Help with timeline for CR-1

[BlueTornado 1]

Hello, I am a new member. I am looking for some advice regarding the timeline for me to begin filling for immigration. I was hoping to file for a governmental marriage when i visit her in September. We plan on having a wedding in her Church in February in line with the Lunar New Year. Nearly all of her family will attend and about 4 +/- of my relatives will attend from the US. My question is can I begin to file for the CR-1 after September and get a jump on it, or am i better off waiting until the Church wedding because it will an actual celebration and more convincingly "bona fide"

 

I met my girlfriend while visiting VN with a college classmate. She was his cousin who was studying English. I have been helping her with English for 1 year (Daily E-mails and 3 facetime calls a week) and I have been officially dating since January(More E-mails but less calls do to different job schedule) I have visited her and her family specifically in April for 2 weeks. Part of the reason she wants the government marriage so soon before the wedding is her uncle thinks it would give her a better reason for a tourist visa to meet my family in November before the actual wedding we planed in February.I would also appreciate thoughts on that. I am 27 she is 26. She lives in Nam Dinh about 2 hours south west of Hanoi.

 

I would love to be able to file soon to try and get a jump on the paperwork to get her here sooner after the marriage because we know we are looking at about a year if we are lucky before she will be able to move here. Thank you for your advice

Also if some one could move this to the VN portal I would appreciate that. Thanks again.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

3 minutes ago, BlueTornado said:

Hello, I am a new member. I am looking for some advice regarding the timeline for me to begin filling for immigration. I was hoping to file for a governmental marriage when i visit her in September. We plan on having a wedding in her Church in February in line with the Lunar New Year. Nearly all of her family will attend and about 4 +/- of my relatives will attend from the US. My question is can I begin to file for the CR-1 after September and get a jump on it, or am i better off waiting until the Church wedding because it will an actual celebration and more convincingly "bona fide"

 

I met my girlfriend while visiting VN with a college classmate. She was his cousin who was studying English. I have been helping her with English for 1 year (Daily E-mails and 3 facetime calls a week) and I have been officially dating since January(More E-mails but less calls do to different job schedule) I have visited her and her family specifically in April for 2 weeks. Part of the reason she wants the government marriage so soon before the wedding is her uncle thinks it would give her a better reason for a tourist visa to meet my family in November before the actual wedding we planed in February.I would also appreciate thoughts on that. I am 27 she is 26. She lives in Nam Dinh about 2 hours south west of Hanoi.

 

I would love to be able to file soon to try and get a jump on the paperwork to get her here sooner after the marriage because we know we are looking at about a year if we are lucky before she will be able to move here. Thank you for your advice

Also if some one could move this to the VN portal I would appreciate that. Thanks again.

Married is married. It doesn't matter if you got married in a church, court, or a Mosque as long as you get married.

 

I don't think I need to move this as of yet because it looks like it's fine where it's at right now.

[Going through 5,671]

5 minutes ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

Part of the reason she wants the government marriage so soon before the wedding is her uncle thinks it would give her a better reason for a tourist visa to meet my family in November before the actual wedding we planed in February.I would also appreciate thoughts on that.

It could also work in reverse in terms of getting a tourist visa.  Once she disclosed she is married to a USC, the consular officer will presume she is hoping to adjust status from within the US once across, unless she has a strong showing of ties back to her home country compelling her to return there.

 

By the way, a "government marriage" is the same thing as a "wedding".  You are legally married either way.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

7 minutes ago, Going through said:

It could also work in reverse in terms of getting a tourist visa.  Once she disclosed she is married to a USC, the consular officer will presume she is hoping to adjust status from within the US once across, unless she has a strong showing of ties back to her home country compelling her to return there.

 

By the way, a "government marriage" is the same thing as a "wedding".  You are legally married either way.

I was concentrating primarily on the CR1 and not the B2 tourist visa which will be very hard to get either way.

[Crazy Cat 42,734]

OP-  I agree with those who have said that being married to a US citizen will not help in getting a B2 visitor visa.  In fact, it will probably have the opposite effect. Having said that, you can (and should) start the CR-1 paperwork immediately after the "governmental" wedding.

[BlueTornado 1]

Thank you all for the quick responses.

A follow up question would be, is the marriage certificate enough by itself? I know I and my girlfriend have only know each other for a year, do we need to worry about "proof of validity"? The wedding celebration after the church will be large and include family from both countries, but the marriage certificate will not have any fan-fare.

also as a side question, I know it is possible for the beneficiary to visit after filing for the CR-1, realistically what are those chances? Is that the same as the B2 visa problem?

Thank you again. This website has been an excellent resource.

[Ryan H 3,835]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[pushbrk 13,260]

If you present adequate relationship evidence, there is no reason to wait for a "church wedding" or more formal celebration.  Document well that your families were in attendance when you "married" as well as documenting the time you've spent together in person.  A certified copy of your marriage certificate and a certified translation of it, are all you need to show your marriage is legal.  The rest is about the validity of the relationship, not the legality of the marriage.

[pushbrk 13,260]

On 6/13/2018 at 6:26 AM, Cyberfx1024 said:

Married is married. It doesn't matter if you got married in a church, court, or a Mosque as long as you get married.

Correct, but relationship evidence in a Vietnam spouse visa case is considerably more critical than when coming through Manila though.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

1 hour ago, pushbrk said:

Correct, but relationship evidence in a Vietnam spouse visa case is considerably more critical than when coming through Manila though.

I know that but my first post was in regards to wither he should wait until he has the church wedding or just file for it after they get civilly married in September.