Options for US / UK Couple Marrying Abroad - Any Recent Experiences?

[Mpere 11]

On 8/13/2020 at 3:28 PM, Appy said:

We had elderly family members and were at the rock hotel where we had spent a few thousand pounds for a ceremony but because of how everything happened we cancelled, lost all our money and did a registry office thing instead. The registrar himself was horrified by how everything went down and was super accommodating to us, giving us our certificate straight away and other things. 

Is your marriage certificate in English? Mine is in Korean, we had it translated to English by a co-worker. Do you know if there’s any restrictions in terms of translation at the consulate? 

[Appy 38]

3 minutes ago, Mpere said:

Is your marriage certificate in English? Mine is in Korean, we had it translated to English by a co-worker. Do you know if there’s any restrictions in terms of translation at the consulate? 

Ours was in English so no help about the translation, I’m afraid. Though I did see this:

 

 

[Mpere 11]

7 minutes ago, Appy said:

Ours was in English so no help about the translation, I’m afraid. Though I did see this:

 

 

Thank you. I will ask DCF London to see any luck there  

[GoingTheDistance2 7]

In case anyone is curious, we’ve decided on St. Lucia for our wedding - still finalising, but likely early October.

 

Fairly straightforward to get married at a resort (just need passports and birth certificates) and we can both travel there from US and UK with negative COVID tests within 7 days of arrival.  A bit expensive, but thought we’d make it a nice vacation as well. 

 

Once we finalize the date, will start putting together our CR-1 package so that we are ready to file once we have the marriage certificate!

[TBoneTX 45,831]

That sounds exciting.  Thanks for returning with the update.

[PBabz 137]

On 9/3/2020 at 3:59 PM, GoingTheDistance2 said:

In case anyone is curious, we’ve decided on St. Lucia for our wedding - still finalising, but likely early October.

 

Fairly straightforward to get married at a resort (just need passports and birth certificates) and we can both travel there from US and UK with negative COVID tests within 7 days of arrival.  A bit expensive, but thought we’d make it a nice vacation as well. 

 

Once we finalize the date, will start putting together our CR-1 package so that we are ready to file once we have the marriage certificate!

St Lucia is of course beautiful, great choice!

 

All the best with the planning, wishing you and your wife-to-be a fabulous wedding and a smooth journey afterwards.

Good luck  

[sdwillats88 0]

I wanted to add to this conversation even though it looks like you've figured out where you will be getting married, GoingtheDistance2! Sounds like a fabulous place to get married and honeymoon and that's hard to cross both off your list at the same time. Wish you all the best with your wedding preparations and visa application afterwards! 🙂

I saw on a related thread that someone had linked a blog post I had written about the steps and process of getting married in Gibraltar as an American. My UK husband (who's from Northern Ireland) and I (an American) got married in Gibraltar in early September 2019. We both met in Spain a few years ago and now live in Madrid, the capital city. But seeing as neither of us were Spanish citizens and weren't planning on settling in either the UK or the US post-wedding, we opted for a third neutral country in Europe that would be easy to do the marriage license paperwork and not have to translate and apostille a bunch of documents. If you want to read more about my experience and how to do the process yourself (for any perspective couples), here's the post: https://sarahlaviajera.com/2019/10/22/how-to-get-married-in-gibraltar-as-an-american-2019/

I just wanted to add that we had a mostly pleasant experience with the getting married part in Gibraltar itself (and later that month we had a formal blessing ceremony with family and friends in Northern Ireland) and the day itself went without a hitch mostly. However, communication with the Registry Office was very slow, we weren't even able to be charged for the license and ceremony ahead of time (but paid the same day we did our paperwork and presented our original documents). And last but certainly not least, they spelled my husband's middle name wrong and added an extra S to Robert, possibly confusing it with a last name.

It took us about six months after the wedding date to get somewhere with the issue and actually talk to someone who took our issue seriously. We had someone at their office reply one time and say that our new certificate had been sent but lied about that and didn't ask to verify our address or the change of name on the certificate. A long story short, we just now resolved the issue in September 2020 (a little over a year after the ceremony) mainly because we waited for the Registry Office was so backed up with normal business and we wanted to give them some time to get things straightened out. And also, I have to renew my residency in Spain through marriage to my husband and all our documents have to be 90 days old or less in order to submit a complete application. So, it didn't make sense to request them before my residency expires at the end of October 2020 and have them be too old to submit. 

 

Just wanted to give anyone who is thinking of getting married a heads up about the misspelling we had and we both have fairly easy sounding first and last names! (Although I honestly expected them to spell my last name wrong given how much trouble I've had with it throughout my life.)

Anyway, cheers everyone! 🙂

[GoingTheDistance2 7]

Wanted to share that my now wife and I were married in St. Lucia a few weeks ago - everything was great and it was an amazing experience!

 

We just received a scanned copy of our marriage certificate and will be receiving physical copies shortly.

 

Now on to completing our initial I-130 petition - most of it is complete, so just trying to figure out whether to file online or via mail.

 

 

[PBabz 137]

6 hours ago, GoingTheDistance2 said:

Wanted to share that my now wife and I were married in St. Lucia a few weeks ago - everything was great and it was an amazing experience!

 

We just received a scanned copy of our marriage certificate and will be receiving physical copies shortly.

 

Now on to completing our initial I-130 petition - most of it is complete, so just trying to figure out whether to file online or via mail.

 

 

So pleased for you both - congratulations!
Lots of information here to hopefully help you make that decision about filing online or via mail so please do take a look around as you are deciding.

 

Good luck!!! 

[TBoneTX 45,831]

Thanks for returning with the happy update.  You must (and should) be thrilled!

[HRQX 4,145]

On 8/13/2020 at 3:46 AM, Luckycuds said:

Are you still in the UK? Get married there.

Individuals in regular visitor status cannot get married there. Also, the info provided in the immigration status statement is sent to the UK Home Office for verification.