F1-OPT to Marriage based greencard

[jcmh 0]

Hi all, my F1-OPT is ending in June but I recently got engaged to my fiance who is a US citizen. We planned for our wedding to take place in November. However, I know that there is a risk of deportation if I'm out of F1 status in between June and November so I was wondering if maybe I should have a small private ceremony first in June to file for AOS first and then have the actual big wedding ceremony in November?

 

Has anyone done this before? I'm worried about the risk of proving the bona fide marriage as it's going to be a private and small ceremony with maybe just family as we are planning to do the real wedding in November. 

[Lil bear 4,201]

3 minutes ago, jcmh said:

Hi all, my F1-OPT is ending in June but I recently got engaged to my fiance who is a US citizen. We planned for our wedding to take place in November. However, I know that there is a risk of deportation if I'm out of F1 status in between June and November so I was wondering if maybe I should have a small private ceremony first in June to file for AOS first and then have the actual big wedding ceremony in November?

 

Has anyone done this before? I'm worried about the risk of proving the bona fide marriage as it's going to be a private and small ceremony with maybe just family as we are planning to do the real wedding in November. 

Yes .. you will be out  of Status until you marry , apply for AOS and receive your NOA for the application. 

Do a courthouse marriage ASAP then file AOS straight away. Celebrate with family however and whenever  you want to after that !  It’s a common s common sense approach to the situation 

[jcmh 0]

1 minute ago, Lil bear said:

Yes .. you will be out  of Status until you marry , apply for AOS and receive your NOA for the application. 

Do a courthouse marriage ASAP then file AOS straight away. Celebrate with family however and whenever  you want to after that !  It’s a common s common sense approach to the situation 

Thank you for your response! We are definitely inclined to do that but in terms of evidence and for the interview, how do we respond to the officer? We definitely do not want to lie but will telling them we got married in a courthouse with only family there first raise any red flags? We want to keep this "first" marriage private and only tell our family and a few close friends too if possible. I guess the main concern for us is how are we going to prove a bona fide marriage if in our minds the "real marriage" is in November.

 

In terms of evidence, what do people normally submit for newlyweds who don't have much evidence? We got plenty of pictures and also can get letters of affidavit from friends and family. 

[Lil bear 4,201]

1 minute ago, jcmh said:

Thank you for your response! We are definitely inclined to do that but in terms of evidence and for the interview, how do we respond to the officer? We definitely do not want to lie but will telling them we got married in a courthouse with only family there first raise any red flags? We want to keep this "first" marriage private and only tell our family and a few close friends too if possible. I guess the main concern for us is how are we going to prove a bona fide marriage if in our minds the "real marriage" is in November.

 

In terms of evidence, what do people normally submit for newlyweds who don't have much evidence? We got plenty of pictures and also can get letters of affidavit from friends and family. 

Having a small wedding with no witnesses is fine. But you will then need to start things like shared bank accounts , beneficiaries of wills investments etc. 

most newly weds doing AOS have little evidence. But by the time you get to the interview stage ..  12 months on ... you will have more solid evidence. 

My sense is you need some evidence of shared funds etc dating from soon after the date of your marriage 

[jcmh 0]

3 minutes ago, Lil bear said:

Having a small wedding with no witnesses is fine. But you will then need to start things like shared bank accounts , beneficiaries of wills investments etc. 

most newly weds doing AOS have little evidence. But by the time you get to the interview stage ..  12 months on ... you will have more solid evidence. 

My sense is you need some evidence of shared funds etc dating from soon after the date of your marriage 

Yes, we will definitely work on having as many joint accounts as possible after the small wedding. So I guess our initial AOS application will have not as many evidence, but come interview time, we can bring an updated file with more evidence right?

[Just Paul 4,595]

21 minutes ago, jcmh said:

we can bring an updated file with more evidence right?

Yes and you keep getting move evidence as you pass thru all the steps to citizenship, if that is what you want.

[Marieke H 2,498]

43 minutes ago, jcmh said:

We definitely do not want to lie but will telling them we got married in a courthouse with only family there first raise any red flags? We want to keep this "first" marriage private and only tell our family and a few close friends too if possible. I guess the main concern for us is how are we going to prove a bona fide marriage if in our minds the "real marriage" is in November.

Be careful with the language you use. Your "first marriage" will be your "real marriage", because that is when you legally get married. You can have any kind of celebration later, but don't make it sound like the actual marriage is not real.

My husband and I did a courthouse wedding with only my parents and stepdaughter there, and we never had any issues. 

[Boiler 45,486]

Most people want to drive and work.

[USS_Voyager 1,972]

59 minutes ago, jcmh said:

e want to keep this "first" marriage private and only tell our family and a few close friends too if possible. I guess the main concern for us is how are we going to prove a bona fide marriage if in our minds the "real marriage" is in November

There is no first or second marriage. There is only one marriage. That is the day you both go to the courthouse or county office to sign the papers to be legally married. That's what counts. USCIS does NOT care about whether you have a big wedding, small wedding, or no wedding. You only need to have a legally recognized marriage by local authorities to satisfy the requirement that you are married. 

 

What they care about is evidence of a bona fide relationship. Focus on that. A wedding is just a party. They want to see the whole picture of your relationship. 

[nguoivietnam2019 67]

Primary requirement is to have a valid marriage certificate, then bone fide evidences.

 

My brother and his wife just went to court house and registered for their marriage, then filed AOS from my sister-in-lawyer's F1 visa.  She got her application accepted,  now USC and they have not had a wedding yet. 

[Lil bear 4,201]

1 hour ago, jcmh said:

Yes, we will definitely work on having as many joint accounts as possible after the small wedding. So I guess our initial AOS application will have not as many evidence, but come interview time, we can bring an updated file with more evidence right?

Yes.  That’s the way it is for newly weds ! 

[Colorred 30]

We did just that, married in a small private ceremony and then planned a huge reception for later. Haven’t interviewed yet but when we applied for AOS we still included tons of evidence. We included evidence from the time we first met/dating up to the ceremony (even with few witnesses we included photos) and also included first few documents from shortly after we got married-like new lease, bank account updates with both names, I elected to change my last name, added each other as beneficiaries of retirement and savings accounts. 

I think as long as your marriage is bonafide how you set up the actual days events (ceremony and reception later) is small potatoes. Make sure you have all the required bonafide proof and a dash more for good measure. Good luck and congrats