K1 and wedding timeline

[Tom&Deb 0]

We have recently received our NOA2 and currently waiting for interview. In view of this we have started preliminary wedding preparations. However in view of the requirement that we need to marry within 90 days on my entry to the U.S., this will not give us enough time to plan for a wedding ceremony & reception.

Can anyone advice how they did theirs? Did you do a civil ceremony and only do the official wedding ceremony later? If so, do u still need an officiant for the official ceremony?

Please help!

Thank you!

[VOL 425]

Once you do the civil ceremony and sign off on the marriage license you are good.

Las Vegas is a great place to get married, the county clerk office is open 365 days per year and I think the stay open till midnight....

[Tom&Deb 0]

Once you do the civil ceremony and sign off on the marriage license you are good.

Las Vegas is a great place to get married, the county clerk office is open 365 days per year and I think the stay open till midnight....

Thanks for the tip.. I understand that doing a civil ceremony and later having the actual wedding ceremony with families and friends are frowned upon?

It doesn't seem like a big thing where I'm from but just wanted to check if it's a bigno no in the U.S.

[VOL 425]

A lot of people just run up to Justice of Peace and get married and then do wedding later when they have time and/or money.

You can have a friend go online to many churches and get ordained as a minister, and have them do the actual wedding, I know most if not all states allow ordained ministered to perform weddings also. This can save some money and time.....

[Dashinka 23,189]

We had our wedding at my brother's house with a friend officiating and our friends and family present. We were able to put everything together before my fiancé arrived since she did not come over for 5 months after her visa was in hand. So it really depends on your expected travel plans. If you are coming over immediately after receiving the visa, then 90 days is a stretch, but it is doable unless you are looking for a church and hall. Otherwise, do a JoP, or civil ceremony then have the party as soon as you can arrange it afterward. Therefore you will meet the 90 day requirement, and you can always explain photos from the later party during the AOS process as being necessary for timing.

Good Luck!

[Chalandrae 29]

My ceremony will be on September 4th. My mother in law would not accept the civil ceremony at all, so she did most the planning for us. It was still a pain as we refused to make any commitments or send invitations until we were approved.

Civil ceremony is much easier at first, it also doesn't cost as much. Plus you don't have to worry about fitting all the preparation in a timefrsme.

[Ash.1101 1,755]

After the visa is in the passport and in the hands of the fiance, they can come any time within six months from the date of their medical. (NOT the date of the issued visa, there have been people who got their medical VERY early, and only had a month to come into the states after the visa was issued). ONCE you enter, you have 90 days to get married. But in reality, you have six months from the time of medical to enter and THEN 90 more days to get married once you enter.

With that said, My fiance's interview will most likely be in August or early september. Even if he's approved and has his passport ready to go in September, we're not planning to get married until later November.

His Medical would most likely be in august as well, so that would mean he would have say August-September to Feburary-March to come into the states and start the 90 days ticking. It's not -too- hard to plan out a wedding with a five month-six month leeway. People could totally come in on month five, but not get married for two months because you have 90 days to get married once you're in. So we could easily wait for him to come until January and then get married in March or early April. That would give us almost 8 months of advance on any venues or planning needed.

Most people don't actually wait though, they usually come in within the same months the visa's approved or shortly after which then only gives them three months max, and most people also get married within the first couple of weeks that they enter to start the AOS process faster. It depends on how important a larger more planned wedding is at the end of the day. It is doable, but a lot of people don't see past the "OMG WE CAN FINALLY DO IT" and the "WE NEED TO DO IT ASAP". Unless your medical was signifigantly earlier than your interview and/or you had kick backs or a 221g, you have plenty of time as long as you make it a priority.

I've priced out places, cakes, dresses and checked for places with less strenuous time frames (some require three months advance notice or more), so when he does have the approved visa in hand, I'll be going out and reserving and purchasing everything, literally have all of the money available and just knock all of it out in a week. I have fall backs planned, I have the "ideal" situation planned, pretty much planned for every situation, a fast entry, a prolonged entry. All of that.

But I will NOT make 100% plans until then, no commitments. No invites, no nothing. I've seen to many people try to plan their wedding based off when they think they'll be able to do it, even people who thought it was a reasonable time frame, only to be stuck in AP for months or there be something wrong with the system, or simply they're just taking their sweet time to get the passport to them. People getting approved the same day yet one gets their passport back in seven days and the other waits a month and a half. There was a thread that came up yesterday that had their wedding planned in Sept of this year, and started the process March of last year, their papers got lost and they're still stuck in the NOA2 phase. The NVC never got their papers. It's reasons like that I'll never make solidified plans.



As for the civil marriage than larger marriage being frowned upon, I don't believe it is. All up to personally beliefs, but we were planning on doing that ourselves until we realized that we had time to plan and work something out.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Ash.1101

[CowBoE 429]

We did civil marriage by Justice of Peace, which was next door to the county office.

So we got married, and about 1 hour later, we got 3 certified marriage certificates,

and then received the original in the mail about 10 day later.

[Lelyze 49]

We had our civil marriage in Borough hall, and we got our original marriage certificate on the spot. It was only the two of us and a friend, who was a witness. We are planing big ceremony for friends and family next year. I believe that most of K-1 do the same thing. Planning everything in 90 days and doing AOS is really stressful, so we decided to do it this way.

[visaqueries 111]

We were married in our back yard. His visa was approved in February 2014 but didn't arrive in the US until May 2014, so I had some planning time. We had a small ceremony (75 people), used props from friends' weddings, I made some things too, and we ordered food from a Mediterranean place (and pizza for the less adventurous). I work in a school where tables and chairs for everyone was easy to come by. He arrived May 2, we married May 7, and we sent in the AOS paperwork by May 10 (received May 16).

[Pitaya 2,576]

We were married by a Seattle District Court judge at the Seattle Justice Center, afterwards we were chauffeured to the Seattle Space Needle restaurant where the five of us: the bride, groom, stepson, 2 friends (witnesses) enjoyed a delightful celebratory dinner. On the elevator up, we med a couple that now live in Arizona that had gotten married 50 years ago at the Space Needle, during the Seattle World's Fair. We all had a great time.

[yuna628 9,527]

We have recently received our NOA2 and currently waiting for interview. In view of this we have started preliminary wedding preparations. However in view of the requirement that we need to marry within 90 days on my entry to the U.S., this will not give us enough time to plan for a wedding ceremony & reception.

Can anyone advice how they did theirs? Did you do a civil ceremony and only do the official wedding ceremony later? If so, do u still need an officiant for the official ceremony?

Please help!

Thank you!

We have planned our wedding since almost a year ago. If you research, willing to sacrifice, be creative, and get the small things done ahead of time, in some instances having a normal wedding (albeit probably small) is certainly doable. Planning is something that should be done ahead of time, however booking venues can be done after the visa is in hand if you are overly concerned. Just because you have the visa, doesn't mean you need to use it the next day.

[NikLR 13,220]

Thanks for the tip.. I understand that doing a civil ceremony and later having the actual wedding ceremony with families and friends are frowned upon?

It doesn't seem like a big thing where I'm from but just wanted to check if it's a bigno no in the U.S.

As stated, you have 6 months to activate the visa from the medical date (occasionally the interview date) and then 90 days to marry within the USA. If you want a large wedding, I suggest using up all of that time. I had a small wedding and managed to get it together in less than 3 months and it wasnt a civil ceremony.

But you can certainly do the two ceremony route. The second doesnt need an official officiant.

Edited July 11, 2015 by NLR

[beccajayne93 17]

I was contemplating just doing a civil ceremony and then having a reception/part some time next year, but I was confused as to what my anniversary date! To those of you deciding to do this - would you celebrate your anniversary date when you had the civil ceremony?

[NikLR 13,220]

idea - have the reception on the 1 year anniversary of the civil ceremony?