Marrying an International Student...

[gimli]

Hi everyone

Two years ago these boards helped us sort out my partners student visa application and we got a lot of useful information from people on the site who had a lot of answers, now I'm hoping that I can 'pick the brains' of more of those people to get some new info.

My partner is a US citizen and she moved here to last August to study a higher education course. She is originally from Hong Kong but has lived in the US for about 14 years and the application for the student visa was done through the US passport office in New York.

We have been together now for two years and have decided to get married as we are both previously divorced and would like to start a family before we get past that stage.

What seems unclear now is, as she is here on the student visa, what should our next step be, do I need to change the visa to a fiance visa or something else, should we just get married first an then apply for the spouse visa and can this be done through switching.

Since August, we have had joint accounts, same billing address etc, my statement was on her visa application although not a sponsor.

any help here would be much appreciated and we plan to marry sometime around June.

One other question (for now, I'm sure more to come ) Do we need to notify her embassy or something like that, so that tax in the US like the IRS etc are notified. We are going out to Hong Kong in the summer and plan to do a lot of paperwork there such as registering her new surname etc for the Hong Kong identity card etc. We also need to get that sorted so that she can legally drive over here without needing to retest again after one year.

I'm so sorry if this post is a little long but we really hope for some advice here,

Have a good week all

[paulp]

Your girlfriend applies for a Certificate of Approval, you get married in the UK and then apply for a spouse visa.

[gimli]

Thanks, sounds simple!, What is an Approval Certificate, where do I get it from and how long does this usually take. Cant say this has cropped up on the HO web pages we have looked at but maybe we missed it

Thanks again

[yankeegirl]

http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/visiti ... fapproval/

A certificate of approval is a document from the Home Office that grants permission to a non-EU national to marry in the UK. It is required in order to marry here. I'm not sure of the processing time for COA's, I *think* it's approximately 4 weeks for straightforward applications (ie: applicant is legally in the UK, as your partner is)

Once you get that, you can make the arrangements and get married.

After the marriage has taken place, your partner can switch to a spouse visa using form FLR(M) on the BIA site. Just be sure to have the FLR application sent in before her student visa expires.

As far as the US goes, she doesn't have to notify anyone. She doesn't have to change the name in her passport, though she certainly can if she chooses to. Same thing with her Social Security card; it only has to be changed if she chooses to do so. However, she will have to make the spouse application under the name in her passport. In my case, my passport and visa are in my maiden name (I still had 5 years left before my passport expired) but I had no problem having a bank account etc here in the UK with my married name, I just showed them the passport and marriage certificate.

Taxes. The IRS don't have to be notified, thought she obviously won't be able to file as single after you guys are married. Assuming that you've never lived/worked in the US or have any US income, she should be able to file as "married, filing seperately" and under the spouses SS number, just put "NRA" non-resident alien.

[gimli]

Thanks for the info and the address for the site, downloaded the forms already. boy, does the government make money out of these applications or what, charges for changing visas is crazy, then the spouse visa as well.

Ok not sure now if the COA will affect my partners student visa as it currently stands, 19 months to go on that one and her US passport runs out just after that so a name change can wait until then as there is no rush, as long as it does not affect her traveling to the US in between.

So let me make sure I understand this right, we apply for the COA, when its granted, (takes about 4 weeks) we can get married. Do I then need to immediately apply for the spouse visa and does that get changed right away, (I know for another big fee, tut(£335)). Does her status then change, ability to work full time etc. She has a year left on her course minimum unless she goes on to do another year, and we want to get that finished.

Any idea if this affects the fees she will have to pay as well, as currently she pays the international fees.

Again thanks very very much for the help on this we really appreciate it very very much.

[sakura]

Any idea if this affects the fees she will have to pay as well, as currently she pays the international fees.

Marriage to a British citizen would have absolutely no bearing on her fees status - it would remain as "International" until she obtains ILR. What is she currently studying for (e.g. bachelors, etc).

Is she a US permanent resident? Does she plan to apply for US citizenship?

[vinny]

Immediately apply for FLR(M) after marriage. She may work full time after her FLR(M) is granted. Unfortunately, as sakura stated, she will not be eligible for Home fees yet.

[gimli]

Thank you both Vinny and sakura.

My partner is studying Higher Ed doing her degree. She initially started doing further education but after a few weeks, she found the work a little to basic and the uni wanted to switch her to the Higher ed. The idea for this was even though she is an american citizen, been living there 15 odd years she is originally from Hong Kong so even though her english is fine, she wanted to work on her written grammar.

Now here's my point.
Just before switching courses, the international officer at the uni clearly stated that if a student is living with their partner, proof required such as council tax, joint accounts, utility bills in joint names etc, that international fees would be transfered to normal fees. Now I work in education myself and this seemed strange to me so on further investigation and probing I found out that this scheme is due for starting in England, Wales, where we are from, will be forced to follow suite as students in wales would be severely disadvantaged.

I am still looking into this and will have an IN-DEPTH meeting with the international officer so whatever I find out I will post. I willtry and get some documantation if they have it there, scan it and pass it on.

FLR?

Thanks again for the advice and help

[gimli]

One other point not clear on, the Certificate of Approval, gratefully passed on by yankeegirl, seems a little vague on certain points.

It seems it is not needed if your partner is already in the UK on a different visa which is over 6 Months.

If you get married in church you dont need to obtain the COA.

Anyone know if this is right?

Thanks

[yankeegirl]

2. I WANT TO GET MARRIED OR REGISTER MY CIVIL PARTNERSHIP IN THE UK AND I AM ALREADY IN THE COUNTRY
2.1 If you have settled status in the UK (free of any restriction on the period for which you may remain, and with, for example, indefinite leave to enter or remain) then you will not require a certificate of approval for marriage or civil partnership in order to be able to give to a registrar notice to marry or register your civil partnership.
2.2 If you don't have settled status in the UK, you will need to apply for a certificate of approval from the Home Office.

This is from the guidance notes on the BIA site. It used to be that if you held a visa valid for 6 months or less (like a visitor visa) they would not grant it, though this is not necessarily true anymore. In a nutshell, any non-EU citizen that does not have settled status (indefinite leave to remain) needs to have a certificate of approval. This applies for everyone from students to work permit holders.

The church issue varies from church to church. It only applies to CoE, but many Church of England churches are still requiring that the person wishing to marry has the CoA. If you are a member of a church, it wouldn't hurt to go in and speak with someone to see what they require, but don't be suprised if they ask that you apply for a CoA before they agree to marry you.

[gimli]

Thanks again YankeeGirl. We have downloaded the forms now for the COA everything and are awaiting a letter from Vermont State as it seems that my partners divorce absolute is a copy and it needs to be an original I guess to sent off with the application. All this because a small amendment was added and they never sent the new absolute just a copy. Thankfully got hold of them today and they will send out the original but it looks like we will need to put our dates back a little

Thanks again all