Hi all

Just curious is anyone here, living and settled in Aus, has gone back to England to get married at all? We're aiming to do this in about 12 months time and starting the planning but there seems to be a few issues in regards when you have to arrive and what can actually be done in a short space of time. We are both UK and Aus passport holders, but everything we read relates to people getting married where one is a UK citizen - and not when both are.

Has anyone gone through this and what issues did you encounter? Any help very much appreciated...

Andy & Thea

i would suggest you contact the Registry Office covering the place you want to marry. Emphasise that you are both British but living in Aus so you need to know timelines etc for giving notice, and for the time you need to be in the Uk before the ceremony (usually 7 days i think).

Everything you need to know can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/get-married-in-england-or-wales

The bit you’ll likely struggle with is the giving notice. If you’re planning to marry in 12 months time then I would fly back to the UK to visit for a week or two, view some venues, make a booking and give notice for the wedding in x months’ time and then you can fly in again for the actual ceremony. Trying to do the whole thing at once would require you to leave Australia for at least six weeks which I doubt is feasible assuming you both work full-time.

This is the issue - the rules require you to be in the country at least 30+ days which is just ludicrous given we are both British citizens. And other research shows it does not seem feasible to get around this, so we're now looking what what would seem to be an easier route of entering as Australians and applying for a marriage visa beforehand... or we just get married in Scotland!

Why not get married in Australia (small civil ceremony at the registry office) and have a ceremony in the UK?

Only because family is all in England and it would feel 'not right' if we did it first without them, regardless of the reason for doing it...

As British citizens, you wouldn’t be eligible for a visa. Your family wouldn’t need to know you were already married if you did it beforehand in Oz?

Slightly off topic but when we decided to get married in the UK back in 2002, we found that it was virtually impossible to do this at short notice in England. Not so in Scotland, where this is very easy to do. If I remember correctly, it was about 5 days from first enquiry to wedding day - and it could have been even less if we'd pushed it. Although I wanted to get married in Las Vegas, we got married in Gretna Green instead.

Hope this helps

I may be wrong but are you sure about the 30 days bit? You can leave the UK between giving notice and getting married, and you can give notice several months in advance of the ceremony.
You can't hold a marriage visa because you are British.

Not quite. You need to be in the UK for a minimum of seven days to give notice but you can go away again. You don't need to wait for the 30 days to pass before leaving and you can get married up to 12 months after giving notice which is what you wish to do anyway. You need to factor in the extra initial trip to give notice.

In England and Wales, Yes. No in Scotland

Yes, quite right.