Fiancé Visa Application Guidance UK

A Fiancé visa makes it easier to get a spouse or civil partner visa later, and allows an individual to enter the UK for six months. Meaning you may start living together either before or after you get married/enter into a civil partnership. Please note that Fiancé’s on this via cannot work in the UK and their time does not count towards Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Other than that, a Fiancé can bring their child or children as their dependents. But that can only happen if they have full custody of the child or children.

A Fiancé visa UK has a relatively short duration of just six months, which means that the Home Office expects you to have started to plan your wedding before your application is submitted. You may extend your leave in reasonable circumstances, for example if an unexpected pandemic causes lockdowns to wedding/civil ceremonies. 

But you can only increase the duration by another six months. You must complete the wedding, register, and apply for a spousal visa within that time..

After the ceremony, a registered civil partner or spouse can apply for a  Spouse/Civil Partner visa. This visa has a duration of 30 months if applied for inside the UK, or 33 months if applied for outside the UK.

A Fiancé visa in the UK has very strict criteria. The important part is that these requirements are not only for the Fiancé. The sponsor also needs to meet certain conditions before applying for the Fiancé visa. 

The eligibility criteria is listed below:

Age: Both parties need to be of legal marriageable age, which is 18 years old.

Evidence that they are an approved sponsor: Copies of passports or visas will be required to evidence this. 

Proof of relationship: To apply for the UK Fiancé visa, the applicant must provide evidence of their relationship to their sponsor. You can do this by sharing communication logs, photographs of both partners together, evidence of cohabitation, shared financial commitments, or children.

Language proficiency: You need evidence that you can speak English to at least an A1 rating set by the CEFR. This must be completed via one of the approved methods, such as undertaking an approved English language test. 

Financial status: Financial status can help demonstrate that the proposed spouse or civil partner will not become a financial burden on the state. To that end, both need to have a combined annual income of at least £18,600. Just one of the partners having adequate financial support is enough. You can show bank statements or proof of assets, investments or other sources that justify your financial status.

Adequate accommodation: Living arrangements or accommodation is a necessary prerequisite for getting approved for the Fiancé visa. You need to provide proof that the sponsoring partner can provide lodging to you, and it must have at least 1 room, alternatively if you have children you will have to show that they have bed rooms as well. 

Intention: You must apply for the Fiancé visa with the intention of getting married within the six-month time frame. A verbal agreement is not enough. Evidence that you have started to schedule the wedding is required.

The Fiancé visa's financial requirements prove that you can financially support yourself without using public funds. That means you need to have enough income to stay at or above the minimum financial requirements.

For the Fiancé visa, you need to show that you or both of you together can support the expenses of two people. Additional dependents will increase this threshold, so keep that in mind. As stated above, you'll need to have an annual income equal to or more than £18,600. The first child will increase that sum by £3,800. Subsequent dependents will increase the amount by £2,400 each.

Please note that the UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Home Office needs to re-consider the financial requirements, so this requirement could change at short notice.

Anyone wanting to apply for the Fiancé visa needs to provide ample proof that their relationship with the sponsor is genuine. Proof of a genuine and subsisting relationship is one of the main requirements for the Fiancé visa.

The Home Office considers two-year relationships genuine and subsisting enough for the Fiancé visa. The two-year duration requirement also has some exceptions to allow for religious and cultural differences. The main consideration for the Home Office is, is this relationship a genuine relationship.

A Fiancé visa has a six-month time limit because the Home Office expects you to marry within that time. You may only apply for an extension if your wedding gets postponed under unforeseen circumstances. The key point is that you still need to make a genuine effort to get married within the limited time frame. 

To that end, the Home Office will require you to prove your intention to get married within the set time frame before approving the Fiancé visa. This is a non-negotiable step, so you will need to provide evidence of bookings to have any chance of being approved.

Wedding venue bookings, deposit receipts, confirmation letters of booking wedding venues or something similar will be sufficient. You may also be called into an interview to go over these points.

No amount of planning will ensure that something will happen as you envision. This is especially true for weddings, where many people need to match their times. Issues such as floods, pandemics, fires can occur to delay weddings, and the Home Office understands this.

The extended duration will give you an extra six more months for the wedding to take place. But you must provide the Home Office with a sufficiently reasonable explanation as to why your previous arrangements failed. You must also provide sufficient explanations about your future wedding plan. 

The Fiancé will need to leave the country if the visa expires before the extension is approved before the marriage. In that case, they need to leave the country and apply for the Fiancé visa again.

One of the most important parts of a Fiancé visa application is the list of necessary supporting documents for each of your claims. A Fiancé visa is tricky because it has many vaguely defined sections about the authenticity of the relationship and future intentions. 

These things are easy to claim but hard to justify with adequate proof, especially when you don't know what documents will be accepted.  For the Fiancé visa, the applicant needs to provide information about themselves, their partner, as well as any of their dependents they wish to bring along.

The below contains a list of some of the documents required:

• Your current original passport 
• Evidence of being in a genuine relationship with your sponsor
• Details of past civil partnerships, marriages, or children.
• Divorce certificates stating the termination from all past civil partnerships or marital relationships.
• Evidence of meeting the English language requirement
• Evidence of meeting the maintenance requirement

Some of these documents are easy to source for your Fiancé visa application, but the Home Office expects documents to be in a particular format containing particular information. Failing to produce the relevant documents will delay the visa processing time. This is where getting advice from a Fiancé visa lawyer will be a good idea for many people. 

Professionals can help you flexibly deal with every situation and help you pick the necessary supporting documents for your particular situation. You will also gain help formatting the documents.

All applicants need evidence that they can speak English to level A1 of the Common European Framework of Languages. There are a number of ways to do this, including completing an English Language test, having a degree taught in English and also holding a passport from a majority English speaking country.

You can apply for a Fiancé visa online from outside the UK. Fiancé Visa applications are made using an online application form. 

The steps are very simple and involve:

Step 1: Checking your eligibility.

• Consider all the eligibility options.
• Consult a Fiancé visa lawyer (due to the complexities this is highly advised).

Step 2: Procure all the necessary documents. 

Step 3: Fill out the application form online

Step 4: Pay the relevant fees the online payment

Step 5: Upload all the relevant documents you’ve gathered. 

Step 6: Attend a biometric appointment.

Step 7: Await a decision.

Those applying fiancé visa uk from outside the UK will pay £1,538 per applicant.

Yes you can and it is the only visa you will be able to apply for inside the UK. Please see further information on our Spouse/Civil Partner and Unmarried partners visas page.

There can be a number of reasons which can include:

• Missing documents or documents not in the correct format
• The Home Office not believing your relationship is genuine or that you intend to get married in the UK
• Not meeting the minimum requirements such as the income or English language requirements

An alternative is to get married outside the UK in a ceremony which is recognised by the UK and then apply for a spouse/civil partner visa. Alternatively, you may be able to apply as unmarried partners. Please see further information on our Spouse/Civil Partner and Unmarried partners visas page. 

Getting the visa on the first try can save you a lot of time and money in the future. To that end, we at WestBridge are always here to lend a helping hand. We can handle all your visa applications so that you can focus on more important things, such as the big day itself. 

We take full responsibility for your visa application by advising on supporting documents, drafting the application submission/cover letter, and liaising with the Home Office on your behalf.

• We offer fixed fees, so there are no surprise increases in fees when you receive our bill.
• Each client has a dedicated senior associate providing a comprehensive hand-holding service.
• Our service standard for replying to emails and telephone messages is one business day.