Married twice--any advice?

[rodney22 0]

Yes, third time is the charm!

[mrs.jenjen 0]

Personally I'd tell the whole story because I think it makes your marriage sound more genuine anyway, and explains why you probably don't have any pictures from your 'legal ceremony'. My take on it is this - if you were getting married for the sole reason of getting a green card (not that I suspect that for a second btw!) why would you bother with the cost and hassle involved with a lavish ceremony before hand?

Plus - any extra time you can spend telling personal stories and being friendly with the interviewer is, in my opinion, a good thing! We chatted to our interviewer so much that she didn't even bother to look at our wedding pictures. It definately avoided us having to deal with any more complicated questions that she could have asked. (Not that we had anything to hide of course, but I was such a nervous wreck that I'm sure I would have fumbled something that involved more complicated answers than how did you meet!)

[cfbgc 0]

Wow, you guys have been so incredibly helpful--thanks for all your advice! Reading your responses, I think you're all right about not lying to them. I was worried we would look "not credible" by having two dates but as mrs. jenjen said--it shows our marriage, not the green card, is the priority! Thanks all!

____________________________

2/21/2006: Sent I-130, I-485 and I-765 to USCIS

3/10/2006: USCIS sends receipt notice for I-130

4/5/2006: USCIS sends recipt notice for I-485 and I-765

4/20/2006: USCIS Biometrics Appt.

5/30/2006: USCIS approves I-130

7/13/2006: I-485 Interview Scheduled!

[Peter Miami 0]

Although you had a huge party for the family and, to all intense and purpose, consider the earlier date to be the day you married, legally you did not marry until July and this is all they are interested in - the date you became legally married to your partner.

Nobody but the USCIS official is going to know your answer to this question - the rest of your family and friends are not going with you to the interview - they are not going to know any different.

Good luck with everything.

I agree.

Peter Miami

[Yodrak 7]

cfbgc,

No, you weren't married in May 2005. Don't confuse a wedding (a celebration event) with a marriage (a legal state of affairs), although the latter usually (in the US and many, but not all, other countries) involves the former.

Also don't confuse a marriage license with a marriage certificate.

Just out of curiosity, did you have another wedding (perhaps a small civil ceremony) to get someone to fill out the marriage certificate? (I am assuming that whoever filled out the paper for registering the marriage didn't put the date of the May wedding, since that preceded the date that the marriage license was issued.) Or did you find someone who would write down a date even though no wedding had occured on that date?

Yodrak

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a little advice and from the postings I've read on here, you all seem really nice and knowledgeable.

My husband and I were married in May 2005. However, his passport was about to expire so in early April 2005, he sent it to the embassy to be renewed. By the day of our wedding, the passport had not been returned and we couldn't get a marriage license. We had a huge wedding ceremony and reception that day and consider it to be our wedding day—plus all our friends and family think it's our wedding day and all our wedding pictures were taken that day. However, we didn't receive his passport and weren't able to get a marriage license until JULY. So our marriage date as far as USCIS knows is in July.

As I was looking at the "practice questions" here, I started thinking "what do we say?" Do we tell the whole long story or just kind of lie and say we had the wedding and reception in July? I don't want them to think we lied about our wedding date--which one do you think we should use?

Thanks for your help!

____________________________

2/21/2006: Sent I-130, I-485 and I-765 to USCIS

3/10/2006: USCIS sends receipt notice for I-130

4/5/2006: USCIS sends recipt notice for I-485 and I-765

4/20/2006: USCIS Biometrics Appt.

5/30/2006: USCIS approves I-130

7/13/2006: I-485 Interview Scheduled!