jq123

Can't say for sure but it should not be a problem. Your wife should be prepared with an honest explanation of the initial error. The attorney should provide that explanation for her.

I figured as much. It was just a clerical error, and the attorney apologized for it.

Hi, I'm her husband from the U.S. I know it's silly to worry over these little things, but I just wanted to ask: would such an error (even if we corrected it by giving her the corrected form with my original signature) cause her problems at the interview or delay the processing of her visa? Even though it really wouldn't affect anything financially since it's my brother-in-law that's joint sponsoring (since he's more than eligible and all the documentation is 100% correct with him).

Good. I have tons of e-mails and skype info. The problem is, it's way too large. I'm taking an e-mail convo from every month since we started talking in October, and am submitting 2 or 3 skype calls every month (via screenshot).

Also have copies of all of her boarding passes for her trips, as well as a joint bank account we just opened together post wedding. Also have about 20 photos from the engagement ceremony, wedding reception, our trips to sea world, florida aquarium, saying goodbye at the airport and stuff.

Not to mention photos of wedding cards and gifts, as well as gift receipts of stuff we gave to each other.

Also, I'm about to get 4 or 5 sworn affidavits.

Sound good?

Does the evidence prior to marriage still help one's case (engagement ring receipts, talks about getting married, evidence of prior visit for engagement ceremony, etc. )?

Well I discussed all the details of my case with an immigration attorney, and he concluded what you were all saying (accounting for additional processing times and whatnot). That the IR-1/CR-1 route is the best. It actually works well within her timeline for her schooling also. He concluded that the K-1 is essentially a waste of time and it's just way too complicated.

I know you're all going to say "I told you so", but hearing it from a legal expert makes it that much better. :-P

Never mind, I checked some old threads and everything seems okay.

Do I, as the primary sponsor, need any income? As a medical student, I have none. My mom pays for my education. I'm dependent on her.

I'm just trying to plan ahead so there are no hitches in this process. My mom will be supporting me and her until I become a doctor, and she has more than enough in income and assets to do this.

I think I've decided to go for the K1 route so we could get started on the process now and account for any pending delays. She was born in the UK, but her parents are from Pakistan (who immigrated to the UK), and she has traveled to Pakistan once every 2 years, and I heard that can definitely prolong processing times. I'm a US Citizen (born and raised in Florida, but parents are Pakistani), yet I haven't traveled out of the country since I was 9. But I heard there are extra security checks if the immigrating fiancee/spouse has any ties to Pakistan, even if she was born in the UK.

Our intent was to get married as it's culturally/religiously not wise to be stuck in engagement this long, but I think we've decided to both tough it out and just keep in constant contact. It kind of stinks that we've talked all this time yet we've only met once, and it was when we decided to get engaged after months of talking.

I know this question is more appropriate for the K1 visa forum, but that meeting with lots of photographic evidence of the engagement ceremony is enough to satisfy the requirements, right? I have Skype logs as well, and she probably has copies of her boarding passes/passport stamps from her trip to Florida.

The CBP official you spoke to was simply wrong. The K1 was created so that there would be a path to bring a foreign fiance to the USA, marry AND AND AND stay to adjust status to permanent resident. It is not a requirement for marriage. The US does not require any special visa to MARRY. HOWEVER, if a CBP agent gets the impression a marriage to a US citizen is the purpose of the trip, they may well deny entry, not because of MARRIAGE but because of IMMIGRANT INTENT. Your fiancee DOES NOT INTEND TO IMMIGRATE, so she should avoid giving that impression upon entry and get on with the plans you've made.

I see. So the fact the K-1 is classified as a dual intent visa is due to the fact that there's marrying AND staying involved, not just marrying. Good point.

Yet thousands of people on tourist visas get married here every day. Think of destination weddings, or Vegas weddings. You can look at NYC city hall, which has had an ad campaign aimed at foreign tourists wanting to get married in NY because it's "romantic."

Just to play devil's advocate here, couldn't one just say "Those are tourists, not U.S. citizens. One cannot get married to a U.S. citizen on a tourist visa. The K1 was created for that intent. The IR-1/CR-1 was created to recognize marriages done in other countries.".

In fact, that's the kind of response I got from the OIA CBP Official. He said that the K1 was created for marrying USCs on US soil, period.

Your concerns have been addressed over and over again by several of the senior members here. No guarantees are available, just appropriate counsel.

I understand, and I'll drop the topic now.

whoops, made a mistake

That's why you are being educated to have your fiance give truthful but generic answers if asked the purpose of the visit. We're going around in circles here needlessly. There is never ANY way you can assure a successful entry to a country of which one is not a citizen but there's no need to stress over it like this.

I apologize for all of this. This is just very new to me and it's just a bit scary. I think I'm just going to have to toughen up.

Hundreds of members on this site did just that: the foreign partner goes to the US to get married and goes back home then start a CR1 application.

You're digging too deep and making yourself sick for nothing.

What you have to understand is how to interact with the CBP officer: NO lying, but no volunteering of information either.

Morevoer, visitors from VWP are generally not subject to questionning at all, unless they've spent a large amount of time in the US in the recent past. Last time I went to the US (before being married), the officer did NOT ask me why I was coming. She asked me who lived at the address I wrote on the form, and I answered the truth: my fiancé's cousin. Well, she didn't ask me anything else, not if my fiancé was a USC, not how long I was intending to stay, not if I was planning to stay and marry my fiancé and adjust status, not if I had a return flight, NOTHING. She actually handed me my passport with the entry stamp in it before I had finished my sentence.

I'm a chronic worrier, lol. I'm just wondering if could affect things down the road when trying to get the green card, will they say "Oh, she came to the U.S. for a week, got married, and left. She misused the VWP."

I'm new to this legalese thing.

I just want to make sure my concerns are addressed.

I called Customs and Border Patrol at Orlando International Airport and they said that everyone who comes to the U.S. to get married to a USC needs a K1. They say that they assume that anyone who gets married to a USC intends to stay 100% of the time.

There's no way to prove otherwise, even class registration, lease agreements, etc.

I guess what would put everyone (especially me) at ease here is if we have something from an Immigration official saying that this is okay, that is, having the intent to marry but not stay (that is, leave within a week or two) on a Tourist Visa/VWP, as long as one can provide proof that one is returning. Is there anything official?

You are not listening. You've been advised to give a TRUTHFUL but generic answer. Failure to mention a wedding, even your own wedding as one item on your travel agenda bears the same consequence as failing to mention each and every restaurant you will go to or whether you might stop by a barber shop or public library. The US doesn't require a special visa to get married, like the UK does but if the CBP officer even thinks you might be planning on staying instead of leaving, they can deny entry.

Alright, sounds good!

Okay, so it is NOT fraudulent to get married on a travel visa if you do not intend to stay.

However, isn't not telling the full truth about your reason for visit considered fraudulent?

Topic. Does it? I am a medical student in the US, my fiancee is in the UK. My mom definitely has enough money to sponsor her. I looked at the forms and there's nothing suggesting that.

"Marriage should not be immediately after you land in the US:

It is generally not advisable that you get married immediately after landing in the US. If the marriage happens all of a sudden, and you can prove that, you may be alright. But if you entered with preconceived marriage plans, then it is recommended that you get married only after spending a reasonable period of time in the US on your tourist visa."

http://www.visapro.com/Immigration-Articles/?a=1252&z=36

What is considered a reasonable amount of time?

Alright, so the best route is to get married here in the US and have her leave after a week or two. I'm going to have to convince her to come for another visit. (She came for the first one earlier this month for the engagement)

There was a person who got Islamically married in the UK and then had to go to great lengths to prove that the marriage was dissolved to get approved for immigration benefits for her new husband. They were sure she was a bigamist. The religious marriage held weight, it didn't matter if it was "legal" or not. I have heard of other reports in other countries of people being denied a K-1 visa for having a religious marriage. You could get Islamically married in the US and start the spousal visa process. It's cheaper and more convenient and only about a month longer.

To answer the question above of how it got here, the OP suggested it as a possible course of action.

Thank you for this. The problem is, when she comes to the U.S. airport, and you say "marriage", apparently they get all uppity and think you're going to try to file for AOS. We are not. We want to do this the right way.

Can she just say she's just visiting? I know it's not the complete truth, but it seems like no matter what route I take, there's going to be a point where there's a half truth being told. If I apply for K1 with a religious marriage, and they ask "are you married?" and we say "no", it's a half truth. According to UK and US law, no, we're not. But religiously, we are.

The point is, I want the actual visa process to be honest and transparent as possible. I like doing things by the books.

There was a recent thread where this very issue was debated. One school of thought said that the US GOVT would acknowledge the religious marriage as being legally binding and view you as a married person for immigration purposes. The other school of thought said that the US Govt would not acknowledge the religious marriage as a legally binding marriage. The jury is still out for me on this, I have not heard a convincing argument or heard a convincing example of why the US GOVT would acknowledge religious marriages as being legally binding and demand that someone produce a civil marriage certificate from a religious ceremony. I would have to talk with someone at the USCIS or an Immigrant Visa Unit to get the precise answer on how the US GOVT interprets this law to be satisfied myself. I would advise you to get an "Official" ruling from the US GOVT in this regard before proceeding down this path to save yourself time and make sure you are in compliance with the US GOVT immigration laws. I am sure they have run into this scenario on many occasions.

If I were to get a religious marriage in the UK, yet the UK requires a civil certificate for something to be considered legal and the religious marriage alone doesn't satisfy the requirements of being legal, then by all means, how is it considered a legal marriage? This is beyond me.

Have you considerd apply for a different visa?

Another option for me is to get "religiously married" to remove all the barriers of communication (since me and my fiancee follow Islamic customs when it comes to communication, and once you're married "religiously" the relationship becomes less strained and more open), but not get a civil certificate (this can be done without issue since the Islamic marriage is very easy to conduct) and apply for a fiancee visa. The reason we wanted to do the marriage was to remove strain on the relationship while the visa is undergoing processing.

Is this considered fraudulent? If they found out that I was "religiously" married but I have no legal certificate, could my wife be denied a fiancee visa?

I am against lying.

But she has no intent to stay here. She needs to go back to finish her studies. The point is to just get legally married and that's it, and then I can start a legal immigration route while she finishes her studies. We want to do a legal marriage because we see no reason not to since we're committed. Plus, she has the time to come over here and get it done, then she can go back and finish her degree (approx a year) and by that time she'll be able to move here.

There will be no visa fraud going on here. She's not going to stay here after she gets legally married.

It all depends what kind of wedding you want, if you want a big ceremony and everything then it will take a lot more planning than if you just want a court house wedding. We just had a quick court house wedding, if you are doing that your best bet is to call the court house in advance and ask for the requirements because we were ment to get married in Louisiana but they needed a birth certificate and all kinds of other documents but texas only needed a passport which is why we got married there because ovbiously i didnt have anything else with me, but if you plan ahead you can make sure your fiance has all the right documents for a florida wedding and it shouldnt be a problem as long as you give yourself enough time to cover the waiting period. I didnt fly to the US with the intent to get married, so i dont know how kindly they would take to a pre planned event when she gets to the POE though.

I was wanting just a legal thing done. No full blown ceremony. How do they determine 'intent'?