K1 advice for our journey

[Jf1234 1]

Firstly I’ve just found this forum and have been eagerly taking in all the information I can find.

 

i am from the U.K. and are getting engaged in two weeks with plans to move to Utah.  We decided on the K1 visa so there’s no separation  after marriage as the distance has already been a negative factor for us.

 

We are filing for the K1 visa this week however reading this forum it’s thrown some of the plans into the air.

 

Is booking a wedding date a complete no-no?   She has a vary big family in comparison so the wedding needs to be in Utah ideally.  I will have 5-10 family members/friends who would hopefully be present but they need a date to book their travel, accommodation, leave from work etc.

 

Our initial plan was to apply now and book a wedding for March or April 2020 but given that is 8 or 9 months away is it too much of a risk? 

 

Apart from having a courthouse wedding upon arrival then having a full ceremony later in the year how have other couples dealt with this? 

 

 

 

[Crazy Cat 39,220]

 

4 minutes ago, Jf1234 said:

Is booking a wedding date a complete no-no?   She has a vary big family in comparison so the wedding needs to be in Utah ideally.  I will have 5-10 family members/friends who would hopefully be present but they need a date to book their travel, accommodation, leave from work etc

Do not make any non-refundable plans, reservations, or commitments prior to having the visa and packet (if needed) in hand........there are too many things which can go wrong.... 

[Just Paul 4,591]

7 minutes ago, Jf1234 said:

Apart from having a courthouse wedding upon arrival then having a full ceremony later in the year how have other couples dealt with this? 

That is the smartest plan.

 

Immigration does not move at your timeline.   If you make plans the immigration gods will make sure those plans get changed.

[Crazy Cat 39,220]

11 minutes ago, Jf1234 said:

Apart from having a courthouse wedding upon arrival then having a full ceremony later in the year how have other couples dealt with this? 

This is how smart couples do it......for multiple reasons........it allows you to apply for adjustment of status quickly..........

[Jf1234 1]

Thanks for the advice.  It was our plan to marry towards the start of the 90 days rather than the end to start the AOS as quick as possible.   

 

I thankfully seem to have a flexible work and living situation in the UK until I hopefully have the visa in hand so not having to stress over the progress of our application seems a major relief...

 

 

 

 

[Pitaya 2,576]

Welcome to the forum.

 

This popular question seems to come up at least weekly and already twice today.  

 

Trying to accurately predict when a visa will be adjudicated and available is a fool's game and should be avoided. There are far too many variables to be able to accurately predict when and If the visa will be available. 

 

The general rule of thumb is to not make any non-refundable, non-transferrable, non-changeable wedding or travel plans until you have your passport in your hand and the visa is in the passport.

 

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[Wuozopo 4,285]

3 hours ago, Jf1234 said:

Our initial plan was to apply now and book a wedding for March or April 2020 but given that is 8 or 9 months away is it too much of a risk? 

YES

[Haydnator 268]

3 hours ago, Jf1234 said:

Firstly I’ve just found this forum and have been eagerly taking in all the information I can find.

 

i am from the U.K. and are getting engaged in two weeks with plans to move to Utah.  We decided on the K1 visa so there’s no separation  after marriage as the distance has already been a negative factor for us.

 

We are filing for the K1 visa this week however reading this forum it’s thrown some of the plans into the air.

 

Is booking a wedding date a complete no-no?   She has a vary big family in comparison so the wedding needs to be in Utah ideally.  I will have 5-10 family members/friends who would hopefully be present but they need a date to book their travel, accommodation, leave from work etc.

 

Our initial plan was to apply now and book a wedding for March or April 2020 but given that is 8 or 9 months away is it too much of a risk? 

 

Apart from having a courthouse wedding upon arrival then having a full ceremony later in the year how have other couples dealt with this? 

 

 

 

We are in a similar situation and we decided we would have a courthouse wedding upon arrival to the US so we could get AOS moving asap, and then after we would hold a reception with friends and family. But if a big wedding is something that is important to you, you can just have a big wedding ceremony later.

 

As others have said it is risky to bet on when the visa will be approved, and to much of a headache if things go wrong.

[Wuozopo 4,285]

5 hours ago, Jf1234 said:

Apart from having a courthouse wedding upon arrival then having a full ceremony later in the year how have other couples dealt with this? 

Another way is get your visa in hand, which will be good for travel probably 4-5 months.  (6 months from medical date). You stay in the UK and don't travel immediately. Start booking wedding venues and flights. 

 

After entry, you have an additional 3 months. So from the time of getting the visa to having to marry is 7-8 months. If you can plan the wedding you want in that amount of time, then you have a solution. But it means being separated longer before you enter the US and delaying gettting your AOS filed. Not many choose that route. It depends on how important the wedding ceremony is to your bride and her family. 

[yuna628 9,528]

Please don't make any plans until you have the visa in hand. You have up to 6 months to enter the US, so if having a wedding with everyone there in all one go is your best ideal, you'd have plenty of time to both plan and be absolutely sure of no hickups.

 

Most people that want to enter the US asap though, try and do a courthouse wedding and then plan a big celebration later on, when everyone can attend. This is the fastest and least stressful method.

 

Still others manage to cobble together modest celebrations within the timeframe of getting to the US and before the 90 days are up.

 

In my case, we took plenty of gambles and risks that involved very heavy pre-planning and was not for the faint of heart. It required a lot of venders to be understanding of our unique situation and were willing to roll at short notice - no vendors were 'officially' booked or tickets purchased until he had confirmation of his visa. While I'd never recommend it to anyone after the nerve-wracking experience, we did have a pretty nice wedding our way, with no do-overs, and with a good deal of family attending.

[laylalex 7,247]

Trust me, it is NOT a good idea, as others have said above. We (I mean my ex and me -- he came over on a K1) had a hiccup in our process and I had already booked a date, had vendors teed up, a venue, an officiant, etc. I was extremely lucky to be able to get all these different pieces to accommodate the delay, but it cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (I might even add some more $$$'s to that!) and I nearly had a nervous breakdown on top of general wedding/visa stretch. (I am grateful there is such a thing as Klonopin.) Then my fiance missed his flight and we barely had enough time to get the marriage license before the ceremony. 🤦‍♀️ So many things can happen that you don't anticipate. It worked for me (sort of) and for yuna628 (more successfully!) but I agree with the courthouse wedding/big celebration after plan.

[jeanieCZ 228]

16 hours ago, Jf1234 said:

Thanks for the advice.  It was our plan to marry towards the start of the 90 days rather than the end to start the AOS as quick as possible.   

I second your decision. 

However, count on that it will take about a year before the fiancee can enter the US. All the timelines and predictions, whether here on visajourney.com or https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/petition.html are somehow helpful but not guaranteed! 

I'd say wait until the K-1 sits in your fiancee's passport and make plans - when will she enter the US and when are you guys going to get married. 

 

Aside from the timing, I'm also not sure whether letting the USCIS/DOS know that you already have planned the date of wedding is a smart thing to do. Because if you do so, they might suspect you could be about to marry before the K-1 is issued - this suspicion might make it more difficult for the fiancee to enter the US while K-1 is being processed. 

[Hank_ 9,173]

~ huh?  

[Limey 550]

We wanted to have a proper, legal wedding in the USA with both families present.

 

In our case we only started planning the wedding a few months after starting the k1 process so we had an approximate idea of timelines (we weren't expecting any issues with the visa - no criminal record, income well above minimum etc).

 

Most people get married on a Saturday, so often you'll find venues don't have much in the way of bookings for a Sunday. We explained the issue to our venue and they reserved us a Sunday that we were pretty sure would work after we paid the deposit, but gave us the option to let us know if there was a problem with the visa, and they'd then allocate another later Sunday. Similarly DJs and officiants were flexible too. A Sunday was no issue for us as my wife's family had to travel several hundred miles, and my family and friends were coming from Europe - so they weren't scheduled to work the next day.

 

Once I had the visa in hand we confirmed all dates with suppliers etc (around a month or so before the wedding).

 

We'd given similar advice to guests of the date - that it was possible it would change and not to book flights etc until we confirmed. A few people did book flights in advance, but fortunately everything ran to our estimated timelines.

 

This probably wouldn't work for a massive wedding, but we had about 40 guests, food, DJ - it was perfect.

 

As others have said - you don't want to arrange anything that can't be re-arranged, and its probably not possible to arrange anything of a size that needs to be done months in advance, as the running time of the visa process can't be accurately predicted. But certainly its possible to have a lot more than just a courthouse wedding, if you're flexible and can find suppliers who are.

[Elif_and_Greg 164]

23 hours ago, Jf1234 said:

Firstly I’ve just found this forum and have been eagerly taking in all the information I can find.

 

i am from the U.K. and are getting engaged in two weeks with plans to move to Utah.  We decided on the K1 visa so there’s no separation  after marriage as the distance has already been a negative factor for us.

 

We are filing for the K1 visa this week however reading this forum it’s thrown some of the plans into the air.

 

Is booking a wedding date a complete no-no?   She has a vary big family in comparison so the wedding needs to be in Utah ideally.  I will have 5-10 family members/friends who would hopefully be present but they need a date to book their travel, accommodation, leave from work etc.

 

Our initial plan was to apply now and book a wedding for March or April 2020 but given that is 8 or 9 months away is it too much of a risk? 

 

Apart from having a courthouse wedding upon arrival then having a full ceremony later in the year how have other couples dealt with this? 

 

 

 

If you don't mind me asking, where in Utah? I live in Ogden, my fiance is Turkish and she's very excited to move here when her visa is ready.