Hello,

i am a us national living in the uk. My current tier 1 visa expires at the end of october, and i am planning to marry my boyfriend and move to a spouse visa, rather than renew the tier 1.

What is the process for applying for a spouse visa if both parties live in the uk? I assume one or both of us will have to go back to the us to apply from there. Annoyingly, we have just found out that the ukba does not approve spouse visa made in the final six months of a visa expiring, so we will have to apply before the end of april.

Right now it seems like the process will be:
- fly back to us
- get married in us
- apply for spouse visa from us
- wait for approval (? Does anyone know how long this takes, or if there is a same-day service at any of the embassies?)
- fly back to uk and live together

i am working at the moment, so it is annoying that it seems i will have to take an indefinite amount of time off to wait around in the us. Is there any known way to expedite this, so we could do it over a week or so?

Thanks!