I-751 Evidence - Engagement after Civil Marriage?

[Happyman9000 0]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm new here. Me and my wife will be submitting the I-751 to remove her conditional residency soon. We had a civil marriage and then followed up a Catholic engagement and wedding several months later. In order to be financially secure, my wife continued to work in another state and we were separated until we met for the AOS interview/approval and flew out to our home country for the religious ceremony. Researching the situation now, it seems like the Catholic church does not do an engagement/wedding if we had already done a civil marriage. However in the rush of things, it got overlooked. For the sake of avoiding confusion and criticism from the religious community, we acknowledge our anniversary as being on the day of the Catholic wedding.

 

My question is, will it cause issues that we were separated after our civil marriage until the AOS interview/approval (accomplished with help of lawyer) as well as the fact we publically celebrate our anniversary on the religious date instead of the civil date? We have been living together in the US after the religious ceremony in our home country.

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

They don’t care about any of that stuff: what date you celebrate your anniversary or religious ceremony, .... What they want to see is evidence of a bona fide marriage such as commingling of assets, joint bank accounts, joint credit cards, taxes, insurance, joint leases, land deeds, evidence you live together water bills, electric bills, .... Those are the focus.

[Happyman9000 0]

19 minutes ago, USS_Voyager said:

They don’t care about any of that stuff: what date you celebrate your anniversary or religious ceremony, .... What they want to see is evidence of a bona fide marriage such as commingling of assets, joint bank accounts, joint credit cards, taxes, insurance, joint leases, land deeds, evidence you live together water bills, electric bills, .... Those are the focus.

Hi USS_Voyager,

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my post! So you are saying it is okay to submit the engagement certificate given 6 months after the civil marriage as well as social media post celebrating the anniversary on the new wedding date rather than the civil marriage? I was worried that they would think we were trying to hide the fact we had a civil marriage.

 

Thanks again!

[Palala2018 28]

I think you are missing the point....those things you are talking about submitting are not needed and are not cared about.

31 minutes ago, USS_Voyager said:

They don’t care about any of that stuff: what date you celebrate your anniversary or religious ceremony, .... What they want to see is evidence of a bona fide marriage such as commingling of assets, joint bank accounts, joint credit cards, taxes, insurance, joint leases, land deeds, evidence you live together water bills, electric bills, .... Those are the focus.

Focus on the evidence that is mentioned in the previous post..

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

9 minutes ago, Happyman9000 said:

Hi USS_Voyager,

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my post! So you are saying it is okay to submit the engagement certificate given 6 months after the civil marriage as well as social media post celebrating the anniversary on the new wedding date rather than the civil marriage? I was worried that they would think we were trying to hide the fact we had a civil marriage.

What did you submit for the AOS? Just submit the same. What I am saying is that is not a big issue. As long as you two are married legally and have a marriage certificate, that satisfies the legal requirement that you are married to each other. They don’t care you have a wedding or not or having 25 different religious ceremonies, one for each denomination of Christianity. 

 

What is at the heart of the I-751 is evidence of your bona fide marriage SINCE the AOS and the issuance of her greencard until now. Hence, all the stuff I mentioned such as: joint leases, house deeds, evidence of commingling of finances, joint bank accounts, .... In other words, stuff that a normal couple would have. And all that is in the instructions for form I-751. Reas those.

 

[Boiler 43,401]

2 hours ago, Happyman9000 said:

as well as the fact we publically celebrate our anniversary on the religious date instead of the civil date? We have been living together in the US after the religious ceremony in our home country.

How do you publicly celebrate an anniversary?

[Happyman9000 0]

3 hours ago, Palala2018 said:

I think you are missing the point....those things you are talking about submitting are not needed and are not cared about.

Focus on the evidence that is mentioned in the previous post..

Thank you Palala! I appreciate you taking the time to confirm what was already said  

 

3 hours ago, USS_Voyager said:

What did you submit for the AOS? Just submit the same. What I am saying is that is not a big issue. As long as you two are married legally and have a marriage certificate, that satisfies the legal requirement that you are married to each other. They don’t care you have a wedding or not or having 25 different religious ceremonies, one for each denomination of Christianity. 

 

What is at the heart of the I-751 is evidence of your bona fide marriage SINCE the AOS and the issuance of her greencard until now. Hence, all the stuff I mentioned such as: joint leases, house deeds, evidence of commingling of finances, joint bank accounts, .... In other words, stuff that a normal couple would have. And all that is in the instructions for form I-751. Reas those.

 

I really appreciate you following up and confirming this information USS_Voyager. I just got worried with all the warnings in the instructions with regards to fraud and such. For the AOS, we submitted a lot of things like photos, affidavits, greeting cards, policies cards, bank statements in both of our names, utility bills, etc. I'll be submitted everything from before except for the affidavits because they can be time consuming for family member to write with the format and then to get it notarized. Thanks again giving me this reassurance.

 

2 hours ago, Boiler said:

How do you publicly celebrate an anniversary?

When you invite everyone to come for a celebration on that day as well as make post and take pictures with timestamps indicating that you celebrate the anniversary on the religious date instead of the civil marriage date.

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

1 minute ago, Happyman9000 said:

 

I really appreciate you following up and confirming this information USS_Voyager. I just got worried with all the warnings in the instructions with regards to fraud and such. For the AOS, we submitted a lot of things like photos, affidavits, greeting cards, policies cards, bank statements in both of our names, utility bills, etc. I'll be submitted everything from before except for the affidavits because they can be time consuming for family member to write with the format and then to get it notarized. Thanks again giving me this reassurance.

You’re welcome. And yes, submit the same stuff as you did for the AOS but more recent. For example, don’t submit bank statements from 2 years ago, submit the last 3 months.... Did two have any kids since the AOS, if yes include birth certificate.... you got the idea.

 

 

[cyclone27 710]

Remember of legal purposes your marriage date will always be the civil date.

 

as for celebrating your anniversary - u celebrate it with a group of people versus just your wife? 🧐