OK to visit beneficiary's country (India) for ring ceremony?

[rsns 0]

Hey all,

Do you all know if it is OK to visit the beneficiary's country (in this case, India) during the I-129F review process to have an "engagement ring ceremony/party" with relatives? We are already engaged (did a ceremony called the "Roka"), but an "engagement ceremony" is still usually done to make things more official between the 2 families, and would involve both of us exchanging rings (there are many ceremonies in the whole Hindu wedding process, I am finding out, heh). This ceremony is *not* a wedding. We are following all the rules and will only be getting married in the U.S., after she gets her Fiancee Visa to come here.

Has anyone done this in the past? Of course legally it would be fine, since the ceremony is not in any way a wedding-- but we want to be sure to avoid doing anything that USCIS might misinterpret and then cause a delay in the whole process. We are a bit afraid that USCIS could misinterpret this ceremony since it would involve both of us exchanging rings-- this is how it is done in India for an engagement, but of course here in the U.S. the man gets a ring only at the actual wedding. All of our relatives in India, of course, really want us to do the ceremony since they won't be able to come to our wedding in the U.S., and this will at least give them something fun to attend in India.

Thanks so much for any insight.

Edited May 9, 2011 by boomba212

[Ryan H 3,812]

Would you be considered legally married in India by having such a ceremony? In some countries, you have to register the marriage to make it legal while in others, a simple ceremony or a meeting of the families at a certain formal get-together will make the couple legally married.

[Harsh_77 718]

Thats fine you can do it - that would not be an issue.

Even most of the CO are aware of Indian weddings (they being so elobrate)

So you are fine you can do the ring ceremony and that is cool

[rsns 0]

Would you be considered legally married in India by having such a ceremony? In some countries, you have to register the marriage to make it legal while in others, a simple ceremony or a meeting of the families at a certain formal get-together will make the couple legally married.

Nope, not at all. It will just be an official engagement ceremony. The actual wedding is much different (involves a "pundit" (priest), walking around a fire, etc. etc.). We are probably being overly paranoid. The only reason we are even slightly worried is, like I said, if USCIS does not know or understand Hindu pre-wedding customs, they might misinterpret the exchanging of rings from both sides to be something more than just an engagement ceremony.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Since you would not be legally married at the conclusion of the ceremony, it's ok to go ahead with it should you choose to do so. If you have not yet filed the I-129F, there is no requirement that you include pictures of this specific ceremony with the file. USCIS personnel may or may not be familiar with this type ceremony. However, as Harsh already alluded to, Embassy and Consular personnel should have a general understanding of what is what.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Ryan H

[cchhat01 14]

Hey all,

Do you all know if it is OK to visit the beneficiary's country (in this case, India) during the I-129F review process to have an "engagement ring ceremony/party" with relatives? We are already engaged (did a ceremony called the "Roka"), but an "engagement ceremony" is still usually done to make things more official between the 2 families, and would involve both of us exchanging rings (there are many ceremonies in the whole Hindu wedding process, I am finding out, heh). This ceremony is *not* a wedding. We are following all the rules and will only be getting married in the U.S., after she gets her Fiancee Visa to come here.

Has anyone done this in the past? Of course legally it would be fine, since the ceremony is not in any way a wedding-- but we want to be sure to avoid doing anything that USCIS might misinterpret and then cause a delay in the whole process. We are a bit afraid that USCIS could misinterpret this ceremony since it would involve both of us exchanging rings-- this is how it is done in India for an engagement, but of course here in the U.S. the man gets a ring only at the actual wedding. All of our relatives in India, of course, really want us to do the ceremony since they won't be able to come to our wedding in the U.S., and this will at least give them something fun to attend in India.

Thanks so much for any insight.

I would say we are both in a similar boat. Except we didn't have an official "Roka" kind of thing. Ours was a very elaborate ring ceremony event in March 2011. It actually did involve a priest since my family being Gujarati and my fiance's being Rajasthani/Punjabi, we have a tradition where we must first perform a Gud & Dhania ritual (Gud, or brown sugar for sweetness and Dhania for the calmness within the relationship). Long story short, we did have a priest perform a small ritual, but no pheras. However, since we had garlands and the ceremony being pretty grand, we avoided sending too many pics from the engagement ceremony that could be flagged as potential marriage to the USCIS.

Since I just filed the I-129F on her behalf, we won't know for a while how things fare. Although, I'm fairly confident we are pretty solid on evidence and proof of meeting (without making it seem like ours was like a wedding). We didn't include any pics in which we were shown putting rings on each other's finger. I would say that the only difference in our case is that we filed after the grand engagement ceremony, you're going to be doing so while your I-129F is in the works.

As long as you're not getting married, all is well.

Chigs

[rsns 0]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Chigs, looks like we applied at right about the same time, so we should stay in touch and see how the process goes for both of us.

[cchhat01 14]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Chigs, looks like we applied at right about the same time, so we should stay in touch and see how the process goes for both of us.

Sure thing.

Create and update your timeline at VJ so that we can share each other's status.

[R.&S. 2]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Chigs, looks like we applied at right about the same time, so we should stay in touch and see how the process goes for both of us.

A nice engagement ceremony will be a great help if you are at New Delhi embassy. Put a nice cardboard up at the stage where you sit during ceremony mentioned both of your names on it,date and " Engagement Ceremony".

Good Luck