Setting a Date!!! Are you kidding?

[EminTX 131]

Research YOUR consulate.

If you really do need proof of wedding planning, there are many, many things that go into it. How about:

Receipt for the dress

Receipt for the rings

Receipt for consultation with professional wedding planner (Could include your beloved by using the phone)

Copies of documents from consultation with pastor (Could include your belived by using the phone)

Prepared samples of the wedding invitations with a tentative date (print the word SAMPLE across the front maybe)

Official engagement announcement with a photo of the two of you in the newspaper

Has anyone in your family traveled to that country to meet your beloved? Passport stamps proving that might be good.

If you do have to have a reservation somewhere, pick a place that has a low cost cancellation fee. We had our wedding at Chapel Dulcinea Wedding Chapel

We paid a 100$ reservation fee (that was refunded when we arrived for the wedding). You can see that the schedule is visible (and printable!).

Please let us know how this works out so that others who have to go through the same embassy can benefit.

Good luck.

[Jamaican Luv 13]

you can always get married in a court house, have family/friends there for support, then have a "real" wedding of your choice to renew your vows.?? but you dont have to have proof of that just ongoing relationship.

[hnubno 9]

our proof of ongoing relationship were phone logs, snail mail letters, and emails. you don't need plans of wedding as proof. also we had a court wedding within 90 days of his arrival and a traditional one months later. it doesn't have to be complicated at all.

Edited June 23, 2012 by hnubno

[Cyn&Alex 2]

When has the gov't of any nation functioned with common sense. And it is consular specific soooo....I just wanted to know and see if anyone else found this to be as difficult. I do have common sense, hence the fact of questioning this issue and it's absurdity. Thanks

[rade2rising 205]

set a date that is 2yrs away

you will get best prices, best available days and you will be certain of being approved by then.

gud luck

[Cyn&Alex 2]

set a date that is 2yrs away

you will get best prices, best available days and you will be certain of being approved by then.

gud luck

Haha most definitely. Just not that patient.

[Cyn&Alex 2]

Thanks everyone for their positive responses, nice to hear that others have been through this. And yes, it does take all the fun out of the wedding plannig process. I go back and forth with whether or not I want to even bother with it.

[EminTX 131]

And yes, it does take all the fun out of the wedding plannig process. I go back and forth with whether or not I want to even bother with it.

Every bit of the wedding planning we had done (all tentative) was out the window. The venue was no longer available. Because we had to change everything, we elected to go to an informal restaurant afterward to enjoy each others' company and celebrate as opposed to a reception, and we did something silly after that (bowling--we passed around the veil for good luck--haha-the piz are great!).

If we couldn't have a "dream wedding" we were certainly going to have a "FUN wedding". We made sure the occasion was celebrated in a way that was special to us and everyone who attended said that it was the most fun they've ever had at a wedding. (This is what I heard about them saying to others in the family and in my job.)

Do what you can with what you've got and don't worry about the rest. Demonstrating your love and commitment to your beloved doesn't require an effort to impress or compete with fashionable, modern weddings. Besides, those are so common that they really are borrrrrrrringggggggggg. (I really do understand the mourning that goes along with this--it is a dream and it hurts to give it up. Your future spouse is totally worth it, right?)

[Mogambi 96]

I think what we have decided to do is to have a small simple wedding to take care of the 'paperwork' part of it. Then to have a big party and reception at a later time. It's very hard since most of the people coming here from aren't going to have a lot of family to be here for a wedding.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

I don't know about the other consulates, but when the CO's at the consulate in Saigon ask about wedding plans they're not looking for receipts or invitations or any other documentary evidence. They're looking for the right words coming out of the beneficiary's mouth. They're looking for the beneficiary to state, without hesitation, where they're getting married, where they're having the reception, how many people are being invited, where they're going for their honeymoon, etc. They're looking for a clear indication that the wedding is something the petitioner and beneficiary have discussed at length, and that it's clear in the beneficiary's head what comes next after they arrive in the US. One thing is clear at that consulate - any documentary evidence you hand them can be used as ammunition against you. If the beneficiary hands them a guest list, for example, then they had better know every name on that list; e.g., "Who is Joe Bloe?" - "He's my fiance's uncle."

Again, what they're looking for is an indicator of visa fraud - a couple who have not made any concrete plans beyond getting the visa. A beneficiary who knows those plans by heart is more convincing than a few receipts.