Visitor In Love with a Polish girl, UK marriage/Polish residence question

Hello, Im a Mauritian nationality with a permit of permanent residence for South Africa as I spent 12 years of my life there. For some personal reasons, I got divorced. hence my wife, well shall I say x-wife and kids are still base in SA and will never ever never leave SA neither for Mauritius nor for UK or any part of the world for that matter.

A while back I have decided not to hold on any further as I am only fooling myself base on the facts that she has moved on with her life. (Hard to believe, but it is true that woman are stronger that man sometimes)

I am sorry about the details, its just that I have read some of the nasty reply if you know what I mean.

Anyway... I am now going out with a Polish girl with the most amazing charater and all I wanted to know is....

a/ Can I get married to her while I am in the UK. I don't mind marrying her in Poland but my entire family mum dad etc are in the UK so it will be less cheaper for me to arrange a wedding here.

b/ If I can marry her in the UK, will I be able to apply for Polish residence while in UK as she don't intend to go back Poland because of her job. (It's only issues over issues)

c/ if I am entitle to apply for Polish residence from here, will I be able to work in the UK as I can't bare to sit at home.

Pls note Im on a visitors visa at the moment.

Poland is in the EU so if you marry your girlfriend, im guessing you will automatically get residence anywhere in EU, including UK. I just hope youre not marrying her just for that fact though. Im not sure about the regulations in UK for non EU residents marrying EU citizens over here, so ill let someone better informed answer that. I suppose its not much of a difference whether you marry in UK or Poland.

Thank you JustysiaS. I appreciate it. Rest assure I don't believe in marriage of convenience. Getting (MARRIED) for the sake of papers @ 36 years. I don't think so. Life may be quite a mess on my end at the moment but getting married for the wrong reason is just not me. Thank you. You've indeed answered part of post.

You still have to apply for residence if your married in Poland. It's not automatic. In order to get married in Poland you also have to apply to get married. It takes a bit of time to be approved. Then you might even need to apply for a residence permit in the UK as well. So you probably have a lot of paperwork to fill out and submit.

Wrong. He will only get residency in Poland by being married to a Pole.

Correct. It will however be easier to get residency in the UK married to a EU citizen. She would however need to be working legally apart from some other requirements set by the UK authorities. Seeing as he is now on a tourist visa to the UK, he'd have to first get another visa for Poland since the UK is not a Schengen country. Seems like he'd like the easy way and to be honest there is nothing easy about dealing with Polish Authorities.

Emm... So UK is not under Schengen country. This is new to new to me. I am definitely learning a lot here. Genuinely I didn't know it was going to be that difficult. Best thing is that she on the other hand, is quite willing and determine as much as I am. I see a lot good couple of years of trouble on my way :(

Schengen Agreement

Dealing with the Polish offices will probably be a complete pain. Just ask your girlfriend about dealing with the offices in Poland. Both countries will have separate restrictions as well. Good luck, won't be easy.

Yes, as far as I know, you can marry her in the United Kingdom and will allow you to stay in Europe. I imagine that this is the main reason why you want to get married, otherwise you would not be posting such a question if you did not really know the answer to this yourself. I have always said that England's entry to the E.U. will be the last nail in Britain's coffin and I am right. We have become a European dumping ground. When an Englishman goes to Poland and wants to buy land or anything the fist question from the Polish solicitor is "and have you Polish citizenship or a Polish passport?" The Polish certainly are not stupid. Maybe your polish wife to be has a dream of a nice country estate near Cape town? After all, nice orange trees is promotion on concrete blocks in Sopot!

Thanks for taking the time. I personally don't take any offence to your opinion. Everyone is certainly entitle to their own, which I highly respect. However I couldn't make it any clearer as to the (reasons) on my originaly post.

While majority of the cases is to be able to live in UK, however there are still some genuine cases between. But as I say everyone is entitle to their own opinions. So definitely no arguements their.

As far as the wife to be... dream of a place in Cape Town. Mate... are you a medium? You got that so right. I can't even believe it. It's just that for me right now SA is bad experience and moving back their at this particular moment. emm... I really don't know.

There you are. Did I not tell you?!

Hahaha you got that right! Actually a world dumping ground.

Yes he will be allowed to stay in Europe. In Poland to be more specific about it. He could apply for an EEA family permit in the UK, provided that he hasn't been in the UK for more than a year, but first his wife will need to have an EC Residence Permit and she must be exercising Treaty Rights at all times for his permit to be valid.

I'd recommend the original poster contacts Breytenbachs, they're a law firm specifically aimed at the SA community in the UK. Think their website is breytenbachs.com but it might be.co.uk

Hi Mogwai
How is your progress in marrying Polish girl? I have a similar question but I'm Polish and I want to marry SA girl. It looks we have to aply for a COA Certificate of Aproval first in the UK.

If u have any tips, please write.