intempestivitas

I'm going to answer myself here as the answer is, in retrospect, obvious (just lapsed my mind). At the interview, they'll take my passport. As they're taking my passport, I *cannot* actually travel until that is issued back to me (with or without included visa). So my whole scenario - and thus question - is moot. Feeling bummed, but head held high

I'd imagine this has already been answered in this long thread - and if it is, please do point the way; searching each page was made difficult as a lot of signatures have the very key words I'd be looking for (no way to hide signatures?) - Gary & Aubrey's question from February might be the closest, but not quite fitting like a glove.

I'll try to keep this succinct - I'm the K1 visa applicant from The Netherlands, fiancé is the petitioner from the U.S.

At the beginning of the year we made plans for our wedding later this year, based on expected delays and additional margin. Suffice to say, the delays were much longer. Our mistake and we have no problem accepting that and working with what we've got. However, what we've got now is me having an interview scheduled (also much delayed compared to the website's delay claims ... spotting a pattern) at 9 days before the date we had picked, and I would obviously prefer arriving even sooner so that I can be there to help everything get set up.

If everything goes well and the visa is issued immediately, there's no problem, I will enter on the K1 and go from there.

But what if things don't go well and the visa visa will be issued at a later time?

Optimistically I would say "I'll just travel as a visitor with a return ticket, we'll go through with the wedding ceremony (but NOT the legal papers required for marriage / nor is it a religious ceremony / in other words for everybody but us it would be 'just for show')" - but what exactly would happen if the visa ends up getting issued while I'm over there? I wouldn't be able to 'enter' the country with the K1 visa because 1. I'm already in the country and 2. I wouldn't actually have the documents. Would I have to cut the trip short and pick those materials up asap and go from there, or could I do so at any time (within the 90 days to get legally married), thus leaving us with the freedom to proceed with the ceremony / honeymoon?

I'd love to learn why this would be a bad idea (besides being a logistical nightmare) - or, if this is a so-so idea, what materials I should bring with me just in case?

tl;dr: Traveling between the date of the interview and the date of K1 visa issuance - go or no go?

Side-question: What if things don't go well at all and the visa is actually denied? As one of the visitor visa (ESTA) questions is usually whether you've ever been denied a visa, that question would go from 'no' to 'yes' while I'm there.

Thank you so much in advance.