ABSTRACT
The UK immigration rules require an applicant for admission as the spouse or fiance of a person settled in the UK to demonstrate that ‘each of the parties intends to live permanently with the other as his or her spouse and the marriage is subsisting’. This chapter is concerned with applicants for settlement as the spouse of a person already settled in the UK or who is entering the UK for settlement at the same time. The negative connotations associated with both forced and sham marriages fall more heavily on international ethnic minority marriages. The abolition of the primary purpose rule has led to a welcome reduction in number of refusals from the sub-continent but there remains a significant residue of applicants who are refused. Refusal rates for certain countries remain far higher than for others.
