# Marrying my Vietnamese girlfriend in the UK



## bonesy (Feb 11, 2013)

Hello,

I am currently in England with my girlfriend who is on a 6 month tourist visa.

It is our intention to marry in Vietnam next year so I have been attempgint to obtain the relevant documents needed to support the marriage however it has been really tricky and complicated to sort out.

A friend of mine suggested we simply go down to the town hall and do it now in the UK as there would be more benefits of us being legally recognized here rather than Vietnam.

Although this sounds like a good idea it is ringing alarm bells as I do not want to appear to be deceiving the British Embassy when we stated on my girlfriends visa application we were here for tourist purposes only.

IF we were to registar now in the UK would it cause a problem for her in the future should we wish to apply for another visa in the event we decide we want to live in the UK?

Any advice on the matter would be great.

Cheers,

Michael


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## DaveDee (Jul 19, 2013)

Hi bonesy,

There's no quick solution to this. I'm going through exactly the same thing myself right now and it's a bureaucratic nightmare. You have 2 choices: marry in the UK or marry in VN: the advantage of the former is that the legalisation & documentation of the marriage is more portable. You should be accepted as a married couple anywhere. If you marry in VN you might at some stage need to do it all over again... AND you might struggle to obtain the right to live in VN until you are married, because of VN visa limitations.

Anyway, to marry a foreign national in the UK the rules are generally thus:

VISA REQUIREMENTS: (I sponsored my GF. The only other way it can be done - assuming she can't visit as a bona fide student or for a genuine work opportunity through a company - is if she does all the paperwork back home but she must still have an itinerary and she might find it almost impossible to get a full 6 month visa.)

If you need a first visit (not for marriage) -
1a. You must be able to prove you have a relationship. In my case my future intended visited me here in the UK last year on a 6 month tourist visa. I had visited VN previously but there wasn't any real proof we had met, because we weren't expecting the process to be so mindlessly difficult. I found it difficult to prove our relationship and ended up by supplying 2 year's worth of correspondence records (mainly Yahoo Messeger). If you can't prove a genuine relationship of at leat a year then forget it. The visa application was initially refused and I had to appeal.
If the first UK visit is for marriage -
1b. As 1a but just apply for a visa for marriage. Don't apply for a fiancee visa unless you both plan to live in the UK afterwards (another messy can of worms). Otherwise all the paperwork is the same with 1 exception: the visa requirement is that you must provide proof that the visit really is for marriage. However, you can't get that proof before your GF is actually in the UK because you must both visit the registry office to give notice of the marriage. The Registry Office has seen this before and will suggest you book your ceremony in advance, and use that paperwork as proof. Not ideal but the two goverment departments don't seem to do joined-up thinking.
2. You must be able to support you and your partner in the UK (financial proof required). Most working people will manage this ok but they do want more than just your last phone bill.
3. Buy a return ticket. A one way ticket (which makes sense if your GF might need to go home early) will certainly invoke a refusal and you'll have to appeal. Better to pay a little more for a ticket you can change later.
4. Be prepared for your GF to have to travel to the UK Embassy in Ha Noi. Embassy services in Saigon are subcontracted to a commercial company who charge £50 a shot, but won't touch you with a barge pole if it's your GF's first UK visa application. Ha Noi is it.

MARRIAGE REQUIREMENTS (based on my experience for a Registry Office ceremony. My opinion is that 6 months might not be enough time to organise a white wedding): 
1. Your GF must be resident in the UK for 9 days before you can give notice.
2. Book an appointment at the registry office to give notice. You must give notice together (this is why there's a problem getting the visa). Your GF might need a translator because you will be interviewed separately.
3. You must wait a minimum of 16 days after giving notice before you can actually get married. During this time the notice of marriage is on public display.
4. For the ceremony iteself, the Registrar and room must be booked in advance.
5. You must use an approved registry office. Not all registry offices can deal with this situation so you need to check where the nearest one to you is.
6. Unless she can speak English fairly well without any help, you'll need an interpreter for both giving notice and for the ceremony (that's where I'm stuck now).
7. Because you must book the ceremony in advance (see 1b above) in order to generate the paperwork to prove the visa is for marriage, you must allow plenty of time. I'm allowing 3 months for the visa application and 2 months extra for things going wrong.

Hope that helps!
PS - I really am struggling to find a local interpreter (Ipswich area) so let me know if you know anyone. So far what I've been offered is too limiting in terms of availablity or too expensive.


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## DaveDee (Jul 19, 2013)

PS - I forgot to say, what you suggest (getting married while your GF is here on a tourist visa) is a no no. The registrar will refuse it and in any case your GF will be breaking the terms of her visa, so might get deported. Unfortunately nowadays this sort of thing has to be planned well in advance and needs bucket loads of time, energy and money throwing at it.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

A few things about posts above.
It's giving notice for marriage that has to be done at a designated register office (google for a list), but marriage can take in any district (within 3 months)
About interpreter. If it's your intention to live in UK in near future (if not straightaway for which fiancée visa will be needed), your girlfriend's English must be of sufficient level - A1 initially and B1 (intermediate) for ILR. If her English is so poor that an interpreter is required for marriage formalities, this is really a non-starter.

All in all the above advice is well intentioned but it's too skewed for the poster's own situation to be of limited general use.

In short, you should not get married on tourist visa but get a marriage visitor visa in Vietnam. I don't know much about marriage formalities in Vietnam, but any legal marriage there will be recognised by UK government as valid without going through extra procedure. You may want to deposit your original marriage certificate + professional translation at the General Register Office so that you can obtain marriage certificates issued by GRO easily.

There are a few countries where marriage by non-residents is easily arranged, such as Gibraltar.


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