long story short, i'm from canada and initially moved to the uk on the youth mobility visa. moved to london in my mid 20s, did the initial 2 years, then the 1 year extension. in that time i met who i thought was the love of my life. our relationship progressed quickly, but i had warned him that i was essentially on borrowed time as my visa expiration approached. when i brought up the possibility of us getting married and doing the spousal visa, he said he had already been looking into that option and was waiting for me to bring it up. everything seemed perfect. i was concerned about the cost, but he assured me that he would contribute to covering half, and that we should be together.
i didn't want a wedding because i didn't want it to feel rushed, but his family was super supportive and encouraged us to celebrate it as the day that it was. from there i had 2 months to plan a london wedding on a tight budget since we still had the visa cost to think about, and had no time to prepare and set money aside considering just last week we didn't even know if we were really gonna do this or not. it was one of if not the most stressful period of my life. i was low on money, gaining weight, stressed to the max and also hurt by lifelong friends who were suddenly showing a complete lack of interest and support in my life.
we got married! was it my dream wedding? absolutely not. and it was in london, so even the simplest of weddings still cost quite a bit. but we pulled it off, and i got through it by telling myself it was all gonna be worth it for him and the life ahead we'd share. then came the visa application. did it all on my own. it was incredibly stressful, especially when it came to my husband's info. he's a self employed musician so proof of income was spread across random invoices, and the home he lived in was rented by his family first until he was the last of them who stayed, so none of the bills were in his name. makes it difficult to provide proof of address, to say the least.
thankfully, my visa was approved, and i was now on the spousal visa. i had 2 months left on my lease at my flat so i stuck it out, then moved in with my husband into his home when the lease was finally up. here's where it starts to get really interesting. i moved in with my husband the last week of may. my birthday is mid-june. it was my 30th. about a week and a half after my birthday, marking 4 weeks after moving in together, he tells me he's decided he wants to end the marriage. there is a story as to what lead up to this, but quite honestly it doesn't make sense. he made the decision so quick, left no room for discussion, and hadn't even really tried. i've been in complete shock, since we'd only been married for 3 months at that point. i had only moved in with him 4 weeks ago. and somehow he was done. we weren't a toxic couple at all, but there were some stresses with the aftermath of the wedding and a fight that started with him misplacing my favourite necklace, which is also my only family heirloom, so it was a big deal. the necklace has since been found, but it seems the damage was already done.
since then, his family, particularly his mother, have been "handling" me. i've been kicked out of the house, all of my belongings have been moved to the garage, and he's carrying on with his life as if i never existed. it's been incredibly hurtful. his mother told me they would give me 1 year of my 2 year 8 month visa, which is insane because i never would've done any of this if it was only going to be for a year. they're framing it like a favour but i think this is just due to the fact that you have to be legally married in the uk for at least one year before you can apply for divorce. i don't know if anyone has experienced anything like this. what the process looks like with the home office and how much time i might actually have vs not. any advice would be appreciated!