Question about UK Marriage Visitor Visa Refusal

After seeing my comment on this question, @GayotFow shared his view of the issue via his blog, about the refusal of your fiancés Marriage Visitor Visa (MVV).

The OP is a British national whose fiance is in India and they want to use an MVV for the fiance to come the UK and get married. This throws up a flag right off the bat…

Background. The MVV was invented in 2005 because Parliament found a no other way to accommodate a specific scenario: A couple where both parties were non-EU nationals want to come to the UK and get married at a destination venue (such as a romantic castle in Scotland) and then leave the UK. The hospitality lobby had successfully argued that without a visa like this the hotel and catering industry would suffer a loss of revenue. So this visa was created and enacted.

British nationals who want to marry a non-EU spouse are meant to use the existing fiance visa rules given in Appendix FM. But these rules have a hefty fee attached to them and therein lies the confusion. People look at the various options and see that a UK fiance visa fee is about GBP 1,500, whereas the fee for an MVV is only about GBP 90. So the MVV is obviously the way to go, right?

Well, no. The fiance visa gives the holder the right to stay in the UK lawfully once the couple are married and then to apply from within the UK for a spouse visa. The holder of a spouse visa can take employment, and receive permanent residence (indefinite leave to remain, or ILR) after 5 years. And then they can apply for British nationality on the next day! The holder of an MVV gets none of those things.

But for some, it’s worth the difference in price to come to the UK, get married, and then use Article 8 (human rights) to remain in the UK. When this happens, the path to ILR is extended to 10 years. Of course the applicant’s credibility is stained, but for lots of people this aspect doesn’t mean very much as they are just starting out in life. I have been saying that it may be worth it for a very small number of cases, but 10 years is an awfully long time to hold out in a perilous immigration status with a new marriage. But if it works, it works, right?

Well, sort of. But if the strategy is to get in cheaply and to use Article 8, then the SVV costs the same and leaves their credibility largely intact, or at least more so than the outright abuse of an MVV.

Anyway, back to topic…

Reading the refusal notice I find myself repeating the mantra that “ECO’s are not idiots”. Here we have two people who want to get married. Option 1 is to send the Brit to India, get married, and return to the UK. Option 2 is to send the Indian to the UK, get married, and (optimistically stated) return to India. Any way you cut it Option 1 is somewhere between GBP 300 – GBP 400 cheaper than Option 2. So what’s the rationale for wanting Option 2? How is it that somebody with GBP 169 in the bank proposes to spend 300 – 400 pounds more to accomplish the same thing? Unless it’s to accomplish something different. Or is the ECO not supposed to notice those things? I suppose there’s an explanation that justifies an irrational plan like that, but they didn’t include it in the application.

Next we come to the point Giorgio raised… they instructed a solicitor, this is great and part of my standing advice for over two decades. So what in heaven’s name are they doing on the net asking random strangers for ideas and advice? eh? EH?

Finally (and perhaps mercifully) we arrive at my final nitpick. In comments, the OP writes…

He would be arriving in March, or the end of February (depending on if the application is approved) and we would leave for India together at the end of April/beginning of May as he has examinations in May

Let’s do the arithmetic. 7 days residency required in order to give notice plus 28 – 70 days for the notice period (more if something is turned up). That gives us somewhere between 35 to 77 days before the marriage can take place. Then add 3 – 5 days slippage to book the celebrant. His exams in India start in May. The rest is left as an exercise for the reader.

Bottom line: as a UK citizen, use of this route is abusive, which a solicitor versed in UK immigration law will recognize. A second application in the same category will likely have the same result, a refusal, and repeated refusals affect him, not you. For your future together, you may need to rethink your short term plans so that your long term goals are not affected negatively.