WHM to Marriage Visa?

[cindyjlou]

My partner has been living in the UK for a year now on a working holidaymaker visa, for which the 'working' part is soon coming to an end.

I am a UK citizen and we are planning to get married but are unsure of whether he can apply for a spousal visa before his WHM visa ends.
Also, we are unsure of how long it will take to get this visa approved.

Any help would be fantastic! Thanks.

[LGHunter]

Seems to me that you cannot change visas while in the UK. You have to return to your country of origin and then apply for the next one.

I remember reading a few threads about this. If I remember correctly, it would be easier to get married in Canada, and then have your significant other apply for the spousal visa there.

The other alternative is for him to fly back to Canada, apply for the Fiancé(e) visa, fly back, get married over there within 6 months, fly back to Canada, apply for the Spouse Visa and then fly back to the UK.

As you can see, the latter is incredibly expensive. Now, I haven't been to the UK Boarder website in a while, so what I'm saying here could be redundant.

Anyone who can clarify/add/correct the above?

[cindyjlou]

Yeah, we were planning on marrying in the UK (we're in the process of applying for approval, etc.) and then he was going to fly back to Canada to apply for his new visa in the winter. We figure that's cheaper than both of us flying back to Canada to get married as we don't seem to have any barriers to getting married in the UK.

I guess I'm only worried that they will say "Oh, your WHM Visa hasn't expired yet, you have to finish that before applying for something different". You can have more than one in your passport at a time, right?

[Tripnologist]

I came over on a WHM and was married June 2008 (visa was expiring on August 2008). I was able to apply for 'Limited leave to remain' which gives me a residence permit for 2 years (I can work and use NHS). After that, I can apply for indefinite leave to remain and then after that, dual citizenship without ever leaving the UK.
(Note: For the lltr, we had to send proof not only that we were married, but that we've been living together and whatnot, so make sure you have stuff with both your names on it ie: council tax, TV license etc.)

As long as he applies and they receive the application BEFORE the WHM expires, he won't have to leave. The before part is very important. Even if you send it before the WHM expires, if it happens to expire before they receive it, the application will be automatically denied.

We were told it was best to send it well enough before (a month or two) so in the event of being denied, you can appeal.
I left it a bit late and it didn't get there until 1 week before my visa expired (they send you confirmation that it was received). They took over a month to get to it so in the gap between, where I had no valid visa, I was still permitted to stay (I had checked this with home office twice to be certain).

Hope this helps some. I'd recommend researching it a bit and calling the helpline to be certain that nothing has changed in the last little while.

[Lady Yorkshire]

Hi,

This is a question/comment for Tripnologist:

I was told (by the UK immigration office) that I can't change my current WHM visa into a spouse visa. Essentially, I have to go back to Canada and apply for the new visa there (I was also told I can't apply for anything while I'm still in the UK).

How were you able to do it? Or am I making things too complicated? Should I be looking for a different kind of visa?

Cheers

-- Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:15 pm --

Hi everyone,

I answered my own questions and thought I would post an update.

After calling the UKBA hotline again, my husband and I were told that yes, I can make an appointment at a UKBA visa office since the WHM visa is considered to be a long stay visa.

So I did. I had to wait 4 weeks and went to Liverpool. I had a copy of our marriage certificate, my husband's latest pay slips, a copy of our lease agreement and some other documents (not that they really checked. I was told that they were only interested in financial documents. BUT the UKBA does have a checklist of all the documents you need to take with you).

I opted for the premium enrolment which costs more money, but it was processed on the same day. You can also do it by mail, but the UKBA office reserves the right to take up to 6 months to process everything.

At the end of it, I walked away with having my spouse visa approved. Now they issue identity cards for certain visas and the spouse one is one of them. That is mailed to you within a week.

So if you are advised to go back to Canada to apply for the spouse visa there, wait and call the hotline again! I wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't read this thread when I did.