Planning on getting Marriage Visa in 2015... How to prepare?

[CosmicSyzygy]

My boyfriend and I are currently having to do the long-distance relationship thing. He lives in London and I'm in the United States, in Ohio. This is partly because I'm currently going for my bachelor's degree here, and partly because we probably wouldn't be able to handle the whole visa process right now. He's only just graduated from university himself. And while it's a few years off until we will tackle the visa stuff, I would like to understand the process and be prepared for it when the time comes.

We plan on getting married either right before or after I graduate in May of 2015, and it would be nice to have it work so that I can move to the UK sooner rather than later, so I can hopefully find work before I have to start paying off my student loans 6 months later. I'm not sure if I'm being overly optimistic here because I've heard the process can take several months, and if the economy isn't much better, well... We're hoping for the best.

I've done some basic research, and I think that when the time comes, we should be able to provide the proper documentation, and being an English major, knowing the language shouldn't be a problem. At this point, we wouldn't be able to meet the financial requirement. My boyfriend's current job would make him about £16,000 a year before taxes, but he's hoping to find something else in this next year that would pay better. And with me being a full-time student, I wouldn't be able to contribute more than a part-time salary. I'm not even entirely sure if any money I earn could be included in the financial requirement for sponsoring my settlement... Could it? In general, we hope to have the required financial standing when we get to that bridge. That's probably our biggest concern.

What we really need to know now is what we should have sorted and when, to make the process as easy as can be possible when we get to it. And when we do get to the point that we are married and applying for my visa, we're not entirely sure what to do and where to go initially. Would I have to go to the British Embassy, and if so, what could they do for me? It seems like such a complicated process, and I wish I could get some sort of step-by-step instructions, but I'll take whatever advice and help I can get!

[Lucapooka]

Asking random questions now (from a position of having no sound knowledge of the overall process) for something so far in the future is not a productive use of your time. You have more than two years in which to read the UKBA pages in this link. The rules will almost certainly change or be subject to adjustment during that time.