Scheduled Wedding before receiving K1 Visa

[distressedbride 0]

Thank you for all your reply's.

We are still sorting out all our options. As it stands, we might make it.

I think the most frustrating part of all is that all the government officials i speak to have differing opinions.

Incase you have a similar situation this is what i found:

It is not suggested to visit (ie come for a wedding/party and leave), but it is not technically wrong.

I'll get back to you on the vendors.

Yes the congressional office can be of service to you, by basically calling the NVC on your behalf. As well as looking up your case in their government computers. Their name carries more weight than yours.

If you get a request for more information, its essentially game over for all your plans, as all timelines are now void.

[sib 7]

This is what I would do:

I would try to contact the embassy, tell them about your dilemma and that unfortunately were misinformed from USCIS about the time it will take and that you already made all the plans for the wedding and that you understand if they can't help you but you really appreciate any help they can give!

Ask them whether there is anything from there side they can do to help. I was researching the timelines and it looks like you have 2-3 month after NOA2 until interview is scheduled. If you can reduce that time, you might be able to make it!

Maybe they can already reserve a spot for an interview?

Get all the forms ready he will need to bring to the interview! Packet 3, packet 4 are downloadable.

Get the medical set up, maybe you can do that in advance, so there is no wait time for that.

Get all the papers he needs for the interview (police certificate, new letter of intent from you, affidavit of support with documents (I-134 it is called I think (long time ago!)).

Read the review of the embassy!

Hopefully you will get your NOA2 soon. Then call NVC and see whether there is anything possible from their side to speed it up. You always can ask!

Also get in touch with your vendors and your guests and try to move the wedding further out. Depending on the answers you get, you might need to be creative.

I don't think it will be a problem for your fiance to come to visit, even shortly before the interview. My husband travelled with me to US after the apprived interview (we were finalizing our wedding plans and the celebration!), the consulate postponed the issuance of the visa until we were back in Germany and they acutally scheduled the interview to a date I asked for. A lot of the consulates are willing to work with you.

Try!

Wishing you luck and keep us informed!

Sib

[Therealworld 90]

I re point the mistake because in life you always educate yourself on something before acting on it. This is why I made the statement in which I made. It is like saying would you buy a car when you dont have a license to drive and not sure you are going to get it. This is a process that you have got to study prior to going forward with it. If you dont you will make mistakes that will cost you in the end. When it comes to a wedding they will not give refunds. If you cancel you will mearly be at a lost. With this process you cannot jump the gun. There are enough timelines posted on here just to get an idea of reality. Look at how long some cases may take. Regardless of what USCIS or NVC says it comes down to the interview and them saying approved! If she had taken the time to read some of these posts she would have realized it. All she can do is speak with the vendors and explain the situation and try to ask for another date much further out hoping that her fiance will be here by then.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

I re point the mistake because in life you always educate yourself on something before acting on it. This is why I made the statement in which I made. It is like saying would you buy a car when you dont have a license to drive and not sure you are going to get it. This is a process that you have got to study prior to going forward with it. If you dont you will make mistakes that will cost you in the end. When it comes to a wedding they will not give refunds. If you cancel you will mearly be at a lost. With this process you cannot jump the gun. There are enough timelines posted on here just to get an idea of reality. Look at how long some cases may take. Regardless of what USCIS or NVC says it comes down to the interview and them saying approved! If she had taken the time to read some of these posts she would have realized it. All she can do is speak with the vendors and explain the situation and try to ask for another date much further out hoping that her fiance will be here by then.

They attempted to educate themselves and got wrong information. People can't change the past, only what they can do in the future, and the OP is attempting to fix her mistake. No need to tell her what she should have done, in my opinion.

[Tinchen_ 21]

hi distressedbride.. i cant really help you with the embassy or your visa but i can give you some tips with your vendors. im event manager and worked for years for catering businesses who rent out venues. for the vendor it shouldnt be a problem at all to rebook your scheduled wedding date. august is the busiest wedding month of the year , so they easy can find someone who still wants to book on your day. so they make double amount of money. more likely they want to reschedule ur wedding on a week day and not a weekend , and also push it make to sept or oct. not as many weddings and they still can make some money of it. you might have to pay some fees for it.but you still so far ahead so they venue didnt really booked anything yet. no menue or food ordered yet, same with flowers and staff so on and on. it all gets ordered and ready 14-7 days prior to your wedding day. if you book everything over your venue lets say as a package then its even easier to rebook it. because its then the venues responsibility to do so. if you just booked the venue and lets say the dj, photograph, flowers separate its going to be a bit more harder to find another day they all free. easiest would be to pikc a week day like a Thursday or so. mostly everyone is free on those days. you also can cancel and pay your deposit fee, but i doubt your venue wants to loose you as a client and would be more likely to work with you. be flexible with your new date and dont let them talk to you that they can charge you double amount or so. you signed a contract already right?? so in the contract you have all your cancel or reschedule fees.

i hope it all works out for you and your fiance gets his visa soon and you two can get married and have a beautiful wedding

[LeftCoastLady 441]

Thank you for all your reply's.

We are still sorting out all our options. As it stands, we might make it.

I think the most frustrating part of all is that all the government officials i speak to have differing opinions.

Incase you have a similar situation this is what i found:

It is not suggested to visit (ie come for a wedding/party and leave), but it is not technically wrong.

I'll get back to you on the vendors.

Yes the congressional office can be of service to you, by basically calling the NVC on your behalf. As well as looking up your case in their government computers. Their name carries more weight than yours.

If you get a request for more information, its essentially game over for all your plans, as all timelines are now void.

That may be true for some, but I wouldn't say that would happen to everyone who reaches out to their congressperson. At best, their intervention helps push things forward and you get the interview faster, at worse, you're just added to their mailing list since it's an election year and they want your vote and financial contribution.

Still, the best advice for anyone else going through this journey is to not make confirmed plans until that visa is in their possession. There are only few parts of this journey that are in the hands of the petitioner and beneficiary, for the rest, you're depending on someone else to help you out.

[distressedbride 0]

Hello all

So half of the wedding has agreed to move. If i can convince the other half, the question is, when to move it to? We seem to be so close, so I thought end of october sounded nice. we do like halloween.

it's a bit too much to ask them to hold my deposit until an undetermined time, when we could plan it with 100% assurance. So I am guessing on when would be the next best date.

[LeftCoastLady 441]

Hello all

So half of the wedding has agreed to move. If i can convince the other half, the question is, when to move it to? We seem to be so close, so I thought end of october sounded nice. we do like halloween.

it's a bit too much to ask them to hold my deposit until an undetermined time, when we could plan it with 100% assurance. So I am guessing on when would be the next best date.

Any answer to the question "when to move it to?" would be an estimate/guess at best.

[N&S 32]

Sorry to hear about your situation - especially since you did try to do the research beforehand.

As someone earlier mentioned: Get your fiance to get all the forms reads (it takes a surprising amount of time - at least it did for me - to figure out all the random things they are asking, like "list all countries you visited the last 5 (10?) years, every trip to the US, which MM/DD/YYYY did he start school etc), get a copy of the police certificate and look at the immunization form and if necessary get any shots outstanding now while you are still waiting for NOA2.

Once you have NOA2, chase up your case number with the NVC, with that you can book your medical appointment and make friends with the people at DOS who can tell you when your case is logged in London, when your interview is scheduled etc - last year some people succeeded to move their interview date forward by a few weeks because of things like booked flights. I tried to stay on the ball, got lucky with my NOA2, too admittedly, but filed in March and visa in hand by 9th Sept. HOWEVER: Someone on another post mentioned that there was a memo about London cutting back on cases processed over the summer due to higher security needs because of the olympics. Maybe it would be worthwhile to try and call the extortion line (i.e. London US embassy) and check if that also affects K1 visas.

Best of luck!

[Boiler 43,393]

I would go very safe, if it is outside the 90 days then he can always delay entry for up to 6 months.

Edited May 16, 2012 by Boiler

[LeftCoastLady 441]

Sorry to hear about your situation - especially since you did try to do the research beforehand.

As someone earlier mentioned: Get your fiance to get all the forms reads (it takes a surprising amount of time - at least it did for me - to figure out all the random things they are asking, like "list all countries you visited the last 5 (10?) years, every trip to the US, which MM/DD/YYYY did he start school etc), get a copy of the police certificate and look at the immunization form and if necessary get any shots outstanding now while you are still waiting for NOA2.

Once you have NOA2, chase up your case number with the NVC, with that you can book your medical appointment and make friends with the people at DOS who can tell you when your case is logged in London, when your interview is scheduled etc - last year some people succeeded to move their interview date forward by a few weeks because of things like booked flights. I tried to stay on the ball, got lucky with my NOA2, too admittedly, but filed in March and visa in hand by 9th Sept. HOWEVER: Someone on another post mentioned that there was a memo about London cutting back on cases processed over the summer due to higher security needs because of the olympics. Maybe it would be worthwhile to try and call the extortion line (i.e. London US embassy) and check if that also affects K1 visas.

Best of luck!

You can read the memo here: http://london.usembassy.gov/visanews014.html

[Peter_Pan 661]

Sorry, this is absurd. I've postponed my wedding (was supposed to be in 5 weeks), so I don't see why someone should be allowed to cut corners because she didn't research it properly.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Sorry, this is absurd. I've postponed my wedding (was supposed to be in 5 weeks), so I don't see why someone should be allowed to cut corners because she didn't research it properly.

What? What part is absurd? What corners is she cutting? She's simply rearranging her plans because she has to.

The OP is talking about postponing their wedding.

Edited May 16, 2012 by Arya Snark

[Knope2012 10]

What? What part is absurd? What corners is she cutting? She's simply rearranging her plans because she has to.

The OP is talking about postponing their wedding.

Peter_Pan is referring to the original poster wanting USCIS to process the case faster so that the wedding wouldn't have to be moved. I think she's decided against that now and is going to move the date.

[Peter_Pan 661]

Expedite?