UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

Can anyone enlighten us on this situation?:
An UK citizen wants to marry a USA citizen in the USA. Does the UK
citizen need a special visa to get married in the USA or can the
visa-waiver situation apply? The couple will most probably live in the
UK for a couple of years after the marriage and then may decide to move
to the USA at a later stage.
The UK citizen will only need to be in the USA for the marriage ceremony
and honeymoon and then the couple will leave for the UK. (The USA
citizen has a valid visa for the UK).
Thanks for any help or info on this.

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 03:15:06 +0100, "©®" <[email protected]> wrote:

    >Can anyone enlighten us on this situation?:
    >An UK citizen wants to marry a USA citizen in the USA. Does the UK
    >citizen need a special visa to get married in the USA or can the
    >visa-waiver situation apply? The couple will most probably live in the
    >UK for a couple of years after the marriage and then may decide to move
    >to the USA at a later stage.
    >The UK citizen will only need to be in the USA for the marriage ceremony
    >and honeymoon and then the couple will leave for the UK. (The USA
    >citizen has a valid visa for the UK).
    >Thanks for any help or info on this.

I did what you are planning to do back in 1996. Married my wife in a ceremony
in Portland, Oregon.

I entered under the visa waiver scheme and we got married and I left again
after we took a vacation. She then applied to the British Consulate, can't
remember if it was in LA or San Francisco, and when the entry visa came
through joined me in the UK.

If you are not yet married what kind of entry visa does USC have, as marriage
might make it invalid.

You will have no problems at the US end of your arrangements, just make sure
you take such documentation that you can show the immigration officer you will
leave the US if they ask. In fact I was never asked why I was there.

-
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

My husband and I were married in the US - he came over on visa waiver with no questions asked, and I flew back to the UK with him to live. (The only hitch we encountered was that I could not apply for a UK fiance visa as we would be married when I entered the UK...and I couldn't apply for a spouse visa until we were married! But that's a story for another forum!)

Good luck!

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

There is no problem with or anything illegal about that scenario.

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

    > If you are not yet married what kind of entry visa does USC have, as
marriage
    > might make it invalid.

She has been accepted on a Missionary Visa and has 1 year entry in the
UK.

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

You've got no problem here at all, exactly what we did initially

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 12:35:59 +0100, "©®" <[email protected]> wrote:

    >> If you are not yet married what kind of entry visa does USC have, as
    >marriage
    >> might make it invalid.
    >She has been accepted on a Missionary Visa and has 1 year entry in the
    >UK.

I would check very carefully that if she comes over on that she will be able
to stay once the year is up. Also just because she has the visa doesn't mean
the immigration officer *must* admit her. If they suspect or think things have
changed they can refuse entry.

There is a rule for UK immigration that you cannot change your status once you
are in the UK. So for example if you came over on a student visa you could not
apply for a work one while you were here.

This rule until recently wasn't strictly enforced, but I now understand that
this has changed and they are applying this rule more rigidly.

-
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

Ok, I have a similar situation. I am an American citizen and my fiancee is a UK citizen. We think we might get married in the US but are considering a destination wedding or hopefully at least spending our honeymoon in another country. I think if we were living in the US it would be illegal for my fiancee to travel abroad. Anyway, we are finding that issue difficult to figure out as we don't know if it is legal because of all of the immigration stuff. It is all very confusing.

We will live in the UK after we are married. Does anyone know what we need to do? We both are living in our native/home countries at the moment and are trying to save money for the wedding and us living there.

.....I wish I were there now.

Anyway, I would appreciate any info/help/suggestions anyone can give me.

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

Hi,

I don't see your problem/question.

You want to live in the UK and get married in the US? There's not a problem with that.

What is a destination wedding and what would be the problem with it? Why would going on a honeymoon in another country affect anything? What would it affect?

I don't know where you got that from. It isn't illegal for anybody living in the US to travel abroad, bar certain destinations i.e. Cuba.

The answers given to the OP apply to your situation. There is nothing illegal about getting married in the US after entering on the VWP as long as you don't overstay your VWP-welcome of 90 days.

Plan your wedding and find out the proper procedures of immigrating to the UK. And have fun.

Elaine

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

A destination wedding is going to somewhere like Jamaica or Hawaii and getting married while you are there. The advantage being that you will have some cool wedding photographs, and as soon as the ceremony is over - you are already on vacation :)

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

Your post is confusing. First you say, "I think if we were living in the US..." but then say, "We will live in the UK after we are married". I'm not sure which path you're planning to take!

Either way, there's nothing "illegal" about marrying in a third country, even if you are living in the US. It might be problematic if you marry outside the US and your UK spouse wants to come BACK into the US with you to live -- he would need a K3 visa for that. He cannot just re-enter the States as your spouse with the intention of emigrating.

If you plan on moving to the UK after marriage, however, then you really only need to worry about getting your UK spousal visa sorted out before you go.

~ Jenney

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

http://www.britainusa.com/visas/othe...5&Other_ID=322

A lot simpler than visa for the US, can get it on the same day if you turn up at a UK consulate..

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

Isn't there also a downside to a destination outside the US? For example, if they marry in Jamaica then I understand that if they ever want to live in the US than any CR-1 or K-3 interview would also have to be done in Jamaica.

But perhaps I err, and with enough money for travel perhaps that's not such a downside.

Joe

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

You err, but only halfway :)
If following a K3 (unlikely these days), the interview would have to take place in the country of the marriage.
Following the I-130-->CR-1 path, they can interview in the home consulate.

Re: UK citizen marrying US citizen in USA - but not going to live initially in USA
 

naaa...it's to do with residence, not where you get married, so it wouldn't matter for dcf, wouldn't know about k3 though