Spouse visa; applying before the wedding

[dandyday]

Hi!

I am Canadian living in Winnipeg, getting married here to a Brit in July 09, then moving to the UK. We are thinking of getting legally married 3 months before the wedding and applying for a spousal visa so it's ready by the time I will actually be leaving Canada.
My questions: Will my finace need to be with me in Ottawa to apply (I'm assuming I need to go to the Ottawa embassy to get the biometric data stuff done)? Is there an interview process for spouse visa applications?
OR
I will be in the UK this Christmas. Can we get legally married in the UK, have the biometric stuff done there, then apply for spouse visa once I am back in Canada?

Thanks for your help; we are just trying to avoid consultant fees with all these Qs! I've checked out the UK gov. visa website.are there any other good online info sources?

[zanthe]

You can apply for a unmarried spousal visa, so as long as you have been living together for a few years. I've also looked into the spousal visas and when appling for in the UK (might be the same from Canada) you have 3 months (I think) before you have to get married. I am from Winnipeg as well, but luckily I came to the Uk just before they introduced the need for biometric data, so unfortunaly I don't know where they would send you, Ottawa seems a bit far though, I would think they would have somewhere closer or some other way to get around that, maybe giving it in the airport when you arrive to UK. I'd look into that more, I know there are offices in Alberta that do biometrics.