usa citizen & indian citizen getting married...

[auditorpnine]

my daughter(26) is now a usa citizen (naturalised in nov2023 after 5yrs lpr)..
she's decided to get married to anindian citizen(27) - working in usa since 2 yrs, on h1b visa.
(both - hindu/gujarati)

1.steps/procedure to get 'legally' married in usa?.
(just get married-no pomp/spendour...,will perform our hindu tradition rituals when the couple arrives india in 2025)

2. would they have to visit the indian consulate/embassy to get married or where?

3. cost/fees (ball-park)

4. if they get married in aug2024, when will the boy/husband be eiligible for marriage based green card.

thank you

[okccanary]

Not an expert but can tell you about my own experience. I was an H1B like your son-in-law but European and not bothered about my home country culture so was happy to go with what the simplest route was.

1. We did something similar where we did a courthouse marriage (just her parents as witness) to get the paperwork going and then had what we considered our real wedding 6 months later when all sides of the family could be there. The Courthouse Wedding was no more than $100-200 max and we could probably have done it even cheaper. $50 was paid to the County Clerk for the certificate and I can't remember how much we paid the Officiant (Humanist) to perform the ceremony for us outside the courthouse and fill in the certificate. I think we paid $100-150 to her but that was for both the courthouse and then she did what we classed as our 'official' one later.
The Courthouse one took literally 10 mins max. We had to get the certificate from the courthouse a few days before. Then met the Officiant outside the courthouse. Performed outside and went back in and got our marriage registered. Depending on the courthouse I think you can get the Judge to perform the ceremony if you don't want to use your own Officiant, but not completely sure on how that works.
2. I don't think that is necessary unless it was something they wanted but honestly I have no idea. Courthouse would be fine if they are happy with that!
3. You could probably do it as cheap as the charge for the Marriage certificate in whatever County/State you live in. Just need an Official Officiant who is registered. We literally found ours from Googling as we are not religious.
4. So once you have registered the marriage your Son-in-law would be apply to Apply for an Adjustment of Status(I-485 i think) that will enable him to get a conditional greencard (if married less than two years) or full GC if married for more than 2 years to US Citizen. I did my application without a lawyer and it was pretty straightforward.

Hope this helps!

[auditorpnine]

okccanary, your reply surely helps in understanding most aspects, but if someone too has been in similar kind of scenario, please share...

btw: 'would be' couple are based in nj.

-would they have to procure a marriage license BEFORE visiting the court to get actually married?.