What does everyone typically do here (wedding?)

[japanrecruit 0]

What does everyone typically do in terms of getting married after spouse arrives to the U.S? Can't exactly plan for a wedding without knowing when the visa will come through, but once they get to the U.S you only have 90 days. Courthouse to get married legally, and then the actual wedding at a later date? Or do people plan weddings during the process?

[C-ma'am 684]

**Post moved from K1 to Progress Reports. Question is better suited for this part of the forum

[Ash.1101 1,756]

A lot of people court house wedding then have a more "official one" a year later, I even see people who consider their wedding date, not the actual date they got married at the court house, but the date of their official wedding.


It's all down to patience and how much time you have. If you wait a good 5 months into your visa validity, you really do have plenty of time to plan a wedding between the 5 months of the visa being good to come into the country and the 3 months you have to get married while inside the country.

My husband came into the US in December, and over that time, we secured ourselves a little church, premarital counselling session, wedding dress, attire, all of that by the time we were married on Feb 20th. It wasn't anything grandiose, which for us there'd be no reason too, we had maybe 20 people at the wedding, family and a couple of friends who flew in, but it was wonderful. The only thing I would have taken more time on was the wedding dress LOL. I waited until about a month before the wedding to start looking, when in reality I had months to do it and I never did.

We had found the church WELL before my husband came into the US, and we had back up plans if necessary.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

The vast majority of people usually do either a small church wedding or a courthouse wedding with a large church wedding at a later point in time.

[Randyandyuni 2,682]

We are planning a small chapel wedding here, I have arranged a December, January and February contingency with the chapel, we will have maybe 20 guests, our plan is to visit her family for our 1 year anniversary and do it again

[LAS1204 6]

We're having a civil ceremony (courthouse wedding) 2 weeks after his entry - just us and about 5 family members. We would like to have a religious ceremony later this year but will see if we can afford it. If not, next year. On our year anniversary we are planning to go back to his home country and have a reception/party for his family and friends.

[yuna628 9,700]

What does everyone typically do in terms of getting married after spouse arrives to the U.S? Can't exactly plan for a wedding without knowing when the visa will come through, but once they get to the U.S you only have 90 days. Courthouse to get married legally, and then the actual wedding at a later date? Or do people plan weddings during the process?

We planned a small regular ol' wedding with no do-overs or courthouse quickie while we went through the K1 process, and lived to tell the tale.

Not for the faint of heart of course, and don't recommend it unless you are willing to gamble, but still doable. Keep in mind the government advises you to not make any hard plans until visa is in hand, and that is certainly the best policy. 90 days does give one time to plan a wedding on the fly (though we planned our wedding from the very start of filing very cautiously) but may not be realistic for everyone. Additionally once you receive the K1 visa in hand, the foreign fiancé does have up to 6 months from the date of the medical to enter the US, giving more than enough time for wedding planning with greatest confidence.

So for wedding planning there are a variety of options to pick from.

[YecaCruz 379]

We did a civil ceremony 2 hours after he got off the plane lol, completed the AOS in the early spring, and having our "I do...again" wedding reception now in less than a month. This way family and friends can celebrate with us AND we had time to finalize plans for that

Edited August 17, 2016 by JJGussiaas (Gush)

[Ash.1101 1,756]

We planned a small regular ol' wedding with no do-overs or courthouse quickie while we went through the K1 process, and lived to tell the tale.

Not for the faint of heart of course, and don't recommend it unless you are willing to gamble, but still doable. Keep in mind the government advises you to not make any hard plans until visa is in hand, and that is certainly the best policy. 90 days does give one time to plan a wedding on the fly (though we planned our wedding from the very start of filing very cautiously) but may not be realistic for everyone. Additionally once you receive the K1 visa in hand, the foreign fiancé does have up to 6 months from the date of the medical to enter the US, giving more than enough time for wedding planning with greatest confidence.

So for wedding planning there are a variety of options to pick from.

Agree'd about waiting. My husband (then fiance)'s interview was in september, so we were planning for a November wedding. We had a rareish issue where we needed more than one cosponsor, which caused AP and his visa wasn't issued until November 9th. We ended up changing our wedding plans and moved it over in February to the date where we started talking about maybe having feelings for each other.

But it did all work out. If you're looking for a big wedding, it will be hard to plan out. But even small church weddings aren't too bad as long as you don't want to come into the country ASAP and marry the second you get in. Some people fly in within two weeks of getting the visa and then marry a week later. If you want a planned one, wait out as long as possible, and then have the wedding planned for the end time frame of the I-94 expiration so you have even more time to touch up any loose ends.