Fiance immigrating to States - marriage question

[elninost0rm 12]

Hi everyone. I will make this relatively quick.

My fiancé is a Canadian citizen and she will be immigrating to the States. Her parents are very traditional and would like a Catholic wedding in a Canadian church. We were planning on doing the spousal visa route, but we would *love* to do the K-1 route ONLY if we could get married in Canada after the visa is approved. As I understand it, she has 90 days to get married in the States after the visa is approved. Leaving for any reason is considered abandoning the application. That said, leaving to get married in her home country strikes me as one hell of a reason to temporarily go back to her country.

I figure this has to happen a lot (one half of family wanting a wedding to be in the native country). We would like to avoid the spousal route if possible because you cannot apply until the wedding takes place (and it is scheduled for August 17th in Canada). That's another 8 months of potential processing time that are wasted. If we could do the K-1 route and "time" the application to be within a reasonable approval window, that would be much better so long as we could do it in Canada, which is to say that the wedding date would fall within the 90 day window.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Like I've said, it has to be common, but most people probably don't have rigid parents that demand a religious, scheduled wedding. They probably do the spousal route and just get married by a JP as soon as possible.

Thanks.

[hikergirl 277]

Hi everyone. I will make this relatively quick.

My fiancé is a Canadian citizen and she will be immigrating to the States. Her parents are very traditional and would like a Catholic wedding in a Canadian church. We were planning on doing the spousal visa route, but we would *love* to do the K-1 route ONLY if we could get married in Canada after the visa is approved. As I understand it, she has 90 days to get married in the States after the visa is approved. Leaving for any reason is considered abandoning the application. That said, leaving to get married in her home country strikes me as one hell of a reason to temporarily go back to her country.

I figure this has to happen a lot (one half of family wanting a wedding to be in the native country). We would like to avoid the spousal route if possible because you cannot apply until the wedding takes place (and it is scheduled for August 17th in Canada). That's another 8 months of potential processing time that are wasted. If we could do the K-1 route and "time" the application to be within a reasonable approval window, that would be much better so long as we could do it in Canada, which is to say that the wedding date would fall within the 90 day window.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Like I've said, it has to be common, but most people probably don't have rigid parents that demand a religious, scheduled wedding. They probably do the spousal route and just get married by a JP as soon as possible.

Thanks.

As a condition of the K-1 Visa you must be married in the US within 90 days of entry. You then file for AoS and EAD and AP. Once AP is granted then the beneficiary can travel.

Yes, a lot of people have rigid family rules with regards to weddings and those people file for CR-1s after the wedding.

That’s the way it works. The only way to get married in Canada is to do the CR-1 route unless you did the JP thing and then got married in a church service in Canada later. But your timelines are tight as it is.

Edited December 25, 2012 by hikergirl

[Enigma11561 336]

After your fourth or fifth marriage you pretty much tell the family to take a hike and just do it your way. A number of people will do it the first time around. Just remember this is YOUR day. You do not want to alienate family but they need to be considerate of all that is going on as well. And yeah, with a K1 you gotta get married in the US. No way around that.

And it is NEVER a good idea to plan anything firm until the visa is in her hands. Dumb things happen and you so do not need that stress on top of everything else.

Edited December 25, 2012 by Enigma11561

[Jarrod&Vicky 17]

I arrived to the US less than two weeks ago through a K1 Visa and got married last Friday (courthouse). We have a Catholic wedding and reception planned for April 27th, back at my home country, Argentina. In order to be able to leave the US for our religious wedding, we are sending the AOS papers tomorrow together with the AP request, which shouldn't take more than 90 days (The AP/EAD combo card I mean).

After doing a lot of research, this is for us, the best way to go about it.

You have 90 days to get married IN THE US after entering using the K1 (we did it right away), then file for AOS with the advance parole, and approx. 90 days later you can leave back to Canada in your case and have the Catholic ceremony there.

It worked great for us, hope it does for you too!

[Cathi 5,630]

The K-1 allows ONLY for marriage in the US. End of story.

[amykathleen2005 441]

The K-1 visa is to get married in the US (and then adjust) that is the whole point of it. If you are not going to be marrying in the United States you need to marry first and then apply for a CR1.

[belinda63 2,990]

If you get married in Canada how is she going to use a FIANCE visa as she will already be married?

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

As others have said, you cannot do that. If she enters with a K-1, you must marry within 90 days IN the US. Go and get married in Canada and then file for the CR-1. It will be cheaper than a K-1 + adjustment of status and she will be able to work and travel freely because she will get permanent resident status as soon as she enters the US with the spousal visa.

[Pitaya 2,577]

As others have said, you cannot do that. If she enters with a K-1, you must marry within 90 days IN the US. Go and get married in Canada and then file for the CR-1. It will be cheaper than a K-1 + adjustment of status and she will be able to work and travel freely because she will get permanent resident status as soon as she enters the US with the spousal visa.