Wedding Plans (Cancel?)

[SzhMli 0]

Hi everyone. I just recently joined VJ and really appreciate all the help and knowledge that is provided on this site. I was hoping someone of you could give me some ideas about my situation. I am a naturalized US citizen who is trying to get my fiancée from Canada over here. I have submitted my I-129F packet to USCIS and just got notified it has been sent to VSC (which I'm not thrilled about, hearing their processing times).

Here is the problem: We have plans to get married August 24, 2013. Do you guys think it is even possible given the time constraints to get her K-1 visa and arrive in time or do you think we should just try to move the wedding to 2014? Please keep in mind that we have made deposits already for the venue, photographer, caterer, and DJ. I really just want to marry her as soon as possible so we can start our lives together but we're both losing sleep wondering if her K-1 visa will arrive in time. Any advice or suggestions are helpful!

[Penguin_ie 5,984]

August gives you 9+ months, which should be enough, but it;s not guaranteed. What you could do is talk to your vendors and see if they would let you move your deposit to a later date,

[StephAnn2012 50]

SzhMli - You need to remember the following:

1. You are constrained by a 90 day window, once your fiancee is in the US.

2. You are dealing with the slowest office of USCIS.

3. You don't know what problems, challenges or delays might alter the timing.

My advice is to - Get your deposits back so you can sleep at night - work solely on the issues that need to be worked on to get your fiancee here - go to a Justice of the Peace when your fiancee arrives - (every city has many of them) and get legally married to meet the requirements - while planning the best wedding in the world together.

This will take the pressure off of you - because it is a fact - you don't know when you can have that big wedding yet!

Good luck to you!

Stephen and Ann (together in God's timing)

[bigdog 376]

SzhMli - You need to remember the following:

1. You are constrained by a 90 day window, once your fiancee is in the US.

2. You are dealing with the slowest office of USCIS.

3. You don't know what problems, challenges or delays might alter the timing.

My advice is to - Get your deposits back so you can sleep at night - work solely on the issues that need to be worked on to get your fiancee here - go to a Justice of the Peace when your fiancee arrives - (every city has many of them) and get legally married to meet the requirements - while planning the best wedding in the world together.

This will take the pressure off of you - because it is a fact - you don't know when you can have that big wedding yet!

Good luck to you!

Stephen and Ann (together in God's timing)

[SzhMli 0]

Thanks for all your advice, everyone! @Penguin, we had originally wanted to marry June 15, 2013 and had switched it to August 24, 2013 hoping it was enough time. Given what everyone is saying, it may be wise to move it to 2014 and get married at a Justice of the Peace in the meantime. I guess there is no way to expedite the process or have it moved to the California Service Center, huh?

Edited November 8, 2012 by SzhMli

[Penguin_ie 5,984]

Not unless you have very good reasons for expedite, such as military deployment

[Pitaya 2,576]

SzhMli - You need to remember the following:

1. You are constrained by a 90 day window, once your fiancee is in the US.

2. You are dealing with the slowest office of USCIS.

3. You don't know what problems, challenges or delays might alter the timing.

My advice is to - Get your deposits back so you can sleep at night - work solely on the issues that need to be worked on to get your fiancee here - go to a Justice of the Peace when your fiancee arrives - (every city has many of them) and get legally married to meet the requirements - while planning the best wedding in the world together.

This will take the pressure off of you - because it is a fact - you don't know when you can have that big wedding yet!

Good luck to you!

Stephen and Ann (together in God's timing)

Agree!

[baron555 934]

Hi everyone. I just recently joined VJ and really appreciate all the help and knowledge that is provided on this site. I was hoping someone of you could give me some ideas about my situation. I am a naturalized US citizen who is trying to get my fiancée from Canada over here. I have submitted my I-129F packet to USCIS and just got notified it has been sent to VSC (which I'm not thrilled about, hearing their processing times).

Overall figure 9 months....so from this month, November, 2012, best bet would be July, 2013 to August, 2013.

Here is the problem: We have plans to get married August 24, 2013. Do you guys think it is even possible given the time constraints to get her K-1 visa and arrive in time or do you think we should just try to move the wedding to 2014?

Please keep in mind that we have made deposits already for the venue, photographer, caterer, and DJ.

No you keep in mind that you made all these deposits and may have to resked or cancel if you don't get the visa in time. It's you gamble alone.

I really just want to marry her as soon as possible so we can start our lives together but we're both losing sleep wondering if her K-1 visa will arrive in time. Any advice or suggestions are helpful!

Stop worrying or cancel all now.

[HeatDeath 430]

We sent in our I-129F in October 2008 for a wedding in September 2009. It ended up being plenty of time. Look at my timeline.

Interestingly, we were a little worried when our I-129F was approved in early January 2009. We were expecting it to take longer than that. But working backwards from the wedding date: you have to marry within 90 days of entry, so I had to enter no earlier than early June. You can enter up to 6 months after getting the visa, so I needed to receive the visa no earlier than early January. So everything ended up fine. As it happened, I didn't end up doing the consulate interview until the end of April.

Admittedly, it was a little risky for us to put some deposits down on vendors, but we figured it was ok that far ahead, and we got a significant discount from the venue for booking a 2009 wedding in calendar 2008, which mitigated some of the risk.

Your timeframe is a little more constrained than ours was, but not by much. Of course, anything can happen, and your mileage will vary based on how much risk to your deposits you feel comfortable with, but I think if your case goes normally, you should have plenty of time.

If you're literally losing sleep, however, then you are clearly not comfortable with your perceived amount of risk, and should take steps to either reduce the risk by getting your deposits back and/or pushing the date back, OR study and quantify the risks in detail so you gain confidence that the real risk level is in fact something you are comfortable with. There are few things scarier than an unquantified unknown risk.

Edited November 8, 2012 by HeatDeath

[reese1 68]

What about this option. If you can cross the border when ever you want as you are coming from Canada. Then why don't you go ahead with your plans for your wedding and depending on if you have your visa the wedding will be a symbolic one meaning you are just having the ceremony but it is not legal, and return to Canada to finish waiting. Then once you have your visa you can just go to the justice of the peace and make it legal. Just a suggestion.

[SamanthaL 45]

I can't see it being a problem seeing as that gives you nine months of waiting but you never know what could happen. I would move it just to be safe.

[mchizek 2]

Hi! I am in a similar situation, we submitted the paperwork on August 3, 2012, and plan to get married on August 3, 2013.

An option that you could consider if the visa isn't finished processing yet is having the wedding celebration and keep all of the venue bookings, but just having to hold off on the legal marriage until USCIS gets their heads out of their collective rear ends. As someone previously mentioned, you can just go to a justice of the peace for the legal marriage ceremony at another time. It's kind of a lame plan, but it's our backup plan.

I think it is absolutely inexcusable that USCIS cannot keep to a reasonably timed schedule to allow international couples to be comfortable making wedding plans according to their chosen schedule.

edit: and now I see that reese1 suggested the same thing. Anyway, good luck to you!

Edited November 8, 2012 by mchizek

[Enigma11561 336]

It is always advisable to plan nothing until the visa is in hand and she is here. You just never know what stupid something will happen and blow all time lines out the window. Because you have plans in Aug 2013, this is usually enough time for the venues to accept another party in place of yours and therefore refund all deposits. Do this if you can and relieve your stress. If you don't, and the time frames begin to creep on on you, your stress now will be small potatoes compared to then.

[JensJrny2Ray 367]

I think it is absolutely inexcusable that USCIS cannot keep to a reasonably timed schedule to allow international couples to be comfortable making wedding plans according to their chosen schedule.

The long waits are frustrating, but there is no guarantee that the application will be approved, also things might get held up by RFEs. I think it's reasonable to NOT plan a full blown wedding until you are approved.

[Sunnyland 639]

Hi everyone. I just recently joined VJ and really appreciate all the help and knowledge that is provided on this site. I was hoping someone of you could give me some ideas about my situation. I am a naturalized US citizen who is trying to get my fiancée from Canada over here. I have submitted my I-129F packet to USCIS and just got notified it has been sent to VSC (which I'm not thrilled about, hearing their processing times).

Here is the problem: We have plans to get married August 24, 2013. Do you guys think it is even possible given the time constraints to get her K-1 visa and arrive in time or do you think we should just try to move the wedding to 2014? Please keep in mind that we have made deposits already for the venue, photographer, caterer, and DJ. I really just want to marry her as soon as possible so we can start our lives together but we're both losing sleep wondering if her K-1 visa will arrive in time. Any advice or suggestions are helpful!

Like usually it's advised in this forum, it's never good to set a wedding date in advance as there is no way to know how long your k1 process will take. It's a risk you will take if you paid for things in advance without really knowing if you will be able to work with that deadline.

Try to see if you can get your deposits back or he they will not give you any trouble in moving the wedding to a later date.

Good luck in this new trip!

Edited November 8, 2012 by Chris & Isa