Religious marriage after court marriage?

[zakaluka 0]

Hello everyone,

I have a questions about events after the K-1 visa is issued. We just applied for the visa but want to start preparing for things.

My fiance is from India and her family is very religious. They want to do a traditional Indian wedding. Now, I know that such a thing is quite possible in the US. However, it is prohibitively expensive for her entire family to fly here - not to mention that none of her grandparents, friends and extended family will be able to make the trip. After my fiance comes here on the K-1 visa and we get married (just a legal, court marriage), we will file for her AP.

So, my question is this: When she is approved (for AP) and we take a trip back to India, is it okay to perform the religious rites there? Or will that get us in trouble because the rites could be interpreted as a marriage? Obviously, we don't intend to register the marriage in India, since we will already be married. We would only go through with the religious ceremonies.

Any information anyone can provide is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

zak.

[TBoneTX 48,795]

Rest easy -- once you're married (in the U.S.), you're married. Just be sure to do so within the 90 days of the beneficiary's entry. Rites or ceremonies that you participate in afterwards are purely up to you; in fact, that's what many of us did. I married Mrs. T-B. in a Justice of the Peace's office on Hallowe'en and we did a bigger ceremony on Pearl Harbor Day (!).

[Penguin_ie 6,003]

You are doing it the right way- once you are legally married in the USA, even in a quicky court marriage, you are legally married and can go ahead and do the religious ceremony in India no problem.

It would be risky to do it the other way around- do religious ceremony in India before using the K1 to come to the USA.