UK Marriage Visitor Visa

With a Marriage Visitor Visa, you can:

• Marry or enter into a civil partnership in the UK within 6 months of your arrival
  • You must do this at a licensed venue
• Pass through the UK in transit on your way to another country

Note that you cannot:

• Access public funds, such as benefits
• Bring in family members or dependants with your Marriage Visitor visa
  • If you wish to bring family members with you to the UK, they must apply for their own visa separately
• Live in the UK for extended periods through frequent visits
• Extend your visa or switch to another visa
• Work – except for permitted activities related to your work or business overseas, such as attending meetings
• Study

To be eligible for the Marriage Visitor visa, you must meet all of the following criteria:

• You’re 18 or over
• You’re free to give notice of marriage, to marry or enter into a civil partnership in the UK within 6 months of your arrival
• You’re in a genuine relationship
• You’ll be visiting the UK for less than 6 months
• You’ll leave the UK at the end of your visit
• You’ll not live in the UK for extended periods through frequent or successive visits, or make the UK your main home
• You’re able to support yourself during your trip (or have funding from someone else to support you)
• You’re able to pay for your return or onward journey (or have funding from someone else to pay for the journey)
• You have proof of any other activities you want to do in the UK, as allowed by the Visitor Rules

Note that you must also provide at least 28 days’ notice of your intention to marry or enter into a civil partnership at a designated registry office.

You will need to provide a range of documents when applying for your UK Marriage Visitor visa, including the following:

• Valid passport or travel document
• Proof that you’re planning to get married in the UK, such as a booking confirmation or emails between you and the venue
• Details of the marriage or civil partnership and proof that you’ve paid money for some of its costs
• Details of where you intend to stay in the UK
• Evidence of future plans for the relationship, such as where you intend to permanently reside
• Proof that you can support yourself financially throughout your visit
• Proof that you’re able to marry or form a civil partnership if you’ve been married or in a civil partnership before
  • This may be through something like a decree absolute or a death certificate of a previous partner

Note that depending on your personal circumstances, you may also be expected to provide additional documents not listed here.

You must also provide translations of any documents that are not in either English or Welsh.

It costs £100 to obtain a Marriage Visitor visa.

If you need to cancel your application, it’ll only be possible to receive a refund if the application hasn’t been processed yet.

Once you’ve applied online, proved your identity and provided your documents, you’ll usually get a decision on your application within 3 weeks. However, this period of time may be longer depending on how busy the Home Office is when processing applications.

You can check up-to-date waiting times by consulting the UK government’s page on visa decision wait times.

After your Marriage Visitor visa application is processed, you will receive an email or a letter stating whether your application has been approved or refused.

If your application is approved, you will receive either a sticker (called a vignette) that goes in your passport, or access to view your immigration status information online if you used the smartphone app to prove your identity.

These will show you the type of visa you’ve been granted, the start and end dates, as well as the conditions of your visa.

If your application is refused, you will receive a letter or an email outlining the reasons why.

This letter will also explain if you have the right to either an administrative review or an immigration decision appeal, if you feel like your visa refusal was unjust.

For more information about appealing your visa refusal, and how to go about the process, get in touch with one of our immigration advisers today on 0333 305 9375, or contact us online.