Statutory guidance

Marriage and civil partnership investigation: caseworker guidance

Immigration staff guidance on investigating sham marriages.

• From: Home Office and UK Visas and Immigration
• Published: 31 March 2015
• Last updated: 31 March 2025
  Show all updates

  1. 31 March 2025

     Updated to provide clarification of regulation 15 considerations (the failure to comply warning).

  2. 28 June 2023

     Updated guidance to remove redundant references on EU permanent residency and applications made under the EEA Regulations; to clarify use of ministerial authorisation for use of nationality when looking at risk profiles; and to clarify that enforcement action may be taken on caseworkers that may take wider casework decisions related to any immigration offences discovered during the marriage investigation.

  3. 29 March 2021

     Updated guidance.

  4. 31 March 2015

     First published.

Documents

Marriage and civil partnership referral and investigation scheme: statutory guidance for Home Office staff (accessible version)

HTML

Marriage and civil partnership referral and investigation scheme: statutory guidance for Home Office staff

PDF, 339 KB, 27 pages

Details

UK Visas and Immigration guidance on how staff make decisions when investigating sham marriages under the Act.

Part 4 of the Immigration Act 2014 extends the notice period for marriages and civil partnerships, to give the Home Office time to investigate possible sham marriages.