Visiting Fiancee again and getting Married

[Dashinka 24,598]

4 hours ago, MandG24 said:

In my K-1 visa petition I stated we were getting married in June. Is there anything I can do to amend or retract that statement at this point?

 

Make sure you show proof that you did not get married in June when the interview occurs.  As others have stated, make this an engagement party and document this for the interview as well.  If they press your fiancé of the whole June wedding at the interview I would just state that this was the hoped for plan, but it was changed due to visa timing if that in fact is the truth.

 

Good Luck!

[Seth And Quynh 77]

the engagement ceremony from what i've heard is important but not necessary if both sides of the family can't meet. A wedding is good evidence if one side of the family cannot be present

[usmsbow 802]

7 hours ago, Seth And Quynh said:

the engagement ceremony from what i've heard is important but not necessary if both sides of the family can't meet. A wedding is good evidence if one side of the family cannot be present

A wedding probably is very bad evidence for a K-1 visa. I don't recall anyone on VJ providing wedding pics at a K-1 visa interview and having good results. 

 

 

 

[zeta054 111]

U can have a nice party but do not have a wedding. This will void your K1 visa process and you have to do the CR1 visa. Do not get any paperwork in VN that states you are a married couple.

[Andrea&Henry 311]

I know you are new to the forum and did not know any of these, but you MUST be very careful. I strongly suggest you to read the k1 visa guidelines and the k1 visa members from Vietnam. 

 

I've been part of visajourney since 2011 and I was a former k1 visa holder as well. I've seen MANY cases were mistakes like the one you were about to do, threw all their efforts down the drain.

 

Even with engagement ceremonies I would be extremely careful as well. I've seen cases of India and some african countries were they perform a blessing/ engagement ceremony (not even a religious/cultural wedding) and people get their visa denied. If the embassy doesn't understand the culture (which is very common), they can state that was a religious wedding and then you need to start all over with a 9-12 months CR1 visa process. 

 

They don't care if is a religious, spiritual and/or cultural ceremony...for them, a wedding is a wedding. I encouraged you to look for the zillion of unfortunate cases we have in our community regarding that.

 

What you can do, and it should be ok, is a engagement party. My now husband I engaged in August 2011 (no ring or romantic proposal), applied on September the same year and in Christmas day 2011 my parents and my hubby planned a surprised engagement party with ring and all the romantic stuff. We of course, took a billion of pictures and we didn't have any issues during my k1 visa interview 4 months later.

 

I'm Christian and for my family and I was extremely important to have a religious ceremony but reality was, that we didn't have too much time to plan a wedding so we have a very intimate courthouse wedding and a few months later we had a our dream church wedding.

 

If you guys are planning to have a wedding ceremony in Vietnam after you guys married in the US, you must apply for adjustment of status first and received at least an advanced parole (travel permit). The k1 visa is a 1 entry visa that becomes "invalid" once your step a foot in US soil. If your fiance travels abroad before getting this document, she/he won't be able to reentry even if you guys are already married. She/he would be send home and you need to start a long process with a CR1 visa.

 

The process is:

1. she/he gets the k1 visa approved
2. Fiance has up to 6 months to leave Vietnam
3. Once she/he is there you have ONLY 90 days to get married
4. Getting married fulfill the purpose of the K1 Visa but it doesn't mean she/he is legal or you are done.
5. You must apply for adjustment status base on marriage so your fiance can get a conditional green card (base on marriages under 2 years, you will get a 2 years conditional greencard. After 2 years, if you are still are together you apply to remove those conditions and get a 10 years greencard).
6. The Green card can take 4-11 months so the USCIS allows you to apply for the work and travel permit (the fee is waived in this case) and it takes around 60 days to get it. Is valid for a year and will allow your now spouse to get a driver's license, a SSN and she/he can work and travel.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2017 by Andrea&Henry