It normally takes 5 years for a holder of a spousal visa to obtain a British passport. After 2 years and 9 months (when applying for a visa outside England) or after 2 years and 6 months (when applying within the country), the visa must be extended. If all the necessary conditions are met after 5 years of entry into the United Kingdom, it is possible to apply for permanent residence and immediately after that they can apply for citizenship in the UK.
In this case, the couple after 2.5 years and 5 years after the arrival of a foreign spouse in England will need to provide proof that their marriage still exists, they are living together and their joint income is at least £18,600 a year.
In conclusion, as promised, we will talk about fictitious marriage in the UK and the prospects of this mode of immigration.
The perils of a sham marriage
Fictitious marriage might seem like the ideal option if you’re unable to fulfil your dreams of living in the UK any other way. However, as mentioned above, the UK authorities actively discourage such marriages and families with foreign spouses applying for permanent residency and citizenship come under a lot of scrutiny.
There are several pieces of legislation in the UK that classify an alien who has moved to the country through a sham marriage as an offender. Therefore, if the fraud is discovered, you are likely to serve time in prison before being deported to your home country and banned from re-entering for a very long time. Of course, no one will move to take harsh measures without a court decision.
How a sham marriage is defined
On what grounds do the controlling and judicial authorities decide that your marriage is not real? Although the lack of an intimate relationship, according to recent legal precedents, is not considered evidence of a sham marriage in the UK, examining authorities can determine from other clear signs that your marriage bond exists only on paper. These include:
Separation;
Infrequent and brief communication between spouses;
Refusal by one of the partners to support his/her spouse financially;
A declaration by one of the spouses that the marriage is fictitious;
The apparent incompetence of the British spouse – for example, where a sham marriage has been entered into with a mentally ill person who is not aware of his or her actions;
The foreign spouse has a husband or wife in their home country whose marriage has not been dissolved.
It is for this reason that when you apply for your wife’s visa to England, you will be required to prove the authenticity of your relationship (joint photos, witnesses who are aware of your relationship, jointly paid utility bills, etc.).
We hope that we have convinced you of the futility and even danger of moving to the UK through a sham marriage. So do your best to make sure that the British immigration authorities have a false suspicion about your “unit of society”.
Keep in mind that the British spousal visa is considered one of the most difficult visas to apply for. So be meticulous and considerate at all stages of applying for your wife’s visa to England and then your union and bright feelings will not be marred by long waits, unnecessary expenditure of money and nerves.
