Marriage in Home Country After Civil Marriage in US - K-1 Visa

[garebear397 55]

i have already confirmed that it should be fine for my fiance to come to the US on a K-1 visa, us get legally married with a small ceremony, then after she receives the AP going to her country (Chile) and doing a larger religious ceremony. 

 

My question is will this be any problem explaining during the interview? The interview is all we have left. I mean I can imagine they might ask why we didn't do a spouse visa to begin with -- and our answer is that the K-1 is quicker and has us living in the same country sooner. If we did the CR-1 it would be 9 months or so to plan the wedding, and then the whole 6 months+ of the visa processing before she could live in the US. With the K-1 we can plan the wedding while the visa is being processed. 

 

Appreciate any advice particularity if someone has done a similar model. 

[Ben&Zian 4,397]

Unless they ask I wouldn't even explain it honestly; but that answer is still perfectly fine.As long as you legally marry in the US then you are more than able to return to do a 'formal' or large family oriented ceremony once AP has been issued with the AOS

[garebear397 55]

1 minute ago, Ben&Zian said:

Unless they ask I wouldn't even explain it honestly; but that answer is still perfectly fine.As long as you legally marry in the US then you are more than able to return to do a 'formal' or large family oriented ceremony once AP has been issued with the AOS

Sure, yeah we weren't thinking to voluntarily bring it up. I have just seen some example interview questions that ask "Why did you choose to marry in the US instead of your home country." At that point explaining the process. Because she didn't decide to do it "instead" -- we are doing both. But good to know. 

 

[Ben&Zian 4,397]

Just now, garebear397 said:

Sure, yeah we weren't thinking to voluntarily bring it up. I have just seen some example interview questions that ask "Why did you choose to marry in the US instead of your home country." At that point explaining the process. Because she didn't decide to do it "instead" -- we are doing both. But good to know. 

 

 

Of course if they ask your explanation seems more than acceptable, it's fairly common really. 

[DrEllaNJ 288]

just make sure you don't set any dates just yet, and don't cut it too close. Right now, it's taking people more like 100 (sometimes more) days to get their AP, and that's after all of your documents get accepted. You also may need some time after you get married to gather all the documents, and should definitely quadruple-check all the forms and fees so your package doesn't get rejected outright.

[garebear397 55]

 

Just now, DrEllaNJ said:

just make sure you don't set any dates just yet, and don't cut it too close. Right now, it's taking people more like 100 (sometimes more) days to get their AP, and that's after all of your documents get accepted. You also may need some time after you get married to gather all the documents, and should definitely quadruple-check all the forms and fees so your package doesn't get rejected outright.

Definitely. No yeah we have a flexible marriage date back in Chile (venue is letting us move it), and we are building in buffer time anyway. 

[garebear397 55]

2 minutes ago, Ben&Zian said:

 

Of course if they ask your explanation seems more than acceptable, it's fairly common really. 

Right on. 

[geowrian 22,335]

Yeah, there's no problem with your plan (and isn't even uncommon). You can't legally get married again on the second event since you're already married in the US, but you can have a religious ceremony/reception (or even just a larger non-religious one). Best wishes.

[garebear397 55]

6 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Yeah, there's no problem with your plan (and isn't even uncommon). You can't legally get married again on the second event since you're already married in the US, but you can have a religious ceremony/reception (or even just a larger non-religious one). Best wishes.

Very good. Yeah I didn't know how common it was -- most of the posts I see are about people wanting to do a ceremony before coming on the K-1 visa. Which we definitely weren't going to do.