The Proposed Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Waiting Period) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/159) came into effect on 2nd March 2015. These latest measures have been put in place in order to prevent sham marriages and form part of the government’s Immigration Act, represent the biggest change of marriage and civil partnership preliminaries in recent times. Many couples who are planning to marry in the UK will face tougher checks by the Home Office in an effort to ‘crack down’ on sham marriages.
The latest measures mean that the notice period for marriage and civil partnership has been extended from 15 days to 28 days. However, where a sham marriage is suspected, couples may be subject to an extended notice period of 70 days, to allow investigators more time to consider whether the proposed marriage is a sham.
This, together with closer joint working with registrars, has resulted in over 2,000 reports of suspected sham marriage cases between July and December 2014. This was up by over 80% compared to the same period the year before. Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire has said ‘Marriage can no longer be seen as a ‘fast track option’ for those seeking to abuse marriage to cheat their way into the UK’.
For more information the Proposed Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Waiting Period) Regulations 2015 are available to download here:
http://www.familylaw.co.uk/system/redactor_assets/documents/2651/uksi_20150159_en.pdf