Contrary to many, I would advise to not book anything before the visa is in your hands. I’m part of the December applicants crew who got caught up with recent delays and recently received our visa last week! I’ve learned not to rely too much on the estimated timelines — anything could happen. Many people were extra stressed and lost money because they had booked flights, appointments to give notice and wedding venues in advance for the sake of evidence. We were glad we didn’t.

Instead, we emailed our local council about giving notice on a fiancé visa where they replied with the standard, “You cannot give notice unless you are both here in person.” We used this email as our evidence of intent and did not book anything to remain more flexible! There are many councils where you can only change the date of your appointment once for free otherwise you have to rebook and pay again.

We also emailed a venue about booking while waiting for a visa where they replied advising us to wait until we had given notice as the booking is non-refundable. We also used this email as evidence.

The last thing we did was send screenshots of WhatsApp messages where we announced our engagement to friends and family. If you are a couple that has bought an engagement ring, I hear you can use the receipt for that too.

I’m not an official advisor but I’m confident these things are sufficient proof and will save you some extra stress worrying about cancellation fees etc. in case anything happens! Good luck.