Fiancé visa: coming to the UK to marry and stay
The fiancé visa costs £2,064, carries no health surcharge and lasts 6 months. You must marry in that time, then switch to a spouse visa from inside the UK.
Fiancé visa cost, then the switch to spouse
Total to pay when you apply
£2,064
Fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner (6 months, from outside the UK) · Home Office fees of 8 October 2026
| Person | Fee | Surcharge |
|---|---|---|
| Main applicant | £2,064 | £0 |
| Application fees | £2,064 |
| Health surcharge (6 months) | £0 |
| Total | £2,064 |
Calculated in your browser: nothing you type is sent anywhere. Not legal advice; not affiliated with the Home Office.
Published by Radif Partners · How we calculate · Home Office fees of 8 October 2026, rules checked 13 October 2026
The fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner visa is the entry route for couples who want to marry or form a civil partnership in the UK and then live here. It is granted for 6 months, during which you must hold the ceremony; you may not work or study and you cannot claim public funds. The requirements mirror the spouse visa: your partner is British, Irish or settled, you are both 18 or over and have met in person, any earlier marriage has ended, you pass an A1 English test and the couple shows £29,000 of income or the matching savings. The application from abroad costs £2,064, and because the grant is for 6 months from outside the UK there is no immigration health surcharge. After the wedding you switch to the partner route inside the UK for £3,994.50, fee and surcharge included. The 6 months as a fiancé do not count towards settlement.
What the six months allow, and what they do not
A fiancé visa is a short permission with one purpose. Paragraph D-ECP.1.1 of Appendix FM grants it for no more than 6 months, with a prohibition on employment and a no recourse to public funds condition. You may live with your partner and arrange the wedding; GOV.UK is plain that you cannot work or study during the engagement. Your partner keeps working as normal.
Two extra conditions apply to fiancés. The two of you must be coming to the UK so that the marriage or civil partnership can take place here (paragraph E-ECP.2.8), and neither of you may be married to or in a civil partnership with anyone else on the date you apply. Everything else is the partner test: a sponsor who is British, Irish, settled or in one of the other listed categories, a genuine relationship, adequate accommodation, English at A1 in speaking and listening, and the financial requirement. Because the sponsor's income is all that counts before arrival, a sponsor without a salary needs savings of £88,500 on their own.
The application is made online from outside the UK. You cannot switch into it from a visitor visa, and a visitor or ETA holder cannot give notice of marriage either. UKVI aims to decide within 12 weeks of the biometrics appointment.
After the wedding: switching to a spouse visa
Once married, you apply inside the UK for permission to stay as a partner. This is one of the few cases where a visa of six months or less can be switched without leaving: paragraph E-LTRP.2.1 makes an exception for fiancés. The switch is an application for 30 months at the in-country fee of £1,407 plus £2,587.50 of surcharge, and the financial and English rules are checked again. When it is granted, the work ban ends.
If the ceremony could not happen in time, for example because of illness or a delay at the register office, paragraph E-LTRP.1.11 lets you apply for a further 6 months as a fiancé, provided there is good reason and evidence that the marriage will take place in the next six months. The ban on work continues.
Fiancé route or marry abroad first?
The fiancé visa is not the cheapest way to settlement, because the 6 months are excluded from the five years and the partner grants that follow are the shorter in-country ones. To reach 5 years as a partner you need two grants of 30 months after the switch.
| Route to settlement | Visas paid for | Total in Home Office charges |
|---|---|---|
| Fiancé visa, then two in-UK partner grants | 6 + 30 + 30 months | £13,329 |
| Marry abroad, spouse visa, one in-UK extension | 33 + 30 months | £12,439.50 |
The gap of £889.50 and an extra half-year before settlement are the price of holding the wedding in the UK. Some couples choose it anyway because they want the ceremony itself to take place in the UK. Couples who only want a UK wedding and will leave afterwards need neither route; the Marriage Visitor visa covers that. The spouse visa guide explains the partner route, and the spouse visa cost page prices it with children.