Getting married in 71 days!

[iteachkids81 1]

I just left ottawa this past weekend! was only there for a year. we are doing the k1 (fiance) visa so we are getting married in feb, but after we just spent the last 10 months having everything processed.

best of luck at your wedding. and you have found the best website for answering all your visa related questions.

[thetreble 19]

He did go to Algonquin College and he's from Napean...near Craig Henry.

I must say that I visited Ottawa in August and I LOVED it!! Eventually I do want to move there...in about 2-3 yrs.

Ottawa is such a great city because it is just so clean and has a big city-small town feel. I lived downtown for 4 out of my 5 years there. If I were going to move back to Canada, I 'd reside there for sure. The only thing that can be hard is the winters. Come January and February, facing -35 temperatures can be difficult.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Welcome Holliday!

Your wedding sounds like lots of fun - which is what a wedding should be:-). I lived in Ottawa for three years as well and my brother and his family live in Stittsville so we do get to visit. It is a beautiful city. Good luck with all of your planning!

[becks 0]

Hi everyone!

I'm new here, and I just wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself, since I'll probably be bombarding you all with a ton of questions and stuff over the next many many months. I figure that the Canada forum is the most logical place to post my introduction, since I assume I'll be looking for advice and all that from other Canadians with similar situations. I've been reading through all of the info and guides on here, and I think this site is going to be an incredibly valuable resource for my fiance and I as we begin our "journey". It has already provided us with some great information to start with, which has helped us decide which approach to take as far as when to get married and what kind of visa we will be applying for, etc. So thanks very much to everyone who is involved in putting that information together!

To continue on with the long-winded introduction, my name is Erin, and I live in Ottawa. My fiance Jason lives in Tulsa. We will be getting married on February 13, 2009 in Dallas, at the Dallas Stars/Vancouver Canucks hockey game! That's absolutely the coolest wedding I can even imagine! Jason and I are both avid hockey fans, and we actually met kinda because of the Canucks/Stars playoff series in 2007, so having a hockey related wedding makes a whole lot of sense to us. We are both incredibly excited to be getting married at the game. He's a Stars fan (booo!!) and I'm a Canucks fan, so it's really just the perfect situation for us. I'm not going to get a wedding dress, or have flowers or bridesmaids or anything like that. It'll be a really simple ceremony with just a few family members and maybe friends. Heh. I'm going to be wearing my Canucks jersey, and Jason will be wearing a Stars jersey when we get married. Some people might think that sounds tacky, but I think it sounds spectacular.

I guess after we're married we'll be starting the process for a CR1 visa as soon as possible, so that I will eventually be able to move to Tulsa so we can be together. I never in my life imagined that I would wind up falling in love with an American and wanting to move to the U.S. I seriously never thought I'd ever live outside of Canada, and yet here I am planning to do exactly that. Go figure.

I guess that's the ‘short’ version of my story, and I actually have a question, because I want to make sure I’m not missing anything here. Basically, I’ll be flying from Ottawa to Tulsa about a week before the wedding, so that there will be enough time to drive down to Texas to get the marriage license and wait the 3 days for it to be issued. I’ll be returning home to Ottawa a week or so after the wedding, so I’ll be in the U.S. for around 2 weeks. I’m a little nervous about going through customs, because I don’t want to be denied entry. I figure the best way to prove that I don’t intend to immigrate illegally will be having a return plane ticket, and a letter from my boss stating that I’ll only be gone for two weeks and will be returning to work a week after the wedding. I don’t have a lease or anything to bring along, since I live with family. Is there anything else I should be doing to avoid having problems at the border?

Hi there!

I am Becks and a newbie too as of yesterday and we have pretty much the same cool love story!!! I live here in Ottawa too!!! I just married my childhood sweetheart who lives in the State of Maryland and now we are too trying to figure out what are the steps so that my two children and I can move there asap to be with him. I have been given great advice already in only one day - I have been suggested to do the CR1 visa too...have you by any chance gone down to the American Embassy to see a consulate? I am wondering if that is a good idea in order to confirm what the best steps are??? I see that this whole process takes about six months or so if the forms are properly done? Do you have any info to share by any chance as we just want to make sure we take the right steps.

Your ottawa "neighbour"

[melusine 5]

Hello there and welcome,

I would highly recommend to not mention your wedding (and at the same time beeing true in your answer) or else you will just be denied (is there a risk for a ban as well ?).

In all case, take full proof that you will come back in Canada after your trip. I thought the only visa to get married within the states was K1 but I don't know much about the CR-1 so I don't want to give you any bad infos.

Good luck !