Fiance / marriage visa advice for overstayer

tariro · Post by **tariro** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:32 pm

Please help me with some advice. i have been trying to find out about this for ages and have had no luck!
My fiance has been in the UK since 2002. he originally came from zimbabwe on a holiday and never went back (no surprise looking at the situation there now!), so he has overstayed for about 6 years now.
we have been together now for 3 years, we rent a house together and we want to get married.
how do we go about getting a visa for him to be here without him having to go back to his country?? is this possible? i am a british citizen and have lived here all my life, we also have a new born baby together.
PLease help with some advice on what we can do. he does not want to go back to apply for a visa from zimbabwe as we are worried this way he may not be allowed back. there must be something we can do?
i read somewhere that we can marry here and then apply for an indefinate stay for him, is this correct and if so how do we do it?
i know there are many people out there in the same situation and i am hoping someone can help us. we are desperate to sort this, especially as we now have the baby and want to travel places.

Post by **vinny** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 3:56 am

See also Chikwamba v. Secretary of State for the Home Department

tariro · Post by **tariro** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:05 pm

sorry, i have read that link and need more advice. does this mean we need to marry before we should do anything? if so how can this happen, do we not need some kind of status proof to get married?

ira · Post by **ira** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:08 pm

I am Ukrainian citizen and leave in UK I have spouse visa and it will end by 2010, however I am getting divorce now with my husband and by UK Law I do not have any rights if I am no longer his wife. Right now I am living with my fiancÃ© he is EU citizen and this summer we would like to get married, I am a little bit concern what the process now to get married in UK is? Can you tell me, do I qualify for a Certificate of Approval for marriage from Home Office? We would like to get married here. And also how do I apply for this kind of certificate? Thank you

ciaramc · Post by **ciaramc** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:42 pm

Tariro - So your future husband has no status in the UK??? Has he ever applied for asylum???

I sure he will need a CoA to mary in the UK! Have a read of the link below....or use the search function and see if there are any similar stories to yours (I'm positive there are)...and there outcome?

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

ciaramc · Post by **ciaramc** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:54 pm

Ira - Have you actually divorced your current husband?? What nationality is he?

If he is a European citizen exercising treaty rights in the UK and you have been married more than 3 years? Then you may have a right to retention?

I can't understand from your post if he (you spouse) is a UK national or EU national?
Can you explain your circumstances a bit clearer? As from your post it seems you have not been in the UK that long?

ira · Post by **ira** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:24 pm

to tariro:
Weâ€™ve been married for 4 year now, my husband EU citizen; however he left UK 2 and a half years ago, back to his country (Spain); I donâ€™t think that I may have the
right to retention as there would be no evidence of him working in UK during all this time that we are married, and now I have fiancÃ© and I decide to divorce, my fiancÃ© EU citizen working and leaving in UK.
[/quote]

tariro · Post by **tariro** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:43 pm

Ciaramc -
He came to the UK on a holiday visa and never returned. so he has overstayed by about 6 years. he has never claimed for anything as does not know how to go about it from the UK.

SUB-ZERO · Post by **SUB-ZERO** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:22 pm

When he entered,was he given any problems at the airport?How long was the visa valid for?Its a really tight situation,the problem is that he is an overstayer and so if you want to get married,you need permission from the home office!this were it becomes tricky,if you apply it will alert them(HO)that there is an overstayer living with you and it will trigger a deportation order against him and they will have no problems paying you guyz a visit.The chikwamba case law does work sometimes just depends on how your case is presented by a barrister,whats worse is you guyz aint married.His case will have to go to court,he can argue on article 8 that it breaches his human rights.Seek professional help.The was a zimbabwean girl on this forum who left the uk at her own expense,she and her british born boyfriend left for zimbabwe in november 08 to get married and applied for a spouse visa,it was granted and she was back before xmas,its faster to get married abroad and apply for a visa from outside uk.Given the situation in zim,it is very scary indeed.You need a kick @ss lawyer to argue your case if you choose to apply in country,If money is no object,then go for it.

Is he working?,if yes then he needs to quit,if he gets caught at work or his employer sends out his details to the UKBA/HOME OFFICE.It will
be a 10 year ban from entering uk or worse prison then deportation!It will affect his application in a huge way.The government is really putting a tight grip on enforcing immigration rules.He should act now because things are getting tougher and tougher for illegal immigrants.keep us informed.

goodluck

p.s how old is he?

tariro · Post by **tariro** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:52 pm

WHen he came to the UK he had no problems at all, but was only here on a holiday visa valid for 2 weeks! he had family here and so decided to study here and then work. he is 26 years old now and so am i. we have a 2 month old baby together.
he is working as we need the money as i cant support us both myself.

he does have a relative who was in the same situation as here who married a romanian girl here in the UK and he has now got a visa for indefinate stay here in UK. does it make a difference that the wife was not a UK citizen either?

so in other words we our best option is to take a trip to zim, get married there and then apply for the visa and hopefully we should be back pretty quickly. can we then have a wedding here too as our family members are not all aware of his situation so we wanted a big wedding here in the UK???

i really appreciate your help as we want to get this sorted now so we can just be a family with no worries about work, status etc.

twostars · Post by **twostars** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 3:29 pm

To be honest Tariro, going back to Zimbabwe would be much faster than COA application and Chikwamba.

I overstayed for 6 years and went back to Zim to get married and got my spouse visa in 3 days.

For a list of supporting documents we sent with the application see link below.
It was a bit over the top but we did not want to take any chances. All the documents were put together neatly in a very thick folder by the time we were done!

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... ht=#242311

It took us a couple of months to put the documentation together but we read this forum and had an immigration advisory service adviser check the documentation and supply a supporting letter for the application.

You may need to consider going to Zim. All the best!

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Fiance / marriage visa advice for overstayer

Fiance / marriage visa advice for overstayer

can anyone help me on this?