CR1 Visa Interview: Legal Marriage date vs actual ceremony

[vkchetty 0]

Hi,

I am a Naturalized US Citizen (born Indian) and my wife is an Indian. Our I-130 got approved and now we are in the Visa Interview stage.

This is an arranged marriage and I went to India in May 2012 and got married to her in a small wedding ceremony and got it legally registered so that I can get the paper work processed. I was there only for 10 days and came back to US 2 days after the registration. I started the application process as soon as I got back in June 2012. I went back to India in October 2012 for the formal full wedding ceremony with reception and all.

When i applied for the I-130, I sent the photos of the small wedding ceremony in the temple as proof of the wedding (only had 10-15 photos taken then). Now for the Oct wedding, we had professional photographers with full fledged wedding ceremonies etc.

When my wife goes for her Interview, which photos can she show? The new photos for Oct wedding are drastically different (since there are a lot more people and much professionally done) than the simple ceremony we had in May (taken with my camera). How can we explain the 2 dates for wedding ceremonies?

Please help!

Thanks.

[LilyR 7]

I think you should take photos from both ceremonies. Compile 3-4 on a page with a title/caption and the date of the first ceremony. Then also create photo pages from the elaborate ceremony. On the first photo page of this set, again give a title and caption to tell date and where. Many people have more than one ceremony.

My husband and I got married in a small civil ceremony at a courthouse. There was no one but us and the minister. I have pictures from that ceremony. We are also going to have a larger wedding and reception to celebrate with our friends and family. So I would title the picture pages:

#1: Civil Marriage Ceremony of Alex and Lily at XXX Courthouse on xx/xx/20xx

#2: "Traditional" Wedding Celebration with family and friends on xx/xx/20xx / Ceremony held at ABC Church / Reception held at XYZ BANQUET Hall

then I would include caption/info like: how many people attended; family of both of you?; friends of both of you?

[N-o-l-a 7,168]

I don't think it will be a huge problem, although I don't know if that is acceptable in India as it seems some consulates take local customs heavily into account.

We just got married in the courthouse and have yet to have our big ceremony.

[Penguin_ie 6,001]

I agree- take photos of both. It is fairly common to have a legal and a religious ceremony on different dates, nothing to worry about.