Marriage before K1 visa approval!

[amykathleen2005 441]

How to easily spend a wedding with family and friends:

Wait until visa is in hand

Wait 6 months to use (begin planning wedding)

Arrive in US

Wait 3 months to get married (still planning the wedding)

Get married

= a grand total of 9 months to plan a wedding!

[Christine + Blake 18]

I do not think people are trying to purposely plan a wedding before they get their k1, over the past 6 months the process time has change quite alot, and when organising a wedding with lots of people and lots of people from different countries it needs to be done early and timed well. I do not believe people are deliberately trying to "break rules" and I do not believe these issues were an issue when they were filling out forms, I for one did not predict the processing timers to increase by another 2 or so months, which has caused us to delay our wedding 2 months, which still looks like it will be close with a wedding date of 29/10/11 and a NOA1 of 20/12/2010. I think if anything people are trying to work out how they can both celebrate "a day" with friends & family as well as abide by the k1 rules.

I completely agree. We planned our wedding for 11-11-11, with an NOA1 date of December 2nd 2010. We thought just over 11 months would be enough for what we were being told everywhere was an approximately 9 month process. We certainly didn't expect times to slow down to such an extreme degree, so yes, the 'non-legal wedding before K1' thing did cross our minds (we aren't religious so it wouldn't even be a religious ceremony). That doesn't mean we're looking for loopholes or trying to cheat the system - we're just trying to make the best of what has gone wrong through no fault of our own. I think that is the case with many people right now.

AmyKathleen, I don't know about you, but after all that we've gone through being long distance and then the ####### USCIS puts us through for our visa, I am NOT waiting one second longer than I have to to be with my fiance! We're doing this because we want to be together, so that seems kind of counterproductive. To each their own, I suppose.

[amykathleen2005 441]

You can't have your cake and eat it too. If you wanted to ensure a big wedding and to come over just after getting the visa than you should have gotten a CR-1, you could have gotten both. It seems sometimes that people are even more focused on their dream wedding than being with the one they love (not saying anyone specifically, but it seems to be a running theme in general), so I gave an option. Take it or leave it, the choice is yours, you are the only one to know your priorities: the big wedding or being together quickly.