Advice Needed Please

[SirLancelot 1]

The problem is this Bill. You may be technically in the right, but if a USCIS adjudicator thinks you are indeed married, then he or she may deny your petition. Of course you can appeal and eventually fight your way through the system, as you are technically correct, but what most people here are telling you is how to prevent your petition from being denied and having to go through the appeal process.

I agree with you in part. As long as your ceremony did NOT confer legal marriage status for you and your SO in Thailand, you are technically OK to petition for the K-1 visa. However, where I disagree with you is sending in photos of your ceremony and telling USCIS of the fact that you had a ceremony in Thailand. That will ONLY cause concern and confusion for the adjudicator. There is a balance USCIS has to strike. On the one had, they want to make sure the petitioners are genuine and sincere USCs wanting to get married to foreigners. On the other hand, for K-1 visa petitions, they also have to make sure the beneficiary is single and NOT already married to a USC. In offering USCIS photos of your ceremony, you may think you're being sincere and showing USCIS the authenticity of your relationship, but the USCIS adjudicating officer may interpret the photos as being actual wedding photos and may presume you're already married and thus will be forced to deny your K-1 petition. The whole point of all these suggestions is to NOT give the USCIS adjudicating officer any grounds to believe that you're already married and thus having to deny your petition.

You may very well pass through this entire process without a problem, but I suspect you've added more problems rather than reduced them by doing it the way you did. In the end, you're the petitioner and you'll do it the way you want to do it, no matter what others suggest.

Good luck and I hope it works out for you in the end.

Here is a quote from a webpage on marriage in Thailand, (there are several that all say the same thing):

---QUOTE---

Registration of marriage in Thailand can only be done at a District Office (\"amphur\"), which is similar to a town hall back home. Please note that a marriage ceremony performed in a church, or in a temple, or a ceremony at home with monks attending the wedding is not legally binding in Thailand, - and therefore not legally binding in your country either.

In order for a foreign citizen to register marriage in Thailand, the Thai authorities request that your Embassy issue a certificate in English and in Thai, which confirms your name, nationality, passport number, issuing passport authority, address in home country, employer, position, and salary. Furthermore, names and age of children from previous relationships, if any. And finally, names and addresses of 2 contact persons (references) in your country, who are not family members.

---END QUOTE---

Having a ceremony in Thailand does not constitute a legal marriage. I will be very surprised if I have any problems at all with what I am planning to do. But again, We'll see - they have my RFE, so we'll see what they do with it.

I have read other peoples posts on this forum that did exactly what I plan to do and had no problems at all, and I don't expect any. I have not felt any need to lie to USCIS, and I certainly don't want to deny my fiance's family the privelage of attending a ceremony for my fiance.

Bill

[no name 1]

However, where I disagree with you is sending in photos of your ceremony and telling USCIS of the fact that you had a ceremony in Thailand. That will ONLY cause concern and confusion for the adjudicator.

You may very well pass through this entire process without a problem, but I suspect you've added more problems rather than reduced them by doing it the way you did.

[AndyMisiu 0]

ummmmmm... you should be ok with many other pictures. I don't think you need to paint the picture black so to speak. You don't want to make it seem like you are already married!!!! so pick some other pics! ya mean!!