Is our planned wedding date reasonable for our K1 Visa?

[audaud 62]

Hiya, we are currently awaiting our NOA2. We got NOA1 November 22nd, 2017. My fiancé is from the UK.

 

We are planning our wedding for August 18th.. does that seem feasible? Or should we extend the day ?

[Calidas 69]

Would be interesting to see the answer... we have plans along similar lines except our NoA1 was Oct. 2nd and our planned wedding date is Aug. 8th.

 

Following with historical timelines for current processing, her visa should be around late June.

[EandH0904 1,184]

You should make NO PLANS until she has her visa in her hand. 

Yes, we know that it's unromantic and not practical - but at current processing times you can HOPE for November, and maybe that would be the case, but I know some from July 2017 still waiting for NOA2 - if you add in an RFE or any sort of Administrative Processing time for any reason at all ( couldn't get medical in time, anything) - and it leaves NO room for error. 

 

Those of us on here on VJ have seen people over and over commenting about how they spent $xxxxx for a wedding they now can't have because of they didnt get their visa in the time frame they were hoping for and are looking for suggestions on what to do - travel on ESTA, do CR1, etc - all because of a wedding. 

Most people end up doing a court house wedding when their K1 gets here and planning a bigger wedding together later on. 

 

It's up to you and your money what you plan, but it's generally NOT good advice to plan anything while waiting for the process. 

Edited April 5, 2018 by EandH0904

[Roel 7,191]

Don't plan anything, don't pay for anything that can't be refunded, etc.

No one will guarantee you that you're K1 will be issued by August.

[Lemonslice 4,569]

You have about six months to enter the US and then 90 days to get married. You'll have close to 9 months to pick a date and plan your wedding AFTER you get your visa. 

[OutOfThisWorld 87]

Or just marry first and then apply for supposal visa.

 

I am constantly puzzled why people from countries like UK (with pretty much unrestricted travel between the country and the US) apply for K-1 visas at all.

Edited April 5, 2018 by OutOfThisWorld

[T_P 872]

28 minutes ago, Roel said:

Don't plan anything, don't pay for anything that can't be refunded, etc.

No one will guarantee you that you're K1 will be issued by August.

Couldnt agree more.

[JFH 12,189]

9 hours ago, OutOfThisWorld said:

Or just marry first and then apply for supposal visa.

 

I am constantly puzzled why people from countries like UK (with pretty much unrestricted travel between the country and the US) apply for K-1 visas at all.

This! This! This! 

 

Being able to marry in the place of our choosing and on the timescale of our choosing (and not have it controlled by USCIS and their employees’ speed at going through files) was one of the many reasons why we went for the CR-1. 

[dentsflogged 352]

8 hours ago, OutOfThisWorld said:

Or just marry first and then apply for supposal visa.

 

I am constantly puzzled why people from countries like UK (with pretty much unrestricted travel between the country and the US) apply for K-1 visas at all.

Aussie (so can do ESTA) chiming in on this one.  

 

Because despite "unrestricted" travel (we have all seen horror stories of people being turned away at POE or given a hard time so they're worried about trying again), that doesn't mean that we have unrestricted time off to travel for your we.   Or even unrestricted money to travel.  I know you can get some great prices for flights from the UK or even Canada, but there's plenty of places where air travel is prohibitively expensive or the cheap flights you get will take 2-3x the time which then means you're losing out there (you want to do a 2 week visit and find cheap flights? Great! But you're losing 4/5 days of those 14 in travelling back and forth) 

 

Say for example, like us, you make the decision to get married in January 2018? Great!   Say that neither of you can travel until at least August or September because of work and family commitments.  So you get married in say August.   Then by the time you file all the paperwork for the CR-1 it's now September.  So then you're waiting until at least September 2019. Probably even October or November.   And if you're lucky you may be able to make 1-2 short (~2 week) visits during that year, if you can afford it (flights door to door for me never cost less than $2,600 total for a single round trip) and if your work will give you the time off.  

Now compare that to... you decide to get married in January 2018.  You put in all the paperwork a few weeks later (call it the first week of Feb) and if things go very very well for you, you'll be there by December or January 2019 (obviously if nothing goes wrong). 

 

I know plenty of people say that the CR1 is superior because you can work/travel/drive right away and it works out cheaper (apparently the state I'll be moving to has no objection to me driving on my Aussie licence so that's not an issue) but honestly I'll take ~6 months of being a housewife, getting settled into my new home, bonding with my new family, training the puppy we're going to get, plotting/planting our vegetable garden and getting to know the local area over spending the extra 6+ months working out the time difference to see if I can squeeze a 5 minute phone call in on my break at work, stressing about if my job is going to approve time off so I can be there for our birthdays (being born close together is helpful) and if we're going to have another stretch of 6 straight days where we can't do more than text when the other is asleep due to totally opposite work schedules (yay for being a shiftworker).

 

So in short: different strokes for different folks.  Most adults (I like to believe anyhow) have the foresight and ability to delay gratification long enough to consider what's going to be the best option for them in the long run. 

 

[Marzena & Stephen 544]

9 hours ago, audaud said:

Hiya, we are currently awaiting our NOA2. We got NOA1 November 22nd, 2017. My fiancé is from the UK.

 

We are planning our wedding for August 18th.. does that seem feasible? Or should we extend the day ?

I would not plan for anything until you have a visa in hand 😊 it will be very stressful if you do. Good luck! 

[iwir 337]

I think the only things you can prepare is buying wedding dress and wedding bands. Other than that, it's better for you not to prepare or plan anything. Everything can be unpredictable with USCIS. I agree with one of posters here. Once you got the visa, you have 6 months to prepare and 3 months to fine tuning everything once your fiance enter the country. Good luck!

Edited April 6, 2018 by iwir

[Christy&J 837]

11 hours ago, audaud said:

Hiya, we are currently awaiting our NOA2. We got NOA1 November 22nd, 2017. My fiancé is from the UK.

 

We are planning our wedding for August 18th.. does that seem feasible? Or should we extend the day ?

I would say, it's kinda pushing it. Normal processing time until visa granted is 7-9 Months.

let says 9 Months - so August is really kinda pushing it.

 

I wouldn't book anything fix and make any commitment. we saw so many cases though your are approved under or within normal processing time anything could still happen i.e. you have to do extra treatment for medical which could be 3-6 months, or maybe something else happen  

 

Again, it's highly recommended to not book anything.

 

[audaud 62]

We haven’t booked anything, just buying decor and things like that. The venue is free and non public (belongs to a friend) so that is no issue. 

 

As for Cr-1 over k1, I’ve been able to be with my fiancé the entire time we have been waiting for our k1 to process. He was over on an esta when we applied, and I flew back to England with him. So I would definitely take being with my fiancé as much as possible and sooner vs the other. We are both young (21) so I’m not too stressed about waiting for the green card and other steps required after our wedding. We have time. We just want to be back home in the states already!

 

anyway thanks for all the opinions.

[dentsflogged 352]

2 hours ago, iwir said:

I think the only things you can prepare is buying wedding dress and wedding bands. Other than that, it's better for you not to prepare or plan anything. Everything can be unpredictable with USCIS. I agree with one of posters here. Once you got the visa, you have 6 months to prepare and 3 months to fine tuning everything once your fiance enter the country. Good luck!

Honestly there's plenty more that can be planned, but it will depend on your personal ideal wedding. 

Cake is easy enough to plan - decide the flavour you like, do some tastings while visiting (or have your partner do them if you trust their taste/don't care) and put a deposit down with a "to be confirmed" date. Same with catering.

 

Venue will depend heavily on availability, but if you're not fussed about venue, I know people who have gotten amazingly cheap deals for last minute dates. 

The real issue IMO is if you want a big wedding and to give your friends/family a chance to attend, is booking it far enough in advance to give them time to book time off work/flights to come along (and allow time for visa processing if needed). 

But as others have pointed out - upto 6 months (from the day of your medical to enter) then 90 days to marry gives plenty of time.  The day visa is in hand is the day you should set your date and then you've got something to work towards, not backwards FROM a date you've pre-set. 

[Roel 7,191]

3 hours ago, audaud said:

We are both young (21) so I’m not too stressed about waiting for the green card and other steps required after our wedding.

 

I'd actually start worrying about it and your age doesn't matter here much.

You should start slowly thinking about AOS - it is expensive so maybe start planning those expenses, especially since the foreign fiance won't be able to work for a good 3 to 4 months (or longer, it takes a while to get work permit now). Then two years down the road you'll have RoC, another 600$ for USCIS and more paperwork - paperwork that it's good to start gathering during marriage.

 

Just saying.