Question on Court Marriage and AOS

[EM_Vandaveer 2,408]

Not a problem at all. Legally married is legally married.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

A court wedding is no problem at all. We did a simple court house wedding and had no issues with AOS

[Sunnyland 639]

We did a small court wedding just with my husbands parents, a family friends of his and that was it. Then we went to have a nice lunch at a nice hotel restaurant to celebrate. My mother or anybody in my family could not make it for not having a tourist visa. 

Edited July 4, 2018 by Sunnyland

[Loren Y 2,755]

Another thing to consider is that you are just starting out your new life together with lots of bills and expenses just around the corner. Weddings are not cheap, and I just don't see the reason to start your life out 15-20 thousand in debt to have that special day. I know I am going to save up money for the 5-6 years that it is going to take for my fiancee to get her citizenship and I am planning on the biggest blow out citizenship/ past due wedding/ everything I went cheap on party of the century. I figure if we make it that long together we both deserve a blow out party, I'll probably have a big sheet cake with the USCIS logo on it so I can have the satisfaction of knowing we made it thru the whole process , and I get to cut it up and eat it. It will probably be the only time something from USCIS didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth. LOL

[Paul & Mallory 1,398]

So many people have already said, but no - it doesn't matter. I think a LOT of people in this process do it simple, or just the basic courthouse/city hall deal. We would have done a courthouse wedding, but ours actually doesn't do them at the courthouse anymore (). We just met an officiant recommended by probate court at a park 5 minutes from our house, brought my parents, wrapped it up in about 10 minutes and went to get breakfast after. It was amazing and perfect because we were able to have that moment to ourselves. Plus I cried like a baby - didn't need an audience.

 

Considering everything couples like us have to go through with this process... how long we have to be apart... how much money we're spending on this, not even counting any kind of wedding... a lot of people opt for courthouse style. Nothing wrong with it at all.

[DeepakChani 738]

On 7/4/2018 at 8:09 AM, keixjil said:

I had court wedding with 3 friends witnesses. IO asked me it was my special day and none of family was there.

I think some will ask, some wont really care. Just be prepared to be safe. My case, I gave her my reasons and she was convinced in the end. 

What was the reasons you gave? 

[Pitaya 2,577]

On 7/3/2018 at 6:19 PM, DeepakChani said:

Does it look bad when filing AOS if you only do a court marriage and not a big huge wedding or reception after entering as a k1? I know people have different reasons for doing different things. If you choose to do a simple court marriage with only one side of parents there, is that a bad thing? Would it be looked down upon as not being a genuine relationship? It would be great to hear from those who have done AOS after K1 have to say. 

It doesn't make a difference to the two people getting married. It certainly didn't to us, we got married four days after my new to-be family's affrival to Seattle. There were six people in attendance at our wedding at the Seattle Municipal Court Building Auditorium, overlooking the city and Elliott Bay. In attendance, were the bride and the groom, the bride's son, our two witnesses and the Seattle Municipal Court Judge. It took all of about an hour for everyone to get together in the auditorium, afterwords we took pictures, signed the marriage licence, and were driven over to the Seattle Space Needle, where the five of us enjoyed a delightful celebratory dinner. While going up in the elevator, there was another older couple that now live in Phoenix, but used to live in Seattle. They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary that day. We were quite blessed.

 

After going through the trials and tribulations of traveling three times to China, to spend time with my fiancee, her family, and for the two of us to start to learn about each other and our cultures. We spent time in the north, the central and in the southern part of China (in February, very comfortable compared to Beijing in the winter). My final journey to China, thus far, was to be in the area of the US consulate in Guangzhou, to support my now-family while they were at their K1/K2 visa interview. That consulate bars the USC from attending the visa interview. Read our timeline to get a sense of our then-budding relationship in the Middle Kingdom.

 

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[keixjil 142]

2 hours ago, DeepakChani said:

What was the reasons you gave? 

Long story short: i told IO that my mom has issue with her heart, she couldn’t fly here to witness me getting married so we decided to have a ceremony in VN instead but we officially got married in US after coming here. That reason convinced her. She said “it made sense”