Any way to get the Certificate of Approval without a Fiance visa?

[thaumata]

Hi everyone. I'm American, engaged to a British man. We want to get married and settle in Lancaster. I'm in the UK as a tourist right now, and yesterday, we stopped in the registry office in Lancaster. They told me that I can't apply for my Certificate of Approval unless I have a Fiance Visa issued in the US. (They also told me I need to go to Manchester to get it, because the visa complicates things and they are not a designated office.)

As I understand it, this means that I'd have to go back to chicago once to get a fiance visa and then again to get my marriage visa. Is there no way to avoid making that trip twice? It's expensive and disruptive and seems extraneous if I am just going immediately to get married as soon as I am able. (We're not planning to do anything of fanfare when we get married... and with all these applications, we couldn't even if we wanted to.)

Would it be different if we went to Gretna? Is there no way to convert a fiance visa to a spousal visa without going back to the US?


Also, regarding the fiance visa: I know I can't work in the UK for six months if I have this visa. But what about telecommuting to an american job? I work for a tech company that's based in New York and even when I live in the states, I work from home, completely online. If I am still employed by them and they are paying me into an american bank account, will that affect this visa? Am I allowed to do that, assuming I am not applying for anything like a NIN here in the UK? It's a great job that's been totally awesome about my moving overseas, and I really, really, really do NOT want to quit for several months while I apply for paperwork here and pay all these fees there. (It would seem stupid to force me into unemployment before I came to the UK, too.)


Ideas? Thanks in advance! Everyone here is always so helpful!

[thaumata]

After posting this, my boyfriend emailed and said he'd been on the phone with the Home Office all morning. Here is what his email said:

"I finally got through to the Home Office, who explained what exactly we need
to do. There was conflicting advice on web pages, so I thought it better to
call and speak to someone.

The Certificate of Approval only applies if you are already in the UK, and
want to change the reasons for your visit, so if we were planning on getting
married without you going back then that's what we'd have to do. With a
Fiancée Visa though, they said that your "sole purpose of visit is to get
married", so that's all you need.

What they said was...

You need to apply for a Fiancée Visa from the British Embassy in Chicago.
That then gives you 6 months to come over here and for us to get married. We
don't need any other document than that, and we can get married in any
Registry Office we like -- having to go to Kendal was only if you didn't
have the Fiancée Visa.

Once we're married and have our Marriage Certificate, you apply for a
Marriage Visa from within the UK. They said this would cost £395 if we did
it by post -- which has a 4-14 week waiting time, or £595 if we both went in
person and got it done immediately. You need the Marriage Certificate to get
a National Insurance Number so you can officially work here, so they said
that if you wanted to work straight away then doing it in person is better.

The Marriage Visa last for 2 years, after which you need to get "Indefinite
Leave to Remain"."


So, in case anyone else has this issue, it would seem that one can convert a fiance visa to a marriage visa without going all the way home to do so.



It'd still be helpful if anyone knows about working for an american company while in the UK on a fiance visa, though.

[Bevdeforges]

Hi - if you check through some of the other threads, someone else just asked a similar question. (Only in her - I think it was a her - case, she would be in the UK on a dependent visa as a trailing spouse.)

Technically you aren't supposed to work if your visa doesn't allow you to work. And that includes telecommuting while getting paid "in the US." While I know people who have gotten away with it for a time, you need to realize that it will throw up a number of "red flags" on your US tax returns that could come back to bite you later.
Cheers,
Bev