August 2017 wedding- ok to plan? (split)

[M/N - USA 0]

Hi Everyone,

I am from the UK and my fiance is from the US. We are hoping to get married next year and will be applying for my K1 visa soon. We are worried about the chance of me being rejected, so are hesitant to book a wedding venue etc. I am 21, just finished university, but studying a masters next year which i will finish in May, I have never been arrested in the US or UK and medically all good. I have been to the US 6 times (4 times on holiday and 2 for camp america), and my fiance has been to the UK 3 times, we have loads of pictures and things we could prove that we are in a genuine relationship. My fiance also has a job which meets the income requirements so that would not be a problem either. I have seen that some people have gone through the whole process with relative ease but I was just hoping that anyone who has been through the process could help me with any reasons I might be rejected, or if it looks like I would have a strong case for getting a visa and would have no problem obtaining one.

Thanks,

Matt

[Rc123rc 528]

Hi Everyone,

I am from the UK and my fiance is from the US. We are hoping to get married next year and will be applying for my K1 visa soon. We are worried about the chance of me being rejected, so are hesitant to book a wedding venue etc. I am 21, just finished university, but studying a masters next year which i will finish in May, I have never been arrested in the US or UK and medically all good. I have been to the US 6 times (4 times on holiday and 2 for camp america), and my fiance has been to the UK 3 times, we have loads of pictures and things we could prove that we are in a genuine relationship. My fiance also has a job which meets the income requirements so that would not be a problem either. I have seen that some people have gone through the whole process with relative ease but I was just hoping that anyone who has been through the process could help me with any reasons I might be rejected, or if it looks like I would have a strong case for getting a visa and would have no problem obtaining one.

Thanks,

Matt

Looks good. Only thing I would note is don't book anything yet. The timelines fluctuate way too much for that. Currently, if everything, and I mean everything, goes OK, you are looking at about 7-8 months to arrive in U.S. However, the number of people still waiting after a year is quite high.

[M/N - USA 0]

Great thanks for your reply rcripps!

We were looking at getting married in august 2017, so we have a good 14 months right now. Does my country of origin have any impact on the length of the process, is it quicker with me being from the UK?

Also, are you able to book your interview for the visa for say 3 or 4 months later, or do you have to choose the earliest possible date?

Edited June 17, 2016 by M/N - USA

[caliliving 606]

Great thanks for your reply rcripps!

We were looking at getting married in august 2017, so we have a good 14 months right now. Does my country of origin have any impact on the length of the process, is it quicker with me being from the UK?

Also, are you able to book your interview for the visa for say 3 or 4 months later, or do you have to choose the earliest possible date?

Why dont you get married and then do the CR1??? you both can clearly visit each other! and that way you can plan for your wedding date and then once you enter USA you will have an automatic GC and also an EAD card???

i dont understand why everyone wants to do the K1? especially if you are from a VWP country where you can visit the person...

you can not plan a wedding on K1 because say you fill the paperwork out tomorrow and get it March.. 10 you only have 90 days in the country to get married... so then june 10 you know? its alot tougher to plan a wedding...

the only thing you would need is a USC to be your affadavit of support and they need to make like 40k/year so its not that hard! generally a parent works.

[M/N - USA 0]

Why dont you get married and then do the CR1??? you both can clearly visit each other! and that way you can plan for your wedding date and then once you enter USA you will have an automatic GC and also an EAD card???

i dont understand why everyone wants to do the K1? especially if you are from a VWP country where you can visit the person...

you can not plan a wedding on K1 because say you fill the paperwork out tomorrow and get it March.. 10 you only have 90 days in the country to get married... so then june 10 you know? its alot tougher to plan a wedding...

the only thing you would need is a USC to be your affadavit of support and they need to make like 40k/year so its not that hard! generally a parent works.

How would we get married in the first place...I understand it to be visa fraud if you deliberately enter the US on an ESTA to get married (which would then prevent me from getting a CR1), and i understood it as once you receive the K1 visa you then get 6 months between receiving it and entering the US, and the 90 days only starts once you enter the US. Thereby if I received the visa on March 1st for example, I would have until September 1st to enter the US (which i would want to do in august anyway).

[caliliving 606]

How would we get married in the first place...I understand it to be visa fraud if you deliberately enter the US on an ESTA to get married (which would then prevent me from getting a CR1), and i understood it as once you receive the K1 visa you then get 6 months between receiving it and entering the US, and the 90 days only starts once you enter the US. Thereby if I received the visa on March 1st for example, I would have until September 1st to enter the US (which i would want to do in august anyway).

it is not fraud to come to the us and get married.. it is fraud to come here with the intent to get married and then stay and AOS.. so you can come here get married on a trip and then go home and do the paperwork and you can still visit ect... so yes, you can get married and then go home and wait for it to be processed.... just a thought if you want to plan something! you can do that, i just wouldnt make any concrete wedding plans yet.

[Cathi 5,795]

Hi Everyone,

I am from the UK and my fiance is from the US. We are hoping to get married next year and will be applying for my K1 visa soon. We are worried about the chance of me being rejected, so are hesitant to book a wedding venue etc. I am 21, just finished university, but studying a masters next year which i will finish in May, I have never been arrested in the US or UK and medically all good. I have been to the US 6 times (4 times on holiday and 2 for camp america), and my fiance has been to the UK 3 times, we have loads of pictures and things we could prove that we are in a genuine relationship. My fiance also has a job which meets the income requirements so that would not be a problem either. I have seen that some people have gone through the whole process with relative ease but I was just hoping that anyone who has been through the process could help me with any reasons I might be rejected, or if it looks like I would have a strong case for getting a visa and would have no problem obtaining one.

Thanks,

Matt

do not hijack other people's threads. You need to start your own

[M/N - USA 0]

it is not fraud to come to the us and get married.. it is fraud to come here with the intent to get married and then stay and AOS.. so you can come here get married on a trip and then go home and do the paperwork and you can still visit ect... so yes, you can get married and then go home and wait for it to be processed.... just a thought if you want to plan something! you can do that, i just wouldnt make any concrete wedding plans yet.

Right ok, I understand you now! so I could come on an ESTA to get married, providing I can show that I will be leaving the country after the wedding, and then apply for a CR1? How long would it take roughly to get a CR1?

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

CR1- a year from after your marriage and starting the paperwork.

I have been big time into UK fiancé visa processes for a long time. You absolutely can not count on it all fitting perfectly together to have your visa at the precise time for a wedding you book now for August 2017. You can trip up in so many places you least suspect and have no control over. The timing is so unpredictable and forecasting how long each step will take during the next year is an unknown. What is average today may be twice as long in six months.

One thing you really don't have to worry about is getting rejected. It's simply a process....do a step...wait...another step...wait...repeat until you're done. Being from the UK does not give you extra clout or speed, but the consulate in London is quite easy. They won't be asking you to prove your relationship to them at the interview which is a very brief five minute casual chat standing at a window like at the post office and the rest of the time waiting for your turn.

If the process goes too quickly, you can stall the visa interview part. You do pick your own medical date, and new in May is pick your own interview date. Visa is good for 6 months from medical exam, not visa issuance date. Use visa before expiration, then an additional 90 days in which to marry after entry on the visa.

Why do people pick K1? I wasn't ready to marry right then, but wanted to get on with the paperwork processing while things got in place when we could do the move and marry. Didn't really matter if he worked immediately at entry or not. Others don't want to marry then separate for up to a year. It all kinda depends on what fits your life and financial situation. Nice to have a choice.

Edited June 17, 2016 by Nich-Nick

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Forgot to say--

Start K1 now and you should be able to get it done for an August 2017 wedding by stretching out the London part as needed. It's the ones who don't start early that have no extra time built in for hiccups in slow processing. If it takes you two months to get it together to file, then you are using up your contingency time. Maybe plan a fall wedding.

Edited June 17, 2016 by Nich-Nick

[yuna628 9,747]

There is nothing wrong with them choosing a K1 if they want. While a person can enter on the VWP and marry, and then certainly return home. I'd like to know what kind of bets a person would hedge on informing a CBP of such information and getting through without being sent back on the next available flight, regardless of if it is legal to do so or not.

OP: you should not be concerned about being denied. It sounds like you have your lives together quite well, the financials are fine, and I don't foresee any other issues there. You'll find the interview a simple process. Keep the following in mind: once all is said and done, and visa is in your hand you have six months from the date of your medical in the UK to enter the US. Then once in the US, 90 days to marry. If you time things out right, that six months once granted can be spent for planning things out to a date. I wouldn't recommend setting a date in stone until you have that visa though. In me and my husband's case, we were willing to gamble a little, and planned throughout the process, but didn't make concrete stuff like deposits and venue/hotel bookings until we reached a point of confidence. We found people generally understanding that our situation was complicated. We had to move our 'floating' date numerous times, because of numerous government delays we had no control over.

[lacolinab13 86]

14 months is a good chunk of time - personally, I don't quite see what could come up that would stretch your process out that far (assuming both of you have a clean criminal record and no medical/drugs issues). Never say never, but given current processing times, it seems highly unlikely that it would take longer than 14 months. I would file as soon as possible though, especially since you can delay your interview if things go too fast, but you can't speed up the process if it's going slowly.

I started putting deposits down for our wedding after we scheduled his interview (for several months out). (The wedding date was to be about 3 months after the interview). I really didn't want to have a "legal wedding" and a separate reception. I knew that the visa wasn't a sure thing, but I felt reasonably confident that we had plenty of time to get the visa. No matter when you plan a wedding, there may always be unexpected things/issues come up at the last minute - and at a certain point, you have to just set a date.

[soulstriker 274]

14 months is way out there for the current 2016 processing times , ive seen several ppl be done in a short 4 months , but most on avg its 4 - 6 months

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

14 months is a good chunk of time - personally, I don't quite see what could come up that would stretch your process out that far (assuming both of you have a clean criminal record and no medical/drugs issues). Never say never, but given current processing times, it seems highly unlikely that it would take longer than 14 months.

Well it wasn't that long ago that the nightmare of Texas Service Center held up people who had no clue they were going to get stuck there for eternity. Take Yuna For example. 10 months to get the visa and that was with no RFE and NVC not taking as long as they do now. It is hard to know what future evil will befall you at the hands of USCIS, NVC, the medical exam, the consulate. Do you remember June 2015 when all visa printing was halted because of a hack? An unplanned extra 2-3 weeks for some who had already made plans when told "approved" at their interview.. You never know but 14 months sounds okay right now....until everything changes.

Edited June 17, 2016 by Nich-Nick

[A'n'L 735]

I don't see any reason you should have an issue obtaining the visa. However, if you want to plan your wedding for a certain date - be very careful. Processing times, both at CSC and NVC seem to be increasing, and it will be hard to predict how long the process can take. That being said, if you apply with plenty of time (according to current timelines), you could always delay the process at the consulate stage, and further delay your entry to the end of the visa validity period to accommodate your wedding date. I'm doing this. However, I do not recommend it! It's been extremely stressful to carefully time and plan everything to schedule, and planning a large wedding from abroad is hell. If I could choose again, I would go with doing a small, intimate ceremony upon arrival and the big wedding much later.