Marriage Visitor's Visa Questions

[CadillacGirl_1966 0]

So I've been doing a lot of research on this website and others about the options my fiance and I have. We want him to eventually come to the US and live here with me. I've been looking at the comparison of the K1 vs. the CR-1 and due to what he does for a living (being a musician) he really can't wait to work in the US for the adjustment of status. So we discussed getting married in the UK instead and filing for the CR-1. But I have a few hangups on that. We don't plan on having a big wedding there. We want to get it done as soon as possible, so where would we go? How much notice do we have to give the registry office? If we don't have any solid booked wedding plans (the government site says I have to apply for this visa 3 months before I plan to travel) what kind of evidence can we give that proves we plan to get married?

 

When I am in the UK, if we are staying at his mother's house (where he lives and takes care of her as she is elderly), do I still have to provide proof that I can book a hotel for the time I am there? How much money should I have in my bank account when I apply, or does regular deposits into my bank account count as proof of ability to pay for my trip? I dont have pay slips, I get direct deposits. How can I prove I dont plan to work in the UK if I work online? 

 

The whole process is so confusing to me. Regardless of which way we choose it's going to separate us for a while as his ESTA was taken from him when he tried to come visit me for christmas and now he cannot visit me in the states. I just want to choose the right pathway for us that will make it the easiest all things considered. 

[CadillacGirl_1966 0]

Just to add to this, it seems as though in order to meet the requirement of giving notice to marry, I have to make 2 trips to the UK, one so I can be there for at least 7 days and make the notification, the other to actually marry. So do I first visi, stay 7 days, make the notification, leave and apply for the marriage visitors visa, then wait 3 months to fly there and get married? The government site I was on said you needed to wait 3 months but that most visa's were approved in about 4 weeks. Do I HAVE to get married right after the 3 months is up, or do I have a certain amount of time the marriage visitors visa is valid for? I'm so confused. 

[JFH 12,191]

Getting married in the U.K. is quite complex if you are not an EU psssport holder. For the CR-1 to be possible, you can get married anywhere in the world so you might want to consider a destination wedding such as the Bahamas or Mexico where the formalities are a lot simpler. Many destination wedding travel agents can do all the arrangements and paperwork for you and all you need you do is pay and go to the airport on the day of the flight.

 

You say his "ESTA was taken away from him". Was he actually deported? Or just given the opportunity to withdraw his application for admission? I highly doubt he is banned. What reason did they give for refusing entry? Unless it was for something major such as drugs or terrorism then he can apply again. People usually recommend giving it 6 to 12 months before applying again. 

[CadillacGirl_1966 0]

No they literally refused him in dublin (where they do the immigration) and said he needed to talk to the london embassy. I made another post in a different forum about this. His status was changed to "not authorized to travel" or something. We have no idea why, he has no criminal record.

 

Anyway how would we get married in mexico? Everywhere I looked had a resident requirement. I didnt look at mexico though. 

[JFH 12,191]

Looked through the other thread - seems strange. You may never have the answer.

 

Regarding a wedding, you just need to contact a resort like this:

 

http://www.dreamsresorts.com/en_us/resorts/mexico/riviera-cancun/weddings/packages.html

 

 

[CadillacGirl_1966 0]

ewww yikes, need chest x rays and blood tests? whats all that about? do they take care of all that for you? 

[bcking 3,157]

On 12/25/2017 at 11:36 PM, CadillacGirl_1966 said:

ewww yikes, need chest x rays and blood tests? whats all that about? do they take care of all that for you? 

He would need those things when he is applying for the CR-1 (Or K-1) to come to the USA.

 

My wife and I were married in the UK, and I had to apply to the marriage visa. Granted we had a church wedding so I don't really know much about what to do if you are looking for a civil service.

 

The Marriage Visa application wasn't that bad because at the end of the day a lot of the stuff we needed to put together we ended up using for the CR-1 application. So we just had it ahead of time. You apply for the marriage visa before you to the registrar to give notice. I got my marriage visa, then went there to stay for the 1 week requirement to give notice, gave notice, and then left. I then came back a couple months later for the actual wedding (The notice just has to be within a year, since the marriage visa gives you 6 months then it really is 6 months). I was able to leave and return with the marriage visa no problem. 

 

I stayed with her parents before and after the wedding and that wasn't an issue. We showed them copies of what we had paid for already for the wedding, and then invoices for what we hadn't yet paid for.  It says that you shouldn't pay for anything until after you apply, but honestly that is stupid because most people pay for a lot of a wedding prior to 3 months. It is unrealistic to expect to pay for nothing that early. We had paid for some things, but not others. We then submitted our bank accounts to show we had enough money to meet those costs. I believe I also wrote a 1 page letter explaining everything we were submitting. I also submitted the job offer I had just accepted in the US, to show that 2 months after my wedding I would be moving to Houston to take up a job. If you have an ongoing job you can just submit something from them.

 

As for the wedding itself - We went through a church so we had to establish a connection by going at least once a month for 6 months. Fortunately they allowed my wife to do it for both of us. Usually a church "reads the bans" in the weeks prior but since I wasn't from the UK they didn't have to do that and instead they just accepted the Registrar's office notice (No point in reading bans when no one in the community would know who I was).

 

It all went fairly smoothly. The marriage visa process was much quicker and relatively painless compared to the CR-1 application.

 

 

[Unlockable 7,315]

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