Marriage before K1 Interview

[russell 0]

Hi all,

Im in a bit of an anxious dilema.

Everything from packet 3 has been done and sent off. Im simply awaiting my packet 4 and interview. Now my dilema is this, my wedding date is booked for September the 9th, it has been booked for a good 6 months. Rather naively i had assumed that the visa would have been done and dusted by then with plenty of time to spare.

Anyway, instead of kicking myself about tight timing i have to think of solutions. At the moment i dont envisage my interview being before September the 9th, so what should i do ?

Should i move the wedding back a month and inconvenience all of the people due to attend ?

Or should i fly over and go ahead with my wedding as planned, come back here for my interview and hope nobody spots what we have done ?

Or should i equally fly over and go ahead with my wedding and apply then for a visa more suited to our new situation ?

The flaw in the 2nd option is that someone somewhere will figure out we got married before the interview, and that could mean trouble right ?

The flaw in the 3rd option means that it will set us back a whole 10 months as we will then be starting a new journey on a new and equally long/stressing visa package.. not being able to work etc etc..

The 1st option looks the best option, but i cant even begin to envisage the amount of stress my fiance would take onboard with having to move wedding plans..

Any suggestions ??

Thankyou in advance

Russell

[diadromous mermaid 36]

Hi all,

Im in a bit of an anxious dilema.

Everything from packet 3 has been done and sent off. Im simply awaiting my packet 4 and interview. Now my dilema is this, my wedding date is booked for September the 9th, it has been booked for a good 6 months. Rather naively i had assumed that the visa would have been done and dusted by then with plenty of time to spare.

Anyway, instead of kicking myself about tight timing i have to think of solutions. At the moment i dont envisage my interview being before September the 9th, so what should i do ?

Should i move the wedding back a month and inconvenience all of the people due to attend ?

Or should i fly over and go ahead with my wedding as planned, come back here for my interview and hope nobody spots what we have done ?

Or should i equally fly over and go ahead with my wedding and apply then for a visa more suited to our new situation ?

The flaw in the 2nd option is that someone somewhere will figure out we got married before the interview, and that could mean trouble right ?

The flaw in the 3rd option means that it will set us back a whole 10 months as we will then be starting a new journey on a new and equally long/stressing visa package.. not being able to work etc etc..

The 1st option looks the best option, but i cant even begin to envisage the amount of stress my fiance would take onboard with having to move wedding plans..

Any suggestions ??

Thankyou in advance

Russell

If you marry prior to the K-1 interview, you'll be statutorily ineligible for the visa and that will be more than trouble! You can marry in the USA and return and petition for a K-3 or CR-1. Or, alternatively, plan the wedding at a later date.

[Mew 0]

I don't think getting married at this point would do you any good. If you get married before the interview, you'd have to file for a K3 and start all over again. I don't think you'd want to risk the chance of ever having you and your fiance being together for lying to immigration.

Wait for the interview. And postpone the wedding. I know, it sucks, but it's the safer choice.

[mrc 0]

What country is you awaiting your interview in? How long does it usually take to get an interview there? You don't have a timeline, so it's hard to determine these things.

Edited July 29, 2006 by mrc

[TracyTN 237]

So instead of moving a wedding, you're going to lie at the FIANCE visa interview? What happens when you go to file AOS paperwork and they just so happen to notice that the date of your marriage was before you even had the visa interview?

My guess is you'd be sent home with a nice ban to the US to boot.

[iceyspots 0]

Move the wedding date, it may be a pain and inconvenience, but USCIS is a bigger inconvenience to deal with.

[russell 0]

No TracyTN, im not going to lie.. my post was to see what my options were.. i have no intention of lying about anything its far too risky.. i wasnt sure where i would stand thats why i p[roposed the 3 options. The wedding postponment seems the most sensible option..

Im in the uk, my fiance is in lousiana.. my packet 3 checklist was sent back 2 weeks ago, i have not received packet 4 yet.. thats why im concerned about my interview..

Thankyou all for replies..

Russell

[westguard 0]

Hi 'russell'

Funnily enough I am marring someone in November from Louisiana (New Orleans) and I am from the UK. We applied for the K1 Visa in March (received NOA1 beginning of April) and we are still waiting for NOA2 having sent back the IMBRA RFE in July (acknowledged on the 10th).

We are marrying in November and have 500+ people invited to the wedding from all over the world so we cannot afford to miss this date. As you can imagine, the K1 process has caused us a huge amount of stress because of the timescales involved and in particular the IMBRA delay was a huge pain in the a***.

The fact of the matter is that you cannot speed up the process, you cannot lie about the situation because you risk screwing up your ability to so much as visit you loved one, and you cannot rely upon gossip you read here (with no disrepect to anyone) because every case is different (circumstances, location of beneficiary etc). There is no one attribute you can rely upon to estimate when you will be approved. I see approvals every day from those from countries I would class as less of an aly than the UK and who applied for K1 status after we did - I just know there is no rule to this process anymore, you simply have to wait, or shout a bit.

We don't even have an official approval yet so we are going down an alternative, perfectly legal route which I do not wish to disclose here but we are still hopeful that within 3 and a half months I can be in the country on our original K1 Visa petition which would give me the advantage of being able to naturalise in 3 years as opposed to 5.

I appreciate you do not want to do anything untoward and therefore I can only suggest the following.

- Email the London Consulate and enquire about your position. LondonConsular@state.gov, they are very good at responding and they might be able to assist.

- Contact the NVC to see where they are in processing your application (check out their website for email details etc).

Do everything you can this coming week to ascertain where you are before moving the wedding date. Believe me I know what a pain that can be. I for one have a lot of people who have already paid for flight tickets to the USA in preparation for the wedding and they had to do this to keep costs down etc. For us, moving the date is not an option so we have had to look around that. If you are not in a position to be able to apply for alternatives to the K1, as we are (and do research this), then look at ways your local consulate or your petitioners senator might be able to help. All I am saying is that you may achieve nothing, but you have NOTHING to lose by trying.

We allowed 8 months to process the K1 Visa based upon the information we knew at the time. I am sure we all know now that booking a wedding date in advance is not a good idea, but it is a catch 22. We had to invite a lot people, and had to arrange an awful lot and we did not want to start arranging everything AFTER I had arrived back in the USA as this would have meant we could not marry for a long time. Let's face it, we are in love and want to be together as soon as possible. I read one post which was very true, and that was if I were in jail I would get visitation rights! As a K1 beneficiary, I am banned from seeing my fiancee unless she spends a fortunate on a flight ticket to the UK and spends time here with me. This is unfair but unfortunately a fact of life we both have to deal with.

I for one am definately not travelling to the USA until I have been issued a Visa based on the honesty of information I have provided and upon acceptance from the USCIS, NVS and the London Consulate. It is simply not worth risking anything. I know the lady I want to marry and want to spend the rest of my life with, and we are prepared to wait as long as that may take. I understand this process is frustrating and I too check the USCIS website for updates daily (sometimes hourly!) and check my email for touches but at the end of the day we cannot change the way USCIS operates (huge protests or otherwise! This is a goverment organisation, come on!) and there is no way of acclerating anything other than trying to contact who you can - which I accept may not amount to anything, but why not try and explain your circumstances and see what happens?

I can only hope that your interview pops up soon (send a mature email to that address above, it may help) and I wish you and your fiancee all the best.

Kindest regards

'westguard'

[Jenn! 918]

I think personally I would keep the wedding date (depending though on how much money would be lost in changing it - also think about wedding guests that may have already bought plane tickets?). But I think your decision really depends on how big of an affair you're planning.

Wouldnt it suck if you changed the wedding date and then ended up getting the visa before?

[benzamins 0]

I believe if this was just a religious ceremony and party, then they should be alright. If a marriage certificate is issued than that’s a totally different subject. I believe religious ceremonies do not constitute marriage in the eyes of the law.

[beccaogingi 0]

I believe if this was just a religious ceremony and party, then they should be alright. If a marriage certificate is issued than that’s a totally different subject. I believe religious ceremonies do not constitute marriage in the eyes of the law.

Hmm, I'm fairly sure that they DO. After all, the priest is licensed to sign the marriage license. I would confirm this before assuming that it was safe. I don't think a priest can marry you in a non-binding way.

[mendeleev 68]

I don't think a priest can marry you in a non-binding way.

It happens all the time. We marry gay and lesbians couples in our denomination -- and have done so for maybe 20 years. While we recognize these as valid marriages, for sure the States where these marriages are conducted do not regard them as legally binding.

So, maybe there is a way to have a church wedding in Louisianna and postpone entering into the civil, legal contract until after the K1 is granted. Don't know if any particular minister will do the ceremony and not file the civil papers, but if that minister would do the favor, it might give an acceptable option.

But be careful and be sure that any church ceremony isn't also legally sanctioned. (But if a church ceremony is conducted in the absence of a marriage license, granted by the State, where is the legal sanction?)

[motu 5]

I just have to shake my head. All these intelligent people did not take the time to understand the process or research it - it has been posted here thousands of times -

DO NOT PLAN YOUR WEDDING BEFORE YOU GET YOUR VISA IN HAND!

(And don't whine if you do and end up with a scrwewed up wedding, screwed up visa or worse.)

Good Luck

[luvaLimey 0]

Hi Russell. I'd stick with option #1. It's less risky, and as others have mentioned, the legal way to do it.

You may want to discuss with an (good)Immigration lawyer these options. Hopefully, they'd steer you away from committing visa fraud.

Good luck at the interview, and good luck moving your wedding date.

[russell 0]

DO NOT PLAN YOUR WEDDING BEFORE YOU GET YOUR VISA IN HAND!

(And don't whine if you do and end up with a scrwewed up wedding, screwed up visa or worse.)

Thats great.. real productive.. i wish we all could have the powerful hindsight you obviously posess and never make a slightly off coloured decision in our lives, especially a decision based on love, excitement, <now badly made> assumptions that everything will go how you woudl like it to and apparently leaving plenty of time to spare,

My post was to try and rectify a mistake i have made and recognised, didnt you see that at the start of the post ?

Anyway, thankyou all those who posted helpul advice in response to my obvious 'whining'.. as a result of the constructive replies, i just realised that the justice of the peace who is conducting our ceremony is a friend of my fiances sister, so now i have someone who might be able to help me with any legal questions about the ceremony

Thanks again