Naive mistake: should I withdraw K1 application?

[l-h 91]

Hi. We filed our i-129f in January. This weekend I spent a good amount of time reading all the forums here and I noticed a topic that I had overlooked before, but that is now really concerning. 

 

We were planning to have a little (very un-official dinner) reception (his family is flying over from USA) this summer, before I moved to America and we got married there. As I was re-reading our declaration of relationship that I added to the i-129f packet, I noticed that i had written this down in the declaration. I phrased it "We are planning to have an unofficial wedding celebration in Estonia this summer and later we are planning to get married in Massachusetts."

 

I do not know how I made this mistake with an otherwise carefully written application and file. I know now that I should not have done this, reading all the other threads. Something (in my mind) very innocent and small can seem like a big red flag to someone else reading it on a K1 application. 

 

My question is: is there any point in waiting for our K1 maybe approval, or should we just withdraw asap and re-apply? or get married in Europe and apply for the CR-1?

 

Any help is very appreciated. I am currently shocked we made this mistake.

 

 

[Dashinka 23,230]

There are many threads here discussing this specific topic where the couple can look too married for a K1, but not married enough for a spousal visa due to “unofficial” ceremonies.  You may want to consider making it official and filing for a spousal visa which in general is a far superior visa.

 

Good Luck!

[Crazy Cat 39,206]

I'm not sure it will cause any problems.....However, in my opinion, the CR-1 is superior to the K-1.  The wait time time is not much longer, there is no waiting (or need) for EAD or AP, and no expensive AOS required........the immigrant receives both a SSN and Green Card within 2 or 3 weeks after entry into the US.  All in all, it is superior.

[Crazy Cat 39,206]

and another thing.......Some K-1 people have had issues with Social Security numbers, Drivers licenses, etc.......With a CR-1, the immigrant is immediately a legal permanent resident upon entry into the US....

 

Just food for thought.

[TNJ17 1,329]

Well, excuse the bluntness but that was just stupid. Do people not understand what the word fiancé means? You cannot be married. You have to be unmarried. Regardless of what you are doing, the first rule of K1 Visa is do not plan anything. They literally tell you this. There is no guarantee. And one of the main rules of a fiancé visa is you have to be free to marry. A wedding celebration makes you married under the eyes of immigration officers. Why would you risk it? Withdraw the K1 and deal with the consequences now. You will actually have to get court married now, go through the whole petition process again, you will not be able to cut in line, and it’s gonna take almost twice as long. 

[Chris Duffy 1,256]

7 minutes ago, TNJ17 said:

Well, excuse the bluntness but that was just stupid. Do people not understand what the word fiancé means? You cannot be married. You have to be unmarried. Regardless of what you are doing, the first rule of K1 Visa is do not plan anything. They literally tell you this. There is no guarantee. And one of the main rules of a fiancé visa is you have to be free to marry. A wedding celebration makes you married under the eyes of immigration officers. Why would you risk it? Withdraw the K1 and deal with the consequences now. You will actually have to get court married now, go through the whole petition process again, you will not be able to cut in line, and it’s gonna take almost twice as long. 

They are not married.

 

Go read it again.

[kris&me 572]

1 hour ago, missileman said:

and another thing.......Some K-1 people have had issues with Social Security numbers, Drivers licenses, etc.......With a CR-1, the immigrant is immediately a legal permanent resident upon entry into the US....

 

Just food for thought.

Totally agree CR1 is so much easier and K1 is more expensive 

wait time is now about the same / both over a year

BTW in  the US it is quite normal to have an engagement party and if you USC sees an RFE for your sttement,  he can refuke by using the celebration as engaement party 

if using K1 look at all the posts on here about how long it is taking to AOS after marriage and this cost

[payxibka 10,044]

32 minutes ago, TNJ17 said:

Well, excuse the bluntness but that was just stupid. Do people not understand what the word fiancé means? You cannot be married. You have to be unmarried. Regardless of what you are doing, the first rule of K1 Visa is do not plan anything. They literally tell you this. There is no guarantee. And one of the main rules of a fiancé visa is you have to be free to marry. A wedding celebration makes you married under the eyes of immigration officers. Why would you risk it? Withdraw the K1 and deal with the consequences now. You will actually have to get court married now, go through the whole petition process again, you will not be able to cut in line, and it’s gonna take almost twice as long. 

Excuse my bluntness.  The stupid thing is not to understand the facts in evidence.  You were a bit harsh..  They have not done anything unfortunate yet except maybe the inclusion of one sentence in the statement of intent

Edited February 25, 2018 by payxibka

[noraliz73 243]

I understand your wanting to celebrate your upcoming marriage.  You did nothing wrong.  A party in honor of your relationship in not a wedding.  I think that you would be fine for the K1 visa.  Keep the photos.  Make sure that when you go to the interview, you stress it was an engagement party or just how you explained it to us.  They really aren’t out to get you and to deny you unless you are lying.  I think many people overthink this because none of us wants to leave anything to chance.  I actually tried to get married in his country and was denied.  I told USCIS that we went on our honeymoon trip anyway because we’d paid for it.  I didn’t worry.  They don’t expect people sit in a corner with their hands folded.  You live life.  You should be fine for K1 or go for CR-1.  Nothing in life is guaranteed either way.  Good luck in your process.  I hope it is speedy and happy!

 

by the way, I was denied getting married in Egypt.  Not the K1 visa.  That is why we ended up applying for the K1.  My divorce papers were inadequate to their government.

Edited February 25, 2018 by noraliz73

[Illiria 980]

Personally I wouldn’t risk doing the unofficial wedding celebration. Are you portraying this to family as your wedding as they can’t make it, as us family are attending I would think it would be otherwise they would go to the actual wedding? Seems a long way to go just for a dinner.

 

At my adjustment of status interview (after we got the fiancée visa, I moved, and we married) they questioned if we had been married for a long time due to a photo of us at someone else’s wedding years before. I had to offer to obtain the marriage certificate with my husband as witness to show that it wasn’t our wedding. I wasn’t even wearing a wedding outfit in the photo, it was one of my work outfits so smart but definitely not formal wedding attire. 

 

So even if you had this unofficial wedding celebration after you get the fiancée visa it can come back to haunt you. 

 

If you do have a dinner don’t dress up for it, no wedding cake, no tuxes, no speeches, and make sure your attendees know not to refer to it as a marriage or wedding celebration. 

[noraliz73 243]

3 hours ago, liish said:

Hi. We filed our i-129f in January. This weekend I spent a good amount of time reading all the forums here and I noticed a topic that I had overlooked before, but that is now really concerning. 

 

We were planning to have a little (very un-official dinner) reception (his family is flying over from USA) this summer, before I moved to America and we got married there. As I was re-reading our declaration of relationship that I added to the i-129f packet, I noticed that i had written this down in the declaration. I phrased it "We are planning to have an unofficial wedding celebration in Estonia this summer and later we are planning to get married in Massachusetts."

 

I do not know how I made this mistake with an otherwise carefully written application and file. I know now that I should not have done this, reading all the other threads. Something (in my mind) very innocent and small can seem like a big red flag to someone else reading it on a K1 application. 

 

My question is: is there any point in waiting for our K1 maybe approval, or should we just withdraw asap and re-apply? or get married in Europe and apply for the CR-1?

 

Any help is very appreciated. I am currently shocked we made this mistake.

 

 

By the way, shout out—I’m from New Bedford.  I really wish I could move back to Massachusetts!  My older kids are in North Andover.  I want to have my wedding dinner at the Lebanese place in Norwood since my kids, ex and fiancé are all Middle Eastern.  My fiancé is so nice to let me have Arabic food just as he left that behind, lol.  We can go for lobster too.  Just not the same day!  I really think you will be fine. Not even an RFE.  But, the CR-1 does give a green card upon arrival.  Weigh your options carefully!  ❤️

[ThomasNC1988 762]

You have to take everything you read on Visa Journey with a grain of salt. When these cases come up where people are "too married" for K1 it's because they are from countries where they have traditional or tribal marriages that aren't officially recorded and the USC goes over and thinks they are just doing a thing and don't realize they could be legally married in this country. Having an engagement party in a country that has no such unofficial/offical marriages won't cause you a bit of trouble. Also wait time for k-1 is closer to 9 months than a year for most right now.

Edited February 26, 2018 by TBoneTX
offensive word removed

[mcfarljw 36]

I also initially started reading this website about half a year into process, saw one post about this "too married" thing and then as I searched for it started panicking cause I saw quite a few posts from rather outspoken users about it. The short answer is it can drastically vary based on country country, religion and type of ceremony.

 

My fiancé and I had an all out Chinese-style wedding ceremony with hundreds of guests (including a number from my family), a white dress and even banners in the background that said wedding in Chinese. I was really worried, but we talked to a few people and they said it wasn't an issue in China. We decided to be transparent about it in the interview and my fiancé even took a page of pictures from the wedding ceremony. She said they looked at them and asked if we had officially registered as married with the local office. She told them no it was unregistered and just a gesture for her family since they would be unable to attend the in the USA. It wasn't an issue and it wasn't questioned further.

 

You might want to check with the embassy, but I have found that they usually state it on the government website for the particular country in questions. For example if you read through the requirements in the Philippines is states that a Catholic religious ceremony may be performed even without a civil ceremony and the marriage will still be considered legal.

 

https://ee.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/local-resources-of-u-s-citizens/marriage/

https://ph.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/local-resources-of-u-s-citizens/getting-married/

 

4 hours ago, missileman said:

I'm not sure it will cause any problems.....However, in my opinion, the CR-1 is superior to the K-1.  The wait time time is not much longer, there is no waiting (or need) for EAD or AP, and no expensive AOS required........the immigrant receives both a SSN and Green Card within 2 or 3 weeks after entry into the US.  All in all, it is superior.

I agree that if you have the luxury of getting married soon then the CR-1 is probably the easier option, but if you're not able to officially get married for another half a year or so to even file for the visa then you could be looking at up to 2 years in total making the K-1 more appealing just to get things rolling.

Edited February 26, 2018 by mcfarljw

[Perfect two 💑 1,147]

3 hours ago, TNJ17 said:

Well, excuse the bluntness but that was just stupid. Do people not understand what the word fiancé means? You cannot be married. You have to be unmarried. Regardless of what you are doing, the first rule of K1 Visa is do not plan anything. They literally tell you this. There is no guarantee. And one of the main rules of a fiancé visa is you have to be free to marry. A wedding celebration makes you married under the eyes of immigration officers. Why would you risk it? Withdraw the K1 and deal with the consequences now. You will actually have to get court married now, go through the whole petition process again, you will not be able to cut in line, and it’s gonna take almost twice as long. 

They supposed to write "we are planning to have an unofficial dinner". But they made a mistake by writing they are planning to have an unofficial wedding. What exactly they want to do is only having dinner between two family together before the beneficiary moving to States. But they make a mistake while writing the declaration. They not intent to break the rules by getting married while applying K-1 visa. 

[mrandmrsBRS 116]

2 hours ago, noraliz73 said:

By the way, shout out—I’m from New Bedford.  I really wish I could move back to Massachusetts!  My older kids are in North Andover.  I want to have my wedding dinner at the Lebanese place in Norwood since my kids, ex and fiancé are all Middle Eastern.  My fiancé is so nice to let me have Arabic food just as he left that behind, lol.  We can go for lobster too.  Just not the same day!  I really think you will be fine. Not even an RFE.  But, the CR-1 does give a green card upon arrival.  Weigh your options carefully!  ❤️

Of topic: my husband is from New Bedford too