andywhitwham

Hi, a couple of years I got some great info & advice from BritishExpats.com and now I am legally married to my beautiful American wife, and have just succesfully got her 'indefinate leave to remain' visa in her passport. A big thanks to all here who helped.

This post is however not for help for me, but for a freind of mine who has met, online, an American lady he has fallen in love with and they want to marry. BUT, lots of problems. Let me explain. She has lived here in the UK (Wales) for the last 8 years. She is here on a 6 months visitors visa so has obviously overstayed for a LONG time. So a marriage here in the UK is out of the question. IF they marry in the USA personally I doubt whether she would get a spouses visa due to the long overstay. So in that case they wouldn't be able to return to the UK as she wouldnt be allowed in? Evidently she has just applied for, and got a new passport so her passport is aparently blank without stamps or visas , not 100% sure on what thats about.

They are now talking about HIM going to the American state that does 'proxy' marriages and him returning with a 'legal' marriage certificate and then them applying for a spouses visa upon his return. Personally I have alarm bells ringing with this, it seems fraught with uncertanties and I would hate for him to waste his money. They are both over 55 years old .

They have even talked about marrying in Ireland and coming back over here a married couple, but whats the point of that ? Not a good start to married life, sat waiting for a knock on the door and its the imigration people.

I have advised him to go seek proper legal advise by making an appointment with the Imigration Advisary Bureau, who my wife and I went to see and found them very useful.

Was just wondering if anyone here has been in, or knows anyone in a similar position. I would like to help this friend of mine all I can as they are a nice couple, and Ive know him for quite a while now.

Many thanks

~~ andy whitham ~

Noorah101

Your friend is welcome to join BE and post here. It's much better that way. It's difficult to advise when the information is being exchanged 3rd party.

I can't tell from your post where your friend and his wife-to-be intend to live. If they want to live in the UK, then this is not the correct forum for that. This forum is for people wanting to immigrate to the USA.

If they intend to live in the USA and are having trouble getting married in the UK, then they can return to the USA together, get married, and then he will go home to complete the Immigrant Visa. She probably would need to stay in the USA due to her long UK overstay.

But that's just my layman's guess. You are right, your friend should seek legal help.

Rene

ian-mstm

Why? If the reverse happened and she had long overstayed a visa in the US, she could still marry in the US. There are two separate issues here - marriage, and immigration. One isn't necessarily tied to the other. Since she's already in the UK, and probably well known to the people in her area, I doubt anyone would blink an eye if they were married in Wales. Perhaps that's a simplistic view of things, but they lose nothing by trying to find out whether it's possible.


She's probably hoping that, should she leave and reenter, there would be no record of her prior entry to the UK, and so the officers wouldn't be able to tie her overstay to a previous passport that she no longer uses. Faulty logic on her part!


Money aside, it's a stupid plan.


Good advice.


I believe you've helped all you should. You've advised them to seek legal counsel - and that is all you *should* do. Don't put yourself in a position where you may need to act as a witness against him.

Ian

andywhitwham

Thank-you for your posts, and I will certainly advise the both of them to register here on this Forum.

I just hope they take my advice, go and see the experts and the imigration advisory service, lay their cards on the table and listen to what comes back.

Once again, many thanks for your replies, you are great !

~~ andy whitham ~~

Noorah101

Well, only have them join and post here if their goal is to live in the USA. Otherwise, not much we can help them with, either.

Rene

Rete

Most probably it will be unlikely to occur there because you need special permission to marry a foreigner while on British soil. The 8 year overstay might make it impossible to get that permission.