weedy

Hi, I am British living in NZ, and my fiancé is a Kiwi also living with me in NZ. We are getting married in the UK next year and are running into problems trying to work out how to give notice to be married.

I have read on some British websites that my fiancé can give notice in NZ as he is from a Commonwealth country, as long as I do it at the same time in the UK. However, the local registry office in the UK where my parents live (Hampshire) told us that this was not possible. H
Has anyone from a Commonwealth country had experience with this? Really hope someone can give me a clear answer as the UK government websites are really useless and provide no info!

Thanks!

BEVS

I shall move this to the MBTTUK forum as they are better placed to answer this.

Justcol

I do believe they are very suspicious about people marrying brits due to the number of marriages of convenience which are
for no other reason than to gain a visa for one of the partys. Not saying yours is one of them but it may explain the lack of information readily available

dannigirl

Does he or she have a visa to live or work in the UK?

https://www.gov.uk/marriage-visa

I think you need this visa.

Hope that helps.

Tirytory

It sounds like they're only getting married in the UK? Why would he need anything other than a visitor visa?

rebs

Visitors do need a visa to marry in the UK -

https://www.gov.uk/marriage-visa/overview

dannigirl

Because you can't just come to the UK and get married to a British citizen without quite a bit of palaver. There are as you would expect, lots of different visas just for marriage to suit different situations. Stops all us pesky immigrants coming in and leaching your benefits system apparently.

jenthehen83

If you want to get legally married in the UK, you need to have been living there for at least four weeks - whatever nationality you are. The same applies if you are both British but have been living overseas (which surprised me). We had our wedding in the UK last year but decided to get the legal stuff done at the Auckland registry office before we went. It didn't change our wedding day at all - it just meant that the paperwork had been done beforehand. We still signed a document after the ceremony etc. I was unsure while we were organising as I thought it might take away from the wedding but it didn't at all. I would fully recommend it - four weeks is a big chunk of time to take off work etc, just for the sake of wanting the legal side to be done in the UK.

Tirytory

Oh right you pesky immigrants

Pomster

we did the same from Aus. Husband had to go back weeks ahead of me to register some weird document with the diocese office in Westminster Abbey (instead of having banns read)....and that was the easier option than going through a registry office believe it or not!

BritInParis

Your other option would eloping to Gibraltar a la John and Yoko.

moving2NZ2013

If your intending on staying uk why not get legally married in nz and have a wedding without all the hassle of paperwork in the uk. I

weedy

Thanks everyone for your replies. I was hoping to avoid getting married in NZ as I was worried I would feel it was a bit fake having a big wedding ceremony without actually getting married! But some of you seem to think it didn't matter. I would be interested to get more people's opinions as this may be our only option.

Thanks everyone!