Marry While In Uk On Tourist Visa

[barnaby666]

hello again forum,

once again i need advise from some of the experts on this web site,

my girlfriend is here with me again on her third visit to england. she was given a 6 month tourist visa and so i thought id use it full the full 6 months and we can enjoy the summer together here.

i'm under the understanding that the laws changed a few months ago reference needing to get permission from the home office to marry while on a tourist visa.

my questions to the forum are,

1, can me and my gf marry while she is here with me on a tourist visa, ( i fully understand that she needs to return when her tourist visa expires)

2, if we can marry here in england, what is the procedure ? what documents does she need? do we need to report/ ask the home office, or can we just go straight to a marriage office?

3, if we can get married here in england while she is on a tourist visa, when she returns home to Thailand and applies for a spouse visa, will the embassy in Thailand have many questions as to why she married while on a tourist visa? will it effect her chances of a successful spouse visa application?

4, what would the costs be for, a) marriage in england (home office bills, registrar bills etc) , spouse visa when she returns to Thailand?

thanks again for reading my post, any help or advice much appreciated.

kind regards, Barnaby

[7by7]

1 & 2. Yes, she can marry while in the UK with a tourist visa and it is no longer necessary to obtain a certificate of approval from the Home Office.. For details of the procedure see How do I give notice to marry or register a civil partnership with a registrar? and Marriage and civil partnership: your legal obligations.

3. No and no.; probably. You in your sponsor's letter or she in the application should explain why you did so.

4. For marriage costs in England and Wales, see Getting married or forming a civil partnership; for Scotland or Northern Ireland, see the relevant link from that page.

The current cost of a UK settlement visa is £810, payable in baht. At the exchange rate currently used by the British embassy in Bangkok, this is 42,120baht.

Settlement applicants need to supply a TB certificate, cost 2600 baht, and applicants as a spouse, partner or fiance also need to satisfy a basic English requirement. Costs for this vary according to which test provider she uses.

All fees quoted are current at the time of posting and subject to change.

[marksm]

so if you can marry on a visitors visa at the cost of 3200 baht for the visa why do you have too pay around 40000 baht for a fiancee visa ?

[kunash]

so if you can marry on a visitors visa at the cost of 3200 baht for the visa why do you have too pay around 40000 baht for a fiancee visa ?

i guess as she is in the uk on a tourist visa, when it expires she will have to leave the uk, and then apply for a settlement visa in thailand. you have to go back to thailand to apply for a new visa

[barnaby666]

thanks for the quick answers, looks like i need to marry quick before the rules change , lol.

i suppose my only other options are to fly back to thailand again and marry there and apply for spouse visa / fiancée visa.

looks like we could possibly marry here in england and then when she returns home apply for settlement visa, at least that way she would have the option to work in england next time.

thanks again for the detailed feed back to my questions.

kind regards , Barnaby

[marksm]

i know she would have to go back to apply for the settlement visa but there is a big differance in prices of visas surrely eco wouldnt be happy

[7by7]

Why would the ECO not be happy? His/her job is to judge whether or not the applicant meets the criteria for the visa they have applied for. Marrying whilst in the UK is not against the rules and so should have no effect on any future settlement application. If the OP and his girlfriend do marry while she is visiting the UK she wouldn't then apply for a fiance visa, anyway; she'd apply for a spouse visa.

She is currently in the UK with a visit visa. She can either:-

marry in the UK and return to Thailand to apply for settlement as a spouse

or

or not marry in the UK now, return to Thailand and apply for settlement as a fiance, come back to the UK, marry and apply, in the UK, for FLR

or

not marry in the UK and they both return to Thailand and marry and she then applies for settlement as a spouse.

Whichever, the cost of the settlement visa, whether as a spouse or a fiance, will be the same.