garethr1989

My fiancée and I are debating about whether to get married through a civil ceremony prior to the wedding we have planned in order to get a head start on the application.

She is a Canadian citizen living near Toronto and I am a British citizen living in the UK. We originally met online but have had many in person visits, meeting friends and family, as well as her spending a 7 month period living with me and working in the UK on a working holiday visa this year so I believe we have sufficient evidence to show the relationship is genuine (trying to put that together now and seeing how big the file is likely to be is quite surprising actually).

I'm just wondering would this harm our application by having a small ceremony where there may just be her family and friends present? A ceremony like that might seem suspicious. Could that suspicion be alleviated by us providing details of the bigger wedding we are planning and stating that we are having that big celebration later in order to have time to save money and it being more convenient for my friends and family?

Our planned wedding is in May 2015 but I am visiting her over the coming Christmas period so if we were able to marry and start the application then we would have a 5 month jump start before our wedding date. I am also looking into applying for the IEC 2015 when that opens but I read that is filled very quickly so might be risky to rely on. I don't think I could afford to move and not be able to work for a potentially lengthy period, so we are trying to consider all the options to avoid going back to long distance after getting married in May.

britsnake

There is nothing suspicious about having a small Ceremony.

I have been to many small ceremonies and they are just as married as those who invite the world and his dog. Many people have small weddings as that is all they can afford or choose to spend.

As long as you are legally married and can provide proof (marriage certificate). You can satisfy them that you are married.

garethr1989

Ok thanks I didn't mean to question the idea of a small ceremony. I guess as our motivation for doing the small ceremony was to start the application earlier, I was being a little nervous of it being viewed in a different light. I think we likely go through this route should I not be successful with the IEC (or if it has not yet opened by the time I fly out to Canada).

Would you suggest still including receipts for payments that we have made towards the wedding in May as part of our evidence if we officially get married in December?

sunshinedust

We are having a small ceremony in Iceland (in a little under 8 weeks! gave my notice of marriage to my local register office today, which makes it seem all real) followed by a reception in the UK in September and an as yet unplanned reception in Canada. After spending the last year living apart we've just had enough, so we decided to tie the ceremony in with an already planned holiday to Iceland. The 6 person guest list is made up of close family members and one of my friends - we didn't expect anyone to make the trip out but we're thrilled!

On the forms we're going to provide details of the reception we have planned in the UK. By that point we'll have sent out invitations so we're going to include those, who we've sent them to, and details of the food and entertainment we have booked (a southern-style BBQ food truck and barn dance band for those interested )

With regards to small ceremonies, so long as the marriage is genuine they don't care. A close friend recently got PR, and the only people at the ceremony were her, her husband, her son and the priest!