Misrepresentation Spouse Visa

[Esther1985]

Hello,

I sponsored my 'husband' for a spouse visa but found out he's already married in the USA. His legal wife notified HO. I knew he was in a relationship but not that he was married. I married him in the Bahamas last year and quickly applied for settlement visa.

Can I withdraw application?

Could he be banned?

Will he be charged with a crime? He lives in the USA.

We did have a relationship but he's legally married. I'm a British citizen.

[alterhase58]

Hello,

I sponsored my 'husband' for a spouse visa but found out he's already married in the USA. His legal wife notified HO. I knew he was in a relationship but not that he was married. I married him in the Bahamas last year and quickly applied for settlement visa. He is now in the UK?

Can I withdraw application? Yes - https://www.gov.uk/cancel-visa

Could he be banned? If he is convicted of bigamy.

Will he be charged with a crime? He lives in the USA. Bigamy is a a crime there too I believe.

We did have a relationship but he's legally married. I'm a British citizen. Relationship is not a legal concept.

[Esther1985]

Hello. Thanks for responses.

He's not in the UK. He's in the US awaiting decision from HO. His wife contacted me and told me she reported it to HO.

He didn't state that he was already married on application so I think that's considered deception. I'm not sure if wife has reported bigamy to local police to facilitate a conviction.

His wife reported that I knew he was married, I didn't, but they were living together. I knew that. She's wanting me charged with facilitation.

I will reach out to HO and cancel but could I still be charged with facilitation?

[Frontier Mole]

You can not be charged with facilitating his entry unless you were party to a known attempt for him to gain entry under deception. That would have to be evidenced and put to you to defend. There are no fishing trip arrests on this where the person has not yet been granted leave and / or attempted or has entered the country.

His wife is obviously throwing accusations around to make everyone panic.

Your story is however less than credible. The circumstance you describe does have a ring of nonsense or naivety to it. You knew he was in a relationship with someone else but married him... then in your own words quickly applied for a Spouse visa. It is not what a rational person does so it could quite easily look like you were attempting to facilitate his entry.

Withdrawal of sponsorship as a spouse will kill off his application but that was going to end in refusal in any case by the looks of it. He will still be refused and it will be under deception so he will not be coming to the UK for the next ten years. Probably spending some of those years in jail by the looks of it,

You will also need to get your marriage annulled on the basis of bigamy.

[Esther1985]

Thanks. Honestly, we dated yrs ago and I wanted to rekindle what we had. I believed him when he said he and wife, whom he presented as girlfriend, were breaking up. I married him quickly to get him away from her. Selfish. Stupid. I know. I genuinely wasn't trying to commit an immigration crime. I do worry that it could look like facilitation.

[Frontier Mole]

I am confident no one is coming after you from a Home Office crime team any time soon.

Just follow through on withdrawal of support but most importantly you need to contact the authorities in Bahamas to get the marriage annulled. I can’t stress how important doing that is. Believe me even if it involves getting evidence from his wife to prove he was married to do so.

[Esther1985]

Thanks. I will. His wife would never do anything to help me. She's expressed that she'll convince HO I knew of his marital status especially since none of his family attended wedding though they were around. I've never met any of his family. She initially thought he paid me but he didn't. I got myself in this and will try to get out. But I'm confident his wife would be the last person to help me. Thanks for everything.