No Wedding Reception

[Amy&Xin 0]

Me and my wife had a civil wedding. We didn't have a wedding reception, because we are both students, don't have a lot of money. We want to have a real wedding after we are done with school and make some real money. I am afraid that the VO will ask "Why don't you guys wait till then to get married?" The reason we want to marry now rather than later is that the marriage does in reality make our life easier. I don't have constantly deal with the visa problem when we want to travel(read a previous post of mine for a travel disaster we had to experience), I can take on a second job to get more money for our household. I don't know if i answer this way, they will think our marriage is not for love. We do love each other very much.

[Anh map 2,098]

The truth is always a good answer.

[Otto 83]

Wedding is just a ceremony and is in no way required to create a marriage. Ceremony not required in any way, nor is having one later a bad thing.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Yes, don't worry about a reception, just have the other evidence of a bonafide marriage.

[Old Dominion 26]

I doubt very much that you will be asked anything about why you decided to get married when you did. It has nothing to do with the fact that your marriage is real -- so long as you provide all the evidence of that. The evidence is the important part of the interview, and also how you behave toward one another.

[Amy&Xin 0]

Thank you guys. The evidence we have so far, is joint lease for the past two years, over a hundred of photos (we don't take pics very often, even when we do, we take scenery rather people, but we do have a handful of pics of us together and with her family), joint bank account, joint credit card, all the utility bills under our names, family phone plan, joint tax return of 2008, joint car titles, mails addressed to us to our current address, a few correspondences. We don't have life insurance. Our medical insurance is separate since it is with school, and it is cheaper this way. I don't know if this is good enough.

[Amy&Xin 0]

And plane ticket record when she flew to Seattle to visit me last summer when I had an internship up there.

Thank you guys. The evidence we have so far, is joint lease for the past two years, over a hundred of photos (we don't take pics very often, even when we do, we take scenery rather people, but we do have a handful of pics of us together and with her family), joint bank account, joint credit card, all the utility bills under our names, family phone plan, joint tax return of 2008, joint car titles, mails addressed to us to our current address, a few correspondences. We don't have life insurance. Our medical insurance is separate since it is with school, and it is cheaper this way. I don't know if this is good enough.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

all looks good -

[fendergirl 1]

The IO ask us what did we do during our wedding, she asked about the reception but we told her we did not have any fancy wedding etc, instead we told her that we got married in 08-08-08 and we told her that there were lots of couples who want's to get married the same date so we ended up with a group wedding ceremony. We only had 1 witness also and after the wedding we just eat lunch at the restaurant and that's it. And instead of putting some money with a wedding reception we used it to buy ourselves some gifts and went shopping for the whole week LOL. We told the IO the whole true story and we are approved, got my welcome notice yesterday already.

[Amy&Xin 0]

We were married in vegas. After the little civil ceremony we had, we went to a fancy restaurant and had a big dinner. Then we were walking around the strip, and did some bar hopping. Then we gambled a little bit at our hotel, and we won 250 dollars by pressing with our lucky ring fingers(we were so drunk). It was the most fun night I've ever had.

The IO ask us what did we do during our wedding, she asked about the reception but we told her we did not have any fancy wedding etc, instead we told her that we got married in 08-08-08 and we told her that there were lots of couples who want's to get married the same date so we ended up with a group wedding ceremony. We only had 1 witness also and after the wedding we just eat lunch at the restaurant and that's it. And instead of putting some money with a wedding reception we used it to buy ourselves some gifts and went shopping for the whole week LOL. We told the IO the whole true story and we are approved, got my welcome notice yesterday already.

[ishack1956 0]

I don't think you'll have any problems. In my case I talked my wife in getting married just before the end of the year so I could file jointly (had to get a tax id from the IRS - just went to the local IRS office with our marriage certificate and her passport). We got married at the local courthouse and no cameras were allowed, so no wedding or receptions photos, but have photos from the last 3 years of various trips we took together both overseas and in the US. Most importantly we have photos with my dad (my mother passed away before we started dating), her family, my children and with friends. Lots of other evidence. My plan is to be honest in saying the we were planning on getting married when I went back to Malaysia for 3 months, but after looking at my taxes decided to move the date for tax advantage. Filing jointly had nothing to do with us getting married, just when.