Sticky K1 situation

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

Ours was recognized as legal by dowery paid

 

and yes, you can reapply but why not get a marriage certificate ASAP, cancel the K1 and start the new CR1   / waiting for a denial and AP and case to come back to US is wasting a lot of time

Edited December 7, 2017 by adil-rafa

[geowrian 22,335]

Another (likely) "too married" denial from within the past couple hours:

At the same time, they don't have any paperwork making the marriage recognized that would qualify for a spousal visa.

 

 

3 minutes ago, MrCIA said:

Thank you all for the replies. Many have same mindset as me not seeing this as marriage however, the reality is the consulate will.

 

Question on my mind is how to a avoid the misunderstanding? I'm researching the vetting process and understand we will be walking a fine line: Walking this line will not include any fraud as I would not risk a perma ban. 

- No mention of ceremony (obviously)

- No mention of my family traveling to meet beneficiary's family/ ceremony

- Social media accounts to be deleted/ sterilized to the greatest extent possible

- Beneficiary to be coached on how to answer common interview questions in a truthful but general fashion.

First, I would just make absolutely sure that said ceremony is not an actual marriage in the country. If it is, then if they ever find out about it, any immigration benefits obtained could be revoked (even US citizenship years from now). This is true whether or not you view it as an actual marriage or not.

 

Second, assuming it's not actually an official marriage, banking on them not finding out is risky. They could choose to do a field investigation. They could require a DS-5535, in which the suddenly-deleted/sterilized accounts mid-process will stick out like a sore thumb...or at least raise more questions that are likely to require explaining what happened.

 

Having an idea of the types of interview questions that will be asked and being ready to answer them is good, but "coaching" also sticks out like a sore thumb. A visa applicant's strongest weapon - or weakest vulnerability - is their credibility. COs are trained and quite experienced in picking up on answers that are rehearsed, and tend to result in additional probing.

[Mollie09 1,543]

20 minutes ago, MrCIA said:

 

I don't know about that. I think steps can be taken to reduce the risk of denial. Need a better understanding of what those steps might include.

Trying to hide it from the consulate is not a good idea, is all I will say.

[Lemonslice 4,555]

They call family and neighbours, that's how they learn about the info... Are such and such married - oh yeah, wedding was beautiful :-|

[EandH0904 1,184]

43 minutes ago, MrCIA said:

 

- No mention of my family traveling to meet beneficiary's family/ ceremony

 

I actually think it's a great asset that your family traveled to meet the beneficiary's family. Can you swing this as an engagement party/ceremony?

[Lemonslice 4,555]

5 minutes ago, EandH0904 said:

Can you swing this as an engagement party/ceremony?

... It was a wedding. Why lie and swing things?

[NoProblem 69]

22 minutes ago, Lemonslice said:

They call family and neighbours, that's how they learn about the info... Are such and such married - oh yeah, wedding was beautiful :-|

This is after they are in doubt at the interview and during Administrative processing.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

 You have posted a lot here , a site that is monitored by immigration ( and has been brought up in many interviews by the officer )  about your deleting and coaching and that you know the locals would see you as married.   I think you are looking at having to return and marry and file a CR1. Your choice , do it now and shorten the end date or wait and do it later. 

[MrCIA 0]

43 minutes ago, Lemonslice said:

They call family and neighbours, that's how they learn about the info... Are such and such married - oh yeah, wedding was beautiful :-|

 

I'm a little surprised they would go to that length of inquiry without cause. This is the lesser end of the spectrum. A fraudulent love-less marriage vs. "hey we're a bona-fide couple who had a ceremony".

 

Under what conditions/ frequency does this really happen?

[BuiQuang 95]

12 minutes ago, MrCIA said:

 

I'm a little surprised they would go to that length of inquiry without cause. This is the lesser end of the spectrum. A fraudulent love-less marriage vs. "hey we're a bona-fide couple who had a ceremony".

 

Under what conditions/ frequency does this really happen?

the lesser end of what?  some immigration laws okay to break becuz you think not important?

 

no one know what conditions / frequency.  you take ur chances with being caught for fraud.  this is all on you whether to take chance or not.  if you lose, it's only your fault.  not the law's fault.

 

people tell u to be honest, but u want to hide this.  your life, your risk.

[agrabs 237]

12 minutes ago, MrCIA said:

 

I'm a little surprised they would go to that length of inquiry without cause. This is the lesser end of the spectrum. A fraudulent love-less marriage vs. "hey we're a bona-fide couple who had a ceremony".

 

Under what conditions/ frequency does this really happen?

The "too married for K1 and not married enough for Cr1" actually comes up quite a bit if you follow this site for any length of time.   K1 is only the first step in a very long process.  You will need to present your evidence again for AOS and again for ROC  and it will be looked at by a different person each time, and at some point, they are bound to figure it out which is going to cause you a lot bigger problem later on than if you just take care of it now. 

[BuiQuang 95]

in ur first post, u ask for suggestions on how to get her here asap without delay.

 

u given advice to be honest.  u don't care.  u want to know frequency how often people get caught.

 

is committing fraud is a good idea?  no. no. no.

 

so given advice, u still don't care.  

 

if things get f up becuz u try to hide this, then ur fault for delays

[Californiansunset 332]

1 hour ago, MrCIA said:

 

I don't know about that. I think steps can be taken to reduce the risk of denial. Need a better understanding of what those steps might include.

Mentioning where the beneficiary is from would help to better understand what you might be dealing with so people on here can actually give you advices...

[Illiria 980]

At AOS interview from a k1 visa they questioned if we were already married before we applied for the k1 because of a photo of us at someone else’s wedding, I ended up having to tell her that we could get them the couples wedding certificate to show my husband had been a witness not the groom just to stop her repeated questions. 

 

You have have nothing to show it wasn’t a wedding but nothing to show it was hence the too married for a k1 but not married enough for a cr1. 

 

Go back, get paper married so you can have a marriage cert, and then file for the cr1

Edited December 7, 2017 by Illiria
Clarity

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

     They will look most closely when it comes to applying for citizenship.  Expect countries to increase the amount of data they share with each other in the future. If at that point they find that she came on a K1 when they "determine" you were married expect for citizenship to be denied and her green card to be revoked. Hope you enjoy life wherever she is from .  You may want to take the short path and buy property there now. .