Thoughts on the 90 day ceremony deadline

[AustinTexMan 0]

Hey fellow VJ members. I am wanting to get some feedback on how others have or will be handling the 90 limit for the ceremony. My fiancee and I are considering having a very basic ceremony during the 90 time frame. We are then thinking of planning out a much bigger wedding since we would not be under a time frame restriction. Does anyone know if it is indeed legal to have 2 seperate ceremonies? Understandably my fiancee wants her family and close friends to be at our wedding. It would be hard to plan out all the details of a large wedding with visa and travel issues to consider in 90 days. I am just curious how others are going about planning for this.

[Inky 1,111]

You would be having 1 legal marriage, and then one large " vow renewal " can be exactly like a real wedding cept no legal aspect because you are already legally married to comply with the 90 days.

My husband and I are doing this, we had our court legal wedding with 2 family members. Then we are going to have a giant family wedding later on in Maine (diff state) which will be a vow renewal wedding with wedding dress, cake, pastor, photographer and all.

[iampatricias 17]

If you want more than 90 days to plan a big wedding for family, you could use the 6 months' validity of the visa to plan the wedding, then do the POE, and finalize everything in the 88 days after the POE, and get married on day 89 - that'd give you almost 9 months to plan

For us, we're planning a small-ish informal wedding the day of the POE, half an hour from my house in Canada It'll sort of double as a farewell party...

[matalie 1]

We were foolish enough to think our process could be finished in 9 months and planned a wedding, which got pushed back. Twice. We realized we couldn't plan a wedding in that time, as it was doubling as a family reunion and we had a lot of family flying in that needed enough notice, so once I got here we went down to city hall and had our legal wedding, sent in our AOS and started planning a commitment ceremony for the summer! Tons of time to plan and now all our families have enough notice to come!

[baron555 934]

Hey fellow VJ members. I am wanting to get some feedback on how others have or will be handling the 90 limit for the ceremony. My fiancee and I are considering having a very basic ceremony during the 90 time frame. We are then thinking of planning out a much bigger wedding since we would not be under a time frame restriction. Does anyone know if it is indeed legal to have 2 seperate ceremonies? Understandably my fiancee wants her family and close friends to be at our wedding. It would be hard to plan out all the details of a large wedding with visa and travel issues to consider in 90 days. I am just curious how others are going about planning for this.

We went the county courthouse and married there. The only witnesses were the judge and the three year old. That was all it took to get the certified marriage certificate that allowed us to AOS. Put your priorities in their proper place. Are you marrying for your family and friends' sake or for yours? You CAN always do something for them later.

We did and they love us just the same.

Edited March 28, 2011 by baron555

[villaspurs 65]

We did the legal ceremony a couple days after my husband arrived with just our immediate families (his parents made it over from the UK). Five months later, we had a big she-bang with all of my (really, really, really big) family and his family/friends from Australia, Scotland, and England. It was great.

One note for the OP: I notice that your fiancee is from Phils. If you look through the Tourist Visa section, people from the Philippines sometimes have difficulty getting tourist visas (or at least they seem to based on this section, particularly young, single women). If it's really important for your fiancee to have friends and family present, it might be better to plan for her to come here, have the legal ceremony, then--once she has AP--go back to her country for the big wedding.

[John+Lourdelie 28]

If you want more than 90 days to plan a big wedding for family, you could use the 6 months' validity of the visa to plan the wedding, then do the POE, and finalize everything in the 88 days after the POE, and get married on day 89 - that'd give you almost 9 months to plan

If your going to cut is that close, don't lose track of the time or miss count your days. That would really suck. :bonk:

John

[Sergi9 110]

We went the county courthouse and married there. The only witnesses were the judge and the three year old. That was all it took to get the certified marriage certificate that allowed us to AOS. Put your priorities in their proper place. Are you marrying for your family and friends' sake or for yours? You CAN always do something for them later.

We did and they love us just the same.

A message from the priority police?

[Tyeger87 10]

pending approval we are going to have a very small courthouse wedding with my family and a friend or two and then plan a big ceremony in the future.

you can renew your vows as many times as u like, there is not "limit" on how many ceremonies u can have

[torps 0]

What we did is immediately married One week after my wife entered the united states, Honolulu hawaii 2 years ago. That is our legal, official marriage. We will renew our vows in the philippines late 2011 or early 2012. Once you marry your fiancee in the united states, go to you philippine consulate and register your marriage in the philippines. The consulate will forward and take care of everything including her new passport with change of name. Your second would be considered a renewal of vows where ever you are. Hope this helps....

[torps 0]

by the way; when we got married it was me, my fiancee and her daughter. When we renew our vows, god know how many will be there as for family and friends in the philippines. good luck, I am sure you are happy.

[maggieb 4]

If you want more than 90 days to plan a big wedding for family, you could use the 6 months' validity of the visa to plan the wedding, then do the POE, and finalize everything in the 88 days after the POE, and get married on day 89 - that'd give you almost 9 months to plan

For us, we're planning a small-ish informal wedding the day of the POE, half an hour from my house in Canada It'll sort of double as a farewell party...

If your doing the K-1 Visa, having a wedding in Canada, then POE, then entering the United States......your going to have to start all over with the CR-1 Visa. You cannot do this. You have to POE, then enter the United States, and THEN get married, with in the 90 days. Not before. your going to commit fraud.

[slangofoil 50]

If your doing the K-1 Visa, having a wedding in Canada, then POE, then entering the United States......your going to have to start all over with the CR-1 Visa. You cannot do this. You have to POE, then enter the United States, and THEN get married, with in the 90 days. Not before. your going to commit fraud.

The poster's location is listed as Niagara. Take a look at where Niagara is on a map. I'm sure she meant she'll be over the border, half an hour from her Canadian home for the wedding.

To the OP, my husband and I got married a few days after he arrived, just the two of us at the courthouse. We're planning a big "wedding"/vow renewal for next year. I think most people do it that way.

[Jubi & Tony 3]

We are planning for Jubi to POE into Hawaii...I will fly out there and meet her. We will marry a few days after her arrival in a small civil wedding on the beach with maybe 2 other people attending. Then we will plan to have a Catholic church wedding in the philippines abt a year later. We figure we will be cleared to travel at that point. We are at the NVC stage now and can't make plans yet until she clears the physical. She had TB several years ago and is bringing her treatment records to the St Lukes physical and we know that the prior TB will show up as scars on the chest x-ray. So we don't know if they will require additional tests (delays) or accept the medical records of treatment as satisfactory. Trying to bring as much documentation to medical to help minimize any possible delay but that final decision is out of our hands.

[iampatricias 17]

The poster's location is listed as Niagara. Take a look at where Niagara is on a map. I'm sure she meant she'll be over the border, half an hour from her Canadian home for the wedding.

Hehe, yes indeed! Plus it means most of our guests will be within driving distance of the ceremony - something we definitely want to take advantage of!