I wish to apply for my wifes Visa who is from Pakistan, Im from the UK. All the paper work is ready however i have hit a wall. Long story short, wife got ..
married to her ex in 2014... (he was from UK)
divorced in 2017.
married to me in 2018. (This wall all done Islamically.)
Now the issue is, Islamically she got married in Pakistan, Divorced there too, so now shes free to marry again, all legal in Pakistan but, paperwork regarding UK visa started shortly after getting married to me in 2018. She Then applied to the courts for a divorce certification through a family lawyer (unfortunately an idiot) but instead ended up with a "Declaration of Divorce" Certificate instead(hence...idiot). The courts took the p*** with the case, and finally got the decision in 2019. the declaration clearly, states her first marriage start, end And my marriage date with her too. Now after speaking to a solicitor, he states that this will be an issue as the UK Home Office will only look at the date of decision and ignore the Islamic divorce despite being stated in the declaration. So according to his statement, i got married to her before she was officially divorced so the UK will not recognize my marriage, despite my Islamic marriage certificates and translations.
He recommends i apply for a fiance visa, bring her over, register my marriage with her here then apply for spouse visa and write a later stating why im applying for fiance visa.
Ive also heard from other sources that my current paperwork is sufficient for spouse visa and i should just apply and maybe write a letter explaining the situation.
she doesnt have the actual divorce certificate form the union council as of yet as the declaration was required to apply which we only received recently.
Im really stuck and dont know which route to take. Ive done everything on my own, and only saw the solicitor to check my paperwork, all was well but this.
Thanks to the Pakistani courts, this process has taken way longer than it should have, and its almost a year since I married her.
Personally i wish to apply straight for spouse visa and maybe write a letter explaining, that by Pakistani laws and islamically she was divorced and free to marry, she had no intention of getting married to someone form the UK again....until she met me, so getting paperwork ready for UK came after we got married.
Costs is also a slight issue here regarding the fiance route but i would appreciate any advice.
Please give honest advice. I would be so grateful.
Thankyou. I look forward to your responses.
