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Hobidyali

Wedding Plans Question

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Well hello everyone, 

 

I have a question for those of you who have been successful on a k1 or are in the process of one, what are your plans for your wedding once your SO arrives? Traditional wedding, courthouse ,mosque,etc?

 

I am trying to figure out what would be best for our situation and I am curious to know what you guys' plans are or what you went with . I would love to hear your stories.

 

Have a good day everyone.

 

PS: Before the comment is made, yes I know, I am not making any plans until approval, just in case it comes up lol.

 

 

Edited by Hobidyali
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Filed: Country: Vietnam (no flag)
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Courthouse.  Get it done so you can file for AOS.  Get the EAD and start work.  Get the AP so she can travel home if necessary.

 

There is no time to plan a traditional wedding.  Most places are booked well in advance.  It would hard to book and get everything done in 90 days.

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Filed: Citizen (pnd) Country: Morocco
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This is so very personal

when i applied K1 i was going to do small wedding at home of a friend as he was muslim 

and i had a big wedding before with my late husband and now my family all live far away

Important to u is

1   do u want family and friends there

2   how much money do u want to spend

3   are u of a different faith and he would be  uncomfortable in your church or whatever your religion is 

4   is this important to him as it is his 1st marriage

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Morocco
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We had a courthouse wedding less than 2 weeks after he arrived (mostly for AOS purposes)

Had an Islamic marriage at a mosque a few months after the courthouse wedding. 

Had a big party/ceremony with white dress and my family flew in from Germany a few weeks after the Islamic marriage. I did book this venue in advance before he had the visa in hand, but I was able to negotiate to move the date or be issued a refund had the visa not been issued. 

If you are going through the visa process and will be interviewing in Casablanca, Morocco, join us over at the

US-Morocco Visa Discussion Facebook Group! :) 

 

K1 Visa Process                                                                                                   

Spoiler

 

December 19, 2016: NOA1 receive date 

May 5, 2017: NOA2 hardcopy (still listed as 'received' online...)

May 23, 2017: NVC case number assigned

July 10, 2017: Interview
July 14, 2017: Visa in hand
July 27, 2017: POE at ORD

August 5, 2017: Married!

 

 

 

AOS Process    

Spoiler

 

AOS Process  

September 8, 2017 : Mailed AOS Packet

September 16, 2017 : NOA1 text/emails (receive date Sept. 12)

October 2, 2017 : Biometrics Appointment

October 13, 2017 : RFIE letter received in mail (they want an English translated Birth Certificate, which we included in the original petition...)

January 24, 2018: EAD/AP Combo Card in hand

August 9, 2018: AOS Interview (Approved)

August 9, 2018: "Card in Production"

August 16, 2018: Green card in hand

 

 

May 2020: ROC!

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Nicaragua
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12 minutes ago, aaron2020 said:

Courthouse.  Get it done so you can file for AOS.  Get the EAD and start work.  Get the AP so she can travel home if necessary.

 

This. We did courthouse 2 hours after he got off the plane lol to fulfill the requirements and filed AOS about a month later after I added him to accounts and bills and stuff to get the greencard process started.

 

Did a church wedding 7 months later when we could prance around in fancy clothes.

Edited by YecaCruz

A Tale of Two Dakotaraguans

K1 Journey - 78 Days

 

Sent I-129F - 11/16/15 [Day 1]
NOA1 - 11/18 (Hard copy: 11/24) [Day 2, Day 8]
NOA2 - 12/18 (Hard copy: 12/26) [Day 32, Day 40]
NVC received file: 1/05/2016 [Day 50] Obtained NVC invoice number, paid visa fee, filled out DS-160: 1/06 [Day 51]
Fiancé's medical: 1/12 9:00am [Day 57]
Interview: 1/22 9:30am, Approved! [67 days] (F)
Visa status on ceac site= "AP": 1/25, "Issued":01/27, "In Transit: 2/02", Visa packet in hand: 2/03 [Day 78]
POE: (Houston) 2/04, North Dakota arrival: 2/05

Married (civil): 2/05/16 (L)

AOS - 55 Days

 

I-485, AP, EAD sent : 3/03/2016 [Day 1]

Delivered: 3/04 [Day 2]

Electronic NOA1: 3/08 [Day 5]  NOA1 Hardcopy rcv'd in mail: 3/12 [Day 9]; Biometric Notification rcv'd in mail: 3/26 [Day 23]; Biometrics Appt: 4/06 in Fargo, ND [Day 33]

Notification(s): "Your new card is being produced" 4/23 [Day 48] ; "Your case was approved" 4/26 [Day 51]; "Your card was mailed on 4/27" 4/28 [Day 53]

Green Card in Hand: 4/30 [Day 55]

D-day ("Dress day"/I do...again Day/wedding reception): 9/10/16

ROC - 390 days 

Spoiler

Window opens: 1/24/2018

Package sent: 1/26, Delivered on 1/29 at 11:17am to CSC - [Day 1]

Check cashed: 1/31 [Day 3]

NOA1: 1/29 [Day 1]; NOA rcv'd in mail: 2/02 [Day 4]

Biometrics  Sent 5/5, rcv'd in mail 5/12 [Day 107]

Biometrics appt: Not required

18 Month extension letter received, dated 8/18: 8/24/18 [Day 211]

"New Card Being Produced" - 2/11/19 [Day 382], email "we mailed your card on 2/14" - 2/15

Card arrived: 2/19/19 [Day 390]

Citizenship - 643 Days

Spoiler

Window opens: 01/24/2019

E-file: 01/28/2019 [Day 1]

Biometrics = scheduled: 02/01 [Day 4], view uploaded document: 02/05 [Day 8], appointment day: 02/19 [Day 22] In Fargo, ND

Interview scheduled notification online: 9/3/20 [Day 585]

Interview in Minneapolis, MN: 10/20/20 [Day 632] at 12:15 PM: passed/approved

Oath Ceremony: scheduled 10/20, view letter online 10/21

Oath : Fargo, ND 2:15pm at sanctuary events center. No guests allowed

 

1808 total days of thinking about/waiting for immigrations!

Applied for US Passport 11/4/2020, application approved 1/26/21, passport and naturalization cert received in mailbox: 1/28/21 📘

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Filed: AOS (apr) Country: Canada
Timeline

civil wedding immediately to keep Mr. Government happy and a real wedding planned for next summer

i 485, 130, EAD and AP

04/09/2019    NOA1 received/check cashed i 485 and 130 (direct adjustment)

11/7/2019      Interview- Norfolk

11/10/2019    APPROVED (notification rec'd 11/10, approval dated 11/8)

DONE FOR TWO YEARS!!! ;)

 

Filed everything ourselves with no RFE's or delays.

 

CR1 for Child under 21 (20 at time of filing)- Filed by LPR Spouse for his son

4/4/20     Mailed packet

4/12/20   NOA1 rec'd

10/14/21 (havent heard anything... when do i start to get worried?)

9/15/22 APPROVED! Now to wait for NVC and interview....

 

ROC

10/14/21 Mailed to AZ PO Box. Let the waiting begin. Again.

10/16/21 Received at PO Box

10/19/21 Received Text NOA1

10/23/21 Received Mailed NOA1

 

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Taiwan
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As a practical matter, I would opt for a courthouse/JP wedding and save my money for AOS.   You can always renew your vows at a later date.....

"The US immigration process requires a great deal of knowledge, planning, time, patience, and a significant amount of money.  It is quite a journey!"

- Some old child of the 50's & 60's on his laptop 

 

Senior Master Sergeant, US Air Force- Retired (after 20+ years)- Missile Systems Maintenance & Titan 2 ICBM Launch Crew Duty (200+ Alert tours)

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______________________________________

August 7, 2022: Wife filed N-400 Online under 5 year rule.

November 10, 2022: Received "Interview is scheduled" letter.

December 12, 2022:  Received email from Dallas office informing me (spouse) to be there for combo interview.

December 14, 2022: Combo Interview for I-751 and N-400 Conducted.

January 26, 2023: Wife's Oath Ceremony completed at the Plano Event Center, Plano, Texas!!!😁

February 6, 2023: Wife's Passport Application submitted in Dallas, Texas.

March 21, 2023:   Wife's Passport Delivered!!!!

May 15, 2023 (about):  Naturalization Certificate returned from Passport agency!!

 

In summary, it took 13 months for approval of the CR-1.  It took 44 months for approval of the I-751.  It took 4 months for approval of the N-400.   It took 172 days from N-400 application to Oath Ceremony.   It took 6 weeks for Passport, then 7 additional weeks for return of wife's Naturalization Certificate.. 
 

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49 minutes ago, adil-rafa said:

This is so very personal

when i applied K1 i was going to do small wedding at home of a friend as he was muslim 

and i had a big wedding before with my late husband and now my family all live far away

Important to u is

1   do u want family and friends there

2   how much money do u want to spend

3   are u of a different faith and he would be  uncomfortable in your church or whatever your religion is 

4   is this important to him as it is his 1st marriage

My family is very small , I dream of a nice wedding but realistically it would be a waste of money. I am leaning towards marrying at the mosque and having a small get together at my home. 

48 minutes ago, RJandHamid said:

We had a courthouse wedding less than 2 weeks after he arrived (mostly for AOS purposes)

Had an Islamic marriage at a mosque a few months after the courthouse wedding. 

Had a big party/ceremony with white dress and my family flew in from Germany a few weeks after the Islamic marriage. I did book this venue in advance before he had the visa in hand, but I was able to negotiate to move the date or be issued a refund had the visa not been issued. 

Thank you, can you share your experience with marriage at the mosque?

Edited by Hobidyali
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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Morocco
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3 minutes ago, Hobidyali said:

Thank you, can you share your experience with marriage at the mosque?

Sure. We went to several different mosques in our area to ask about the process and cost of having a simple Islamic marriage ceremony. The first one we went to wanted to charge us $500! We ended up walking straight out of that one. Fortunately we found another mosque even closer to where we live that offered to do the ceremony for free (we did make a donation of our choice though). 

We set up a date and time with the imam. The 'ceremony' (it's more like short lecture) is very simple and took less than 30 minutes. Basically the imam talked about the importance of marriage in Islam and the rights of the husband and wife. We discussed the mahr (dowry) amount which I kind of just said a random number because we just needed to put something on the marriage contract. My husband and I signed it with 3 male witnesses present, as well as my mom and my brother present who are both not Muslim, but the imam encouraged them to come be a part of the ceremony anyway. 

 

And that's pretty much it. Now we have a Islamic marriage certificate, which is also written in Arabic. It will be useful for us when we travel back to Morocco and want to use it as proof of marriage to stay in a hotel or something. 

 

As a side note, I'm not Muslim, only my husband is. Non of the imams we talked to had any issues marrying a Muslim man and a non-Muslim woman, since this type of marriage is allowed in Islam. Most mosques do require you to be legally married before they will preform an Islamic marriage ceremony. We had to show our marriage certificate and the mosque actually kept a copy of it. 

If you are going through the visa process and will be interviewing in Casablanca, Morocco, join us over at the

US-Morocco Visa Discussion Facebook Group! :) 

 

K1 Visa Process                                                                                                   

Spoiler

 

December 19, 2016: NOA1 receive date 

May 5, 2017: NOA2 hardcopy (still listed as 'received' online...)

May 23, 2017: NVC case number assigned

July 10, 2017: Interview
July 14, 2017: Visa in hand
July 27, 2017: POE at ORD

August 5, 2017: Married!

 

 

 

AOS Process    

Spoiler

 

AOS Process  

September 8, 2017 : Mailed AOS Packet

September 16, 2017 : NOA1 text/emails (receive date Sept. 12)

October 2, 2017 : Biometrics Appointment

October 13, 2017 : RFIE letter received in mail (they want an English translated Birth Certificate, which we included in the original petition...)

January 24, 2018: EAD/AP Combo Card in hand

August 9, 2018: AOS Interview (Approved)

August 9, 2018: "Card in Production"

August 16, 2018: Green card in hand

 

 

May 2020: ROC!

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9 minutes ago, RJandHamid said:

Sure. We went to several different mosques in our area to ask about the process and cost of having a simple Islamic marriage ceremony. The first one we went to wanted to charge us $500! We ended up walking straight out of that one. Fortunately we found another mosque even closer to where we live that offered to do the ceremony for free (we did make a donation of our choice though). 

We set up a date and time with the imam. The 'ceremony' (it's more like short lecture) is very simple and took less than 30 minutes. Basically the imam talked about the importance of marriage in Islam and the rights of the husband and wife. We discussed the mahr (dowry) amount which I kind of just said a random number because we just needed to put something on the marriage contract. My husband and I signed it with 3 male witnesses present, as well as my mom and my brother present who are both not Muslim, but the imam encouraged them to come be a part of the ceremony anyway. 

 

And that's pretty much it. Now we have a Islamic marriage certificate, which is also written in Arabic. It will be useful for us when we travel back to Morocco and want to use it as proof of marriage to stay in a hotel or something. 

 

As a side note, I'm not Muslim, only my husband is. Non of the imams we talked to had any issues marrying a Muslim man and a non-Muslim woman, since this type of marriage is allowed in Islam. Most mosques do require you to be legally married before they will preform an Islamic marriage ceremony. We had to show our marriage certificate and the mosque actually kept a copy of it. 

thanks, we are actually considering this option, except I believe our mosque allows us to bring the form, it's signed there and the Imam sends it off rather than the clerk at the court. I didn't realize we had to be married before, I have to call them and make sure I didn't understand them incorrectly.

 

As for adjustment, how has he adjusted? We are thinking about moving states or cities, do you have any recommendation of a place where it would be easier on him? Culturally speaking I mean, to make a transition less strenuous, any advice would be appreciated.

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Morocco
Timeline
12 minutes ago, Hobidyali said:

thanks, we are actually considering this option, except I believe our mosque allows us to bring the form, it's signed there and the Imam sends it off rather than the clerk at the court. I didn't realize we had to be married before, I have to call them and make sure I didn't understand them incorrectly.

 

As for adjustment, how has he adjusted? We are thinking about moving states or cities, do you have any recommendation of a place where it would be easier on him? Culturally speaking I mean, to make a transition less strenuous, any advice would be appreciated.

The adjustment has taken time, as expected. If you live in/near Orlando like your profile says, I know there is a large community of Moroccans in that area, so it might be good for you to stay there for awhile. 

 

We live in the Chicago area. Not a lot of Moroccans, but still a large number of Muslims from other countries. And the few Moroccans we have met, my husband really hasn't been able to form much of a friendship with them. The only exception is the other Moroccans we have met who also came to the US on a K1 or CR1 visa recently! 

 

The hardest adjustment for him was first not being able to work for several months and being bored and feeling unproductive. That's certainly one of the biggest negatives of the K1 visa in my opinion. He's now been working at Burger King for about 1 year. Started as a crew member and quickly was promoted to assistant manager. He's started job hunting again as he doesn't want to work in fast food forever. We are going on vacation to Germany and Morocco soon and we'll be gone for 3 weeks. When we come back he'll be going on a full scale new job search!

 

And of course, he misses his family and friends in Morocco. He tries to call his mom every day. We both like to eat Moroccan foods, and lucky for me he can cook most Moroccan dishes. We eat a lot of tagine and lentils! 

If you are going through the visa process and will be interviewing in Casablanca, Morocco, join us over at the

US-Morocco Visa Discussion Facebook Group! :) 

 

K1 Visa Process                                                                                                   

Spoiler

 

December 19, 2016: NOA1 receive date 

May 5, 2017: NOA2 hardcopy (still listed as 'received' online...)

May 23, 2017: NVC case number assigned

July 10, 2017: Interview
July 14, 2017: Visa in hand
July 27, 2017: POE at ORD

August 5, 2017: Married!

 

 

 

AOS Process    

Spoiler

 

AOS Process  

September 8, 2017 : Mailed AOS Packet

September 16, 2017 : NOA1 text/emails (receive date Sept. 12)

October 2, 2017 : Biometrics Appointment

October 13, 2017 : RFIE letter received in mail (they want an English translated Birth Certificate, which we included in the original petition...)

January 24, 2018: EAD/AP Combo Card in hand

August 9, 2018: AOS Interview (Approved)

August 9, 2018: "Card in Production"

August 16, 2018: Green card in hand

 

 

May 2020: ROC!

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Filed: AOS (pnd) Country: Philippines
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we are planning to go to las vegas so its a little tourism for her, pictures can be good (our courthouse is no cameras/phones allowed), low cost. And then do a big convalidation in the phillipines in a year or so

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Denmark
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We had an elopement wedding to a very nice place we had pastor, photographer and wedding cake and nice clothes (wedding clothes) and all. :) 

Edited by Georgia16

 

 

 

 

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