Interview Question- Mumbai

[johna1 4]

Guys,

I am looking for a piece of advice from you guys. This is the Situation.

We did our Civil Marriage in April 2012, and Church wedding in November 2012. We filed all our paperwork based on the Civil marriage since that is what's most important. The question I have is that, do we have to let the Embassy know that church wedding was in November since that information is irrelevant to the immigration proceedings. If CO asks, how many people attended your wedding? How should the answer be?

In the Civil Marriage, it was only close relatives ( about 15 people), and religious Ceremony we have about 200+ people. Any advice would be helpful, and especially from those folks who have been through it. We sure want to be honest, and not sure whats the best way to go about it.

[ppihtr123 68]

The civil service was your legal marriage ceremony. Any other service does not really matter in the eyes of the law. You had a church service or celebration as you were already married so you could not have been "married in the church or had a church wedding".

Edited March 25, 2013 by ppihtr123

[N-o-l-a 7,168]

Just be honest, say at your legal wedding you had 15 people and later on when everyone could attend you held a religious ceremony that had 200.

Edited March 25, 2013 by Nola123

[johna1 4]

I am confused with your answer. Do I ever bring up the Church Ceremony at the Interview at all? All the pictures I have is from the Church Ceremony. Please elaborate your answer

The civil service was your legal marriage ceremony. Any other service does not really matter in the eyes of the law. You had a church service or celebration as you were already married so you could not have been "married in the church or had a church wedding".

[ppihtr123 68]

I am confused with your answer. Do I ever bring up the Church Ceremony at the Interview at all? All the pictures I have is from the Church Ceremony. Please elaborate your answer

It is great to show lots of Pix of the celebration with family. Just be clear that you were married in April at a different event that you have no pix for if that is the case. Pix of you two with other family and friends at the Nov event does support a bonified relationship. Just be clear that you were married in April and had a large celebration in November. My point is to watch the language. You were married in April, the November celebration event was not a marriage OR wedding.

[Harsh_77 718]

Yes you can be honest with the CO and tell him/her you had civil marriage and 15 ppl attended the wedding and later you had a ceremony in church where 200+ attended the ceremony and you can be honest with the CO which pic is which if they ask you about any picture.

The more honest you would be it would be much easier, there is nothing wrong in doing civil ceremony and later a reception.

Lot of ppl do it this way as they can kick start the process and COs are aware of it and there is nothing wrong or illegal about it.

[EnglishRose 1]

I was asked about my wedding at my interview and indicated that we had had two events - they didn't seem bothered by it and must see it a lot as it is a means to speed up the Visa process. Be honest and it shouldn't be a problem. As your paperwork is based on your civil wedding I would start by saying you had had a civil ceremony back in April and followed this up with a religious blessing in November.

[AKSinghSingh79 143]

I agree with the above posters. Your legal marriage was the date your civil ceremony was conducted. If they ask questions, tell truthful honest answers as to why you had a religious ceremony later (finances, family, etc...)

My husband and I were legally married in May 2012. It was a very simple religious Hindu ceremony. Only about 20 or so people attended the small celebration we had afterwards. Later, in January 2013, we had our wedding reception with all the works (Mela Sangeet, DJ, photographer, food, etc...). At our reception, we probably had close to 1000 guests in attendance.

If we are questioned, we will tell the officer that we were legally wed in May but due to financial constraints and lack of vacation time for me, decided to post-pone the reception to a later date. I was planning on including our reception photos with the IV package at the NVC.

I doubt it will be an issue. Best of luck on your interview!