CHURCH WEDDING

[oscarlore511 0]

My husband and I already went through the K1 process and are awaiting approval for adjustment of status. I have a friend that filed for her fiance after seeing how easily we were approved. The only problem is, she jumped ahead of herself and got married by the church before finishing the K1 process. My question is, Will being married by the church in Mexico affect her chances of being approved when they go to the Juarez consulate for their interview? Should she ask her fiance/husband not to mention their church wedding to the consul?

Edited April 20, 2010 by oscarlore511

[Nik+Heather 121]

Is a church wedding considered to be a legal wedding in Mexico? Or in order to be married do you also need to do additional government paperwork? If the former, yes, it is an issue. If the latter, it is still a potential issue because the photos can be "misunderstood", wedding rings at POE can be "misunderstood", calling eachother 'husband/wife' can be "misunderstood", and saying you got married on a date before entry at the AOS interview could be "misunderstood".

Does that make sense?

[wilfinance 0]

I am almost positive a church wedding in Mexico is as binding as a civil ceremony. I know a church wedding in the US is a legal wedding. At some point they may have to provide proof from the courthouse that neither one has been issued a marriage license. For me the risk is to great, if they get caught they should expect to grow old apart. They should switch to a K3, I think it is, spousal visa.

[K and L 27]

According to Mexico Law (which may not be an accurate website for law in Mexico, given it IS in English and all), only civil weddings are legally binding. So, like in the US, there's a licensing/certification process that you must go through to legally get married. If they didn't get a license, they aren't civilly married, and they are good to go.

If the priest insisted on a governmental license, they're out of luck: restart the visa process as a spousal visa, or they need to get a quick divorce.

ETA: wilfinance, church ceremonies without a license are NOT legally binding in the US.

Edited April 21, 2010 by K and L

[Lia792 5]

Mexico has a strict separation of Church and State. (For those who are curious in terms of history, some important figures might be Benito Juarez and Plutarco Calles, and the Cristero Revolution.) A religious wedding has no civil (legal) value, which is why everyone has 2 separate ceremonies, usually with the "boda civil" civil wedding before the boda religiosa. However, it would not be that intelligent to share those photos with the govt or address each other in letters or in the interview as "my husband" or "my wife," because they would be setting themselves up for a denial or RFE (when technically they are not legally married in any country.) They should never lie, especially if they are asked about it, but I definitely wouldn't go out of my way to confuse the situation more. As long as they have not done a ceremony with a judge, or any sort of paperwork at the Registro Civil to get married, I don't see why they would be considered married. Double check that they didn't do any sort of paperwork at the Registro. If they did have a legal wedding too, then they do have a problem and do need to cancel their visa and start a CR-1, but if it was just the boda religiosa, it should have no civil value.

In the US, however, religious ceremonies can have a legal value as long as they have a marriage license, or actually i don't know all the details since I didn't get married in the US, I do know that one can have just one ceremony in the US while Mexico always has 2 and 2 different sets of paperwork and certificates.

[K and L 27]

You can have one ceremony in the US if you have a valid marriage license and an authorized officiate.

[Lia792 5]

LOL thanks for clarifying; I knew it was something like that but my head has been swimming for the past month with all the paperwork involved in getting married here in Mexico and now with the visa. To the OP: Congrats on the wedding and I hope everything works out for your friend. I'm definitely starting to think K-1 is the way to go in Mexico.

[oscarlore511 0]

Thanks for your help everyone!