We met while working for Carnival Cruise Lines, spent every night talking on open decks after our shifts. At the end of my first contract, he asked me if I would come be with him on his next ship. It took some work, but eventually we spent another 6 month contract together. This time we had talked about marriage and moving on from ship-life. We decided I would spend my vacation in India. So I booked my ticket. I spent about 2 months in India and during that time we decided to marry. Just a simple court ceremony, attended by 3 of his friends, one of whom was a common colleague of ours from the ships.
We spent one more contract of 5 months together on another ship after marriage, he then applied for B2 to visit me in the US, but was denied. We just wanted him to come to meet family & spend some time so that we could begin talking about plans for the future...jobs, living arrangements, etc. After the B2 denial, we knew it was now or never. We jumped into the CR1 visa process and thats where we currently sit, treading water, waiting for any sign of life from USCIS.
Once I filed, I immediately flew to India to be with him during the wait.
I think our case is pretty strong: met & fell in love in-person, worked together for 2yrs before marrying, first visit to india was over 1month long, 2nd visit currently on-going.
My only concern is that our families did not attend our court wedding. My family could not afford to fly to India & back and his parents while happy for him are not entirely approving, speak no english, but accept the decision he has made. He says they will come around once we have a home and decent jobs...they wanted him to be more financially sound before getting married. Their hesitant approval has nothing to do with me, it has to do with his job status...they feel he is not in a position to begin a family yet.
