A non-legal wedding before the interview

[Abishek and Sonya 0]

We applied in August '12 and want to throw a celebration party to about 700 people (cause they wont be able to come to the US). The guests have already been invited.

My interview should be coming up in February. Judging from past responses here on VJ, people have advised not to include any pictures of said ceremony, and avoid talking about it at all but if they ask me "Did you have a non-legal ceremony?" then I promptly say "yes i did". I think they would ask that to any interviewee right?

"how did you meet?"

"when"

"did you get engaged?"

"where was the ceremony?"

Standard questions.

I want to know from all you third-worlder non-Christian beneficiaries if you have sucessfully (or unsuccessfully) done anything like this.

Thank you for your constructive criticisms.

Wishing everyone get together with the love of their life as SOOOOOOON as possible

[Penguin_ie 6,005]

Nothing wrong with a celebration party, just make sure it is clearly not a wedding- don't wear traditional wedding dress, don;t put "celebration of our marriage" or similar on the invites in case the consulate gets hold of one or interviews guests and neighbours etc.

There are some people who have done this (though maybe not with 700 guests) and it was not a problem, because large engagement ceremonies are a tradition in their culture. But there are also some that have done this and they were denied for being "traditionally married"- ie they were too married for the K1, but not married enough for the CR-1.

[NigeriaorBust 4,096]

Third world countries frequently get AP and they sometimes send out field investigators to check out things. IF the ask a neighbor if they know about you as a couple and they say anything about attending your wedding ceramony your visa will be denied. It has happened may times in Nigeria. The safer route is to plan a trip home AFTER your US wedding ( and green card in hand) and have the party then.

Edited December 21, 2012 by NigeriaorBust