CR1, but not living together? Challenges?

[spectrrr 14]

Here is a scenario that I haven't seen discussed very much in my searching.

The setup:

-Fiancé is in Venezuela.

-Three years until she finishes school, three years until she comes here.

-I have student loans and cannot afford to live in Venezuela prior to her coming here.

-Her parents NEED to see the wedding (they are currently not very supportive, it would be a very necessary acknowledgement to them).

-It is ILLIGAL to perform a religious marriage in Venezuela without being civilly married first.

-K1 option eliminated since her parents would not be present.

-"standard" CR1 option is limited because I can't live there after the wedding.

The plan:

We are thinking the best course of action may be to have a no frills civil ceremony in Venezuela in 2 years. At that point, we would be legally married, however since we would still not be able to live together for any period of time, we wait to consummate the marriage and would treat it like nothing more than a piece of paper. I would Immediately file for the CR1 after the marriage. 1 year later, with CR1 in hand, we can have a formal religious ceremony in Venezuela that everyone can attend, we'll consider that our "real" wedding day, and then we can immediately "hop on a plane into the sunset" with no waiting!

Potential problems:

-Medical exam could reveal the lack of prior sexual activity?

-"Proving" our marriage. No joint bills, nothing with our name on it together except the marriage certificate, since we would still be living in different countries.No fancy album of wedding photos since it was just a private civil ceremony. Only the chat and phone logs...

-????? What else have I missed as a potential pitfall?

I fully realize that in the world of immigration, there is no "have your cake and eat it too" scenario. We all have to make significant sacrifices to be with the ones we love (but I think this just makes the relationship stronger ). Whilst this scenario is no different, it certainly seems to mitigate some of the problems.... IF IT WORKS!! So what do you think folks…. Could it potentially work, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[Mr&Mrs D. 4]

Me and hubby got married in Bulgaria and we filed for a IR1/CR1 visa a few months after (we had to get all the dox prepared).. I don't think that being married and living in different countries would be a problem - most of us are goin trough this right now.. All depends if you are willing to be apart during the process..

I don't understand the "-Medical exam could reveal the lack of prior sexual activity?" question tho...

My point is that you guyz can have a "normal" wedding and file for IR1/CR1 with no problem after - as far as I see it..

ps: I am not aware of the traditions in Venezuela tho.. Am I missing smth here?? :think:

Edited August 9, 2010 by Mrs&Mr D.

[spectrrr 14]

Me and hubby got married in Bulgaria and we filed for a IR1/CR1 visa a few months after (we had to get all the dox prepared).. I don't think that being married and living in different countries would be a problem - most of us are goin trough this right now.. All depends if you are willing to be apart during the process..

I don't understand the "-Medical exam could reveal the lack of prior sexual activity?" question tho...

My point is that you guyz can have a "normal" wedding and file for IR1/CR1 with no problem after - as far as I see it..

ps: I am not aware of the traditions in Venezuela tho.. Am I missing smth here?? :think:

mmm, sorry, I might not have made that part too clear.

We have chosen to abstain until after marriage.... and I'm pretty sure that once we start living together, being separated again would kill her. So I have been trying to find an option that would allow us to get married there first, and then immediately come here to start our life together.

The only such option I have come up with so far is to split the marriages there - one civil ceremony marriage that is a legal one so we can file for the CR1, and then a formal ceremony later on so the parents are happy and she can have her wedding night without being separated from her husband shortly thereafter.

The only real important tradition there is probably similar in Bulgaria - Don't piss off the family! (and thus far her parents have NOT been very supportive, so keeping them as happy as possible prior to our departure is important!!)

Clear as mud?

Edited August 9, 2010 by spectrrr

[canadian_wife 1,829]

There is no internal medical examination. Your lack of sexual activity will only be known to the consulate if you tell them.

keep your passport stamps, flight itenaries, hotel receipts, and take some pictures of your wedding. that should suffice. but you can also have affidavits from friends and family to attest to your marriage.

Married is married, they don't go into your bedroom to make sure you're a married couple

Good luck

[Darnell 8,479]

you can build up the evidence (asked for in the I-130 instructions), over time.

Here's what I did, ages past - have a read? http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=218775&st=0&p=3324240&hl=Rusticentry3324240

here's another thread on making evidence - http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/267643-just-married-no-job-no-country-questions-about-ir-1cr-1/page__view__findpost__p__4100550

re: 'virgin/hymen' status during medical exam - no, it's not covered during the medical exam, at all.

Good Luck

[Mr&Mrs D. 4]

There is no internal medical examination. Your lack of sexual activity will only be known to the consulate if you tell them.

keep your passport stamps, flight itenaries, hotel receipts, and take some pictures of your wedding. that should suffice. but you can also have affidavits from friends and family to attest to your marriage.

Married is married, they don't go into your bedroom to make sure you're a married couple

Good luck

Yup! I completely agree with canadian_wife!

Edited August 9, 2010 by Mrs&Mr D.

[LotofPatience 65]

OP,

I saw that you have CR1 option as well. Though they don't do virgin/hymen test, there is another possibility.

Suppose, your wife became pregnant after your marriage and you came back to the U.S. When you apply for baby's U.S passport and birth certificate (assuming you are USC) in the Consulate, if they find lack of evidence to prove the relationship with the baby, DNA test will be conducted just to make sure it is your own baby.

Immigration is kind of many many years planning and execution!

Loto

[spectrrr 14]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

Darell, some great ideas there about how to strengthen the paperwork ties, I'll definitely look into them.

The CR1 is certainly looking like the better route from a simplicity and problem solving point of view. Beyond that, I guess we'll just start building our document files now and wait. Having so much time sucks from a waiting standpoint, but at least we have time to build our case right and don't have to worry about any further delays creeping in from a rushed case prep.

[Dan J 277]

Depending on what school and what degree your fiancée is going for, you may not find much benefit to finishing school in Venezuela. Instead it might be a better idea to transfer the classes you can, and finish education within the US.

Its hard to make a judgement on that without doing some research.

[spectrrr 14]

Depending on what school and what degree your fiancée is going for, you may not find much benefit to finishing school in Venezuela. Instead it might be a better idea to transfer the classes you can, and finish education within the US.

Its hard to make a judgement on that without doing some research.

I did some research on that last year, she's in school for dentistry. Most of her stuff won't transfer She'll have to do 1.5 years of additional schooling here in a "foreign trained dentist" program in order to practice in the US, but that's it. So it comes down to 3 years of free school there + 1.5 years of paid school here.... or 8 years of paid school here! (and at least a year of learning English before she could even think about starting those 8 years or even applying for schools... so probably 2 years!)

Hurray for waiting!!!