“Psychologically, it’s been terrible,” says Dr Dawn Liu, of the coronavirus wedding ban. “There’s been this absolute sense of insecurity, this threat that in the middle of a pandemic I might be told to leave my fiance and take a flight, which is really risky. That fear won’t leave at all.” Liu, 31, from Colchester, was due to marry her fiance, Dr Angus Holford, 33, on 6 April 2020. Both are academics at the University of Essex: they met on OkCupid in June 2018, before getting engaged the following year. Liu is originally from Singapore, and is on a tier 2 working visa, which grants her the right to live and work in the UK. Under normal circumstances, Liu would have had plenty of time after her April wedding to apply for a spouse visa before her tier 2 visa expired on 14 July, enabling her to continue working and living in the UK. But after the government banned weddings on 23 March, to prevent the coronavirus pandemic spreading, Liu and Holford have found themselves in immigration limbo. They are one of a number of couples due to marry before the coronavirus wedding ban now wondering how the pandemic will affect their immigration status. Under existing immigration law, Liu can still apply to switch her tier 2 working visa to a spouse visa, which would permit her to remain legally in the UK. However, engaged people are not allowed to work on spouse visas – meaning that Liu would have to quit her job if she wanted to remain in the UK with Holford. And although the government has automatically extended all visas that were set to expire during the lockdown to 31 May, this won’t help Liu, as her visa expires after then. “It’s a circular legal nightmare for us,” says Holford. A Home Office spokesperson said: “Under the immigration rules, anyone on a work visa who was granted leave for more than six months can apply to switch to a spouse visa. This applies to married and unmarried couples and was the case before the coronavirus pandemic.” They did not comment on whether visas would be extended beyond the 31 May cut-off date, to help people such as Liu. Unlike funerals, which are still ongoing during the coronavirus lockdown, albeit with only immediate family in attendance, all wedding ceremonies and registrations have been put on hold. “Why can’t we register the wedding in a room with just the registrar, the couple, and two witnesses, all spread out in a room according to social distancing guidelines?” says Holford. The coronavirus wedding lockdown is also proving unexpectedly costly for the couples reliant on marriage to certify their immigration status. “It’s going to rack up,” says Mariah Abshire, who is 23 and lives in Arnos Grove. Abshire, a US citizen, was meant to marry her fiance, Nikolay Bogdev, 24, on 23 March – the day Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown. The day before her wedding, Abshire got a phone call from her registry office. “It was insane!” she says. “We got the call literally the day before saying they were locking it down.” She has asked her council when she may be able to reschedule her wedding, but they weren’t able to give her any concrete answers. Abshire’s fiance visa is set to expire on 9 July. She will most likely have to apply to extend it, at the cost of £1,033. “It would be great if they did waive those extension charges, given that this is unprecedented,” says Abshire. “It wasn’t a personal issue that came up needing us to get an extension. It’s a national emergency that is causing everything to go on pause. It would be helpful if the government could bear that in mind, seeing as how people aren’t allowed to work here legally and need to fork out a lot of money to stay here.” Holford and Liu would like further clarity from the government on whether they will automatically extend visas beyond the 31 May date, particularly now that it looks likely the coronavirus lockdown will go on for the foreseeable future. “The government has been vague in their promises,” says immigration specialist Robin Molyneux of Global Immigration Solutions. “They should look at having a provision for anyone whose visa was expiring by a later date being automatically extended, without fees being payable for people having to renew them.” In the meantime, Liu and Holford are waiting anxiously. “When we tell people that we had to postpone our wedding, they say: ‘Oh it must be hard to have to postpone!’ But they are missing the point. Marriage isn’t just a piece of paper. So much depends on it. Weddings are important for legal reasons.”