I met my wife online. I am from the UK and she is from USA. Also I am Muslim and she is now also but wasn't always. I visited her in August 2015 for two weeks - we have been in a relationship since July 2014. This situation may seem weird but stay with me - I came back to the UK and she converted to Islam a couple of weeks later on her accord, and she wanted to get married, however we were in different countries therefore we did a religious ceremony over Skype.
In January 2016 she visited me for one month in the UK after which she obviously went back home. Now, the issue is that we booked a ticket for her to come back here again to visit me for under 6 months, however she was denied entry from Dublin (where her connecting flight was) and was sent back home immediately even though we had a return ticket and fully intended on returning before the 6 months had ended. We feel she was sent back because she initially said she was just wanting to travel more of the UK since she didn't get to do much of it last time and wanted to visit friends more. They had suspicion of her lying and took her phone and worked out she is married (only in the religious sense though so still technically engaged) - the legal ceremony hasn't been carried out yet.
The Immigration officers wrote on a letter how she was low/no risk, well behaved and compliant and told her to go to an embassy in the States to get a visa if she wanted to come back again. They requested she get a marriage visa.
Is there any way in which she can just visit me instead of applying for a marriage visa as that requires me earning 18,600 and I am only temping at the moment?
She only wants to visit for a short period but I called a company called Visalogic and they said she would most likely not be able to come into the country without the visa.
How can it be that she can't even visit, even though she has a return flight and fully intends to return home?
Can someone please advise me on what to do please?