conquistador

I just wanted to thank you for this old thread, and share my frustration that it's not remotely clear from the form itself or the instructions USCIS gives for the form that you're supposed to put that red number in that box.  

13 hours ago, Boiler said:

It is just a risk, varies according to situation, and one that is needless.

 

Depends on how risk adverse you are.

 

 

Because I was already 3 months into the process before anybody told me I shouldn't do it, and because I would have had to wait another 3 months before I would have been able to travel back to Peru to get a civil wedding and then re-file with the spouse visa, it was a risk we were willing to take to start our life sooner.  The "risk" you're referring to is based on a bunch of other cases from people coming from other countries with their own laws, and likely missing the fact that the denial cases are much more likely to post on here than the approvals are.  It's sort of like saying you should never get married because you've gone on a relationship advice site and discovered that every relationship ends terribly.  We were confident that the law in Peru was on our side, and so were all 3 lawyers we talked to.   Everyone should make their own decision based on their own individual circumstances.  

I just wanted to post an update to this.  After I decided to continue with the K1 visa, choosing to believe the immigration lawyers I had talked to and disregarding the advice of several members on here, I've avoided coming back here because I didn't want to be constantly worrying about getting denied and having to start all over (I was worrying anyway, but oh well).  I don't doubt that you were all intending to help, but my fiancee's visa was just approved a couple days ago.  When she went to the interview, she was open about the fact that we already had a catholic wedding, and brought with her a letter from the Archdiocese of Lima which gave dispensation to have a Catholic wedding there without a civil wedding.  She had previously arranged this with the church, and was given permission to do it after explaining that we were doing it so that we could live together sooner.  At the end of the interview, she got an RFE requesting that she provide something called a constancia negativa de inscripcion de matrimonio.  I think it's basically a record that the Peruvian government keeps to show who is single and who is married.  After she provided that, we were approved in a couple weeks.  So that's at least one data point that a religious ceremony does not mean you will automatically get denied for a K1 visa.  If I had to start over, I don't know if I would choose this route again, but in our case it made the process faster because I would have had to wait a long time before I would be able to travel back to Peru and do another ceremony.  It has worked out for us in the end.  From my understanding, according to US law, if you have a ceremony in another country, you're only considered married by the US if you're considered married by the other country.  Because Peruvian law requires a civil wedding to be considered married, and we could prove that we didn't have a civil wedding, we were not considered married.  This probably varies a lot depending on the country, but that's how it worked for us with Peru.  I hope my experience helps someone, and I wish you all the best of luck on your own visa journeys!  

8 hours ago, JFH said:

Which country is she from? The religious wedding could be a huge problem, bigger than the tourist visa issue. 

I appreciate everyone trying to help.  I spoke to another lawyer today, via the link on this website, who also told me that as long as Peru doesn't consider us married, we should be fine.  Every country has different laws for marriage, and every situation is different, so I don't want to jump to the conclusion that just because some other people who had different situations had their visa rejected, I should assume that mine will be also.  I think I'm going to take the legal advice of two immigration lawyers over the good intentions of non-lawyers on the internet.  The other factor is, if we wanted to start over with the CR1 visa, I probably wouldn't be able to travel to Peru for a civil wedding for at least a couple months anyway, so waiting to see how the fiancee visa plays out seems like the better option for us.  I'll try to remember to keep you posted on how it turns out.  I suspect that many people do what we are doing and have their visas approved, but the smaller number who get theirs denied are more likely to complain about it on the internet.  

She is from Peru.  I spoke to an immigration lawyer about it a long time ago, and the lawyer told me if Peru doesn't consider us married, (which they don't, because to be legally married in Peru you need to do a civil wedding) USCIS wouldn't consider us married, so I could do the fiancee visa.  Do you think I misunderstood the lawyer, or perhaps you are generalizing your experiences from countries that have different laws?  

I am USC, fiancee lives abroad.  I filed for her K1 visa in November.  She is planning to visit for 3 weeks on a tourist visa.  She has visited several times previously on tourist visas and never overstayed her visa, but all those times were before we filed for the K1.  We did a religious wedding in her country in November, but are still not legally married.  She lost her full-time job last year, and has been living with her mother since then, with only occasional self-employment work.  Now we are worried that it will be difficult for her to prove strong ties to her country when she visits.  I did a little research on here, and I saw some people suggest bringing the NoA and show that she came on a round-trip ticket would help.  She also has ownership of an apartment in her name, but she doesn't actually live there (the way she explained it to me, a family member paid for the apartment, but put it in her name because she is single, and it saves taxes somehow) 

1.  I know there are no guarantees, but do you think it's likely that she will be allowed into the US this time?

2.  Any other suggestions on how she could prove strong ties?

3.  Would changing the length of her visit make any difference?  If we made it shorter, would she be more likely to be allowed in?  If we made it longer once she gets here, would that cause any problems in the visa process, as long as she returns before the visa expires? 

4. Would bringing evidence of ownership of the apartment be helpful to prove strong ties?  

5. Regarding the apartment, I put the apartment that is in her name as her current address on the 129, before she explained the full story on it.  Do you think that could cause any problems for us later on?  When we do our interview, are they likely to ask us what her current address is?  

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Feel free to move to another forum if it's more appropriate.  I wasn't sure where to put this.