Need some kind of Timeline for Wedding Plans

[Married2009 32]

You might want to research your options a bit. If you go for a CR-1, the time isn't that much longer than a K-1, and he can work as soon as he gets his social security number. With a K-1, he has to adjust status before he can work (or leave the States), and that takes a few months, from what I have read. It is also less expensive than the K-1, since he does not have to adjust status once he gets here.

If you went the CR-1, then you can have your wedding anytime you want. He just has to go back to Canada, and wait. If he has strong ties to Canada, he should be able to visit, during the process.

Edited August 8, 2011 by Married2009

[Enigma11561 336]

The best advice I can give you is do not count on any time line. They are only guides and many people can get approved earlier and many more a lot later. Case in point. I filed my wife's AOS in June 2010. She was given her green card in May 2011. Almost one year. No paperwork problems just "things" like a storm closing the office and having a reschedule 2 months later, a hiccup in biometrics getting lost in a computer. Stuff happens. With all this planning and scheduling going on the last thing you need is having to worry if you can pull it off to begin with due to unknown processing times. Like others have said. Make a small wedding and then relax and make a grand party after.

[texas-gal 3]

It is possible to plan and have a traditional American wedding but you have to let places know and make the plans so things can be changed at any point in time. A lot of our wedding things we did by ourselves. I found a caterer through a restaurant several months before but didn't finalize anything until within the two weeks before. The photographer I started looking for when it was close to my fiance's wedding date. The DJ I found a week before. Everything went very well and it was a beautiful wedding. Let me know if I can help any with sharing some ideas of what we did.

[AMP 54]

Yes. I would agree with all, about getting married on a cruise. My suggestion is to get married by Justice of the peace and then do a cruise wedding after AOS been approved and Green Card is in hand, wich takes about 5 months. This should give you more than a year to save up for a wedding. At least that is what we are doing or trying to do.

Good luck!

[Used to be broken 147]

Well, we're still brainstorming ideas. We're really broke. So we need something financially feasible. Plus, my family is from the West Coast (I live in Georgia now) and his from Canada (obviously ) so either way, it will require a lot of travelling from the few family members that we want to be there with us.

Ultimitely, we just want our parents to be there for our wedding and to have a small ceremony.

Really broke and cruise wedding usually do not go together neither does planning anything on any timeline in Canada consulates.

Plan a one year "after" or 1st wedding celebration cruise..no stress on timeline and there is time to save up for it as well.

[Kenrick-Diaz 0]

Reduce the stress on yourself and your fiance. Don't waste your time or your money on something that is being determined by the somebody else. Your family will also be less stressed worrying about your wedding date. Wait until you have the visa then make your plans. Take care and good luck

[KayMar 4]

It was tough for me thinking about the wedding plans and having the 90 days looming over my head with no date. I chose about 9 months out and would inform family and friends that I don't have and exact date but when it come I would give as much notice as possible so they would be prepared. In the meantime, I was looking at wedding packages and locations within the US because my fiance wouldn't have an AP yet. With that in mind, what do you think about looking at Vegas, Hawaii or Florida at a place that does wedding packages. I was personally went with Vegas and had a very tasteful, traditional service, they provided, flowers, limo, photographer, pastor, brides suite and took us to get our license plus transported out guests. You can add things like like a toast or cake reception if you'd like too. I mention this because it seemed like the best way to get a true wedding day to remember without missing anything. Please who weren't able to see it could view for 30 days on the internet plus I have a wedding DVD. I don't feel like I missed out on anything. I was able to shop prices and secure a date without a lot of notice plus family and friends could be there.

For us, it was nice to be able to include my hubby in on the wedding plans virtually as well. I was able to show him the chapel via web links, get his approval and his ideas as well for our day.

I hope that helps. Good luck

[jundp 191]

It is possible to plan and have a traditional American wedding but you have to let places know and make the plans so things can be changed at any point in time. A lot of our wedding things we did by ourselves. I found a caterer through a restaurant several months before but didn't finalize anything until within the two weeks before. The photographer I started looking for when it was close to my fiance's wedding date. The DJ I found a week before. Everything went very well and it was a beautiful wedding. Let me know if I can help any with sharing some ideas of what we did.

That is what we did as well. It is very possible to plan an intimate wedding that guests can attend if you set the date once the visa is in hand. My husband received his visa in April, and we set our wedding date for August (after the visa was received). His family and friends were able to get plane tickets from Europe to the US with no problems.

Or if you want more time for out-of-town/country guests, go the route people have suggested and do a celebration after the legal ceremony.

[T&R 3]

Hi Ryan and Amanda,

Our K1 journey, started on November 2010 and ended last fruday, when I had my interview. At first, we planned our wedding for June 2011! But we had to change our wedding date, since we got a RFE, and the journey was taking longer thn we expected. I dont know how much time you should plan things, but it depends on the service center that will process your case. The service center which processed our case in Vermont. |From NOA1 to NOa2 it took 6 months and 6 days.

Hope it helps. Good luck!

[Barbara J 115]

My Canadian fiance and I are about to send our first batch of paperwork in (just waiting for a money transfer to have enough for the fee.) This is the actual I-129F petition and all supporting documents. I read that the current processing times for the first part is about 5 months, assuming no RFA is needed. But after that, the timeline gets a little fuzzy. We are trying to do a cruise wedding, and with half the guests being out of the country and the other half across the U.S., plane tickets along with the actual cruise tickets will need to be purchased way in advance.

How can I get a solid enough immigration timeline to plan out dates for the wedding? I can't exactly pick a cruise and send the Save the Dates with "kinda sorta maybe possibly February of next year or so..."

Help

You talk about money issues so you do know that you are up for another $1070 to do DO AOS YES? I was fortunate enough to plan my small wedding but it could have been postponed no issue but I suggest you do CR1 and marry now and then your fiance gets a GC on arrival to USA and can work immediately. With K1 you have to enter marry and then wait for EAD and AP so no leaving the USA . CR1 is cheaper roughly around the same time but then when he comes to US you can plan this wedding properly and have the family thing.

[Ryan & Amanda 1]

You talk about money issues so you do know that you are up for another $1070 to do DO AOS YES? I was fortunate enough to plan my small wedding but it could have been postponed no issue but I suggest you do CR1 and marry now and then your fiance gets a GC on arrival to USA and can work immediately. With K1 you have to enter marry and then wait for EAD and AP so no leaving the USA . CR1 is cheaper roughly around the same time but then when he comes to US you can plan this wedding properly and have the family thing.

Yes, I know about the AOS fee. The reason we chose to do the K1 is that we could be together while we wait for most of it. Right now, we've done months of research and prepared our paperwork to put in the mail today. I don't really consider changing our plans now an option. Our money problems are not so terrible that we're not getting by. (He could have stayed in Canada and worked. We wanted to be together though.) It just means that I can't afford (nor am I interested in) a several thousand dollar wedding.

I hope that clears things up a bit.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I'm not sure a cruise is a possibility for you - you may want to double check that as someone else has noted above.

There are many wonderful wedding ideas you can come up with which don't necessarily cost $$$ and are within the United States. Try searching in the Canadian forum and asking some questions there - we have relevant experience and obviously some good ideas of timelines going through Montreal.

We had a Wedding ideas thread not too long ago in teh Cdn forum as we. Might be worth checking out

Welcome to VJ

[Nate & Gladys 0]

I agree with those who say it's too risky to plan a wedding (where significant travel is required) around the visa approval. I think the best solution is to plan a ceremony/celebration in a location where everyone can be, regardless of the visa status. The official civil marriage paperwork can happen separately if necessary. That's our plan! Good luck...

[Ready to do it 101]

Forget the cruise. Forget starting to plan anything until visa is in hand. You can give people an announcement that you are "planning" to marry between June and September 2012, but setting a date without visa in hand is foolish IMO. People will understand. Give them an announcement setting a three month window for when you reasonably think the process will be complete and then let them know that you will contact them the moment you have visa in hand and a date is set.

[BM Canada 3]

I agree with those who say it's too risky to plan a wedding (where significant travel is required) around the visa approval. I think the best solution is to plan a ceremony/celebration in a location where everyone can be, regardless of the visa status. The official civil marriage paperwork can happen separately if necessary. That's our plan! Good luck...

That's not correct! Some countries view a small religious ceremony/celebration as an actual wedding, and you need to do research to find out if it's allowed or not. Canada didn't specifically say we couldn't have one, but we opted not to to make sure there were no grey areas in our visa approval process. Do NOT hold any sort of ceremony if there is a risk you will be denied! With this visa, you HAVE to wait. You can't "have your cake and eat it, too" with the K1.