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UK Marriage Visitor Visa | Apply to marry in the UK

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To apply for a marriage visitor visa, this must be done from outside of the UK. You must demonstrate that you plan to marry in the UK and will leave the UK after the marriage is completed.

The marriage visitor visa lets you do the following:

  1. Give notice to the local registry office. 

  2. Able to get married legally in the UK.

  3. Then must leave the UK after the marriage is completed or when you have told the Home Office on the visa form you will. 

What is required to apply for a marriage visitor visa?

To apply for the visa, you must do this online. Make sure you provide the correct answers to the application questions to avoid being asked the wrong questions. 

  1. You must apply for the marriage visitor visa online and use the correct visa form. This is listed on the Home Office website.

  2. To apply for the visa, you must have a valid passport, also referred as the travel document.

  3. Both you and your partner must demonstrate through evidences, including information that you are in a genuine and subsisting relationship.

  4. Documents to show you have lived together outside of the UK are an example of having a committed relationship.

  5. You can show financial responsibilities outside of the UK.

  6. How you maintain contact between you and your partner must be provided.

  7. You must provide evidences of you can support yourself as well as that of the marriage in the UK. Your sponsor, who is your partner can also show evidences.

  8. If your partner is in the UK on a temporary work visa, he/she can provide their employment details and evidences of their bank statements, to show funds available for your travels and stay in the UK.

  9. Have funds to show your onwards travels back to your residency. You must show financial evidences to confirm your intentions to leave the UK.

  10. Both you and your partner may not reside in the UK and can provide both employment and social ties outside of the UK. 

  11. Not planning to have successive visits to the UK. This is to prove the intention of leaving the UK and not planning to stay beyond the visa duration. 

The documents required for the marriage visitor visa

In terms of the evidences required for your application, the Home Office publishes a list of documents required for your marriage visitor visa application.

However please note, this is not an exhaustive list of documents required and based on your circumstances, you would be required to provide additional information and evidences.

Documents not in English?
You must ensure that all documents are officially translated when submitting the application to the Home Office. If you require ICS Legal to get the documents translated officially, please email us the details at info@icslegal.com.

Applying for the marriage visitor visa

Once you and your partner have collected all the information and documents for the visa, you should apply for this online.

You will need to attend an application centre to file your biometric data and application/documents. Taking your documents in person and getting them scanned ensures all evidences are filed and lodged. This avoids your visa being denied for missing documents.

The visa fees for the marriage visitor visa
The Home Office publishes information related to the marriage visa costs. Please ensure you check for regular updates.
 
How long does the marriage visitor visa processing takes?
It’s usual processing time is around 15 working days, after you have attended a Visa Centre. You can choose to prioritise the application by paying an extra fee before you attend the Visa Centre. Decisions can take around 5 working days.

Visa granted under the marriage visitor visa

Once the visa is endorsed into your passport, you will be able to travel into the UK. You should only travel to the UK on the date you confirmed on the visa form and not before. 

  1. If you travel to the UK before the date you confirmed on the visa form, you may be asked why by the Border Officers in the UK.

  2. You are not allowed to work or study in the UK whilst on the marriage visitor visa.

  3. It is not allowed for you to claim any public funds, including the use of the NHS. You should use health insurance to pay for any healthcare privately in the UK.

Failing to comply with the above conditions can have your visa cancelled and be removed from the UK. 

How to convert your same sex civil partnership into a marriage

You can do this in the UK and there are more information on how to follow that process in the UK to convert civil partnership into marriage.

How to give notice of marriage in the UK

Both you and your partner must give legal notice to marry in the UK. You can find more details of how to marry in the UK.

You may not need to give notice in advance of marrying in the UK.

The most frequently asked questions on marriage visitor visa
We have put together some of the most common questions asked on the marriage visitor visa. We hope those information are helpful.

What is the difference between fiancé visa and marriage visitor visa UK? The fiancé visa allows you to apply for a settlement visa in the UK, whereas the marriage visitor visa does not allow you to do this.

How long can you stay in the UK with the marriage visitor’s visa? It is usually granted for 6 months; however you must leave the UK if you have told the Home Office, you will do so. If you do not, the Home Office may penalise you for future entry or visa applications.

When can I apply for a marriage visitor visa? You must plan your visa application and can apply 3 months prior to the date of travels to the UK. Do not delay submitting your application, so you can make the visa is granted in time.

Can you extend your marriage visitor visa in the UK? In some instances, you can apply to extend the visa. However, we recommend you to take legal advice on this.

Can I switch to a settlement visa if I hold a marriage visitor’s visa? In some instances, no. The visa you hold is for temporary entry to the UK and must leave the UK. You can apply to settle in the UK on exceptional circumstances and are able to demonstrate this through documents.

How to appeal against a marriage visitor visa refusal?

There is no automatic right to appeal against the refusal of the marriage visitor visa application. Taking legal advice will ensure you understand whether that decision had been reached correctly or not. 


You can do the following if your marriage visitor visa is refused/denied by the UK Home Office:

  1. You can find for a legal reconsideration of the visa decision if you find that you have provided the correct information and documents. For example, if you are employed and you have provided the employment letter, and this document had been missed, you can raise a request to review the decision.

  2. Apply for the visa again. You may have missed some documents or did not know this should have been provided, then apply for the visa again would be better.

Finding help with your marriage visitor visa application

ICS Legal can advise and help prepare your visa application to marry in the UK. 
Contact ICS Legal on 0207 237 3388 to get some initial legal advice or simply complete our visa assessment form. 

About the author
ICS Legal are a regulated legal firm by the Immigration Advice Authority in the UK and provides immigration & nationality advice. Reading time: 15 minutes. 

Related FAQ's

We specialise in Immigration Law, Human Rights Law, British Nationality Law & European Law. Our lawyers provide honest, exceptional service to our clients. We believe that our service starts when we submit your application and we want our client to know we will keep them informed, answer there questions and your case worker will be just a phone call away.

Our speciality lies in the field of Immigration, Nationality and EU Law, so it means we always are dealing with this side of the law. We are able to support you in making a correct decision, avoid delays on your case, save money and time, not forgetting the stress of any doubts with your application.

There are many routes available to come to the UK, extend or switch, some of them do not allow extension or even switching. Knowing what is right can be a difficult task and this is why we are here. Simple task of not using the prescribed forms can mean your application is invalid, which means if you have no valid stay, you would have to return back and there is no appeal rights.

Our initial consultations are a chargeable service. We initially discuss the requirements of the application to ensure you meet the requirements and have the documentation required at hand for the submission. It gives you an opportunity to meet us and ask questions.

Each case will be checked thoroughly, everything will be cross referenced so guidelines are met and we will also add our legal document which would outline the Immigration Rules and how the client has satisfied the rules. We use documents that are used by Home Office case workers, so we know exactly what they would look for in your case.

The most important fact is that law constantly changes, policy guidelines and requirements are always changing, so it is best that you always use specialised services to support you. We never compromise our services, our fees remain very competitive but our expertise is at the very highest standard.

We are regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). OISC is the government regulated body and it is a criminal offence if someone is providing Immigration advice without being regulated by the OISC. We are also members of Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI). JCWI is an independent national voluntary organisation, campaigning for justice and combating racism in immigration and asylum law and policy.
Your case worker would take some background information regarding yourself. Relevant questions would be asked to ascertain whether your case can be handled by our team. You will also be able to ask questions, understand what is required to meet the Immigration Rules, Nationality Law and EU Law where relevant. Should we be able to provide assistance, your case worker will give you a customer care letter whereby it would outline the service agreement and the cost associated.
After each consultation we aim to provide a consultation report which would outline what was discussed, the action plan and what to do next.
We have a procedure in place for ensuring client confidentiality. We keep the affairs of our clients and all information relating to our clients confidential, except where we are compelled to disclose information by reason of a legal or regulatory obligation.
A customer care letter from us will ensure that we outline the service we would be providing, it would also provide a break down of the costs associated so you can rest assure that there are no hidden charges and that fees do not go up unless changes are made (i.e. Home Office fees etc).

We place our clients first, so when you sign the customer care letter and we go through your case file, and we believe that the case would not be successful, we will terminate the agreement and return your documents. We will also provide alternative solutions with no added costs. We also have a cancellation period should you feel you want to withdraw your file.

 

Please note that all cases cannot be guaranteed as circumstances depends and whether you met guidelines, however the Home Office caseworker can still refuse cases on the balance of probabilities and other factors. Our job would be to prepare your case in the best possible way.

Yes, we have a special provision with the Home Office and majority case decisions are made on the same day.
As a private legal firm, we want to ensure we can provide the service you want. Our fees are very competitive and that is why we do not provide a No Win No Fee service as we do not feel the need to over charge our clients with such schemes.
With us, you will know exactly what we would be charging. The fees are to be paid through cheque, cash or bank transfer. Home Office fees can be paid to us and we can make the payment on behalf of you. If there is any changes in Home Office fees, we will let you know immediately.
Our commitment to our clients is that we will update you every time we get an update from the Home Office. The waiting period can be a very daunting time as decisions can be life changing however the Home Office do set some guidelines on waiting times, but we intend to keep you updated throughout the process.
No, and this is the same even if you use a no win no fee service, it would be impossible for anyone to guarantee a successful application. The likelihood of an application being successful can be given based on previous cases or success rates, however we do not operate such a policy of selling our services based on previous applications.
We aim to ensure that this service is not used by any of our clients, but there are times where even with the best possible applications are unsuccessful. As we take our clients cases personally, we would like to provide a helping hand. We have designed an aftercare service whereby if your case fails, then your case worker would be able to help you look at other formalities of staying in the UK should you have valid leave still remaining or help you make an out country application. Please note should you require appealing on your matter, we can only deal with the initial appeal and your application will be straight away referred to an advisor who deals with representations.
It is vital that all our clients can provide honest feedback, we would encourage this and this helps us to become better on our service delivery.
No, we are a law firm which provides support in UK Immigration, Nationality and EU Free Movement Rights. However we have a subsidiary company which is jobslibrary.co.uk whereby you can look for work, apply and discuss with potential employers. We cannot influence any decisions and finding work is not something our team deals with.

1) You contact us through e-mail or phone.

2) We take some basic information, we ask some relevant questions to understand the type of query and what type of support is required.

3) Your case then gets passed to a case worker.

4) Case Worker would contact you to set up an initial meeting.

5) You attend a consultation, an action plan is drawn up and we find out whether ICS Legal can support your case. A report would be sent where there is a requirement to outline what was discussed and what to do next.

6) You authorise us to be your legal representative by signing our customer care letter.

7) We will then start to request documents and information about your case this will build up your case pack.

8) We will then write our legal report and use Home Office caseworker’s documents to ensure everything has been checked and all requirement have been met.

9) Where possible we will go through every aspect of your case before case submission.

10) We will continue to update you throughout the case life cycle .

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