Running Out of Time

[JVKn'CVO 11]

I'm really happy to hear that you found the information useful

And I agree with the rest, we are all helping each other out here, and it's a valid question what you had (I don't think USCIS would have posted an specific answer to it, if it wasn't a commonly asked question, right?).

I think that, you've already gone this far with the K1 visa...getting married abroad would be an option, but then, like TimDaisy explained, you'd be stuck at the beginning of the process again, because you'd have abandon the K1 and start the K3 visa (doesn't sound good, does it?)...Still a valid option though, if you really can't change your wedding plans. And like Karen said, with the K1 you have to get married in the US.

According to the timelines, it's taking about the same amount of time to process for the K3 than it does for the K1.

http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/stats.php

One advice I can give you, if you decide to continue on the K1 path, is start getting ready for the embassy interview, that would save you some unncesarry delay. For example, I am making an appointment with my doctor this week to start getting my vaccinations certificates in order for the medical examination (I'm the beneficiary)...The guides and the embassy reviews are an excellent source of information for everything that you'll need for the next steps.

keep us posted on your progress!

[rebeccajo 14]

If I see one more post of a recommendation of flying over for a 'party' and returning to the home country, I'm gonna scream.

Little children who play with matches get burned.

Edited May 1, 2007 by rebeccajo

[mRx 16]

If I see one more post of a recommendation of flying over for a 'party' and returning to the home country, I'm gonna scream.

[TimsDaisy 0]

It's only playing with matches if you're stupid when you do it. Otherwise, fire has for millenia provided needed energy, warmth, and a place to prepare food.

You do what you have to do. The whole f-ing process is a g-damm ####### shoot. So what do you do?

If someone isn't prohibited from traveling to and from the US, then they can do so. And a wedding party isn't a legal marriage. Even in Texas. So do your fancy ####### and get the hell home for the interview. Case closed.

[Buck 0]

I'd say do not do it. Don't enter, get married, then go back for the interview. Click on the news tab. There's a sad story of a Japanese-American couple that did that very thing. She applied for a k1, came in to get married, then went back for the interview. Sure she got in to the US, but they eventually tricked her into leaving and slapped a 10 year ban on her because she entered on a k1 visa when she was already married. Considered fraud I think.

[TimsDaisy 0]

I'd say do not do it. Don't enter, get married, then go back for the interview. Click on the news tab. There's a sad story of a Japanese-American couple that did that very thing. She applied for a k1, came in to get married, then went back for the interview. Sure she got in to the US, but they eventually tricked her into leaving and slapped a 10 year ban on her because she entered on a k1 visa when she was already married. Considered fraud I think.

TOTALLY DIFFERENT SITUATION!!!!!

Ack!

They DID NOT do the very thing we're talking about here. And yes, if you come in and GET MARRIED and then try to use your K1 FIANCE visa then you are a bonehead who will get tossed out on your ####### because you can't read or apply common sense.

I absolutely am not advocating coming and getting married.

A wedding does NOT make a legal marriage unless you take the legal steps required to make it legal.

Anyone read their US Weekly on a regular basis? TomKat's "marriage" in Italy? Just a wedding! They got married here first so they wouldn't have to mess with Italian visas/marital law/etc. Or Britney's wedding? Where she signed something first that said in now way should this wedding be confused with a marriage? Yeah, that was so her trashy hubby-to-be wouldn't have any grounds at all to get his mits on her dough. But that kind of ####### has to do with later divorce issues. Not immigration.

Wedding isn't marriage. WEDDING ISN'T MARRIAGE!

In most of American culture a "wedding" is the word used to describe the cultural celebration that normally involves dresses, walks down aisles, flowers, and people watching. Few refer to their city hall marriage as a "wedding," they say they "got married." A legal marriage is a contractual relationship sanctioned by the state in which the parties enter into the contract. Don't confuse the two.

Edited May 1, 2007 by TimsDaisy

[msu17 0]

Hehe, TimsDaisy I love you replies... ACK!

[no name 1]

I absolutely am not advocating coming and getting married.

A wedding does NOT make a legal marriage unless you take the legal steps required to make it legal.

Anyone read their US Weekly on a regular basis? TomKat's "marriage" in Italy? Just a wedding! They got married here first so they wouldn't have to mess with Italian visas/marital law/etc. Or Britney's wedding? Where she signed something first that said in now way should this wedding be confused with a marriage? Yeah, that was so her trashy hubby-to-be wouldn't have any grounds at all to get his mits on her dough. But that kind of ####### has to do with later divorce issues. Not immigration.

Wedding isn't marriage. WEDDING ISN'T MARRIAGE!

In most of American culture a "wedding" is the word used to describe the cultural celebration that normally involves dresses, walks down aisles, flowers, and people watching. Few refer to their city hall marriage as a "wedding," they say they "got married." A legal marriage is a contractual relationship sanctioned by the state in which the parties enter into the contract. Don't confuse the two.

Sorry TD, but it seems you are. You are a newer VJ member, and perhaps have not seen as much as RJ & kitkat & I have on here.

No CO likes 'weddings' before K1. RJ & KK & I advocate changing wedding plans, better safe than sorry.

I don't think it's smart to even suggest it, personally.

[Kez/JWolf 6]

In most of American culture a "wedding" is the word used to describe the cultural celebration that normally involves dresses, walks down aisles, flowers, and people watching. Few refer to their city hall marriage as a "wedding," they say they "got married." A legal marriage is a contractual relationship sanctioned by the state in which the parties enter into the contract. Don't confuse the two.

Well lets hope that all CBP officers have read your post..... because if they get the smallest inclination that there could have been a wedding/marriage they will ask you to prove you are single and free to marry.... now you are standing in the immigration hall at xxxx airport and the officer is asking for proof that you are single and free to marry... what are you gonna use as proof???? Its very easy to prove you are married (marriage certificate is all that is needed) it is very hard to prove you are not....

So I would never advise anyone to have any sort of wedding or wedding party before they enter on a K1.... its just not worth it....

Kez

[TimsDaisy 0]

I absolutely am not advocating coming and getting married.

A wedding does NOT make a legal marriage unless you take the legal steps required to make it legal.

Anyone read their US Weekly on a regular basis? TomKat's "marriage" in Italy? Just a wedding! They got married here first so they wouldn't have to mess with Italian visas/marital law/etc. Or Britney's wedding? Where she signed something first that said in now way should this wedding be confused with a marriage? Yeah, that was so her trashy hubby-to-be wouldn't have any grounds at all to get his mits on her dough. But that kind of ####### has to do with later divorce issues. Not immigration.

Wedding isn't marriage. WEDDING ISN'T MARRIAGE!

In most of American culture a "wedding" is the word used to describe the cultural celebration that normally involves dresses, walks down aisles, flowers, and people watching. Few refer to their city hall marriage as a "wedding," they say they "got married." A legal marriage is a contractual relationship sanctioned by the state in which the parties enter into the contract. Don't confuse the two.

Sorry TD, but it seems you are. You are a newer VJ member, and perhaps have not seen as much as RJ & kitkat & I have on here.

No CO likes 'weddings' before K1. RJ & KK & I advocate changing wedding plans, better safe than sorry.

I don't think it's smart to even suggest it, personally.

What, is it opposites day here at VJ? I'm not sure how much more clear I can make it. And all along, I've disclaimed the holy hell out of attempting this route. I said cancel the plans, first and foremost. But then repeated something I certainly didn't come up with originally in terms of options. But as with every other step, there's a right and wrong way to go about doing something.

And I don't have the power to make them choose one over the other. They'll have to weigh all options and the related risks themselves.

We do what we can here from the details OPs offer. The rest is up to them.

How would a CO even know about the wedding party? Do you all describe every day of each of your visits? This is another example of where VJers shriek about being open and confuse it with being needlessly helpful. Traveling with a dress and offering photos of yourself at your interview wearing it would be so incredibly stupid no amount of VJ help will get someone doing it through in one piece. But you would hardly need to show up at the interview and say "well, just so you know, we had the wedding, but we didn't sign anything, so it wasn't a legal marriage."

You didn't get married so you didn't get married. So if the CO says "are you married?" you say no. And they ask when will you, you give the date.

This part isn't brain surgery. Can people F it up easily? I'm sure they can. Just visiting someone during the process is a risk. But there's a limit to how long people should be motivated by fear.

The OP shouldn't have booked wedding plans, but they didn't seem to know, so that's all water under the bridge now. The first and best plan is to delay the event. But if that results in a costs of tens of thousands of dollars, then there may be options to mitigate the loss while not exposing oneself to bad consequences later.

And everyone on the board bases all comments off what they've either read here or been through personally. So until someone posts about how it all went tits up from this process and proves that they didn't make a boneheaded mistake that caused the problem, then I'm not going to re-assign myself to noob status. And no one site that damn article again. Those people got legally married. Different game entirely.

[TimsDaisy 0]

In most of American culture a "wedding" is the word used to describe the cultural celebration that normally involves dresses, walks down aisles, flowers, and people watching. Few refer to their city hall marriage as a "wedding," they say they "got married." A legal marriage is a contractual relationship sanctioned by the state in which the parties enter into the contract. Don't confuse the two.

Well lets hope that all CBP officers have read your post..... because if they get the smallest inclination that there could have been a wedding/marriage they will ask you to prove you are single and free to marry.... now you are standing in the immigration hall at xxxx airport and the officer is asking for proof that you are single and free to marry... what are you gonna use as proof???? Its very easy to prove you are married (marriage certificate is all that is needed) it is very hard to prove you are not....

So I would never advise anyone to have any sort of wedding or wedding party before they enter on a K1.... its just not worth it....

Kez

Cool. Lots of others say the same thing. I'm not saying DO IT. I'm just saying that a wedding isn't a marriage and the two shouldn't be confused. Especially when it comes to that damn article that gets waved around as an example for all kinds of things that it just isn't applicable to. Can we all agree that they got legally married? And THAT's what got them in shitsville with ICE later on?

Are the examples on here of posters sharing stories where they got nailed for having a party? If there are, then that'd be helpful to include here.

[Kez/JWolf 6]

I agree the post link that was given has nothing to do with this situation... and I did not mention it in my post... There has been posts on here in the last 2years about people having wedding parties before they enter on a K1 and them getting a hard time at POE.... I can not do a search for them as I am at work.... but I am sure they can still be found....

There is a very good reason for USCIS having printed on the K1 instructions the nothing should be planned until a visa has been issued.... if people choose to ignore that then they run the risk of finding themselves in the same possition as the OP.....

Kez

[robburnsefc 0]

I agree the post link that was given has nothing to do with this situation... and I did not mention it in my post... There has been posts on here in the last 2years about people having wedding parties before they enter on a K1 and them getting a hard time at POE.... I can not do a search for them as I am at work.... but I am sure they can still be found....

There is a very good reason for USCIS having printed on the K1 instructions the nothing should be planned until a visa has been issued.... if people choose to ignore that then they run the risk of finding themselves in the same possition as the OP.....

Kez

Well thanks for all of that, cant believe the response. I totally understand the "Wedding Party" route and it does seem possible even with a church wedding. (Just to add to the whole thinh I read about a couple in Georgia where the husband to be said he would get the license when they returned home to Ohio or somewhere and then disappeared - they had a wedding in church but she did not have to have any anullment to get rid of her wantaway hubby because it was never legal!). However, We have talked about it and feel that if we are lucky enough for things to start happening quickly then we will be ready (I think we have most of the stuff - I134, financial letters, criminal records check, relationship evidence - ready) and I will begin looking at the later things. I noticed that in some timelines there are delays in sending some paperwork so if we are ready we have a chance.

Failing that and having negotiated with my employer we will have enough money for regular flights from LAX to Manchester, a European honeymoon, Christmas in the UK etc to make it slightly bearable.

My biggest fear over the dodgy route is not the legality of it, but my ability to keep a straight face at POE where I feel guilty for breathing like an illegal alien sometimes!

Thanks for at least coming up with some ideas and some encouragement!

Rob.

[TracyTN 237]

Failing that and having negotiated with my employer we will have enough money for regular flights from LAX to Manchester, a European honeymoon, Christmas in the UK etc to make it slightly bearable.

Just be sure your fiancee/future wife has advanced parole before you take advantage of these plans.

[kitkat1 5]

Are you saying that you are still shooting for a July 28 wedding in the US? You have not yet received your approval according to your timeline. Assuming that is correct, you still have to get from the CSC to the NVC to the consulate (4 weeks estimate), get all you documents, have the medical and wait for the interview date to be scheduled. Seems very very unlikely that all of that will happen in under three months and that's not taking into account any one of the other things that could happen to create a delay.

p.s. Do you realize that a European honeymoon is not an option immediately - you have to either have your green card or have received advanced parole before leaving the US. That takes time as well.