Tell the interviewer about two weddings (civil and church)?

[MyDisplayName 0]

Hi,

I am getting married with my fiancee who is a US citizen. We are planning honeymoon abroad and obtaining a green card/travel permit makes it much easier for me to reentry into US. So following the advice from this forum, we went for a civil ceremony a few months ago, where only one witness attended. We have a few pictures from there.

We will hold a real church wedding with far more attendees in just two months away. Should we tell our immigration interviewer that we planned two ceremonies, and real gigantic is on its way, or should we just never mention it?

Thanks so much!

Josh

Edited April 30, 2011 by MyDisplayName

[TBoneTX 46,174]

Many couples have done exactly this. My own wedding (by a Justice of the Peace with one witness) was on Halloween, and the ceremonial gig was on Pearl Harbor Day. The official marriage is the one that "counts." Tell anyone anything you want to about either.

[AlinaH 38]

We're doing this as well. Right after POE we're getting married by Elvis in Vegas. However, it's important for us to get married by someone in our church, and we want to have a big wedding in Canada....so we're waiting till the following summer, when I will hopefully have my greencard, to have our "real" wedding.

I'm not necessarily telling them unless it comes up. I'm not going to hide it though either.

[MyDisplayName 0]

Many couples have done exactly this. My own wedding (by a Justice of the Peace with one witness) was on Halloween, and the ceremonial gig was on Pearl Harbor Day. The official marriage is the one that "counts." Tell anyone anything you want to about either.

Would you like to share what the interviewer asks about the two weddings, and what are the reactions?

I am just a bit concerned that this makes us look like we get married JUST for green card, and two weddings are over half a year apart, which looks weird...

Thanks,

Josh

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Would you like to share what the interviewer asks about the two weddings, and what are the reactions?

I am just a bit concerned that this makes us look like we get married JUST for green card, and two weddings are over half a year apart, which looks weird...

Thanks,

Josh

Did you come to the US with a K1 visa? It's quite common for a K1 to have a civil wedding to meet the legal requirements of the visa, and then have a more elaborate wedding when they're able to make the arrangements. It won't look suspicious at all for a K1 to do this. For someone who entered with any other sort of visa it would depend on the totality of the circumstances.

[MyDisplayName 0]

Did you come to the US with a K1 visa? It's quite common for a K1 to have a civil wedding to meet the legal requirements of the visa, and then have a more elaborate wedding when they're able to make the arrangements. It won't look suspicious at all for a K1 to do this. For someone who entered with any other sort of visa it would depend on the totality of the circumstances.

I came here with another non-immigrant Visa, and my civil ceremony was in US as well. I guess we should keep it in a low profile then.

We sincerely plan to get married in the church, it's just that permanent residency grants us much more convenience to travel about and re-entry the US.

Edited April 30, 2011 by MyDisplayName

[MyDisplayName 0]

Many couples have done exactly this. My own wedding (by a Justice of the Peace with one witness) was on Halloween, and the ceremonial gig was on Pearl Harbor Day. The official marriage is the one that "counts." Tell anyone anything you want to about either.

I also wanted to check, is your interview before the ceremonial, or after it?

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

I came here with another non-immigrant Visa, and my civil ceremony was in US as well. I guess we should keep it in a low profile then.

We sincerely plan to get married in the church, it's just that permanent residency grants us much more convenience to travel about and re-entry the US.

Two ceremonies might look suspicious, then. It would look like the civil ceremony was primarily done in order to satisfy the requirements to apply for the immigration benefit as soon as possible. This is understandable for a K1 because the requirement to marry quickly is imposed by the terms of the K1 visa, and it's understood that the K1 entered the US specifically for this reason.

The reason they will allow the spouse of a US citizen to adjust status while in the US is because it would be unnecessarily bureaucratic to require them to return to their home country for immigration visa processing. However, they don't want people using this method as a shortcut around the normal immigrant visa process. It's supposed to be an exception. What they don't want to see is evidence that this was planned prior to the intending immigrant coming to the US (preconceived intent), or evidence that the marriage was primarily for the purpose of obtaining an immigration benefit. When it appears to them that the timing of events was intended to satisfy the immigration requirements rather than part of the natural course of the relationship then the nature of relationship becomes suspect.

It's likely they're going to ask why you had a civil ceremony if you were planning on having a traditional ceremony anyway. If you respond that you had to the civil ceremony so that you could apply for a green card then you'll be denied.

[TBoneTX 46,174]

Just to tie up the loose end in this thread, our AOS (from K-1) was approved without an interview.