Hello Dia
I guess you are worried more than you should. You need to relax a bit because this marriage thing in UK is not so complicated or confusing as you think. Its pretty straight forward.

According to UK legislation, every non-EEA citizen must get a Certificate Of Approval before getting married here. As you both are not EU citizens so this rule applies to both of you. You both must apply for COA before you could get married in UK.
Your boyfriend's being on a student visa in UK doesn't matter. He can still apply for COA and get married.

You just have to fill out the forms, ( you can download them from the Home Office website ) deposit the fee and send them alongwith your passports to Home Office. The process, according to Home Office in theory, may take from to 3 to 14 weeks but a few couples I know got it within a month. So if you plan to come to UK to get married, you should provide upto six weeks for getting COA to be on the safe side.

Coming for two weeks in December as you suggested is not a good idea, I would say. You can however, ask the Home Office
( you can also mention it while filling the form ) that you need to go back to Canada because you have studies there and so would need your passport urgently in which case they would return it quickly ( upto two weeks ) after confirming your identity. You don't have to stay in UK for six months in any case.

Once you have your COAs, you could decide the date of your marriage, go to the Registrar's office ( of the city where your boyfriend lives ) and 'give notice of marriage' which actually means that you book an appointment for marriage at the Registrar's office. You can't give a notice of earlier than 16 days. In other words, your marriage will take place within a month.

In the office, you will need to produce your passports, proof of addresses, photographs and of course COAs. Your boyfriend is already in UK so he must have his proof of address and he can also arrange one for you. I am sure he knows how to do it.

While booking the date, they will also ask you where do you want to marry, I mean the venue of marriage. If you are in a hurry or short of money ( i.e don't want a party in a hotel or wedding hall or something ) you can simply get married in the Registrar's office. This whole process will take between two to three months.

Islamic marriage ( i.e Nikah ) is not recognised as a legal marriage which means that it has no legal value in UK. ( You can definitely get married in a mosque though ). I don't know if Canadian law recognises it but if I were you, I wouldn't go for it because it might cause complications in future for example in case you need to sponsor your husband's trip to Canada.

I hope this information helps.
Anymore questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Good Luck

 

Hello Dia
Its my pleasure to be of any help to you.
You can go to this link to find out the ways how you could contact
Home Office

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/contac ... onenquries

and I would also suggest you read through this

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/applyi ... artnership

However I would not suggest you try to contact Home Office from Canada because I am sure its going to make you stressed ( as they make everyone else ! ). The Home Office enquiry numbers are premium numbers which means expensive and they put you on hold to listen to some crap music for a long time. I am also not sure if these numbers could be called from abroad. I would suggest you ask your boyfriend to do it. He could also go to the local Law Centre or local Citizens Advice Bureau for free information regarding any matter.

You can however contact the British embassy/consulate nearest to you and see if they could give any information. You should also ( this is something I forgot to mention in my earlier post ) ask them if you need a visa/specific stamp on your passport because you are entering UK for the purpose of marriage. Citizens of some countries normally don't need a visa to enter UK but if its for marriage, then they do !

From first week of November to the day everything closes for Christmas holidays is definitely enough time for obtaining your COAs even though, to be realistic, getting married as well in the same period of time is going to be a bit hard. Still, there is no harm in giving a try.

I wish you best of luck.

 

Hello there
The type of visa you need is of course the 'visit for marriage' because 'civil partnership' is actually the name given to the marriage of gays and lesbians !!
You should contact the British High Commission in Ottawa to find out how you could apply for it. You can also visit their web page which has some basic information of what you would need in order to get the visa.
Here is their link

http://www.britishhighcommission.gov.uk ... 6750638169

Also remember that, after you get the 'visit for marriage' visa to come to UK, you will NOT need to obtain a COA for yourself. It will only be your boyfriend who will need it.

I hope this helps.
Good luck

 

Hello there
No you don't need to be in the UK when your fiance applies for his COA.
He would however need your photographs, attested copy of your passport alongwith, of course your immigration status i.e the visa that you would get from the British High Commission and you will also need to sign the form which he would send to the Home Office.

You can have a look at the form here

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/6353/1 ... aapr07.pdf

and you should also read the guidance notes for making application for a COA here

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/6353/1 ... eapr07.pdf

So, just to confirm it to you again ( because you seem too worried ! ) you DO NOT need to be in the UK for your fiance's COA.

I would suggest you just wait for your passport to come back alongwith the visa, get notarised copies of your passport and the sticker ( because Home Office will need to see that you are entitled to get married in UK once you arrive ), download the form from the link above, fill it and sign it, and get your passport sized photographs and send all this to your fiance who would then do the rest of stuff and send it to Home Office.

Once his COA comes back, you could then come to UK and go to the Registrar's Office.

Also, if you could provide some more information regarding your relationship i.e to prove that you both have a genuine relationship, it would be helpful for your fiance's application for COA. For example any pictures of you together, if you have visited him or he has visited you, copies if any such visas, hotel bookings, any letters or cards that you might have sent each other in the past, proof of any calls you have made to each other, print outs of any e-mails you both have sent each other etc. Some of these things might sound funny, but it does help !!

I hope this information helps.

Anymore questions, please ask.

Good luck

 

Dear DIA....

I need to talk to you regarding your canada case.. because i have got the same case here.. Kindly contact to me by email....

elegantrider@hotmail.com


Thanks Alot