My Marriage Visa - Just Wait and See

Well it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything both because I’ve been somewhat lazy and because it has been a busy two months since our wedding.

Priya and I got married on the 8^th of February. Since then I have been spending a lot of time working on my visa application in order to remain and work here in London. Yesterday we finally sent in the application filled with all the documents and papers necessary to get a marriage visa. Basically in the application we have to try and prove the validity of our relationship, our financial stability and my moral sufficiency/lack of threat to the UK. All of this required months of tracking down the proper official documents from numerous different agencies such as banks, employers, schools and more. Plus we had to figure out all the ins and outs of the application itself and what all the questions mean. I would say that clear wording isn’t necessarily a strength of this application. And yes you can get someone to help you from the government but they are going to charge you for it and it isn’t cheap.

Assuming they get the application they will send me a notification letter telling me to provide my biometric information. Once I get that letter I will have to go to an official location where they will record my biometric information, which simply means they will take my photograph and fingerprints. The office that records my biometrics will then send them to the UK Boarder Agency (the people reviewing and deciding about our application). If my visa is approved I will be issued a card, kind of like a driver’s license or ID card in the US, which will show I am allowed to live and work here.

The card will last for two and a half years at which point I would have to reapply for another extension of stay. That extension would last another two and a half years and then I could apply for permanent residency in the UK. Now I do not know if we will  ever get to that stage since Priya and I do not, as of yet, know whether we will still be living in London at the time. Admittedly neither of us really wants to be here that long but we just don’t know how things will work that far into the future.

At this point there really is nothing I can do except await the government’s decision, which really does kind of stink because I’m tired of just sitting around the house unable to really do anything. I don’t have the money to travel around London and do all the tourist type things that foreigners do and the weather here is just too awful to simply go for a walk outside. Today it’s April 4^th and it is snowing outside! Hong Kong and Southern California really are better places to have no money because you can always go outside and just hang out. Oh well this is home and while I certainly don’t like the weather here I can say without a doubt that I love the company I have here. Truly Priya you’re the best.