Do you need to apply for a UK Fiance Visa?
Speak to our experts to find out about our fast, friendly and affordable service
A UK fiancé visa - also known as a prospective marriage visa or prospective civil partnership visa - applicants who intend to get married to a person who is British Citizen, person holding Indefinite Leave to Remain, EEA National with limited Leave to Remain or a person holding limited leave as a ECAA person under Appendix ECAA of the immigration rules can apply for this visa. UK fiancé visa allows you to come to the UK and get married. After arival, you can extend your stay inside the UK. The fiance visa is granted for a 6 month period.
The same requirements are also applicable to proposed civil partners.
Eligible applicants are granted leave to enter the UK in order to marry their partner or fiancé within 6 months. After the marriage, the husband or wife can apply for a marriage or spouse visa for grant of further leave to remain in the UK, which will be granted for 2.5 years or 30 months. After completion of 5 years’ continuous stay on a marriage or spouse visa, you become eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK.
There are a number of benefits to applying for a fiance visa in the UK. These include:
The applicant who marries the UK citizen or person with ILR, leave to remain under Appendix EU or Appendix ECAA can settle permanently in the UK;
You are entitled to work in the UK upon receiving marriage or spouse visa or civil partner visa;
The applicant, after the marriage or civil partnership, is entitled to the same rights as their partner - except access to public funds; and
The requirements for a fiance visa are quite similar to that of marriage or spouse visa. Applicant's have the choice to apply for a fiancé visa or marry first and then directly apply for a marriage or spouse visa. In this case, the applicant can avoid the necessity of making two separate applications. However, a fiance visa would be more suitable for people who intend to get married in the UK.
If the fiancé has any children from previous relationships, the children can apply to come with the fiancé, provided the single parent has sole responsibility of their child/ren.
The eligibility requirements for a fiance/fiancée visa are:
The partners must be above 18 years of age;
They must have met each other in person prior to application and have the intention to permanently live together after marriage or civil partnership;
Any previous relationships of the couple at the time of application must have ended;
The couple should prove that they have adequate accommodation available to live in the UK;
The applicant must fulfil the relevant English Language requirement;
The sponsor or applicant must meet the financial requirement which currently stands at £18,600 per year. There is a higher threshold in case any children (who are under 18 years of age) are also required to be sponsored - £22,400 for one child and an additional £2,400 for each child thereafte; and
If you are unable to get married within the 6 months period you may be able to extend the fiance visa from within the UK provided there are genuine reasons why you were unable to get married within the 6 months granted to you.
The financial requirement can be satisfied by the applicant or the UK sponsor (i.e. a person with ILR or a British citizen) in different ways. For example, you may be employed, self-employed, a director of a limited company, have savings, assets or liquidation of shares stocks or properties. The document requirements change according to the way you want to satisfy the financial requirement.
If the sponsor is receiving any of the following allowances or concessions, then the applicants are exempted from meeting the above financial requirements:
The applicant's will need to meet the maintenance and accommodation requirement in such cases which is based on the amount of income support for the family of same size in the UK after deduction of rent and council tax payments.
Nearly all UK immigration applications require that applicant's must meet English language requirements is met. For fiance visa the English Language requirement is set at level A 1 of the CEFR.
You can fulfill the English language requirements for a fiance visa by proving that you are a national of a majority English-speaking country or hold a degree - equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree or above - that was taught in English. Alternatively, you can pass a test at an appropriate level.
In order to prove your English language ability, you should use the Home Office’s list of approved English language tests.
Each visa category - including fiance visas - have a specific set of required documents which depends on circumstances of the applicant and sponsor. The applicant has the burden of proof so they need to provide documents to the Home Office in order to show that they satisfy the requirements of the Immigration Rules. Some of the documents which must be submitted include:
If your fiance visa application is successful, you will be a granted a 6-month visa to allow you to come to the UK and get married. You must then apply for a marriage or spouse visa once married. After you arrive in the UK, you must wait until you have been present for 7 clear days. After this point, you can go to a registry office in order to give notice of marriage.
Once making the application from outside the UK, the supporting documents must be submitted to the Entry Clearance officer for consideration. Once you are in the UK and have got married you can extend your stay from within the UK by submitting a spouse/marriage visa application. Generally, the process takes between 8 to 12 weeks from outside the UK unless you are purchasing priority service, which has an additional fee. Currently, due to Ukrainian crisis the time period is 24 weeks for consideration. The Home Office UKV&I fee for the application is £1538. Once you have extended your stay on a marriage or spouse visa visa and completed 5 years, you will be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK.
It may be the case that your initial application for a fiance visa is refused. There are a various reasons why this can happen, including supplying incorrect documents, not disclosing relevant information or immigration issues, or assuming will request for documents which may be missing.
You should avoid such mistakes so that the Home Office does not get a chance to refuse your visa application. In order to get expert legal advice on your UK fiance visa application, get in touch with us. We guarantee you the successful outcome on cases where you provide us with all the documents we request.
We assess your circumstances and provide you a quote for our services. If you choose to move ahead with your fiance visa application, you pay a 50% deposit of our fee and 50% on submission. Once the process is started, we provide you with a comprehensive checklist of the documents you'll need to provide. We advise you on the evidence and submission process, in relation to the country you are applying from. We review all the evidence and suggest any amendments you may require, or we can draft letters and templates for you where necessary, as well as preapring your application forms and booking you an appointment in the country where you provide your biometrics. Finally, we prepare detailed representations for the Home Office or UKV&I.
We do not leave any scope for refusal of your application - if there is anything which is of concern, we point this out to you and help you to remedy the issues. Should there be a delay in your fiance visa processing times, we will chase the application for you. We can guarantee a positive outcome if you will be able to provide all the evidence we request from you in our checklist.
Do you need to apply for a UK Fiance Visa?
Speak to our experts to find out about our fast, friendly and affordable service
