The British Court of Appeal has today struck down a terrible Home Office rule that seriously affected my husband and I when we were trying to get married in 2005. The law made all people living in Britain who were born outside the EU (so me, as an American) apply to the Home Office for permission to marry a British citizen.
The rules were rather draconian as well. We had to provide Tim’s bank statements, my bank statements and I had to have 3 months or more on my current (student at the time) visa. Unfortunately we didn’t see that bit and we were exactly 13 days too late in applying. This meant I had to quit my job, fly home to Arkansas and apply for a fiance visa from the British Consulate. The whole process meant a month in Arkansas earning no income and away from my husband-to-be. While it was a nice month-long holiday for me it was still not something I enjoyed having to do. I spent Christmas and New Year’s away from my dearest.
After all that was done, we still had to apply again to the Home Office for my limited leave to remain visa which on top of the fees for the fiance visa and declined right-to-marry application totalled nearly £1,000, which we could have spent on a nice honeymoon which we didn’t even get to have because of all the mess we had to go through.
I am very glad that no other foreigners living in Britain will have to go through the same ordeal we did.