In this video, Latitude Law's Jessica Lee explains the differences between a partner visa and a fiancé visa, including the different requirements, application processes and fees.
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My partner is a British citizen, and we are getting married. Is it better to apply for a Fiancé visa or a Spouse visa?
Hi, this is Jessica at Latitude Law, and today we'll be looking at the question of a partner visa versus a fiancé visa. For anybody planning to enter into a marriage or civil partnership with a person who's a British citizen or settled in the UK, they might wish to apply for leave as a partner or to apply as a fiancé or proposed civil partner. The process and fees vary depending on the two options, and we'll discuss both below.
The first option would be to marry or enter into a civil partnership outside the UK and then apply for entry clearance as a partner. In that case, for the marriage or civil partnership to be recognized as valid in the UK, it would need to be recognized as a legally valid marriage in the country where it was conducted. Provided that the marriage or civil partnership is recognized as legally valid in the country where it took place, then the Home Office, when a person is applying for entry clearance, should also recognize it as valid. The person can then apply for entry clearance as a partner.
They will need to provide evidence with the application that they've entered into a marriage or civil partnership, for example, a marriage certificate, along with the usual evidence such as that they're in a genuine subsisting relationship, financial evidence, evidence of suitable accommodation in the UK, evidence of English language ability, and the TB test if applicable. A Home Office application fee for entry clearance as a partner is currently £1,846. An applicant will also need to pay the immigration health surcharge, which for this type of visa would be £3,105 at the moment. If the application is successful, an applicant will be issued with a vignette visa valid for 90 days, and they'll need to travel to the UK within that period. Once they come to the UK, they'll be issued with a biometric residence permit (BRP) confirming their additional two and a half years grant of leave, meaning that in total with this type of application, you will be granted 2 years and 9 months leave.
Before the end of this period, you would need to extend this leave from within the UK, so make a further application before the expiry of your leave, and up to 28 days before that leave expires. If you're granted on the 5-year route to settlement, then after 5 continuous years of leave in the UK, you will be eligible to apply to settle.
The other option would be to apply as a fiancé or proposed civil partner to then marry or enter into a civil partnership within the UK. This should not be confused with a marriage visit visa. As the name suggests, a marriage visit visa is purely for those who wish to visit the UK for the purposes of marriage but then leave at the end of that visit. With a marriage visit visa, any further application requires you to leave the UK and apply from outside the UK, whereas a fiancé or proposed civil partner visa allows you to remain in the country and switch once you have married or entered into a civil partnership.
When applying for a fiancé or proposed civil partner visa, you must satisfy all the usual requirements of a partner visa: financial requirements, genuine subsisting relationship, English language, accommodation, and TB tests if required. The difference is that you are essentially saying that you will meet the partner requirement once you've entered into a marriage or civil partnership and that you'll be doing that within six months of arriving in the UK. You would therefore also need to show evidence that you plan to marry or enter into a civil partnership within that period and will need to provide evidence of this, for example, booking of a wedding venue and arrangement of an appointment to give notice to marry.
The application fee for this type of visa is again £1,846, but there is no immigration health surcharge at this stage. If the application is successful, an applicant will be issued with a six-month visa. They will need to come to the UK within that period and enter into a marriage or civil partnership within those six months. Before the end of the six-month period, they will then need to submit an application in-country to switch into the partner route, and the marriage or civil partnership will need to have taken place by that date, as evidence of this will need to be provided with the application along with all the usual evidence for partner applications: updated financial evidence, evidence of accommodation, English language, and TB test. They will also need to pay the Home Office fee, which for an in-country application is £1,048 currently. At this stage, the immigration health surcharge will be payable at £2,560 currently. If the application is successful, it will result in a grant of two and a half years leave, and as with the entry clearance for a partner, this will need to be extended prior to expiry and no more than 28 days beforehand.
Applicants who have been granted on the five-year route can apply to settle after five years of continuous residence in the UK. It’s important to note that any leave spent in the UK with leave as a fiancé or proposed civil partner does not count towards the five-year settlement period; it would only start once a person has been granted leave as a partner.
Lastly, it is important to note that if you have been living with your partner for 2 years, you may not need to wait to marry before you are able to apply for entry clearance as a partner. It may be possible to apply from outside the UK as an unmarried partner, which would result in the same grant of leave as if you were already married. You would then not need to go through the fiancé or proposed civil partner route, and you could still marry in the UK if you wished.
If you want any more information about this, then please get in touch with Latitude Law.