Wedding planning and travel with K1 visa

[benoi027 3]

Hello everyone,

I'm just wondering what all of you have done in regards to wedding plans... I was trying to plan a traditional wedding in the States based on when I thought I would have my K1, but am now starting to get scared that these may not line up. Have all of you simply planned to have a small ceremony once the K1 is approved, then organize a bigger reception for later? Or have you had luck planning the reception so that it lined up with your ceremony?

Also, I'm still not having any luck finding out about traveling to the States (from Canada) while the K1 is being processed. It seems to me that you are allowed to travel until your K1 has been processed, but at what step is it considered processed? Once you receive you NOA2? Once it is received at the Embassy? Once you have had your interview? I've tried calling all the typical government sites, but can't seem to get a clear answer one way or the other...

Thanks so much for your advice- I've found plenty of great information on here!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

It really is best not to make any plans that you can't back out of or reschedule until you actually have your visa in your hands. There can be unexpected delays on top of slow processing at any stage of the process, including even after the visa has been issued and is being delivered to you. Many couples do just have a short civil ceremony and then plan for a larger celebration afterwards, or plan something that isn't too large and doesn't require a lot of advance lead in time. The immigration process is not 'wedding' friendly.

Yes, you can visit the US while you are waiting for your K-1 visa to be processed virtually all the way until you actually have the interview and are approved. You leave your passport at the Consulate, they affix the visa and mail it back to you. You have up to 6 months in which to use the visa but you may find that if you try to visit the US without using the visa with it in your passport, the border authority may not let you in without using it so once you have the visa in your passport, plan on using it or not crossing the border until you are ready to use it.

On each and every visit you will need to be prepared to show that you are not an immigrant on that visit, that you have ties that necessitate your return to Canada. These include owning property, paying rent, having a job with a committed date of return, having ongoing financial responsibilities in Canada, having classes or exams or doctor appointments set for after your return, a return ticket, travel health insurance good for the same length of time you will be in the US, anything like this that shows you intend to return to Canada. It is also useful to carry a copy of your K-1 paperwork form the petition and the NOA1 up to the NOA2 and any other paperwork you have submitted, to show that you are aware of and following the proper immigration process. It offers a degree of reassurance that you are not likely to stay in the US on that visit when you have already initiated the appropriate immigration process.

[CANbirdUSman 11]

Hello everyone,

I'm just wondering what all of you have done in regards to wedding plans... I was trying to plan a traditional wedding in the States based on when I thought I would have my K1, but am now starting to get scared that these may not line up. Have all of you simply planned to have a small ceremony once the K1 is approved, then organize a bigger reception for later? Or have you had luck planning the reception so that it lined up with your ceremony?

Also, I'm still not having any luck finding out about traveling to the States (from Canada) while the K1 is being processed. It seems to me that you are allowed to travel until your K1 has been processed, but at what step is it considered processed? Once you receive you NOA2? Once it is received at the Embassy? Once you have had your interview? I've tried calling all the typical government sites, but can't seem to get a clear answer one way or the other...

Thanks so much for your advice- I've found plenty of great information on here!

Hi there!

I feel your pain. Honestly, do what's best for you and your fiance. My fiance & I have talked about where we'd like to get married, I've tried on dresses, and we've made our guest list. And then... we stopped planning for now, until I have my VISA in hand. We haven't made any official decisions, but we might just have something small, then do it up big later. We'd rather put $ towards a house, but we'll see what happens.

And regarding going to the States, great advice from Kathryn41.

Check out the forum:

General Discussion Area

Regional Discussion for CANADA. Lots of great advice there for us CANUCKS

Good luck!

Edited February 7, 2012 by CANbirdUSman

[CANbirdUSman 11]

Hi there!

I feel your pain. Honestly, do what's best for you and your fiance. My fiance & I have talked about where we'd like to get married, I've tried on dresses, and we've made our guest list. And then... we stopped planning for now, until I have my VISA in hand. We haven't made any official decisions, but we might just have something small, then do it up big later. We'd rather put $ towards a house, but we'll see what happens.

And regarding going to the States, great advice from Kathryn41.

Check out link link 'crossing-border-after-just-filing-for-k-1/ (It's posted a few below yours on the CANADA forum).

Good luck!

Edited February 7, 2012 by CANbirdUSman

[Udella&Wiz 325]

You're planning for a moving target so don't get too attached to any particular date or plan because you just cannot predict what will take place. 'Hoping for the best' is nice but you may feel let down and disappointed if a date passes. I personally bought a nice sleeveless dress because I thought I'd be married in Aug or Sept - my wedding date was Nov 24th in the end

That is not to say you should have a totally dismal outlook on wedding planning either. You can plan quite a bit without commiting or making deposits. I might be going out on a limb here, but I think it's a lot harder to plan a first wedding then it is for some of us who are getting married for the 2nd time or are a little bit older. My husband and I were very happy to have a smaller ceremony with kids, family and friends with a minister in our home, we weren't trying to book reception halls, the big church or DJs etc....like CANBirdUSMan above, we planned as many details as we could. My husband (the USC) did a lot of leg work in looking for stuff and checking locations out. We could have probably had a reception elsewhere and we considered a restaurant with a private room but in the end we decided on brunch at home. Yes, I got up at 5am on my wedding day to bake, but hey whatever

One of the funniest stories was when my husband found the perfect dinnerware and serving pieces with silver snowflakes on them. He was snapping pictures in the middle of the Macy's housewares department and sending me texts on what he'd found. He was such a good little shopper!

[lisers76 1]

We went out on a limb and set a wedding date. However, in all of our planning we have out clauses. We explained our visa situation and have an extension written in to all of our contracts. We are still very confident that the date will work out fine for us. This may not be the best advice as I know that a lot of people advize against this. But for us it was really important for us to have a traditional wedding and not a civil ceremony followed by something bigger later. We understand the risks we are taking.

Hello everyone,

I'm just wondering what all of you have done in regards to wedding plans... I was trying to plan a traditional wedding in the States based on when I thought I would have my K1, but am now starting to get scared that these may not line up. Have all of you simply planned to have a small ceremony once the K1 is approved, then organize a bigger reception for later? Or have you had luck planning the reception so that it lined up with your ceremony?

Also, I'm still not having any luck finding out about traveling to the States (from Canada) while the K1 is being processed. It seems to me that you are allowed to travel until your K1 has been processed, but at what step is it considered processed? Once you receive you NOA2? Once it is received at the Embassy? Once you have had your interview? I've tried calling all the typical government sites, but can't seem to get a clear answer one way or the other...

Thanks so much for your advice- I've found plenty of great information on here!

[Udella&Wiz 325]

We went out on a limb and set a wedding date. However, in all of our planning we have out clauses. We explained our visa situation and have an extension written in to all of our contracts. We are still very confident that the date will work out fine for us. This may not be the best advice as I know that a lot of people advize against this. But for us it was really important for us to have a traditional wedding and not a civil ceremony followed by something bigger later. We understand the risks we are taking.

The out-clauses are a good safety net if they can be arranged, good idea.

[benoi027 3]

Thanks so much for the replies everyone! I'm on the same side of the fence as lisers76, and really want to do a 'traditional' wedding. What we've done is set a date for the wedding, with the understanding that we may not be able to be legally married that day. We would have a 'commitment ceremony' followed by a reception, and then do a justice of the peace ceremony once the visa is in.

I spoke to the border patrol people at the POE I use as well as National Visa Services, and they said the same thing as Kathryn41- that I should be able to cross until the visa is in my passport. I'm debating keeping the date as it is (we stupidly sent out save the dates before doing enough research) and hoping like heck I'm not denied that time. My biggest concern is that since I won't be employed anymore at that point, I may have trouble providing sufficient ties to Canada. Since we will have guests flying in from both coasts and countries, that would definitely not be a small mishap!

Our other option is to send out another notice that we're postponing it until the Visa is in, but this option makes me kind of sad... Might be the smarter option though. Yeesh- I wish this wasn't so tough! Nice to know we're not the only ones in this boat though!

[KTandTommy 31]

We're planning for a May 2013 wedding (submitting our first round of paperwork this week, when I go visit him!!) Our hope is that the visa will actually be processed long before this, and we'll get married as soon as that happens - and then be down there together to plan the "actual" wedding.

We'll probably just have a small courthouse wedding with our parents, and maybe one or two friends... but we'll consider the *real* wedding/our anniversary to be in May 2013, From all the timelines I've been reading, I *THINK* we'll be safe to do it this way... but since I'm going to see all my potential venues this week while I'm visiting him, I think I will mention the possibility of an out clause too. Great advice!

[lisers76 1]

What date have you chosen if you don't mind me asking. How far out?

Also i would be careful with a commitment ceremony. I have heard anything that looks like a wedding may make the visa people suspicious.

Thanks so much for the replies everyone! I'm on the same side of the fence as lisers76, and really want to do a 'traditional' wedding. What we've done is set a date for the wedding, with the understanding that we may not be able to be legally married that day. We would have a 'commitment ceremony' followed by a reception, and then do a justice of the peace ceremony once the visa is in.

I spoke to the border patrol people at the POE I use as well as National Visa Services, and they said the same thing as Kathryn41- that I should be able to cross until the visa is in my passport. I'm debating keeping the date as it is (we stupidly sent out save the dates before doing enough research) and hoping like heck I'm not denied that time. My biggest concern is that since I won't be employed anymore at that point, I may have trouble providing sufficient ties to Canada. Since we will have guests flying in from both coasts and countries, that would definitely not be a small mishap!

Our other option is to send out another notice that we're postponing it until the Visa is in, but this option makes me kind of sad... Might be the smarter option though. Yeesh- I wish this wasn't so tough! Nice to know we're not the only ones in this boat though!

[benoi027 3]

Well, we had chosen July 28th, which only left us a little over 7 months from date of filing. Obviously not the right decision, but we had reconciled ourselves with the idea that we may not be able to be married at our wedding... I just hadn't considered that I may not actually be able to BE at my wedding! We had consulted with a lawyer before setting this date, and he thought July 28th would be fine. However, when I started doing the math I contacted another lawyer who said we were taking a big risk. Apparently, as your approval date gets closer, the border patrol officers are more and more likely to deny you (thinking you're immigrating). Also, because I work in a school division and am not planning on returning next year (fingers crossed I'm approved by then!), I won't have a work contract at that time, which this lawyer called "a big negative". We've started calling guests to let them know the wedding is postponed- no sense in adding extra stress and taking such a risk. I guess we'll just start planning once the visa is in hand, and do a civil ceremony first. Not what I'd hoped for, but I'm learning that this process doesn't often allow for that!

Lisers, what date is your wedding planned for? It looks as though you should have contact with the embassy soon, and you said you're confident in your date, so congrats on planning it so perfectly! Not an easy feat!

Edited February 14, 2012 by benoi027

[SapphireDreams 71]

We did the civil wedding/larger wedding at a later date thing.

I am so happy with how everything worked out. I moved, we had a civil wedding 2 days later, which was convenient because it allowed me to get health insurance immediately. I also adjusted status right away, got a job and just settled things before having to plan a big wedding. We were then able to save a ton of money and just be settled which is harder than it seems.

In the grand scheme of things, both wedding days were equally special in their own way. Our large wedding was the most amazing day ever - it really felt like a true celebration of our marriage if that makes sense. We joke that the first year after our civil wedding was like our warm-up/practice year! It gave us time to adjust and get settled.

[lisers76 1]

We have our wedding date set for September 29th. We filed September 9th of last year. I have already received my NOA2, and am preparing Packet 3 now so I am thinking we should be fine. I did the research on this site and looked at timelines and knew I needed at least a year to feel more secure and safe that our date would work. While there can always be unexpected delays anywhere in the process the longest part usually is waiting for the NOA2 and since we have that already with more than 7 months to go, I feel pretty good that we will be fine for the wedding date. Fingers crossed!

Good idea in calling the guests and postponing the wedding. No one needs MORE stress.

Well, we had chosen July 28th, which only left us a little over 7 months from date of filing. Obviously not the right decision, but we had reconciled ourselves with the idea that we may not be able to be married at our wedding... I just hadn't considered that I may not actually be able to BE at my wedding! We had consulted with a lawyer before setting this date, and he thought July 28th would be fine. However, when I started doing the math I contacted another lawyer who said we were taking a big risk. Apparently, as your approval date gets closer, the border patrol officers are more and more likely to deny you (thinking you're immigrating). Also, because I work in a school division and am not planning on returning next year (fingers crossed I'm approved by then!), I won't have a work contract at that time, which this lawyer called "a big negative". We've started calling guests to let them know the wedding is postponed- no sense in adding extra stress and taking such a risk. I guess we'll just start planning once the visa is in hand, and do a civil ceremony first. Not what I'd hoped for, but I'm learning that this process doesn't often allow for that!

Lisers, what date is your wedding planned for? It looks as though you should have contact with the embassy soon, and you said you're confident in your date, so congrats on planning it so perfectly! Not an easy feat!