has anyone done this?

[sunflower3 0]

Hi

has anyone gone through the steps i'm planning before (see below)? is it risky?

1) marriage ceremony (Canada)

2) leave for honeymoon (somewhere outside of USA) immediately after marriage ceremony

3) enter into USA under K-1 fiancee visa

4) legal marriage in USA

[TimsDaisy 0]

Your steps 2 and 3 are irrelevant unless you're touching US soil in anyway.

The topic of having the wedding - DON'T CALL IT MARRIAGE IF YOU AREN'T GETTING MARRIED - prior to a legal marriage is covered here all the time.

To use a K1, you cannot be married before you enter the U.S. If you get married, your k1 is toast and you have to start again with a different visa.

So the question is, are you married? Don't get married.

Having a wedding - where wedding = the cultural celebration attended by families, friends, etc - doesn't mean you are married. The bottom line is: it is SOLELY up to YOU to ensure you are NOT ENTERING INTO ANY FORM OF LEGAL MARRIAGE prior to your entrance to the United States of America using your K1 visa.

What kind of dinner party and what you do on holiday before you enter using your K1 is of no mind to anyone here unless you screw yourself over by getting legally married, or, perhaps even more foolishly, making a big show at the POE about how you hadjustaweddingbutnotamarriagebeforewegothereyouseesoitsfinethatiusetheK1right?

Only you can prevent forest fires.

It's risky if you're stupid about it.

(Note: there are many here who argue the opposite from what I have said. They say it is risky period. Don't do it. Buyer beware. You'll be doomed. I haven't done it. I'm not going to do it. I can't speak from personal experience. But if you can't figure out whether or not you're legally married, then you likely have FAR larger problems than what you'll experience at the border. But consider yourself duly warned. Now, use a google within-site search or the VJ search function, which generally doesn't work for #######, to find a HUGE number of threads on this same topic.)

best of luck.

To reiterate: the number one problem here and potentially at the POE, is using "marriage ceremony" when you mean "wedding." Put a rubber band around your wrist. Snap it each time you say "marriage ceremony" or "we're getting married" when you mean "wedding" or "we're having a wedding." Seriously. Break your bad habits now. You aren't having a marriage ceremony in Canada unless you want to commit visa fraud later. You're having a wedding celebration.

Edited July 3, 2007 by TimsDaisy

[pushbrk 12,824]

It's risky if you're stupid about it.

I would avoid the use of words like wedding or honeymoon and avoid calling your fiance(e) husband or wife until the immigrant has entered the US and a legal marriage has occured.

Have any "ceremony" or "trip" you want but "married" is married and a honeymoon is something married people have.

[ramos96 1]

WTB: several hundred rubberbands for fellow VJ'ers

Ramos