Wedding celebration on K1 Visa in a foreign country before filing for legal marriage in the US

[Maria&Wirbir 38]

18 minutes ago, NikLR said:

No but you don't need to wait for the green card to travel, you just need AP.  You're suggesting a potentially longer wait than necessary. 

And AP is about 7 months no? 

[Unlockable 7,306]

2 hours ago, TastyCake said:

Just throwing this out there.  And I am not saying this would be acceptable to the individual who started this thread.  Just a general question, looking for opinions.  The answer may be obvious but better to ask.

 

K-1 is granted to two people who are not married.  They follow the rules and get married in the U.S. within 90 days.  After receiving the green card with documented proof there was a wedding in the U.S., you return to her native country for a visit and get married again, exchanging nups in front of the family just so they can have a ceremony, too.  Granted it is a second ceremony, hopefully doesn't cheapen things in front of the fam back home (it certainly could but what the heck?).  But, at least it is an opportunity to have a ceremony and celebration after the fact.  Event could be as much as a year later and documents would be dated as such.

 

Fair game or could the authorities here come down on you for this?

 

 

This is absolutely doable. In fact,  it is what I suggested in my first reply on page 1. The problem, like someone already mentioned, is that people are impatient. Or people don't realize how big of a risk it is to do a ceremony prior to coming to the US and getting married here.

 

Sometimes cultural norms places pressure on the beneficiary after the visa process has started. For example, I remember a case here where a young woman was being petitioned for on a K1 but because of her religion and family beliefs, her parents were very adamant about her not coming to live with a man unless she is married to him first. Obviously, the K1 was a bad choice but they had already started the process and figured they would "just" get married in her country first and then marry again in the US.

 

The point is that people should know the pros and cons of every option they have before they choose which process to go through. But people see, "the K1 is faster" and are sending off the I-129F before you can even utter the next words "but there are disadvantages". 😄

[TastyCake 232]

16 minutes ago, Unlockable said:

In fact,  it is what I suggested in my first reply on page 1.

Sorry about that.  Speed reading ALSO comes with its disadvantages!  😋

 

I had a vested interest in this part of the topic.  My fiancee and I are planning to do this very thing.  There have been no pressures from family so we're lucky in that regard.  So we will marry in the U.S. and follow the process.  When the time is right, we will fly back, do another ceremony (like we need an excuse to party???) and have a grand ol' time with her side of the family.

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,079]

4 hours ago, Unlockable said:

Yet the K1 is still the most popular marriage based visa I have seen. People claim that it is so they can be together sooner but the spousal visa is only 2 - 3 months more and I would rather wait it out than be stuck in a place with all those limitations for months.

 

If you look at all the cons of the K1, I just don't see the appeal to it.

For one, it's not. Far more CR-1/IR-1s than K-1s are granted every year, and that's not even counting people who adjust status due to marriage from other types of visas, of which there are quite a lot (though someone doing an AOS from a tourist visa or other visa that doesn't allow you to work legally in the US has much the same restrictions as someone doing it from a K-1).

 

For two, a spousal visa is not "only 2-3 months more" on average. It might have been close to that at the peak of the really long K-1 processing times last year, but it's closer to 5 or 6 months more now (on average), and that's assuming you can start both at the same time (aka you're in a position where if you wanted to get married next weekend, you could reasonably do it) which I'm fairly sure is not true of most couples considering a K-1 even if it's not particularly complicated to marry a foreigner in the beneficiary's country or for the beneficiary to come to the US.

Edited July 1, 2019 by DaveAndAnastasia

[Tanish 197]

6 minutes ago, DaveAndAnastasia said:

For one, it's not. Far more CR-1/IR-1s than K-1s are granted every year, and that's not even counting people who adjust status due to marriage from other types of visas, of which there are quite a lot (though someone doing an AOS from a tourist visa or other visa that doesn't allow you to work legally in the US has much the same restrictions as someone doing it from a K-1).

 

For two, a spousal visa is not "only 2-3 months more" on average. It might have been close to that at the peak of the really long K-1 processing times last year, but it's closer to 5 or 6 months more now (on average), and that's assuming you can start both at the same time (aka you're in a position where if you wanted to get married next weekend, you could reasonably do it) which I'm fairly sure is not true of most couples considering a K-1 even if it's not particularly complicated to marry a foreigner in the beneficiary's country or for the beneficiary to come to the US.

Agreed about the timeframe you mentioned.

 

I still agree with @Unlockable though, regarding cons of K-1.

I personally did CR-1 and even after I received my GC about 1-2 weeks after entering US, I still had to wait about 3.5 - 4 months until I found the job I liked and those were the worst months of my life. I believe with K-1 this wait is longer. I would have been pretty frustrated if I had to wait longer before I could work.

 

I may be jumping the gun here, as I don't have a personal experience of K-1, and if the wait is not that long before you can start working, it would be totally worth it.

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,079]

8 minutes ago, Tanish said:

I may be jumping the gun here, as I don't have a personal experience of K-1, and if the wait is not that long before you can start working, it would be totally worth it.

Heck, even though Anastasia hasn't really had a rough time of it, marrying a foreigner in Russia is kind of a pain, getting a tourist visa for a young single Russian is very difficult, and for almost any third country it would have been reasonable to marry in she would have needed to get a visa, we've sometimes had thoughts it might have made more sense to go the other way.

 

But being together every day instead of for a week or so every four months or so makes up for a lot.

[Tanish 197]

1 minute ago, DaveAndAnastasia said:

Heck, even though Anastasia hasn't really had a rough time of it, marrying a foreigner in Russia is kind of a pain, getting a tourist visa for a young single Russian is very difficult, and for almost any third country it would have been reasonable to marry in she would have needed to get a visa, we've sometimes had thoughts it might have made more sense to go the other way.

 

But being together every day instead of for a week or so every four months or so makes up for a lot.

Well, I can't disagree there. I know the pain of staying apart for more than a year all too well. I am happy that you can live together longer. Good luck with your journey ahead.

[Margo2017777 77]

On 6/30/2019 at 2:37 AM, Tanish said:

What you suggested could land him in an even bigger trouble. No marriage ceremony before entering US. If there is a marriage ceremony after interview and before entering US (assuming the Visa is approved), and this information is unearthed during either ROC or naturalization process, the spouse could face deportation.

Out of curiosity, are they asking if you had marriage ceremony before entering US during ROC or naturalization? Or if you had some sort of family celebration? 

[Tanish 197]

6 minutes ago, Margo2017777 said:

Out of curiosity, are they asking if you had marriage ceremony before entering US during ROC or naturalization? Or if you had some sort of family celebration? 

They are asking if they can have ceremony after their K-1 Visa interview and before they enter USA. (This would be even before they started AOS [Adjustment of Status] process and received GC).

[Margo2017777 77]

2 minutes ago, Tanish said:

They are asking if they can have ceremony after their K-1 Visa interview and before they enter USA. (This would be even before they started AOS [Adjustment of Status] process and received GC).

No, no, I am not referring to the person who made this post  My question is in general about the process when it comes to ROC or naturalization and how this information is asked there?  

[Crazy Cat 39,258]

13 minutes ago, Margo2017777 said:

Out of curiosity, are they asking if you had marriage ceremony before entering US during ROC or naturalization? Or if you had some sort of family celebration? 

The authorities  can ask........and they can strip the immigrant of any benefit if it found that the GC was obtained fraudulently.  

[Margo2017777 77]

2 minutes ago, missileman said:

The authorities  can ask........and they can strip the immigrant of any benefit if it found that the GC was obtained fraudulently.  

Ok. thanks! I have not studied the process that far but good to know  

[Tanish 197]

Just now, Margo2017777 said:

No, no, I am not referring to the person who made this post  My question is in general about the process when it comes to ROC or naturalization and how this information is asked there?  

Oh, I apologize for misreading your question. They may not even ask the question. They may get this information just by doing a background check. There are number of ways USCIS or DOS can get the information.

[Margo2017777 77]

1 minute ago, Tanish said:

Oh, I apologize for misreading your question. They may not even ask the question. They may get this information just by doing a background check. There are number of ways USCIS or DOS can get the information.

Thank you! I just got my K-1 VISA in hand and now i am bit paranoid even having a simple pre-wedding dinner with my family before leaving to U.S ))

[Crazy Cat 39,258]

1 minute ago, Margo2017777 said:

Thank you! I just got my K-1 VISA in hand and now i am bit paranoid even having a simple pre-wedding dinner with my family before leaving to U.S ))

Just postpone it for a few months, then have a wild post-marriage celebration in your country......😁