Evelyne

Hello,

Like most of what everyone has been said, I think it is best that you do to follow the legal way. Yes, I have also heard of people doing things like that and I honestly think it is taking a huge and potentially life-destroying risk. If you want to marry in the US, do it the legal way, come back home and apply for a CR-1. You can always spend some time LEGALLY before going back home but it is really safe to prove the Immigration that you didnt have an intent to stay in the USA. Returning home after getting married before you overstay and apply for a CR-1 while in Canada is the safest and less risky way to emigrate.

I understand the desire for us to be with their husband or wife but everybody is sacrificing quite a bit to enter the USA legally and you should try this way. Like I said there is nothing wrong about getting married in the USA, spend some time with your husband within the LEGAL ]tourist visa limits. But don't enter the USA with the intent to stay at any time, it is a gamble and it is illegal. I certainly do not want to risk my marriage with that approach, regardless of whoever succesfully entered the country this way....

Correct me if I am wrong with that advice.

The NOA phase can take anywhere from 3-6 months on average, not bearing any hiccups along the way like missing paperwork which you get an RFE for. After that is the consulate phase where you get a package, fill it out, send it back and they schedule you an interview. If you live from Man. west you interview in Vancouver, which is about a 2 month wait on interviews, if you are Ontario east, you'll be in Montreal which can get really backlogged and is usually in around 3-4 months average. If your NOA1 just went through in January, you'll be looking roughly around August/September in best case scenario for completion.

For CR1, you will have to start all over, new fee's and more waiting. They all go through MTL, there are no CR1 interviews in VAN, and roughly 10-11 months is your timeline there, putting you in the states probably sometime next summer as you will need to wait for your marriage cert etc to apply. Is there any way you can pay a small fee to get the date changed to later this year or the beginning of next? If you can it will probably save you a lot of time and money, its one of the reasons we stress not to book anything with solid dates until you have your visa in hand, because so much can be bumpy in this process.

Your response have been very helpful. I personally don't mind waiting an extra few months to get married but my fiancé had already told everyone on his side about July 30th and making it more difficult to cancel or postpone the wedding as 95% of the guests are out of town/country. Also, because of the risk of him being re-deployed he doesn't want to postpone it any longer. So I am gathering all possible options before making a final decision on the whole process.

Hello,

I am wondering if anyone from Canada had made a K-1 visa application to drop it and change it to CR-1 ? Anyone has been married inside the USA to an American without the K-1 visa ?? I know this is a general question but we want to explore our options as we applied for a K-1 visa but had serious delays due to some issue with our application and we tentatively booked July 30th for a catholic wedding. Our NO1 was accepted January 12, 2011. But we are not sure about the timeline. We sent our application in September 2010 but it was returned twice (one for a forgotten signature, and the second because the fees were reduced and they returned it again).

Any feedback, comments is appreciated !

Hello,

My fiancé sent his I-129F form from Iraq to the Dallas service centre September 3rd, 2010. We have still yet not received any confirmation or any NOA1 notice. I am wondering how do I find out if they received the package and also I am wondering how long does it take in average to get the NOA1 ...Your help and advice is much appreciated..

The timeline varies, I heard some people got 5 months some get more of 1 year of waiting. It has several factors and it most of it doesn't have to do with your nationality. Simply stay honest and patient and give the all the info needed and the process will be smoother and faster.

we chose the k-1 because we thought it would be the fatest process among all, and because we don't think we can handle being apart while married.

Hi,

My fiance sent out the I-129F packet to the Dallas lockbox but he realized he forgot to add his Letter of Intent in the packet. Will that affect the application ? We don't want delays ...

We need help ! My fiance is currently deployed in Iraq and is starting to fill out the K-1 visa forms as we plan to get married in May 7, 2011. He doesn't know what address to put on the visa as he is about to return in 2 months and will not have a current address to put on the form. How should we proceed with that ??