(not legal) wedding ceremony prior to K1 visa interview

[Roy&Chanel 109]

Give it some thoughts on the time you'll spend and be apart from your partner:

1) If you host a celebration cum engagement party/unoffical ceremony, you get the chance of getting rejected for K1, you have to marry in your country, file for spouse visa, it will take around I say 6 months - 1 year or even more? Plus you have the record of filing for K1 and denial record due to that reason.

2) If you hold on to the ceremony, wait till K1 approved, which is around 3-4months, then hold an engagement party. Your fiance can also fly back to US with you.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Roy&Chanel

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

Simple solution, wait till you have your K1 approved and visa on hand, then have the wedding ceremony in your home country before leaving to the US. Nothing says you must have your wedding in the US, only that the wedding cannot occur till after the K1 visa is issued.

Nothing? How about immigration laws? I think you do not understand the purpose of a K-1 visa. If you marry before using the K-1 visa, you are no longer eligible to use it to enter the US.

https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/family/fiance-k-1.html#2

Under U.S. immigration law, a foreign-citizen fiancé(e) of a U.S. citizen is the recipient of an approved Petition for Alien Fiancé(e), Form I-129F, who has been issued a nonimmigrant K-1 visa for travel to the United States in order to marry his or her U.S. citizen fiancé(e). Both the U.S. citizen and the K-1 visa applicant must have been legally free to marry at the time the petition was filed and must have remained so thereafter. The marriage must be legally possible according to laws of the U.S. state in which the marriage will take place.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1184

8 U.S. Code § 1184 - Admission of nonimmigrants

(d) Issuance of visa to fiancée or fiancé of citizen

(1) A visa shall not be issued under the provisions of section 1101(a)(15)(K)(i) of this title until the consular officer has received a petition filed in the United States by the fiancée and fiancé of the applying alien and approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security. The petition shall be in such form and contain such information as the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, by regulation, prescribe. Such information shall include information on any criminal convictions of the petitioner for any specified crime described in paragraph (3)(B) and information on any permanent protection or restraining order issued against the petitioner related to any specified crime described in paragraph (3)(B)(i). It shall be approved only after satisfactory evidence is submitted by the petitioner to establish that the parties have previously met in person within 2 years before the date of filing the petition, have a bona fide intention to marry, and are legally able and actually willing to conclude a valid marriage in the United States within a period of ninety days after the alien’s arrival, except that the Secretary of Homeland Security in his discretion may waive the requirement that the parties have previously met in person. In the event the marriage with the petitioner does not occur within three months after the admission of the said alien and minor children, they shall be required to depart from the United States and upon failure to do so shall be removed in accordance with sections 1229a and 1231 of this title.

[E and R 8]

We considered the same thing to include the family in Colombia. We decided against it because it wasn't worth the risk and also we could easily do the same ceremony there after the AOS has been approved without putting you AOS application in jeopardy. Others have been denied the K1 because ceremonies have taken place that were to be only symbolic but later determined to be questionable to deny and to me it was not worth the risk. Different cultures/countries have different traditions for what qualifies as a wedding. After the judge says kiss the bride/groom one can easily interpret that to be the wedding while others may say you are married after you sign a legal document. If the reviewing officer has reason to question if you are already married they are obligated to deny as an inappropriate visa application. Best of luck and congrats in any case.

[Boiler 45,493]

We considered the same thing to include the family in Colombia. We decided against it because it wasn't worth the risk and also we could easily do the same ceremony there after the AOS has been approved without putting you AOS application in jeopardy. Others have been denied the K1 because ceremonies have taken place that were to be only symbolic but later determined to be questionable to deny and to me it was not worth the risk. Different cultures/countries have different traditions for what qualifies as a wedding. After the judge says kiss the bride/groom one can easily interpret that to be the wedding while others may say you are married after you sign a legal document. If the reviewing officer has reason to question if you are already married they are obligated to deny as an inappropriate visa application. Best of luck and congrats in any case.

I would assume that was a wedding.