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Hey guys, long story short. I'm a petitioner who legally entered the U.S. in 2008 and haven't left since (10 years of continuous presence, not that it matters in my case). Met my husband in 2016 and we got married in 2018 in a private ceremony. Both of my parents are in my home country. Though they know (suspect) that I'm gay (I'm 30 now and have never had a girlfriend haha), they're not supportive of my "lifestyle". As the only child, I'm close to my parents, but when it comes to my sexual orientation, there's nothing that they can do to change it. I plan on disclosing it at a more appropriate time but it's unlikely that they'll fully come around before my interview this year. (I haven't been back for 10 years. If the first thing I tell them is that I married a guy, they would really get disappointed. Think about it.)
My husband is from a Catholic family, his parents are divorced. His mother knows he's gay but we're not sure how to tell his family about our marriage.
My question is, are the private ceremony and the lack of knowledge from both of our parents a red flag? I think this is really a unique situation faced by many same sex couples. Being able to be who I am is one of the reason I stayed in the U.S after all these years before I met my husband. Other than these two things, we have a pretty normal marriage, with shared finances, almost daily outings (dinner together), etc. I don't think USCIS will call my parents about my marriage, but they may have suspicion on my husband's side. I'm certain the documents we have and the connection between us can pass the interview, but if our officer is fixated on this parents thing, I'm worried that we may run into trouble.
Just to be clear, both of us are "out" to the extent that we're comfortable with. Since I spent my 20s in the U.S., all of my friends here know, so do my old high school classmates back in my country. Coming out to friends / classmates is very different than coming out to one's parents. Coming out to parents is different than getting married to a same sex partner. (My parents still wanted me to marry a female and have a normal family with grandkids after they slowly came around to the fact that I'm "probably" gay.)
Worse comes to worst, we'll let both of our parents know that we're married. It's our life. But we'd rather do it on our own schedule and not cause any havoc in our marriage.
Just asking for advices. Does anyone have any similar experience? I know being truthful is the best answer. Hopefully our explanation will convince our interviewer if our marriage is not disclosed to our parents by the time of the interview.
My husband is from a Catholic family, his parents are divorced. His mother knows he's gay but we're not sure how to tell his family about our marriage.
My question is, are the private ceremony and the lack of knowledge from both of our parents a red flag? I think this is really a unique situation faced by many same sex couples. Being able to be who I am is one of the reason I stayed in the U.S after all these years before I met my husband. Other than these two things, we have a pretty normal marriage, with shared finances, almost daily outings (dinner together), etc. I don't think USCIS will call my parents about my marriage, but they may have suspicion on my husband's side. I'm certain the documents we have and the connection between us can pass the interview, but if our officer is fixated on this parents thing, I'm worried that we may run into trouble.
Just to be clear, both of us are "out" to the extent that we're comfortable with. Since I spent my 20s in the U.S., all of my friends here know, so do my old high school classmates back in my country. Coming out to friends / classmates is very different than coming out to one's parents. Coming out to parents is different than getting married to a same sex partner. (My parents still wanted me to marry a female and have a normal family with grandkids after they slowly came around to the fact that I'm "probably" gay.)
Worse comes to worst, we'll let both of our parents know that we're married. It's our life. But we'd rather do it on our own schedule and not cause any havoc in our marriage.
Just asking for advices. Does anyone have any similar experience? I know being truthful is the best answer. Hopefully our explanation will convince our interviewer if our marriage is not disclosed to our parents by the time of the interview.
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