When is it safe to set a wedding date?

[R de la R 2]

We just filed our I-129F and assume that we will get a NOA2 sometime in December-January. Guessing that it will take another 8 weeks or so to get from that to the Interview at the Consulate and that everything goes smoothly would it be safe to set a date in March or April? We'd like to book a place to do our ceremony and reception and of course with that the sooner the better. What does everyone else do? Wait until the interview and then set up a wedding in a few weeks? If that's the case then I guess it means that we may not be able to book the place we want.

don't set a date until the visa is in hand

[baron555 934]

Yes you can plan out in advance. Remember that you have 90 days in which to marry and then she/he has 6 months in which to come here, so that is 9 months of fliexibility.......but to me why would you want your SO to delay coming just so the 90 day window falls within your planned wedding date?

[minnew 4]

Danu, Tim and Joyce and Nik +Heather all had great advice! Ditto to what they said! Your case may end up in AP at the consulate level as well, it all depends. Wait until you have the NOA2 AND you have contacted NVC to confirm that they have received your petition AND forwarded it to the consulate. Once approved for your visa you do have 6 months to enter the country. So say 3 months from NVC to get an interview date, plus another 6 months to wait out thats almost 9 months that you have to be able to plan something.

In my case thats exactly what we did, wait to book and put deposits down for the church and reception until after NVC had sent the petition to Vancouver, didn't put any more deposits down (photography, DJ) until after the interview, didn't send out invites until last month. We got lucky as the last time I visited him it was right after the NOA2, so I was able to look at the venues with him. Notified family members/friends of the tentative date and when I would notify them that its official, to book airline tickets or travel plans. Both the church and reception place said we would not have to eat our deposit if the date got changed, as long as we rescheduled with them for a later available date.

The downside to all of this, is that in my situation it added to the wait of seeing of fiance. Since K-1 is one time entry only I could not just visit him after May 27th. I won't see him until mid-Sept. It will be the longest we have gone without seeing each other, 6 months, but it will be so worth it in the end.

Anyways, hope this helps!!

[ready4ONE 5,400]

You can drive yourself crazy, and let USCIS destroy the best laid plans for that dream wedding by trying to plan it during the K-1 process. At any point you may believe you are close and it could end in delay.

Save yourself a lot of pain, suffering, and the potential loss of deposits. When your fiance arrives, have a civil ceremony at the local court house, thus satisfying the getting married portion of your visa.

Then and only then, plan that dream wedding with the perfect place, and perfect ceremony. If you can't bring yourself to having an initial civil ceremony then do everything in your power to make your dream wedding plans as flexible as possible!

Good luck!

[Gary and Alla 3,696]

We just filed our I-129F and assume that we will get a NOA2 sometime in December-January. Guessing that it will take another 8 weeks or so to get from that to the Interview at the Consulate and that everything goes smoothly would it be safe to set a date in March or April? We'd like to book a place to do our ceremony and reception and of course with that the sooner the better. What does everyone else do? Wait until the interview and then set up a wedding in a few weeks? If that's the case then I guess it means that we may not be able to book the place we want.

It is "safe" to set a wedding date when the visa is in her HAND. Before that date requires considerable risk on YOUR part and the USCIS or the consulate does not care about your plans, money invested oir anything else. There is too much that can happen in the process to make ANY plans before the visa is in your hand. If you do, be prepared to lose any money you have deposited or plane tickets you have purchased

[Michele R 0]

I elected to start planning the wedding early in the process. I carefully examined historical data and current time lines and tried to seek out a 90% confidence level before selecting a date. Then I moved forward, contrary to advice here, before approval. I understand the desire to plan - it was important to us that we have our legal and ceremonial wedding at the same time - with all of our family around us.

Trying to plan a wedding date is a double edged sword. Many people will mention delays, but what do you do if you have set out a conservative date of, say, October 11th - 9.5 months after you send in your I129f. What do you do if you have the visa more than 3 months before your wedding date? Are you going to move it up? (eek!) We didn't. I can tell you that for us a few months of self-imposed separation is a pain of it's own flavor, different from the unknown black hole of USCIS.

No one ever mentions that many vendors, perhaps your dream venue included, will allow you to change dates, with enough advance notice. Ask them. Make sure it's in your contract. And, as always, be willing to loose any deposit you put down. Treat it all as gambling - don't spend what you aren't willing to loose. We didn't release any of our family members to purchase air tickets until the visa was in hand, though one cousin who was following our case closely got them as soon as we got NOA2! Argh.

(Edit: OK, Danu did say it - while I was posting. )

You're an adult. Assess your own risks, and your own ability to absorb any losses if things don't go your way. Also, I would advise you to constantly re-assess your position as the process continues. If your NOA2 is later than expected, then you need to adjust your plans accordingly. Don't ever plan to "make up the difference". Define your trade offs, and determine which ones are the most important to you, and make your decisions based on your own priorities. I listed our priorities above, and our trade off was 3.5 further months apart even though we have the visa in hand.

Yep I did all that, planned it far in advance, Chris and I took the risk of planning it 12 months in advance, we booked our venue for August 21st this year (and sent our application last August), if you want to read my timeline below then you will totally understand that we had to heartbreakingly move it till August next year.However we are cheating, tickets to america are very pricey, so we have planned to get married when we eventually get a visa and then hold a formal ceremony August 14th next year. This might be an option you consider.

My advice, whilst Nik and Heather were very lucky and planned it well, you may just be the exception (like us or Sara) and if you don't have the ability to risk losing that sort of money (that the average person spends on a wedding) then I would suggest you wait until you at the very least have your NOA2 or your visa.

I echo what Mara says - I planned a wedding for late in the fall based on the USCIS reported processing times. Those have now slid and I am moving everything if I don't get the NOA2 by August 14 (which is HIGHLY unlikely at this point). While I check this site constantly - I have found the timeline data to be unreliable. First - it is only a small sample of the actual number of cases being processed. Second, it relies on members updating their timelines -which not everyone does. Third, even if there were more members and all the members updated their timelines, it is impossible to predict when the USCIS will make arbitrary action - as they recently did at the VSC where they decided to stop going forward in procssing, clean up their back-log, and assign officers to other types of visas. It is also impossible to know if your case will be the next nightmare. I am now waiting for the visa to plan when the wedding will be.

[Philosykos 0]

I echo what Mara says - I planned a wedding for late in the fall based on the USCIS reported processing times. Those have now slid and I am moving everything if I don't get the NOA2 by August 14 (which is HIGHLY unlikely at this point). While I check this site constantly - I have found the timeline data to be unreliable. First - it is only a small sample of the actual number of cases being processed. Second, it relies on members updating their timelines -which not everyone does. Third, even if there were more members and all the members updated their timelines, it is impossible to predict when the USCIS will make arbitrary action - as they recently did at the VSC where they decided to stop going forward in procssing, clean up their back-log, and assign officers to other types of visas. It is also impossible to know if your case will be the next nightmare. I am now waiting for the visa to plan when the wedding will be.

Just to point out that planning a wedding for November when you filed in April is not based on USCIS processing times, which are six months (or right now more, I guess) just for the NOA2. Then you have to allow at least two months for the NVC/consulate stage (even if things at the consulate can go faster, like in our case). Based on that timeline, you could expect to have your visa in December.

Also, the timelines here at VJ are actually the most reliable prediction that you can get, even if they fluctuate, which is why it's important to leave some leeway when planning. People not updating their timelines doesn't make for more optimistic estimates, but rather tends to delay the projected approval dates, because seemingly unapproved cases figure into the calculations.

When planning a wedding before the visa is in hand, one should definitely estimate very conservatively. If one can afford risking a certain financial loss, I think one doesn't necessarily have to take into account the relatively small chance of being one of those where things go awfully wrong, but it is certainly not wise to assume the best case scenario either. We planned for nine months from filing to wedding. In June, we were afraid we might have to reschedule, but now it looks like I will be in the US nearly two months before the wedding.

Overall, I would say don't plan anything that cannot be rescheduled (such as plane tickets), because it just adds to the stress of waiting.

Edited July 23, 2009 by Philosykos

[Vegas Dolly 0]

Take one step at a time........

wait to get visa safely in your possession!!!