You can't get married on a visitor visa.

A fiance visa is good for 6 months during which time you must marry. You can't work whilst on a fiance visa. After you marry you apply for FLR-further leave to remain-and once that visa is granted then you can work. If you apply for FLR by post it could take months to receive. If you manage to get an in person appointment, it is usually issued same day.

Alternatively, you can marry elsewhere and apply for a spouse visa from your home country. Once it is issued you can join your spouse in the UK and work immediately.

 

You can't marry on a visitor visa, nor can you work - and you must return overseas before you can apply for a family-route visa. The fiancé visa (the first of the family route visas) allows you 6 months in the UK in which to marry but you still cannot work until you're granted the first of two Further Leave To Remain (FLR) visas after you marry (which you can apply for from within the UK as soon as you are married). Each FLR visa lasts 2.5 years during which you can work, and after 5 years you can then apply for Indefinite Leave To Remain (ILR).

Alternatively, you could marry overseas and THEN apply to come to the UK as spouse of a UK citizen (ie skip the first fiancé visa and enter on the first of the two 2.5 year visas after you are married). If granted, you would be able to work immediately. Both the fiancé and spouse visa routes require that the UK citizen earns at least £18,600 equivalent per year, or that between you there is £62,500 in savings (held for at least 6 months in an immediate-access bank account).

 

Here is an "estimated wait" clock for the New York hub (where North American applications are sorted for processing).. it's updated fairly frequently (as often as daily and as infrequently as every 5-7 days).

35 days (business days, or roughly 7 weeks/just under 2 months) may seem like a long time, but it's not so bad when you consider that about a month ago the wait was closer to 10 weeks.

If you're really impatient to have your application processed fast, then you could see if you're eligible for priority settlement service... this extra fee service must be purchased before you send in your application and biometrics and you must submit proof of purchase in your application package and mark the outside shipping envelope with the words "Priority Settlement Service".

If you don't pre-purchase priority service before you submit your application, your application will be sent on from New York to Sheffield for consideration and the UKBA is unable to return applications to New York for retrospectively purchased Priority service. (Priority applications are processed in New York).

 

Thanks for your replies! So the wait time on that clock is for visa applications from the USA? We're we to marry in the USA before exit? What is the wait time for applying for the FLR once in the UK and is there a further fee? (is the getting married abroad route the fastest, for work and the cheapest?)

 

Getting married in the US does not require a visa if you don't intend to make it your permanent residence. There are minimal residency requirement to marry in the US. If you marry in the US you have to apply for the spouse visa from the US and once it is issued you can travel to the UK. If you go this route, you can work as soon as you arrive in the UK with your spouse visa. One visa, one fee. In the long run, you will need an additional FLR in 2.5 years and then ILR after a total of 5 years and citizenship if you want it but it's not mandatory. So, 2 visas plus ILR, 3 fees. Citizenship is optional plus an extra fee.

If you want to marry in the UK then you must first apply for a fiance visa from the US. Once that is granted and you arrive in the UK you will have 6 months to marry during which time you cannot work. Once married, you apply for FLR and once granted you can work. As I have already stated if you apply for FLR by post you can wait months, with an in person appointment the visa is usually issued same day. Two visas, two fees plus and extra fee is you go for an in person appointment. Again, in the long run you will need an additional FLR in 2.5 years and then ILR after a total of 5 years and citizenship if you want it but it's not mandatory. So, 3 visas plus ILR, 4 fees.Citizenship is optional plus an extra fee.

 

Here on the timeslines of people waiting for FLR (M) 2012 - 2013 https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=75F308518B974499!129&app=Excel&authkey=!AHkYNKcUStdWcB0