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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: South Africa
Timeline
Posted

Hi all

as part of AOS as you all know, you are required to get married within 90 days, well we did of course, but this wasnt our 'big day' as im sure the same applies to allot of you, this was to get the paper work rolling.. now that we are legally married, we need to find someone to perform our traditional ceremony, our church wont do this as they say they cant marry us twice, so Id like to ask you guys if you had this same thing happen to you, and if you know any Pastors/ministers in the Dallas area that are willing to perform this type of ceremony that would also be great! just to explain a bit more on our situation, we didnt tell all our friends that we already married, as allot of them are coming from overseas we want them to think the day is in July, the day we getting married! We just felt some people wont understand and it will be to complicate d to explain why it is that government requires you to get married within a time limit.

Hope im not the only one in this boat!

2006/05/14 I-129f sent

2006/06/23 RFE (IMBRA)

2006/06/28 RFE reply

2006/08/10 RFE2 (more proof of relationship)

2006/09/01 RFE2 reply

2006/09/15 I-129f approved!!

2006/12/05 Interview, approved in London!

2006/12/08 Visa in hand!

2006/12/09 Landed at DFW Texas

2007/02/12 DORA AOS interview

2007/03/16 Biometrics

2007/06/25 Green Card in hand

th-SA%20Flag.pngus%20flag.gif5%20texas-flagVweb.jpg

Filed: AOS (pnd) Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted
Hi all

as part of AOS as you all know, you are required to get married within 90 days, well we did of course, but this wasnt our 'big day' as im sure the same applies to allot of you, this was to get the paper work rolling.. now that we are legally married, we need to find someone to perform our traditional ceremony, our church wont do this as they say they cant marry us twice, so Id like to ask you guys if you had this same thing happen to you, and if you know any Pastors/ministers in the Dallas area that are willing to perform this type of ceremony that would also be great! just to explain a bit more on our situation, we didnt tell all our friends that we already married, as allot of them are coming from overseas we want them to think the day is in July, the day we getting married! We just felt some people wont understand and it will be to complicate d to explain why it is that government requires you to get married within a time limit.

Hope im not the only one in this boat!

They cant marry your twice ?????

A LOT of people (including my wife and I) only get married at the court house to get the ball rolling and THEN they do a religious ceremony.... I have heard some (or all ?) catholic churches wont marry someone who has been divorced, but that's not your case.

0.14..MY%20TIMELINE.png

06/05/01 - Entered the U.S. on a B2 Visa with parents (17 years old at the time)

01/05/07 - Got married

04/04/07 - AOS package mailed :)

04/08/07 - On Easter Sunday - Package received DAY 1

04/17/07 - NOA1 Received. (Dated 04/13/2007) DAY 10

04/18/07 - Touched DAY 11

04/19/07 - Touched AGAIN DAY 12

04/20/07 - Biometrics appt notice received (05-02-07) DAY 13

04/27/07 - I-130 Touched DAY 20

05/02/07 - Biometrics (Took us 8 minutes - no kidding) DAY 25

05/03/07 - I-485 Touched DAY 26

05/17/07 - Interview letter arrived (07-17-07) DAY 41

07/17/07 - Interview - Everything went well but received an RFE DAY 102

08/28/07 - RFE sent - Took a long time to get what they needed DAY 144

08/29/07 - RFE received - DAY 145

10/04/07 - Email: Notice welcoming new resident mailed - DAY 180

10/05/07 - Touched - DAY 181

10/09/07 - Welcome Notice received. - DAY 185

10/10/07 - Card production ordered. - DAY 186

10/17/07 - Green card received !!!!!!!! - Day 193

Filed: K-1 Visa Country: South Africa
Timeline
Posted
Hi all

as part of AOS as you all know, you are required to get married within 90 days, well we did of course, but this wasnt our 'big day' as im sure the same applies to allot of you, this was to get the paper work rolling.. now that we are legally married, we need to find someone to perform our traditional ceremony, our church wont do this as they say they cant marry us twice, so Id like to ask you guys if you had this same thing happen to you, and if you know any Pastors/ministers in the Dallas area that are willing to perform this type of ceremony that would also be great! just to explain a bit more on our situation, we didnt tell all our friends that we already married, as allot of them are coming from overseas we want them to think the day is in July, the day we getting married! We just felt some people wont understand and it will be to complicate d to explain why it is that government requires you to get married within a time limit.

Hope im not the only one in this boat!

They cant marry your twice ?????

A LOT of people (including my wife and I) only get married at the court house to get the ball rolling and THEN they do a religious ceremony.... I have heard some (or all ?) catholic churches wont marry someone who has been divorced, but that's not your case.

I guess we having some bad luck!!

2006/05/14 I-129f sent

2006/06/23 RFE (IMBRA)

2006/06/28 RFE reply

2006/08/10 RFE2 (more proof of relationship)

2006/09/01 RFE2 reply

2006/09/15 I-129f approved!!

2006/12/05 Interview, approved in London!

2006/12/08 Visa in hand!

2006/12/09 Landed at DFW Texas

2007/02/12 DORA AOS interview

2007/03/16 Biometrics

2007/06/25 Green Card in hand

th-SA%20Flag.pngus%20flag.gif5%20texas-flagVweb.jpg

Filed: AOS (pnd) Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted
Hi all

as part of AOS as you all know, you are required to get married within 90 days, well we did of course, but this wasnt our 'big day' as im sure the same applies to allot of you, this was to get the paper work rolling.. now that we are legally married, we need to find someone to perform our traditional ceremony, our church wont do this as they say they cant marry us twice, so Id like to ask you guys if you had this same thing happen to you, and if you know any Pastors/ministers in the Dallas area that are willing to perform this type of ceremony that would also be great! just to explain a bit more on our situation, we didnt tell all our friends that we already married, as allot of them are coming from overseas we want them to think the day is in July, the day we getting married! We just felt some people wont understand and it will be to complicate d to explain why it is that government requires you to get married within a time limit.

Hope im not the only one in this boat!

They cant marry your twice ?????

A LOT of people (including my wife and I) only get married at the court house to get the ball rolling and THEN they do a religious ceremony.... I have heard some (or all ?) catholic churches wont marry someone who has been divorced, but that's not your case.

I guess we having some bad luck!!

or a bad minister/pastor/whatever...

0.14..MY%20TIMELINE.png

06/05/01 - Entered the U.S. on a B2 Visa with parents (17 years old at the time)

01/05/07 - Got married

04/04/07 - AOS package mailed :)

04/08/07 - On Easter Sunday - Package received DAY 1

04/17/07 - NOA1 Received. (Dated 04/13/2007) DAY 10

04/18/07 - Touched DAY 11

04/19/07 - Touched AGAIN DAY 12

04/20/07 - Biometrics appt notice received (05-02-07) DAY 13

04/27/07 - I-130 Touched DAY 20

05/02/07 - Biometrics (Took us 8 minutes - no kidding) DAY 25

05/03/07 - I-485 Touched DAY 26

05/17/07 - Interview letter arrived (07-17-07) DAY 41

07/17/07 - Interview - Everything went well but received an RFE DAY 102

08/28/07 - RFE sent - Took a long time to get what they needed DAY 144

08/29/07 - RFE received - DAY 145

10/04/07 - Email: Notice welcoming new resident mailed - DAY 180

10/05/07 - Touched - DAY 181

10/09/07 - Welcome Notice received. - DAY 185

10/10/07 - Card production ordered. - DAY 186

10/17/07 - Green card received !!!!!!!! - Day 193

Filed: Country: Jamaica
Timeline
Posted

You are not getting married a second time, you are having your marriage blessed. Totally different thing. Of course, no one will marry you to the same person again. Blessing a marriage is often called renewing of vows. People do it all the time, even in the Catholic Church.

Keep asking around. Someone will do it for you. If you are looking for a Church, it will have to be the pastor of that Church. If not a Church, there are people in the phone book you can look up, call, and have them come anywhere you please to do it.

Life's just a crazy ride on a run away train

You can't go back for what you've missed

So make it count, hold on tight find a way to make it right

You only get one trip

So make it good, make it last 'cause it all flies by so fast

You only get one trip

Filed: AOS (apr) Country: Chile
Timeline
Posted
Hi all

as part of AOS as you all know, you are required to get married within 90 days, well we did of course, but this wasnt our 'big day' as im sure the same applies to allot of you, this was to get the paper work rolling.. now that we are legally married, we need to find someone to perform our traditional ceremony, our church wont do this as they say they cant marry us twice, so Id like to ask you guys if you had this same thing happen to you, and if you know any Pastors/ministers in the Dallas area that are willing to perform this type of ceremony that would also be great! just to explain a bit more on our situation, we didnt tell all our friends that we already married, as allot of them are coming from overseas we want them to think the day is in July, the day we getting married! We just felt some people wont understand and it will be to complicate d to explain why it is that government requires you to get married within a time limit.

Hope im not the only one in this boat!

I can just tell you our experience with this. We also did a civil ceremony so that we could start the AOS process and then did a big ceremony, which we consider our wedding day a couple of months later. We were married in a Catholic church and our priest wasn't too happy when we told him that we had done the civil ceremony first. But he then told us to go back and ask for a new marriage license and the issued us another one and called it a remarriage. The woman that issued the license said they've had to do that many times for cases like this where you've had the civil marriage and then want the religious one.

Again this is my experience and it may not work the same with your state or religion.

Good Luck

E.

6/23/06 - Sent AOS & EAD

7/03/06 - NOA on both

7/28/06 - Biometrics appointment

9/15/06 - EAD approved

9/21/06 - EAD received

11/15/06 - Interview - Approved pending name check

2/22/07 - Called USCIS - still in the processing times, have to wait till processing dates read after

8/3/06 to call back

3/16/06 - Called USCIS again - should receive something in the mail within 45 days answering

my "What's taking so long" question

3/22/07 - Received letter from USCIS stating that they are waiting for the name check to clear -

Wish they would send us some actual usefull information

4/06/07 - Infopass Appt. - Told that name check had cleared about a week ago but have to wait till

May 15 till we could go up to speak to an immigration officer

4/27/07 - AOS Touched

4/28/07 - EAD Touched

4/30/07 - Email saying Welcome Letter sent 4/27/07 FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

5/02/07 - Email saying Card Production ordered

5/04/07 - Welcome Letter received

5/04/07 - Email saying Approval Notice Sent

5/10/07 - Greencard received

Filed: Country: Sweden
Timeline
Posted

Agree with the poster who suggested "blessing ceremony" or "renewal of vows" -- try using the magic words "blessing ceremony" (I feel that is more appropriate as renewal of vows suggest some years have passed in between) and you should get a lot farther with the officiants.

"When all else fails, read the instructions."

Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted
Hi all

as part of AOS as you all know, you are required to get married within 90 days, well we did of course, but this wasnt our 'big day' as im sure the same applies to allot of you, this was to get the paper work rolling.. now that we are legally married, we need to find someone to perform our traditional ceremony, our church wont do this as they say they cant marry us twice, so Id like to ask you guys if you had this same thing happen to you, and if you know any Pastors/ministers in the Dallas area that are willing to perform this type of ceremony that would also be great! just to explain a bit more on our situation, we didnt tell all our friends that we already married, as allot of them are coming from overseas we want them to think the day is in July, the day we getting married! We just felt some people wont understand and it will be to complicate d to explain why it is that government requires you to get married within a time limit.

Hope im not the only one in this boat!

Maybe you asked them the wrong question. Tell them you want to reaffirm your vows in a church ceremony. All churches understand this. Your church probably understood your original request as requiring a new marriage license signed, etc. And they cannot do that! That was probably the confusion. Fernanda and I will be doing the same thing in June!

Fernanda's Timeline

K-1

June 2, 2006 - Mailed K1 Petition

Jun 28, 2006 - NOA1

Oct 05, 2006 - NOA2 - APPROVED after 122 days

Dec 05, 2006 - Received Packet 3 from Consulate

Dec 11, 2006 - Medical Examination in Belo Horizonte

Jan 10, 2007 - Returned Packet #3 to Consulate (SEDEX-10)

Mar 13, 2007 - INTERVIEW SUCCESS! We have our K-1 VISA !!

POE & Texas Wedding

Mar 27, 2007 - POE Houston, TX. No questions. Gone in 10 minutes.

Mar 28, 2007 - Marriage License app

April 4, 2007 - Our Wedding Day!

April 12, 2007 - Apply for SS card with married name

April 20, 2007 - Received SS card

AOS

June 4, 2007 - Mailed AOS

June 6, 2007 - USCIS received

June 11, 2007 - NOA1 for I-485

July 18, 2007 - Biometrics completed

July 20, 2007 - Case transferred from MSC to CSC

July 31, 2007 - AOS Approved - 57 days - Without an Interview!

Aug 06, 2007 - Received Green Card in the mail today!

Jan 8, 2009 @ 8:18PM - Our son was born tonight !!

I-751 - Remove Conditions

July 11, 2009 - Certified Mail to VSC I-751 Package

July 14, 2009 - Check cleared bank

July 20, 2009 - NOA1 & 1 yr extension - Receipt date is July 14. Case# assigned

Sept 1, 2009 - Biometrics completed

Nov 25, 2009 - I-751 is approved. No Interview.

Dec 14, 2009 - 10yr Green Card arrived !

Posted
Maybe you asked them the wrong question. Tell them you want to reaffirm your vows in a church ceremony. All churches understand this. Your church probably understood your original request as requiring a new marriage license signed, etc. And they cannot do that! That was probably the confusion. Fernanda and I will be doing the same thing in June!

I agree with all the above posters, I think you may have phrased what you want done wrong. You do not need a new marriage license. You just want the "church blessing ceremony". You should also mention to your priest that you already have the marriage certificate from the civil, so you do not need to do it again. All Catholic churches will marry you (if they give you a hard time, call the Archdioses on them :P ). They may give you a dirty look that you did the civil first or that you are living together, but if you explain the I-129F, they'll understand we cant change USCIS :D

12140.gif
Filed: Country: Jamaica
Timeline
Posted
Hi all

as part of AOS as you all know, you are required to get married within 90 days, well we did of course, but this wasnt our 'big day' as im sure the same applies to allot of you, this was to get the paper work rolling.. now that we are legally married, we need to find someone to perform our traditional ceremony, our church wont do this as they say they cant marry us twice, so Id like to ask you guys if you had this same thing happen to you, and if you know any Pastors/ministers in the Dallas area that are willing to perform this type of ceremony that would also be great! just to explain a bit more on our situation, we didnt tell all our friends that we already married, as allot of them are coming from overseas we want them to think the day is in July, the day we getting married! We just felt some people wont understand and it will be to complicate d to explain why it is that government requires you to get married within a time limit.

Hope im not the only one in this boat!

Maybe you asked them the wrong question. Tell them you want to reaffirm your vows in a church ceremony. All churches understand this. Your church probably understood your original request as requiring a new marriage license signed, etc. And they cannot do that! That was probably the confusion. Fernanda and I will be doing the same thing in June!

Well, they may or may not bless you. You see, there are a whole lot of rules with the Catholic Church and some sort of course may be required first. Just depends on the Priest. I have worked for the Catholic Church in St. Louis for the last 9 years. There are many ways around rules, you just have to find them.

I completely disagree with the person who said you can go get a second marriage license. I didn't even think that was possible.

I would kind of suggest someone a little unbiased too. The easiest thing.

Life's just a crazy ride on a run away train

You can't go back for what you've missed

So make it count, hold on tight find a way to make it right

You only get one trip

So make it good, make it last 'cause it all flies by so fast

You only get one trip

Posted

That is strange! I see stories all the time of people getting married again so I don't see what the big deal is! Weird :wacko:

usa_fl_sm_nwm.gifphilippines_fl_md_clr.gif

United States & Republic of the Philippines

"Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid." John Wayne

Filed: K-1 Visa Country: South Africa
Timeline
Posted
I would suggest a Unitarian Universalist pastor.

Hi, Could you maybe explain a bit more on this one, never heard of a Unitarian Universalist pastor.. I am also not catholic, some people that have posted may have assumed this by mistake

2006/05/14 I-129f sent

2006/06/23 RFE (IMBRA)

2006/06/28 RFE reply

2006/08/10 RFE2 (more proof of relationship)

2006/09/01 RFE2 reply

2006/09/15 I-129f approved!!

2006/12/05 Interview, approved in London!

2006/12/08 Visa in hand!

2006/12/09 Landed at DFW Texas

2007/02/12 DORA AOS interview

2007/03/16 Biometrics

2007/06/25 Green Card in hand

th-SA%20Flag.pngus%20flag.gif5%20texas-flagVweb.jpg

Posted
I would suggest a Unitarian Universalist pastor.

Hi, Could you maybe explain a bit more on this one, never heard of a Unitarian Universalist pastor.. I am also not catholic, some people that have posted may have assumed this by mistake

Sure! Unitarian Churches are all over the country (dallasuu.org is the link to one in Dallas). I don't know too much about the church, but they're generally a more liberal branch of Christianity. My parents got married by a UU pastor because they aren't religious, and no other pastors in the area would marry them.

According to Wikipedia,

Unitarian Universalism (UUism) is a theologically liberal religious movement characterized by its support of a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning." This principle permits Unitarian Universalists a wide range of beliefs and practices. Unitarian Universalist congregations and fellowships tend to retain some Christian traditions such as Sunday worship that includes a sermon and singing of hymns, but do not necessarily identify themselves as Christians.

Filed: K-1 Visa Country: South Africa
Timeline
Posted
I would suggest a Unitarian Universalist pastor.

Hi, Could you maybe explain a bit more on this one, never heard of a Unitarian Universalist pastor.. I am also not catholic, some people that have posted may have assumed this by mistake

Sure! Unitarian Churches are all over the country (dallasuu.org is the link to one in Dallas). I don't know too much about the church, but they're generally a more liberal branch of Christianity. My parents got married by a UU pastor because they aren't religious, and no other pastors in the area would marry them.

According to Wikipedia,

Unitarian Universalism (UUism) is a theologically liberal religious movement characterized by its support of a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning." This principle permits Unitarian Universalists a wide range of beliefs and practices. Unitarian Universalist congregations and fellowships tend to retain some Christian traditions such as Sunday worship that includes a sermon and singing of hymns, but do not necessarily identify themselves as Christians.

very helpful, thanks!

2006/05/14 I-129f sent

2006/06/23 RFE (IMBRA)

2006/06/28 RFE reply

2006/08/10 RFE2 (more proof of relationship)

2006/09/01 RFE2 reply

2006/09/15 I-129f approved!!

2006/12/05 Interview, approved in London!

2006/12/08 Visa in hand!

2006/12/09 Landed at DFW Texas

2007/02/12 DORA AOS interview

2007/03/16 Biometrics

2007/06/25 Green Card in hand

th-SA%20Flag.pngus%20flag.gif5%20texas-flagVweb.jpg

 
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