I am a U.K. citizen and my fiancée is from the US. The plan is to obtain a spouse visa so she can live in the U.K. with me. Our plan is to get married in the U.K. in a registry office for complete the paper work and then apply for a spouse visa. Once we have the visa we then want the ceremony in the US which of course wouldn’t be a ‘real wedding’ it would just be so everyone can get together.
The question is would we need to apply for the fiancée visa to be able to get married in the UK and could we still have the ceremony in the US after obtaining the U.K. spouse visa or would we need some sort of visa over in the US to to that ?

Or

would it just be easier to get married in the US and then apply for a U.K. spouse visa. That way we wouldn’t have to apply for a U.K. fiancée visa?
We just want to find easiest way that we’re more likely to get the U.K. spouse visa.

It is far easier to just get married in the US and then apply for the UK spouse visa. That is what we have just done.

You can marry in the US on a tourist visa. Head over, marry, head back (on your own), start the process.

To marry here, you need to get the marriage visa, and you need to give notice to marry as well (there are also rules on how long you have to have been in the country before being able to give notice) - she would have to be here about 6 weeks in total (on the correct visa).

Ahh right. I thought it was illegal to marry on an ESTA? We don’t want to run the risk of being flagged incase we want to move back to the US in the future?

Nope, all fine to marry on a ESTA. I did it a couple of months ago. The only issue is if you marry on a ESTA and then stay in the US i.e. entered deceitfully with the intention of not leaving after marrying.

This is news to me and very exciting. So now you have the U.K. spouse visa? When applying for that how long did you have to leave your passport with the embassy? We work abroad and so rely on having the passport. Just wondered how long you were without it?

My wife is American, I’m British. She had her biometrics in LA on Friday, so we are still in process of getting the UK spouse visa. We are aiming to send everything (including passport) off this week. Current time lines seem to be around 3 months so she would have to be without her passport for that long. You don’t have to send yours off.

Thanks for this your information is gold!
Did your wife have to visit the U.K. during the spouse visa process or has she done all the paperwork from the US. Also do you get the paperwork together the the fee etc then if you get approved you send off your passport? Just wondered, timing wise, if we could apply and do all the paperwork while we’re out of the country (we work on a cruise ship as dancers) then when we’re ready and back home send off the passport? If that makes sense?

Essentially:
- Marry in US.
- Apply online. Make payment. It’s about £3k total - including IHS (NHS supplement fee) / poor current exchange rate.
- After payment, book biometrics at local US centre. (usually around a week later).
- After biometrics, you have 5 days to send the passport, application and supporting documents etc (can go into more detail of this at the time).
- wait for your decision (could take 30 days, could take 100).

After biometrics, you can pay for priority (think it’s abour £700) which would guarantee a quicker decision and mean she was without her passport for less time.

For your situation, I would probably hold off applying until she’s ready to be without her passport. She will need to be home for the biometrics anyway.

Not an expert or guru like most in this site
https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa
Review the link above

She can keep her passport if she goes to a premium application center in the USA and pays to keep her passport. Her biometrics are done at that time. However she would need to submit all the supporting documents at that time.

My husband applied for his spousal visa on Nov 30th 2018 paid priority did his biometrics at a non premium center on Dec 4th 2018 and we sent off his passport on Dec 5th. We are still waiting for a decision. Even if he had his passport the recommendation would be for him not to try and enter the UK while his application is being considered.

If the cruises you are on are in the Carribean and or Mexico and considered loop cruises she could apply for a USA passport card ( she would need to send her passport in to obtain ) the cards cover the Carribean and Mexico for cruises but not air travel.
Lots to consider / think about and also the $
To keep her passport she would need to review the VFS website and I don’t think the $1900 for the gold includes the actual visa fee and IHS charge which has just increased.
I am sure the experts on this site will clarify .

Just as an FYI did my first cruise 2 years ago on Oceania it was amazing did the meditteranian.