# Spouse visa application without wedding can be accepted?



## LilyJH (Apr 11, 2016)

Hi,

I am South Korean and my husband is British and we want to apply spouse visa to live in the UK together soon by this June or July. 
We have registered our marriage status on March this year while my husband visiting Korea. 
I read some people's stories who have successfully received spouse visa from UKBA on this website page and figured that they've pretty much all included their wedding photo& wedding invitation in their relationship evidence document. 

So the point of my question& the biggest concern is,
will our Spouse visa application will still be accepted without having a wedding before we apply for the visa? 

We definitely would LOVE to have wedding before we apply for the visa but the situation we are at isn't allowing us to do. 
Because my South Korean dad is being stubborn that we need to have wedding in England( my husband's country) first and then have another one in South Korea. Also my husband's parents can't travel to South Korea for our wedding for their personal reasons so we can have wedding only in the UK so this means, I will have to get spouse visa first and then have wedding in the UK because it costs too much for me to travel only for the wedding and back to Korea and apply visa and travel to the UK again. 

Our relationship is quite different to most of people.
We met on September 2012 while I was in the UK as a student and broke up after 9months relationship. We got reunited again on May 2015 while I was in USA doing internship after I completed my Uni course in the UK, he visited me in New york twice and after I back to my country on October 2015, he visited me again twice and proposed me so now we are married under my parent's permission. 
So far we have lots of evidence of our relationship's status to show such as photos (Me and him also with my families./ not with his families as I couldn't travel to the UK so couldn't met them since I left the UK but we are in touch on facebook. They"his Parents" have also accepted our wedding), flight tickets to New York and Korea, skype calls, whatsapp converstion& call logs and facebook messages between us.
However, we can't include our wedding photos to show them but we think it's quite important thing to show especially for us because I've received refusal entry letter at the Gatwick airport on October 2015 when I was trying to travel to the UK after I finished my internship in New york. 
It was because I stupidly lied to Immigration officer at the Gatwick airport at customs when she questioned me. 
She asked me where I am going to stay so I said I am going to stay at my friend's house but actually was planning to spend time at my boyfriend's house (who is now my husband) : I've lied about our relationship. I said he is just my friend.
and she asked me further of his name and contact number. But when she checked my baggage and everything, she found my research papers of marriage visa (because at that time, we thought we could apply spouse visa while I am in the UK with tourist visa). She asked me about what the research paper was for and from this point, I started to panic really bad and said oh because me and my british boyfriend wants to marry. She asked me who is my british boyfriend and I stupidly mentioned my ex name.. which was the biggest mistake I've ever made.. obviously she asked me his contact number as well then I realised I am making a huge mistake and started to confess the truth that actually the friend I mentioned is my genuine boyfriend, the person I mentioned is now my ex and we( me and my boyfriend) want to marry and thought we will be ok applying the spouse visa while I'm in the UK and etc. She called him with the number I gave her and found out that we are in a relationship as well because my husband did tell only the truth of us. 
So yeah I've lost their credit and she recorded everything I explained above even my ex boyfriend's name I've mistakenly mentioned.. 
So they've refused my entry to the UK and sent me back to New York after the longest interview I've ever had.. I've admitted what I've received and deeply regretted that I've lied to them. I apologised to the immigration officer but she didn't mention on the letter that I've apologised but mentioned my confession of our real relationship.
My husband booked the flight ticket to New York straight away and the next day I've sent back to the U.S, he arrived and stayed with me for about 5 days and we both came back to our each countries. 
Since then, I've never traveled nor even tried to travel to the UK.
My husband also know everything. He was mad at first but he has forgiven me and now he also concern about that record I have.
Other than that, everything is fine. I've never been in trouble while I was in the UK for about 5 years with the student visa. No criminal, not banned, nothing.

Thing is, we have all the required documents we need to have like financial documents and every other things but we are just really worried how we gonna prove our genuine relationship without having a wedding because of that record I have. 
Like I said earlier, I can only prove our genuine relationship with the pics of us and us with my families in different time and places( we have enough pics for that) but no wedding pics yet we've read that some people didn't receive their visa although they've all documents they've required to submit but their relationship doesn't seem real enough.. So we are really worried about that part!)

We've been even thinking about just get a wedding photo of us at the wedding studio in wedding suit without the ceremony in Korea and include that in our portfolio and apply the spouse visa. Will that work and be the plus to be proven by them? 
Or is there any better idea for us? 
We both just want to live together as soon as possible because relationship in long distance isn't easy and we miss each others so much.. and we really want to make our own future and family together! 

Please share with us if you have any good idea for us.. and please give us some good advice. I will be much appreciated!! 
It a bit of mess story.. Hope I wrote my story clearly and not confusing for readers.
Thank you so much for reading my long long story.
Looking forward to hear some good advice  

Thank you!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

I don't know the situation in South Korea, but is legal marriage there like in Japan, where you only need to submit an application to register your relationship as married without any ceremony as such required? If that's the case and you have registered your status as married, then that should be sufficient evidence to apply for spouse visa. Lack of ceremony, photographs etc will not be a factor.

If you haven't yet legally married in Korea, and wish to marry in UK, the thing to do is to apply for fiancée visa, travel to UK and get married, and then apply for leave to remain as spouse within 6 months. This will cost you more, as you need to apply twice within a short space of time, but there is no need to return to Korea to apply for spouse visa.

As for your denied entry, that should not materially affect your chances of successful settlement visa application. You must of course declare it and show genuine remorse, take full responsibility etc by way of a covering note.


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## LilyJH (Apr 11, 2016)

Thank you so much for your kind reply! 
Yeah it is legal to be married without the ceremony so we are legally married in South Korea as we registered our marriage status in Korea with our application and we received the marriage certificate here. 
Just we are not registered yet in England but heard that we can still apply with the marriage certificate we legally received from my country? 
That's what we heard..
So our application without wedding ceremony pictures are ok as long as we have enough evidence of our photos together and with my family?

Thank you so much!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Yes. You don't need to register your marriage in UK as your Korean marriage is fully recognised and valid in UK. Just submit a professional translation of your marriage certificate plus your original document.


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## LilyJH (Apr 11, 2016)

Thank you very much for your kind reply


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## Kimi2490 (Nov 8, 2012)

As usual, Joppa has given excellent advise and answered your query LilyJH.

I would just add that do provide good evidence of relationship by way of evidence of having stayed in communication throughout any periods of separation, photos with families, evidence of trips taken together and finally if you can even just perhaps have a meal with friends and family and attach pictures of said meal as a 'celebration meal after legalised marriage' that can't hurt at all.

Good luck!


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## LilyJH (Apr 11, 2016)

Thank you for your additional advice  
But we don't really have much communication while we were separated though.. He messaged me a few times asking how I am doing but I answered once. would that be a problem?? how we got back together was with the facebook after I accepted his friend request last year on March and we started to talk again properly. 

Please let me know your thought! much appreciated.


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## Kimi2490 (Nov 8, 2012)

You will need to provide evidence of having kept in touch during your periods of separation.

I do not think a single message will suffice at all. In order to prove durable relationship, they do want to see that when you two were not together, you were still communicating.

If Facebook was your means of communication then I would try to log some facebook messages from different periods and present them as evidence.

Do you have any Skype or e mail conversations you can show?


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## LilyJH (Apr 11, 2016)

hmm.. no not really.. we both were trying to move on so he was with someone and I was with someone while we were separated (which didn't go well for both of us so we both broke up with them). also we both were busy with our own thing like he was doing short course at college to get qualification to get a job and I was in the final course in Uni so really busy submitting uni work. So no, we haven't really spoke together while we were separated.. will that be a much problem? 
but from March 2015 after we became friend again on facebook, we started our relationship fresh in a long distance and developed serious as we both are more matured than before..
let me know! 
Thank you so much for replying me promptly.


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## Kimi2490 (Nov 8, 2012)

Any and all communication from January 2015 should be produced.

What I meant by separated was - physically separated while being in a serious relationship. I did not mean an initial break up etc.

You can explain in your letter that you met and had stopped seeing each other for a while but have been in a mature and committed long distance relationship since January 2015. And then produce all evidence of having kept in contact from January 2015 onwards. 

Good luck!


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## LilyJH (Apr 11, 2016)

Oh I see haha 
Sorry I was confused lol thought you meant the time while we were not in a relationship after break up. Yeah we do talk every single day so we have lots of call logs and conversation between us on whatsapp, facebook andskype. 
We were informed that we should show our call logs but do we also need to show our conversation or just the record and dates of our conversation between us? 

Thank you


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## Kimi2490 (Nov 8, 2012)

just the record and dates of your conversations is fine.

they are not concerned with the private contents of these conversations etc. Good luck!


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## LilyJH (Apr 11, 2016)

Ok thanks so much Kimi and Joppa for sharing very helpful information with us (my husband also says thank you)! 
really appreciate it  
Hope your day goes well for you both! Xx


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