their ancestry!)