Government of Britain has changed its laws to discourage the entry of foreigners through fake marriages. Instructions have been issued to Registrars to scrutinize all proposed marriages which involve foreign nationals such as Indians, Pakistanis, Phillipinos who have no immigration status in the UK. They will be given extension of time to find out the genuineness of a proposed marriage.
Such of the Indians who hoped to resort to this short route to stay in Britain will have to face legal action by UK government.
Since the Government of UK has imposed many restrictions to work or study in the UK, people have been using fake marriages as a method to enter and stay in the UK.
Now the notice period has been increased from 15 days to 28 days. If one of the couple to the marriage is a foreigner, the Registrar of marriage will have forward the information about the proposed marriage to the Home Office of British Government. If the marriage is found to be suspicious, the notice period will be extended to 70 days for further investigations.
The couples who do not fulfill the legal requirements after the investigation within 70 days notice period will not be allowed to marry on account of such notice.
The Government of Britain made announcements about the change in marriage laws in the month of November. These rules will be applicable from 2nd March, 2015. The lacuna of the existing rules was that in most cases, the Home Office got this information very late and there was no time left for taking legal action. It was reported that more than 10% of the foreigners were Indians who used this short cut to enter the UK in 2012.
As per the revised laws the criteria to judge the genuineness of the relationship, evidence like emails, joint bank accounts, letters, photographs have to be produced.