WEDDING PLANS BEFORE GETTING THE VISA

[Yassira 0]

I just don't get it as I am reading the posts some people make wedding plans ahead of time and their timelines are just unrealistic. Can't they follow the USCIS and embassy advice? Why not wait till you are approved? what if you get hit by a random hit? what if something else happens? what if they slap you with a RFE? What if the embassy takes longer to issue an interview.. too many what if's for me. God. Better safe than sorry!! My two cents!

YASSIRA

[denali_1963 0]

I just don't get it as I am reading the posts some people make wedding plans ahead of time and their timelines are just unrealistic. Can't they follow the USCIS and embassy advice? Why not wait till you are approved? what if you get hit by a random hit? what if something else happens? what if they slap you with a RFE? What if the embassy takes longer to issue an interview.. too many what if's for me. God. Better safe than sorry!! My two cents!

YASSIRA

What if you slip in the bathtub and break your knoggin.

[djcess 0]

well... optimistic?

[Karen_L 1]

I just don't get it as I am reading the posts some people make wedding plans ahead of time and their timelines are just unrealistic. Can't they follow the USCIS and embassy advice? Why not wait till you are approved? what if you get hit by a random hit? what if something else happens? what if they slap you with a RFE? What if the embassy takes longer to issue an interview.. too many what if's for me. God. Better safe than sorry!! My two cents!

YASSIRA

I think most people (myself included, though we never made any extensive, crazy circus-wedding plans) begin the Immigration Experience not knowing what to expect or how long everything will take. My fiance' and I called USCIS and the two consulates where he would possibly have his interview numerous times to try to get an estimate on how long everything will take and NO ONE would give us even a guess or "worst case scenario"/"best case scenario" response. Some people here have been waiting for MONTHS without any new information about their petition or interview, unable to contact anyone. No one anticipates it will take a year+ just to get permission to get married in the US.

[rlt 0]

Ok.

So I got my packet 4 sent to me, received and I shouldn´t make plans?

How often do you guys leave your contry to move to a different one?

this is huge for me, and I think I have the right to be frustrated by receiving a phone call saying my interview was canceled.

I´m not saying they are guilty for the plans I made.. I´m saying this is a serius situation I am in and I deserve information about the status of my case.

Is that too crazy?

[kimlbs 0]

Some of us try to be optimistic...although I think it is a little foolish to actually "pay" for a big wedding but putting some plans into place and setting a tentative date keeps you from running around like mad when the happy day finally arrives!!!!

Just my thoughts......

[denali_1963 0]

i would imagine it would be very difficult to plan a big wedding while dealing with immigration. I don't know how people do it. For myself when he finally gets here, we will be getting married at my friends house and then going to a nice restaurant with about 13 people and having dinner. My friend will marry us since there is no justice of the peace here. This is allowed in this state to have who you want to marry you. Hopefully he will get his visa next tuesday. Then i can go ahead with my plans.

[expatrica 0]

Hmmmmmmm.

I think everyone has a different experience and sometimes things get a bit messed up. I am one of those people who has a wedding planned for this summer which will now have to be altered a bit due to the current IMBRA fiasco. I explained the whole thing in another thread but, in short, we screwed up.

My finace mistakenly thought we could get married in the US while he was here under the UK visa waiver program.* We knew his job was ending in July so we figured that was as good a time as any to get married and for him to move here. It was not until after we put down deposits and had many of our foreign relatives/friends purchase plane tickets that we realized that he did, in fact, need a fiance visa.

He's a Brit and I'm American. We've been together for five years and lived together for two of those years. Ours should be a very straightforward case and we did not anticipate any rfe etc. Based on all the timelines we saw, we should have been fine. It was always going to be cutting it close but we should have been ok. That said, I knew there was always the risk that it might not be issued in time so we've had a plan B from the beginning which is what we're most likely going to have to implement now.

I supppose that my point is that we began planning because we were misinformed and we realized our mistake. It is unfortunate but that's what happened. We didn't "ignore" the advice from the USCIS or the embassy - we just weren't aware of it to begin with! Had I known about all of this, I wouldn't have planned anything until he had the visa in his passport. It's too late now so we're making do and hoping for the best!

Everyone's case and situation is different.

*Although many people do do this and get away with it, it's technically illegal and could be considered "visa fraud" which is why we decided to file for the fiance visa. We didn't want any problems when he applied for his green card.

i would imagine it would be very difficult to plan a big wedding while dealing with immigration. I don't know how people do it. For myself when he finally gets here, we will be getting married at my friends house and then going to a nice restaurant with about 13 people and having dinner. My friend will marry us since there is no justice of the peace here. This is allowed in this state to have who you want to marry you. Hopefully he will get his visa next tuesday. Then i can go ahead with my plans.

Hahahaha. Difficult is an understatement. Though I love him dearly, I wanted to ring his neck when I went and found out that he did need a fiance visa. This was already well over a month after plans that could not be cancelled had been made. There was nothing I could do but hope for the best. That said, with the planning and the visa ####### - I've never been more stressed out. It's a total nightmare.

Your wedding sounds like it will be lovely, btw. I love small weddings. We're having 80 people which I think is HUGE but amazingly is considered small to most.

[ppboo 0]

You may plan, but do not take any action until your VISA is on hand..... and always have plan B and C..

I'm just screw... I give up my job after my Interview approved... how can you possible imagine situation that VISA will not issue due to the new law?

And Yes, it would be very difficult to PLAN at all, if there is not tentative date on when and how long this will take...

One of the worst thing that make us feel bad is that, I was in the US for my fiancé moving to our new apartment for 3 weeks from 2/16/06 to 3/9/06, we did not submit our I-129F until 3/9/2006, if we would be inform and know about the IMBRA is coming, we would have putting in our petition before Mar 2006...

[KaiserD 12]

I made a mistake calculating the visa, so I should have applied for mine earlier than I did too but it's no good wishing, just gotta deal with the here and now.

I've got my dress, shoes and yet to order my tiara, was planning to move october and moved it back to november, so it was planned for about 8 months. I was feeling uncomfortable about putting deposits down anywhere though. I was going to arrange it after I got my NOA2 if it's before the end of june. (Relying on the fact November is a slow month for weddings so it would be possible to book things later)

It's quite hard, I don't think I've accepted the fact the wedding will have to put back again, because we have intended this for a long time and like someone said the other day they're sick of their life being on hold. I feel like my youth is draining away like sand in a timer I absolutly hate living in the place that I am at the moment too so it's all very frustrating.

I've been with SO for 5 years too and it's been hell of a journey. Nobody here at home understands and that's why I really appreciate VJ We are having a max of 50 people, hopefully at Vecoma in GA.

Just gotta hang in there everyone I've been amazed at some of the strength of people here

[Ladylethal 12]

i would imagine it would be very difficult to plan a big wedding while dealing with immigration. I don't know how people do it. For myself when he finally gets here, we will be getting married at my friends house and then going to a nice restaurant with about 13 people and having dinner. My friend will marry us since there is no justice of the peace here. This is allowed in this state to have who you want to marry you. Hopefully he will get his visa next tuesday. Then i can go ahead with my plans.

I´m doing the samw a bit smaller. I´m actually marrying in the court house with dinner at a restaurant for 5-7 people from his family and his best friend.

[JenT 0]

There are things that can be planned for without knowing the specific date: the type of wedding you want, who should be invited, general format/types of invitations, address labels for the invitations, favors (if you go so far), colors, type of cake/which baker, which flowers, which photographer, rings, dresses, music, honeymoon destination, etc...

This is our second marriage so we're planning to invite only immediate family and the inner-most circle of friends who have all been warned that the date may likely be set with very short notice. For me, making some decisions now helps me keep focused on the reason that we're going through all of the immigration agony.... and to give me hope that there IS a light at the end of the tunnel....

I'm generally a pretty optimistic person, but without something else to keep me focused, I would be very discouraged right now.

Jen

[ppboo 0]

There are things that can be planned for without knowing the specific date: the type of wedding you want, who should be invited, general format/types of invitations, address labels for the invitations, favors (if you go so far), colors, type of cake/which baker, which flowers, which photographer, rings, dresses, music, honeymoon destination, etc...

This is our second marriage so we're planning to invite only immediate family and the inner-most circle of friends who have all been warned that the date may likely be set with very short notice. For me, making some decisions now helps me keep focused on the reason that we're going through all of the immigration agony.... and to give me hope that there IS a light at the end of the tunnel....

I'm generally a pretty optimistic person, but without something else to keep me focused, I would be very discouraged right now.

Jen

Thanks for showing us the lights... Yes... it does help, to stay focus and to stay positive....

[Joey559 1]

At least have a date in mind or oh man, you get bothered. I went to a bridal show (nightmare for me...not my thing but I suppose I am a bride huh...) and it was, when's the wedding? when's the wedding?" Just pick a sort of date to save yourself the old hassle of: "well, it's complicated. See my fiancee...blah blah blah". Just remember that life is what happens when you're making other plans and not to let it stress you when you have to change plans/ideas as you go along to fit the process.

Joey

[Ladylethal 12]

Yeah, I´ve heard the "Oh! You´re engaged!" (looking at my finger) "When is the big day?" and I have to say, NO IDEA.