# Can we get married on Tier 4 student visa



## cooksie (Sep 7, 2013)

Hi everyone - I'm new to this forum and have become a bit confused about something. The situation is as follows.

My partner of five year (living together for three) has been here on a Tier 4 student visa for the last few years. It is expiring at the end of January 2014.

We won't meet the financial requirement until the end of February - I've just received a pay rise which brings us over the threshold, but February is the magic six month mark.

Are we legally allowed to marry in the UK before his visa expires in January? Do we have to let anyone know this is what we're doing? 

I understand that he'll have to go back to the States when his current visa runs out, but then presumably, he can make the spouse application from there? Also, how long does this take in the US and is there a fast track option?

Any advice very much appreciated.


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## Warif (Mar 27, 2013)

Yes you can get marry on spouse visa as long as you both are living legal in UK.
As you said your partner visa will expire before you eligible to apply.
You have two options one your partner go back to america and apply for home country,if you dont want to live away from each other then its better if he/she extend student visa then you can apply while living here.


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## soharaz (Mar 8, 2013)

I've just gotten married to a UK citizen while on my Tier 4 (Student) visa. You have to give notice to a registered office (check UKBA for a list of these) because your partner is subject to immigration control. You can then apply for leave to remain with an FLR(M) form. As far as I am aware, once you have made the leave to remain visa application from inside the UK you don't have to leave the country, but I would confirm this with UKBA.


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

soharaz said:


> You can then apply for leave to remain with an FLR(M) form. As far as I am aware, once you have made the leave to remain visa application from inside the UK you don't have to leave the country, but I would confirm this with UKBA.


But, you do have to be able to meet the financial requirement and the OP will not meet that until after her partner's student visa expires so he must return to his home country and apply from there.


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## nouman1327 (Jul 27, 2013)

Cooksie:

Just apply for your partner visa extension in January as a student and once in February u got ur all six month income proof stuff then send another application for spouse to Homeoffice.then withdraw the student application only and let them process spouse application.this worked for my friend.and he got his 5 yr visa.gud luk


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## cooksie (Sep 7, 2013)

We won't be able to do this, as he completed his course.


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## clarkemcrobb (Sep 6, 2013)

I am not too sure on the law, however my wife and I got married AFTER she defaulted on her university payments but before she was asked to leave as her tier 4 visa came to an end due to this.

We did not know that she would not be able to carry her university debt into the next year and at that point imagine ourselves staying in the UK anyway.

Two days after we were married, we had a knock on the door followed by a meeting, and a very helpful UKBA officer put it on the record that our marriage was obviously genuine.

I would suggest that seeing as your marriage is genuine and you can prove it, you shouldn't worry. Even if they come and question you, they are friendly enough if its obvious to them.

They checked that we had shared financial responsibility (letters), asked us questions about each other and checked that our clothes was kept in the same drawers etc.

Couldn't hurt to contact them yourself and ask? Probably better to find out now than to have them turn up on the day. Like I say though, if they come question you afterwards, you have a genuine relationship and are likely to be able to prove it, therefore will not be punished for marrying.


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

clarkemcrobb said:


> I am not too sure on the law, however my wife and I got married AFTER she defaulted on her university payments but before she was asked to leave as her tier 4 visa came to an end due to this.
> 
> We did not know that she would not be able to carry her university debt into the next year and at that point imagine ourselves staying in the UK anyway.
> 
> ...


This has nothing to do with the OP. Her fiance has not or is not going to default on his loans. His Tier 4 visa simply expires before she is able to meet the financial requirement for a spouse visa.


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## clarkemcrobb (Sep 6, 2013)

My apologies,

OP asked:
"Are we legally allowed to marry in the UK before his (TIER 4) visa expires in January? Do we have to let anyone know this is what we're doing? "

I thought I was offering an experience on getting married whilst on a tier 4 visa. In our case, it was fine.

Maybe I elaborated too much, and I am sorry if that offended you.

OP also states "Any advice very much appreciated. "

And seeing as my advice and experience of getting married on a tier 4 visa is directly related to their ability to get married on a tier 4 visa, I believe I was being helpful, though obviously you don't see this as the case.

If you can bring yourself to look past the first two sentences before your pants start getting in a twist, you will see that we are offering our experience with getting married on a still active tier 4 without notifying anyone first, like OP asked. And in turn explaining what happened to us, and what might happen to them, if as they suggested they get married without notifying anybody first.

Just trying to help, offering my experience in the precise situation he asked about. Maybe you should notify them first, but if your marriage is genuine then you have nothing to worry about.


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

Your've offered a lot of unnecessary information which doesn't pertain to the OP and could cause confusion and stress.


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## clarkemcrobb (Sep 6, 2013)

I believe it is more likely that you made judgement and hurled yourself on the 'Senior member' bandwagon after reading two sentences, than it is likely that I will cause any major confusion.

I hope that OP might find my answer about getting married on a tier 4 visa useful regarding his query about getting married on a tier 4 visa.

I shall attempt to edit the post. I did not realise this was one of 'those' forums.


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## nouman1327 (Jul 27, 2013)

Clarkemcrobb:

I got the same case like ur wife.i got default by uni payments.and UKBA wrote me to leave early but my address changed and I did not got that letter.so on my wedding day with my EEA PARTER.4 of UKBA people's knock at registerar and ask some polite question from her and finally handed over me the same letter from UKBA with another 60 days time to sort out myself.well finally they satisfied that wedding was genuine.they just see our level of confidence+facial expressions.


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## clarkemcrobb (Sep 6, 2013)

OP you'll be fine. Maybe just notify them first.

In mine and nouman1327's experiences we were questioned either before or after the wedding. They will know about it, so probably best to contact them as suggested in an earlier post to avoid them turning up on the big day.

As long as your marriage is genuine and the visa has not officially ended at the time you get married, and you have notified them, I don't see there being anything wrong with marrying someone who is legally resident in the UK, regardless of their visa finishing soon. (even though both nouman1327 and my wife had already had been requested to leave, the final date had not been reached and the tier 4 individual was still legal to reside and therefore marry here, despite the upcoming date of a request to leave)

Good luck and congratulations


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## cooksie (Sep 7, 2013)

Thanks to everyone for your advice on this. I just wanted to check we weren't going to be breaking any laws. Obviously, our relationship is lasting and genuine, so none of that is a problem. It's a real pain that he'll have to go back to the States and apply from there though. :/ I know many people have much worse situations with regards to the financial requirements, so things could certainly be worse.


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

clarkemcrobb said:


> OP you'll be fine. Maybe just notify them first.
> 
> In mine and nouman1327's experiences we were questioned either before or after the wedding. They will know about it, so probably best to contact them as suggested in an earlier post to avoid them turning up on the big day.


Completely unnecessary. You can marry whilst on a Tier 4 visa. UKBA do not need to be notified. You have to give notice at the register which is actually what a previous poster correctly advised. 

soharaz said:



> You have to give notice to a registered office (check UKBA for a list of these) because your partner is subject to immigration control.


No one said anything about notifying the UKBA.



> As long as your marriage is genuine and the visa has not officially ended at the time you get married, and you have notified them, I don't see there being anything wrong with marrying someone who is legally resident in the UK, regardless of their visa finishing soon. (even though both nouman1327 and my wife had already had been requested to leave, the final date had not been reached and the tier 4 individual was still legal to reside and therefore marry here, despite the upcoming date of a request to leave)


Due to your partner defaulting on her tuition her school would have had to notify the UKBA that she was not longer meeting the requirements of her visa, so your situation raised red flags which is why the UKBA paid you a visit. The OP's situation is completely different.


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## clarkemcrobb (Sep 6, 2013)

I don't believe that I said they should contact the UKBA? It was quite ill minded of me however, to forget that for my own marriage I had to give the registrar notice regardless, and I assume this is what soharaz was referring to. So yes, you do need to notify 'them' as you do that anyway.
Again, I apologise that my particular (actually quite lazy) choice of wording offended you and suggested that I meant the UKBA. Not everyone is trying to confuse people, they are often just trying to help someone else, believe it or not. 

"Due to your partner defaulting on her tuition her school would have had to notify the UKBA that she was not longer meeting the requirements of her visa, so your situation raised red flags which is why the UKBA paid you a visit. The OP's situation is completely different. "

You got on at me for commenting unrelated to the OP's questions? You made a point of the fact that this was unrelated to the OP and I acknowledged that this particular part of my advice was irrelevant, so I dropped it? I don't believe I asked for an analysis on why we were paid a visit, but you provided it. I guess that's what I get from the 'old boys' for trying to help someone else new. From my conversations with our friendly UKBA mate, we were informed that any marriage involving an individual subject to immigration controls raises a red flag and ours wasn't unique, it was routine. I apologise if this is wrong, the people who work for the immigration services are often wrong, and I probably shouldn't have taken that as fact. I guess I was wrong to pass on the information given to me by an immigration official on an immigration forum. I would suggest that if you pick on everyone who takes official advice as official advice, you might just be considered unreasonable and unwelcoming by some.

Not the first forum I've signed up for and been instantly picked on for trying to help people!

I apologise cooksie for the detraction from the original topic. I didn't expect to be hounded because I gave two sentences too much information for someone.


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## akeeton82 (Aug 2, 2013)

Just to piggy back... I was on a Tier 4 student visa and just completed my program in July and my husband and I got married in August. I can't speak for all councils but ours (Brent in London) was ridiculously easy. We went and made an appointment to register our intent, booked the wedding room, and paid a deposit...then a few days later went back to actually register the intent. 

All we needed was proof of identification and address. We each took our passports and a bill in each of our names. She asked my occupation and as I has just completed my program I said that and that I was unemployed and she put that no problem. Had to answer a bunch of questions (about 4 of which were if we were related...they really wanted to make sure on that! haha) She reminded us that entering into marriage just for a visa was illegal but then joked saying if you were doing that you wouldn't be marrying a British Citizen. Then we paid and that was it til the wedding day. She obviously checked my student visa and made sure I wasn't past the valid to date and all that, but that was the extent of scrutiny we had. 

Congrats and good luck with the visa process! I can't imagine how hard it would have been if I had had to leave first.


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## cooksie (Sep 7, 2013)

Thanks akeeton82 - that's actually really useful information. Hopefully our district will be equally helpful and all will be well!


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## TreyandLynz (Apr 30, 2014)

*Any advice welcome here*

Hi Clarkemcrobb,

Sorry if I'm being dense (my brain has gone to mush trying to get to the bottom of this whole visa thing so speaking to someone who has already been through it would be great) but you said you married your partner on a Tier 4 visa?

Can I outline our current situation and see if you can shed any light? We want to just ask the UK Border Agency but they have a notice on their website saying they are no longer taking calls about visas / immigration and we don't know who else to ask. 

Okay so here goes...my lovely US fiancée is here on his first year of a Tier 4 student visa; I am a full-time employed UK Citizen. We have lived together since August 2013 and got engaged at the end of November 2013. We want to start planning a wedding but don't know if we can just go ahead and get married or if he first needs to apply for a fiancée or spouse visa. 

To be honest we were hoping that since he's allowed to be here for 4 years (dependent on him keeping to his visa restrictions) that we wouldn't need to do anything until after we're married. We really want to just get married already but all of the visa stuff puts us off starting planning (going through all of the Tier 4 visa stuff was pretty hard going and we're dreading doing it all again).

We've checked the requirements etc and I earn enough (just) to meet the financial threshold so there doesn't seem like there would be many obstacles, we're sickeningly head over heels so would pass any test regarding our relationship being genuine...we just need to know what to do next! 

Any help or advice you can give would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Lynsey & Trey 



clarkemcrobb said:


> My apologies,
> 
> OP asked:
> "Are we legally allowed to marry in the UK before his (TIER 4) visa expires in January? Do we have to let anyone know this is what we're doing? "
> ...


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## TreyandLynz (Apr 30, 2014)

Can it really be that easy??? And just to be thick would you ask the council you live in or the council for the area you want to get married in? We're up in Scotland so a lot of the council regions are near by so although we live in North Lanarkshire we may end up getting married in Stirling or Clackmanannashire. Any advice welcome....we're just sooo confused about what to do next when marrying someone on a Tier 4 visa....


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