I heard that's what they do in Iran. You can get a 'wife' for the night and then divorce her in the morning, and the religious authorities are fine with this apparently 🤔
That's right. I hear for the COE application you can send in a copy of your visa application as proof that you've applied - you don't need to wait for the visa
Personally I went the TR visa route, but I probably could have saved money by going visa exempt and then extending... but I didn't want to have to change my flights around.