guitarlifter

The CR-1 is never the ideal solution. No one is thrilled with how long the K-1 or CR-1/IR-1 takes to bring their loved ones here, but it's the proper and legal way to go about the process.

What your lawyer suggested is immigration fraud (not to say that tons of people aren't doing it all the time). Entering with intent to immigrate and adjust status is immigration fraud. And if she lies at the border, that's a much bigger issue. If they ask the purpose of her trip and she says "to go to Church" and that is clearly not her intent, that's potential trouble.

Also, you've now posted in a public forum that if she came and stayed it would be with the intent to immigrate, despite whatever she tells them at the border.

All anyone on VJ can do is advise you to do it the legal way by applying for a CR-1 visa and waiting for the visa to come through.

I was speaking hypothetically. I am already against this idea anyway. I was just explaining how the lawyer said things would go down, but apparently that's not allowed, so I will not elaborate any further. Suffice to say now, I feel better with the responses here than what the lawyer gave me, and I'll definitely avoid this avenue for my future wife's immigration. I was just exploring the avenue is all as a part of the deliberation process.

Or, go to Canada, get legally married now (courthouse), then file the CR-1 for your wife. Keep your wedding plans, do a big celebratory wedding (everything except make it legal because you already did), and you'll only have a (potentially) few more months until her visa is issued after the wedding.

Immigration takes a little bit of the romance out of things, but it's the way it is. Better to do it legally and properly now than have a problem down the road. I see the USCIS like the IRS....you make think it was years ago and have forgotten, but they never forget!

Trust me, if my fiancée wanted to do it this way, I would. But, since we haven't really known each other very long, she wants to wait until our wedding day. It's not my preference, but I understand where she's coming from, and I respect it. We'll have to find another way other than the one you suggested (and of course not committing fraud). For the record to everyone and to the person who pointed out my other thread, I'm not trying to commit fraud. Finding legal loopholes (such as the having a religious ceremony only in Canada, then getting legally married in the US so that we can use the K-1 Visa route), I am open to, but no fraud.

As the others have mentioned what your lawyer is telling you is fraud. Follow the CR1 path or do the Fiance and cancel your wedding plans.

Before the 1990 Canadians used to be able to do just that. That option is no longer available, and that lawyer should be avoided at all cost since she is gambling with you lives not hers, and yes the US does care about intent. Why else would the lawyer tell you to not let them know why she is crossing that day?

~~VisaJourney cannot Condone or instruct, either directly or indirectly, others on how to commit fraudulent or illegal immigration activities in any way, shape, manner or method.- Any discussion on how to do what this lawyer suggested will result in thread bans and or suspension.~~

~~Moved to What Visa do I Need, from AOS from Family.~~

I apologize for bringing this up, but I was just wanting to understand what the lawyer suggested is all. I think I have a better understanding. Feel free to close/delete this thread if you like.

Long story short, my Canadian fiancée and I (US citizen) are getting married at the end of this year in Canada. We want to move to the US immediately after getting married. However, because of our ignorance of the US immigration laws prior to booking venues and spending thousands of dollars on nonrefundable things like that, our options for having my fiancée be able to immediately move to the US after marriage complicated. Obviously the K-1 Visa requires that one gets married INSIDE of the US after coming over within a 90 day period. That isn't usable by my us since we'll be married before she comes over. Our only choice would be to hold a "religious ceremony" that involves no marriage license although that can cause issues too. The next option is the CR-1, but with a 1-year+ wait time, that's not ideal either. This is where things get interesting.

Ok, so I called vital statistics of BC (who deal with marriage licenses in BC), and the woman there told me that (1) a license must be signed in order for the marriage to be legal and recognized by BC, and (2) the person performing the wedding must be licensed under BC to do so, which my father isn't because you specifically have to go do that. She said that a religious ceremony would not be a legal wedding. In fact, she has had people do a religious ceremony without the license, and it wasn't a legal wedding. There were a couple other scenarios that she gave me where people did something wrong and, although they had a religious ceremony, their marriage wasn't legal. So she was certain that my father could come in, do the ceremony, and it wouldn't be a legal wedding and allowable.

She did recommend not mentioning the religious ceremony though, and she made a good point. She said that it wouldn't be hiding anything because we didn't get married and can still legitimately claim that we are both single, so what's the point? We're not lying at all, and it's not like they're going to ask if we had a religious ceremony or got wed so long as we don't bring pictures of the wedding, wear our wedding rings, or anything of that nature. It's our own personal business. So now I am leaning toward not mentioning it. Whenever we cross the border now, we are probably going to mention that our wedding date has changed to a later date because it actually will have been changed since we are now getting married in late December/early January in the US. I wouldn't want the border questioning us about being married because they see that date.

Ok, so I have sat down with my fiancée, and we have gone over our options over and over, and what we're leaning towards is this: we're wanting to still have a religious ceremony that is not legally binding or recognized in Canada (which is where we will be having the ceremony).

I called visa services, and they said that having a religious, non-legally binding ceremony that is not recognized as a marriage in Canada before entering the US with a K1 Visa to then get legally married (with the license and everything) in the US is allowable. We're planning on being upfront with everything with the USCIS, and we're going to bring as much documentation as possible to prove that (1) our wedding ceremony was NOT a legal marriage, nor is it recognized in Canada as a marriage and (2) we are planning on getting married in the US.

To do this, we plan on having my father do the wedding ceremony, but we are going to purposely not get him licensed to wed us in British Columbia so that he has no legal power to marry us there. Also, we're going to probably get a video of him stating who he is, that he officiated the ceremony, and that he has no legal power in the province of British Columbia (or anywhere in Canada for that matter) to legally wed a couple (maybe with an accompanying letter as well). We'd also probably provide a picture and/or short video of him officiating a part of the wedding to prove that he was the one doing it. And then we'd also get a court date for getting legally married in the US set up in advance before going to any K1 interview or crossing the border, and we would bring documentation proving that we have that date set up. I will bring the printed out laws (straight from official websites) concerning marriage in BC and Canada that relate to my situation and lay out a very clear showing that we did not have a legally binding marriage and are still "free to marry."

Also, since this is Canada, a neighboring country to the US that is very well-connected with it, wouldn't it be easy to prove that we aren't married by them doing a search in a marriage database of some sort? It's not like we're from Nepal, Nigeria, or some other far away, drastically different country where it might be hard to find out whether or not we're married. We are also NEXUS members and have never hidden anything from either country.

This seems to be the only way we can get to be with one another without having to wait after marriage, and we believe that the risk is low since, in Canada, a Christian, non-Catholic wedding ceremony, especially when done by someone who is not ordained in BC (or anywhere in Canada) and without a marriage license, is not a legally-recognized wedding in Canada.

If anyone has any new information that they can/would like to bring to the situation, I'd like to hear it. I am aware that they "can" reject me, but Canada's marriage laws are very similar to the US' laws concerning marriage and should be easy to navigate as long as I lay out everything very clearly with proof.

Ok, so I have a new question. My fiancée and I spoke with a person at the border from the US, and he said that a K3 Visa would be what I want (see first post for my situation) and that I could immediately begin applying for it (of course with the I-130 and I-129F first). Is that true? Would that be the fastest way of getting my fiancée into the states?

a) you won't. The beneficiary must have permission to travel after entering the US (assuming we're talking about the K-1 visa again). Otherwise her adjustment of status will be voided.

b) contact the registry for your province and see what they say. https://www.vs.gov.bc.ca/marriage/

It sounds like to me you are trying to make this process even more complicated than it is. You set a wedding date without thought of US immigration and now you want to move together immediately. Sadly, this process does not take into account what WE want. I wanted 10 months without my husband. It was tough but we got through it. You can too.

good luck

Well things are set regardless, so I am just working with what I was given by her (she's been doing the planning). Would it be possible to pull her over via another way like a work visa or school visa, and go from there for an adjustment of status?

Hmm ... all of this information is interesting and potentially conflicting. I'll give some more details. My father, a Lutheran (obviously non-Catholic) pastor from the United States, is going to be officiating the wedding. Would he have the license to legally do a wedding in Canada if his license came from the US? Also, will it not be a legal marriage since my father is not a Catholic pastor and if he doesn't sign any sort of marriage papers?

Otherwise, how else could I either: (a) be able to get an exemption after marriage in the US to be allowed to go back to Canada to have the ceremony after getting married in the US legally, or (b) make sure that the wedding ceremony is very clearly not a legal marriage before entering into the US?

Hello all,

My fiancée and I are engaged to be married on December 19th, 2015, and we have a venue booked and everything, so it's too late to back out of the date or location (which is in British Columbia). She is Canadian, and I am a US Citizen. She is wanting to immigrate to the US, and we don't want to have to wait for her to be able to come over. The K1 Visa allows us her to immediately move to the US after getting married (before actually, which is fine), but it doesn't allow the marriage to occur outside of the US. And other Visas look like they can't even be applied for until AFTER we get married, which would leave her outside of the US for months or longer, right?

So, in essence, we want to find a way that would allow for all of the following conditions to be met:

1. Have us hold a wedding ceremony on December 19th, 2015, in Canada. (Does not have to be legally binding if it allows things to flow more smoothly)

2. Have her be able to move to the United States either before or immediately after the marriage.

So I have already done some research, and I've found a couple of ideas out there that may or may not work.

1. First hold a religious, non-legally binding marriage CEREMONY, and then cross over the border (via a K1 Visa) and get married legally. However, I have heard issues with those on K1 Visas getting denied entry even just because of a wedding ceremony that had no legal documents attached to it.

2. Move to the US (via a K1 Visa), get legally married here, then go back to Canada to have a ceremony. However, how can she leave the US if the K1 doesn't allow her to leave until the AOS or an AP is acquired? In our case, we don't want to have to have her live in the US for 2+ months before she can leave again (and we might not even have the K1 ready that early anyway to even afford two extra months to have her sit in the US to get an AP). We don't want our legal and relgiious aspects of our wedding to be so far apart anyway.

I'm guessing the 2nd option here is the more likely option to have a chance at being successful. I read the following, which MIGHT make us first getting legally married in the US and then having the wedding ceremony in Canada possible:

"Question:
I’m in the U.S. on a K-1 fiance visa, which I’ve read is good for only one entry into the United States. But to get ready for the wedding, a friend of mine wants to take me shopping in Toronto, Canada. Someone told me that that’s okay, that I can come back again based on my fiance visa. Is that true?
Answer:
For once, the rumors are true: Although the K-1 visa is single entry, its holder can take advantage of a concept called “automatic revalidation.” That means that you can take a short trip – of up to 30 days -- to either Canada or Mexico, without having to give up your I-94 when you leave.
But you’ll definitely need to take a copy of your Form I-94, as well as your passport. (For extra safety, make copies of both and leave them with a friend in the U.S.) So long as you are within the time limit on the I-94 when you ask to come back, and haven’t become inadmissible to the U.S., you should be allowed reentry for the balance of the time remaining on your I-94.
This possibility comes from the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, at 22 C.F.R. Section 41.112.
Any time you leave the U.S., however, you are taking a risk. A U.S. border official could be unfamiliar with this provision of the law, or not believe that you’re still planning to get married, or could decide that you have become inadmissible. Consult an experienced immigration attorney for a personal analysis.
Also, you didn’t mention which country you are from, but if it’s among those that the U.S. considers to be “state sponsors of terrorism,” you will be ineligible for automatic visa revalidation. As of early 2014, that list included Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Sudan."

So would that allow my fiancée and I to get legally married in the US, have the ceremony in Canada, then return to the US within 30 days? Although the sentence, "A U.S. border official could be unfamiliar with this provision of the law, or not believe that you’re still planning to get married, or could decide that you have become inadmissible," makes it sound like this provision is only allowable before the K1 visa holder get married.

I've also considered the immigrant visa, but I would only want to consider it if she were to be able to move into the US immediately after getting married to me. I'm not sure how, but maybe there is some sort of provision or something.

What do you guys think?