Kinds of Marriage. Confused. :S

[JillA 2]

My husband and I married just us 2 in a JOP's living room!! We couldn't afford nor had time to plan the wedding we both wanted, so we had a 'quickie' wedding and are having a big one next year! That doesn't change the fact that we married for love and shouldn't make a difference to USCIS either!!

[desert_fox 32]

You dont even need to get out of your car in Las Vegas. Drive thru service. There will even be an Elvis guy there singing, and act as your witness. I'm not sure that I even washed to car.

[elkfarmer 4]

I had two weddings in Colombia. And that is pretty much the norm. One with her family, friends only and a priest. The other if front of a notary at San Andres Islands. That was the legal one, recognized by the state. Your parents need to grow up ! Can not believe they feel the way they do if they had a a marriage like theirs 35 years ago. Just take lots of photos to remember it and show proof of relationship. CR-1 is the only way to go.

[Bern. 3]

Thank you so much everyone, but here is our plan. When he get's back from his deployment, he's going to get his own apartment and then he's going to come up and visit me for 2 1/2 weeks to 3 weeks. And we plan to have just a small courtroom wedding with about 5 witnesses. My parents, and a few mutual friends. None of his family will be attending. As well, we'd all go out to dinner afterwords on the same day.

And would we be able to use proof of a relationship before we got married as well as proof from after we got married? He wants to file for the CR-1, a month after we get married.

What do you guys think?

[MumtazG38 1]

Not everyone can afford big wedding with cakes and lots of guests. so incase if one is having a small ceremony it is beneficial to send affidavits from 3rd party to confirm that the marriage is bona fide.

Good luck!

the affidavits that are asked for have nothing to do with witnesses of your wedding, if you read the guides over again it says the affidavits need to be from people who clearly state that they are witnesses to your "ongoing relationship" as a married couple. Not your wedding.

USCIS only cares about the proper legal documents.....you could just have a simple court marriage just as long as the legal documents are there. Witnesses are always good, but I don't think you'd need more than two.

Yes, you should definitely use proof of your relationship...as much relevant proof as you've got. Send as much as needed. That's the best kind of proof IMO, and you're lucky to have it, most people here on VJ don't have much of that. But don't forget about proof of living a married life together either, it's still just as important.

The wedding you plan sounds good to go. Good luck!

[MumtazG38 1]

What happens if theres no family members at all from the non usc's side? But about 30-40 from the USC side?

Most of my friends are in university and cant afford it, an dmy parents are dead against me marrying someone from out of the country and my family wants to have nothing to do with it.

Is that going to look bad?

Ok, I'll bite. What happens is the "Your family won't be in any of the wedding pictures." It's not going to look "good" but it's not that uncommon. There were certainly none of my family members in China when my wife and I married.

your right it's not uncommon, none of my family was in the Philippines when we got married.

ugh...I can completely relate with you. I didn't have a single friend OR family member at my own wedding. All of my SO's friends and family came....but since everyone basically hated me in my family no one came. But now that I'm married everything getting better and better day by day with my family....I'm even staying with my family here in the states for a while and then I'll be going back to my husband in late feb. Things are definitely looking up for me and I NEVER THOUGH THEY WOULD!!! My parents are the most strict muslim people I've ever even heard of, and I got married on my own...with the guy I wanted, didn't even matter that he was also a Muslim and from the same country as them, and they knew his parents for so long. Only mattered that they believe a girl can't EVER marry who she wants (culture, not at all Islam....Islam is all about kids getting married to whoever they want as long as the muslim thing is ok).

So I think you're parents will be okay once they see how happy you are with you SO....it'll just take some time is all. Hang in there .

[Bern. 3]

Well, I don't think I need affidavits just because we do have enough proof of a bonafide before marriage, and we will have a lot of proof after. We will probably send along letters from our mothers as proof of on-going relationship/marital union.

And, people have filed after a month of marriage right? :S

I just want the CR-1/IR-1 because it's a better VISA in the end, and I won't have to go through adjusting and ####### >_<

[Lindsay G 0]

Well, I don't think I need affidavits just because we do have enough proof of a bonafide before marriage, and we will have a lot of proof after. We will probably send along letters from our mothers as proof of on-going relationship/marital union.

And, people have filed after a month of marriage right? :S

I just want the CR-1/IR-1 because it's a better VISA in the end, and I won't have to go through adjusting and ####### >_<

Yeah, no problem to file right after the wedding... the sooner the better, right?! you'll gather even more evidence in those 8 months you'll likely wait until the interview anyways! Keep track of your phone calls, etc. Send all you have now, and you'll certainly have more for the interview. My husband's interview is in 2 days (yeah, I'm totally freaking out... ), and I filed just a few weeks after our wedding in May. By the way, our wedding was simple- just us, our two witnesses, and the guy doing the paperwork. My husband and I wanted to have our own night that night- went to a nice dinner; we had a small party at his home with some of his family the next night. That's just how we wanted to do it. My parents were in the states, and my husband and I didn't have any money for anything bigger nor the time to plan something large (I wouldn't want it anyways!). We're going to have a church ceremony and a party for my family this spring... I hope the consulate doesn't have a problem with the way we choose to do it- our relationship is not typical nor traditional, but I wont have my government judging it beyond what is reasonable. At any rate, have your day how you want it.

Send us good vibes on Thursday.......

Good luck.

[Holliday 4]

I'm not sure if it helps you at all, but here's my plan/story...

My fiance and I are getting married in 16 days in a suite at an NHL hockey game. 15 people (other than us) will be in attendance. We intend to send off the initial package of the 1-130 stuff within a few days of the wedding if everything goes as planned, and if I haven't overlooked anything. It's my understanding that in Texas the marriage license will become the marriage certificate once it is signed and sealed at the county clerk's office, so if that is accurate, then I think we'll be all set to send the petition out within a few days of the wedding, before I even return home to Canada.

So anyway, it's a very small, and um... unusual wedding. We'll be wearing hockey jerseys and jeans to the wedding, so our wedding photos won't even look like wedding photos without a written explanation to accompany them. If I can manage to find a veil/tiara thingy in the next week or so, I'll wear that with my jersey, and it will kinda indicate that I am a bride. The day after the wedding we're probably going to ask a few of the guests to sign affidavits for us. Probably the parents on both sides, as well as the Pastor who will be performing the ceremony. I'm not sure if it's overkill sending in a few affidavits as proof in my situation, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I think my brain is fried right now, and I'm not sure that what I've typed actually makes sense. Silly pre-wedding exhaustion! So to summarize, I intend to have a small/not fancy wedding. My family wasn't terribly supportive of it initially (they've come around gradually over the past few months, and especially since they met my fiance just this past weekend. Now their only concerns seem to involve health care and um... guns). Also, my fiance and I intend to send out the I-130 stuff very soon after the wedding.

I don't even know if I have everything all settled and under control as far as beginning this process is concerned. I have spent hours and hours over the past few months reading through as many things as possible on VJ just to gain a better understanding of things. All of the information regarding the immigration process is quite intimidating, because it seems like individuals have so little control over how long the entire process takes. I want to be completely sure that the parts of this process that I DO have control over are handled as efficiently and quickly as possible. I know that as I'm reading through things here, my mind is eased a little bit when I read about people who have circumstances that are somewhat similar to mine, so if there is any purpose to my post here, I guess that would be it.