No, you CANNOT file a I-129F and marry while waiting.

[Copperblade 0]

Tsk. tsk. Everyone is so judgemental. Some people also have biological constraints in which to work. You can't have kids for the "next 60 or so years"

Anyway, I wouldn't begrudge a single legitimate (i.e. really want to be married) couple for taking a short cut. In my opinion it is their right to be together, and it's just a case of sour grapes to be upset about it. Of course, I'd never want to risk attempting something like that myself.

Edited June 22, 2009 by Copperblade

[ghosttridder 0]

Tsk. tsk. Everyone is so judgemental. Some people also have biological constraints in which to work. You can't have kids for the "next 60 or so years"

Anyway, I wouldn't begrudge a single legitimate (i.e. really want to be married) couple for taking a short cut. In my opinion it is their right to be together, and it's just a case of sour grapes to be upset about it. Of course, I'd never want to risk attempting something like that myself.

LOLZ everyone is so judgemental because they are pissed off that they have to under go this grueling process haha, but they won't admit it. They suck up to a system probably to sike themselves up and to get themselves going. #### kissing will get you nowhere.

[Krikit 1,163]

This is a VERY old thread, people, so I wouldn't get too upset about what's posted here. (original topic posted almost two years ago.)

The hardest thing for me to accept was the fact there was no recognized status/application for people planning to be married in another country.

There is. It's called a spousal visa.

[Copperblade 0]

This is a VERY old thread, people, so I wouldn't get too upset about what's posted here. (original topic posted almost two years ago.)

The hardest thing for me to accept was the fact there was no recognized status/application for people planning to be married in another country.

There is. It's called a spousal visa.

You can only apply for that after you are married. So if you are planning on getting married (i.e. a fiance) in another country, there is currently nothing you can apply for. At least that's what I was told by more than one lawyer.

Edited June 22, 2009 by Copperblade

[Copperblade 0]

Can someone else confirm that this is true? Specifically, I want to confirm that it's OK to have a religious ceremony in my boyfriend's country - with my friends/family from the US present - and then apply for the K-1 to get married legally in the US? Are there any links (to the USCIS website or elsewhere) that would confirm this? This is exactly what we want to do, but I want to be sure it's possible before starting to make plans. Thanks!

I highly doubt you will find links from USCIS explicitly condoning this. You need to be very careful with this, as this is a slippery slope, and the burden of proof lies with the visa applicant, not the consular officials.

Yeah, I would like a confirmation on this. Having the religious wedding in her country is EXACTLY what we wanted from the beginning. But after speaking with a couple of lawyers it sounded like if you call it a marriage, it doesn't matter if it's legal or not, you won't get approved at the interview. One lawyer said just make sure you don't call it a wedding or say you are married. The other one got all preachy about being married in front of God and it being dishonest to say we weren't really married at the interview. Bleh. Whatever.

The way it works in Indonesia is you must get married religiously first, and then register that marriage with the government. That would indicate to me that unless you register with the government, you're not technically married yet.

[Danu 19]

Can someone else confirm that this is true? Specifically, I want to confirm that it's OK to have a religious ceremony in my boyfriend's country - with my friends/family from the US present - and then apply for the K-1 to get married legally in the US? Are there any links (to the USCIS website or elsewhere) that would confirm this? This is exactly what we want to do, but I want to be sure it's possible before starting to make plans. Thanks!

I highly doubt you will find links from USCIS explicitly condoning this. You need to be very careful with this, as this is a slippery slope, and the burden of proof lies with the visa applicant, not the consular officials.

Yeah, I would like a confirmation on this. Having the religious wedding in her country is EXACTLY what we wanted from the beginning. But after speaking with a couple of lawyers it sounded like if you call it a marriage, it doesn't matter if it's legal or not, you won't get approved at the interview. One lawyer said just make sure you don't call it a wedding or say you are married. The other one got all preachy about being married in front of God and it being dishonest to say we weren't really married at the interview. Bleh. Whatever.

The way it works in Indonesia is you must get married religiously first, and then register that marriage with the government. That would indicate to me that unless you register with the government, you're not technically married yet.

That would be right. A lot of people do this, as long as you dont register in any way that makes you legally married in that country, you will be fine. If they do ask anything you can say that you had the religious ceremony over there so that friends and family could be there but you didn't get married on paper so that you can do a civil ceremony to fulfill the requirements once you get to the states.

[pushbrk 12,234]

This is a VERY old thread, people, so I wouldn't get too upset about what's posted here. (original topic posted almost two years ago.)

The hardest thing for me to accept was the fact there was no recognized status/application for people planning to be married in another country.

There is. It's called a spousal visa.

You can only apply for that after you are married. So if you are planning on getting married (i.e. a fiance) in another country, there is currently nothing you can apply for. At least that's what I was told by more than one lawyer.

Right, you must marry before starting a spouse visa process. There is no process that pre-approves your spouse to-be for a visa in advance of the marriage. Marrying a person living in another country usually involves a period of separation during the immigration process. It comes with the territory.

[msu17 0]

I will probably be tarred and feathered for this one, but so be it.

It seems that people have two motivations for asking this question: a) the wait is just KILLING them and b)they want their fiance's family at the celebration, and this'd be impossible to make happen in the US.

I can totally understand the latter, and this is why we chose to marry in Santa Fe, just the two of us, so the civil ceremony wouldn't be lopsided with all my peeps. And well, Santa Fe is much cooler than Rhode Island. Of course, we both feel terrible about not having something special with the fam and friends, but we're not a normal couple who can plan weddings at their leisure for family members that can travel. We'll survive by doing something special in Cancun for our first anniversary so his family can be there.

It's the former reason I mentioned that gets my knickers all in a twist. I guess I was just different in that I wasn't positively DYING to be with homeboy during the K1 approval process. We even waited longer than necessary to go for his interview to get our ducks all in a row. I guess what I don't understand is why a couple of months wait for the petition to be approved, sent to the consulate, and interview date set is just so terribly long and arduous that people simply must marry before their NOA2. Yeah, the waiting is painful and it is exciting to share these emotions of nervousness, anticipation, and where the heck is my approval with fellow VJers.

But really, the plan is to be with this dude for the next 60 or so years...what's a couple of months apart in the scheme of things?

I'm going to guess that you're probably not of religious/traditionally minded families AND expecting a son who's racing to pop out of his mom's uterus faster than the bureaucrats in St. Albans, Vermont are doing (i.e. should be doing) their job. If you were, would you still feel the same?

I don't know about that individual, but for me I'd feel even more strongly about this. If I have a kid about ready to pop, then I wouldn't get married in the middle of my fiance visa since it would invalidate it and make me have to wait even longer. There is a big difference between getting married and having a wedding. People who ask if they can get married during the K1 are just stupid and clearly can't read. I dont know why they want to do something so stupid and add that much extra time to their wait. If you want to have a wedding before entering, just be careful and make sure nothing you do is considered a legal marriage.

[Got Charmed 0]

I asked that question to the us embassy here in kuwait and here is the response.

If you get married, I-129F will not be valid anymore.

Whenever the I-129F is approved, it will be mailed to us and we will

contact you, at that time, if you are married, you may send us a copy of

the marriage certificate, so we can return the I-129F.

Immigrant Visa Unit

[Got Charmed 0]

here is my question to the us embassy here in kuwait on this subject and thier response:

Since I have already filed a I-129F and its pending I have decided that

we want to get married here in Kuwait and file a I-130 how do I address

the I-129F when it comes?

Whenever the I-129F is approved, it will be mailed to us and we will

contact you, at that time, if you are married, you may send us a copy of

the marriage certificate, so we can return the I-129F.

Immigrant Visa Unit

[Copperblade 0]

July filer too

I'd like to add here that a WEDDING and a LEGAL MARRIAGE are two very different things. So if someone is wanting to do a religious ceremony in their SO's country, they need to check the legalities of it. USCIS clearly tells us that a non-legal religious ceremony is ok, as long is it is not legal in the country in which it takes place.

Good thread, Lisa. Maybe people will read it?

Info on Indonesia:

The US Embassy in Indonesia just confirmed to me this is ok by email. I did not anticipate they would say that it is ok. I do not think it is ok in Indonesia if you have a Muslim wedding, because I think it is automatically a legal marriage. (You can check their site.)

Edited June 24, 2009 by Copperblade

[Alan D. 0]

July filer too

I'd like to add here that a WEDDING and a LEGAL MARRIAGE are two very different things. So if someone is wanting to do a religious ceremony in their SO's country, they need to check the legalities of it. USCIS clearly tells us that a non-legal religious ceremony is ok, as long is it is not legal in the country in which it takes place.

Good thread, Lisa. Maybe people will read it?

Info on Indonesia:

The US Embassy in Indonesia just confirmed to me this is ok by email. I did not anticipate they would say that it is ok. I do not think it is ok in Indonesia if you have a Muslim wedding, because I think it is automatically a legal marriage. (You can check their site.)

We intend to do this for Onkamon and her family. It will be a traditional Thai Buddhist wedding but the legal, paper marriage won't happen until we get back to Oregon.

Also, we're going to wait until she has already passed the interview and has visa in hand before I go back over there for the ceremony. I would love to go over sooner than that, but I only get so much vacation time a year and don't want to risk not being able to bring her back with me.

[Dr_Love 0]

I guess this is a question that will linger on forever if it is not properly addressed. Marriage differs from culture to culture and from religion to religion.

I assume the only way to do this is let everyone from different region or state what they know about marriage and being married:

In Nigeria, I know there are three forms of marriage in the south. ( By south I mean the predominately Christian area)

1. The Introduction ceremony/Traditional marriage

2. The registry

3. The church.

I have always assumed that the first one is non-legal and not recognized in the United States.

This is the process of both families coming together to approve and bless the marriage.

This is usually followed by the registry and finally the Church wedding.

The question is if K-1 is pending, can number 1 be performed and notified the embassy during the interview that there was a non-legal ceremony. This to me will remove the notion that the relationship is fake or non existence. (I might be wrong but can anyone please throw some light into this?).

Right now I am in a similar situation where the family of my fiancée wants me to perform number #1 for them to formally bless the relationship since they know too well that there is no way for them to be present in the states during the legal wedding.

Please those who are knowledgeable and kind enough should enlighten me.

Dr. K

Info on Indonesia:

The US Embassy in Indonesia just confirmed to me this is ok by email. I did not anticipate they would say that it is ok. I do not think it is ok in Indonesia if you have a Muslim wedding, because I think it is automatically a legal marriage. (You can check their site.)

We intend to do this for Onkamon and her family. It will be a traditional Thai Buddhist wedding but the legal, paper marriage won't happen until we get back to Oregon.

Also, we're going to wait until she has already passed the interview and has visa in hand before I go back over there for the ceremony. I would love to go over sooner than that, but I only get so much vacation time a year and don't want to risk not being able to bring her back with me.

[Copperblade 0]

I guess this is a question that will linger on forever if it is not properly addressed. Marriage differs from culture to culture and from religion to religion.

I assume the only way to do this is let everyone from different region or state what they know about marriage and being married:

In Nigeria, I know there are three forms of marriage in the south. ( By south I mean the predominately Christian area)

1. The Introduction ceremony/Traditional marriage

2. The registry

3. The church.

I have always assumed that the first one is non-legal and not recognized in the United States.

This is the process of both families coming together to approve and bless the marriage.

This is usually followed by the registry and finally the Church wedding.

The question is if K-1 is pending, can number 1 be performed and notified the embassy during the interview that there was a non-legal ceremony. This to me will remove the notion that the relationship is fake or non existence. (I might be wrong but can anyone please throw some light into this?).

Right now I am in a similar situation where the family of my fiancée wants me to perform number #1 for them to formally bless the relationship since they know too well that there is no way for them to be present in the states during the legal wedding.

Please those who are knowledgeable and kind enough should enlighten me.

Dr. K

It really depends on the embassy and whether or not the marriage is considered legal. AFAIK, in no way are you able to do this if the marriage is considered legal in Nigeria. I've heard stories that even when the marriage is only ceremonial, the embassy may reject this. However, in my case (Jakarta) they said it was fine, and their website was very specific about what you could and could not do. For example, in Indonesia if you're moslem, then your marriage is already considered legal and therefore cannot do this. Otherwise, you can do it as long as you do not register the marriage with the government, as you would need to do for a spousal visa.

If the "registry" is a government thing, then my guess would be you can't go that far.

My final advice is to get the information from the embassy about what you are allowed to do. You will get varying recommendations from people here.

Edited March 8, 2010 by Copperblade

[pushbrk 12,234]

I guess this is a question that will linger on forever if it is not properly addressed. Marriage differs from culture to culture and from religion to religion.

I assume the only way to do this is let everyone from different region or state what they know about marriage and being married:

In Nigeria, I know there are three forms of marriage in the south. ( By south I mean the predominately Christian area)

1. The Introduction ceremony/Traditional marriage

2. The registry

3. The church.

I have always assumed that the first one is non-legal and not recognized in the United States.

This is the process of both families coming together to approve and bless the marriage.

This is usually followed by the registry and finally the Church wedding.

The question is if K-1 is pending, can number 1 be performed and notified the embassy during the interview that there was a non-legal ceremony. This to me will remove the notion that the relationship is fake or non existence. (I might be wrong but can anyone please throw some light into this?).

Right now I am in a similar situation where the family of my fiancée wants me to perform number #1 for them to formally bless the relationship since they know too well that there is no way for them to be present in the states during the legal wedding.

Please those who are knowledgeable and kind enough should enlighten me.

Dr. K

My advice would be to use the visit itself as further evidence of a bona fide relationship and avoid any mention of a ceremony of any kind. This is the highest fraud Consulate, so don't play with the flame.