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Hello all,
My fiancée and I are engaged to be married on December 19th, 2015, and we have a venue booked and everything, so it's too late to back out of the date or location (which is in British Columbia). She is Canadian, and I am a US Citizen. She is wanting to immigrate to the US, and we don't want to have to wait for her to be able to come over. The K1 Visa allows us her to immediately move to the US after getting married (before actually, which is fine), but it doesn't allow the marriage to occur outside of the US. And other Visas look like they can't even be applied for until AFTER we get married, which would leave her outside of the US for months or longer, right?
So, in essence, we want to find a way that would allow for all of the following conditions to be met:
1. Have us hold a wedding ceremony on December 19th, 2015, in Canada. (Does not have to be legally binding if it allows things to flow more smoothly)
2. Have her be able to move to the United States either before or immediately after the marriage.
So I have already done some research, and I've found a couple of ideas out there that may or may not work.
1. First hold a religious, non-legally binding marriage CEREMONY, and then cross over the border (via a K1 Visa) and get married legally. However, I have heard issues with those on K1 Visas getting denied entry even just because of a wedding ceremony that had no legal documents attached to it.
2. Move to the US (via a K1 Visa), get legally married here, then go back to Canada to have a ceremony. However, how can she leave the US if the K1 doesn't allow her to leave until the AOS or an AP is acquired? In our case, we don't want to have to have her live in the US for 2+ months before she can leave again (and we might not even have the K1 ready that early anyway to even afford two extra months to have her sit in the US to get an AP). We don't want our legal and relgiious aspects of our wedding to be so far apart anyway.
I'm guessing the 2nd option here is the more likely option to have a chance at being successful. I read the following, which MIGHT make us first getting legally married in the US and then having the wedding ceremony in Canada possible:
"Question:
I’m in the U.S. on a K-1 fiance visa, which I’ve read is good for only one entry into the United States. But to get ready for the wedding, a friend of mine wants to take me shopping in Toronto, Canada. Someone told me that that’s okay, that I can come back again based on my fiance visa. Is that true?
Answer:
For once, the rumors are true: Although the K-1 visa is single entry, its holder can take advantage of a concept called “automatic revalidation.” That means that you can take a short trip – of up to 30 days -- to either Canada or Mexico, without having to give up your I-94 when you leave.
But you’ll definitely need to take a copy of your Form I-94, as well as your passport. (For extra safety, make copies of both and leave them with a friend in the U.S.) So long as you are within the time limit on the I-94 when you ask to come back, and haven’t become inadmissible to the U.S., you should be allowed reentry for the balance of the time remaining on your I-94.
This possibility comes from the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, at 22 C.F.R. Section 41.112.
Any time you leave the U.S., however, you are taking a risk. A U.S. border official could be unfamiliar with this provision of the law, or not believe that you’re still planning to get married, or could decide that you have become inadmissible. Consult an experienced immigration attorney for a personal analysis.
Also, you didn’t mention which country you are from, but if it’s among those that the U.S. considers to be “state sponsors of terrorism,” you will be ineligible for automatic visa revalidation. As of early 2014, that list included Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Sudan."
So would that allow my fiancée and I to get legally married in the US, have the ceremony in Canada, then return to the US within 30 days? Although the sentence, "A U.S. border official could be unfamiliar with this provision of the law, or not believe that you’re still planning to get married, or could decide that you have become inadmissible," makes it sound like this provision is only allowable before the K1 visa holder get married.
I've also considered the immigrant visa, but I would only want to consider it if she were to be able to move into the US immediately after getting married to me. I'm not sure how, but maybe there is some sort of provision or something.
What do you guys think?
My fiancée and I are engaged to be married on December 19th, 2015, and we have a venue booked and everything, so it's too late to back out of the date or location (which is in British Columbia). She is Canadian, and I am a US Citizen. She is wanting to immigrate to the US, and we don't want to have to wait for her to be able to come over. The K1 Visa allows us her to immediately move to the US after getting married (before actually, which is fine), but it doesn't allow the marriage to occur outside of the US. And other Visas look like they can't even be applied for until AFTER we get married, which would leave her outside of the US for months or longer, right?
So, in essence, we want to find a way that would allow for all of the following conditions to be met:
1. Have us hold a wedding ceremony on December 19th, 2015, in Canada. (Does not have to be legally binding if it allows things to flow more smoothly)
2. Have her be able to move to the United States either before or immediately after the marriage.
So I have already done some research, and I've found a couple of ideas out there that may or may not work.
1. First hold a religious, non-legally binding marriage CEREMONY, and then cross over the border (via a K1 Visa) and get married legally. However, I have heard issues with those on K1 Visas getting denied entry even just because of a wedding ceremony that had no legal documents attached to it.
2. Move to the US (via a K1 Visa), get legally married here, then go back to Canada to have a ceremony. However, how can she leave the US if the K1 doesn't allow her to leave until the AOS or an AP is acquired? In our case, we don't want to have to have her live in the US for 2+ months before she can leave again (and we might not even have the K1 ready that early anyway to even afford two extra months to have her sit in the US to get an AP). We don't want our legal and relgiious aspects of our wedding to be so far apart anyway.
I'm guessing the 2nd option here is the more likely option to have a chance at being successful. I read the following, which MIGHT make us first getting legally married in the US and then having the wedding ceremony in Canada possible:
"Question:
I’m in the U.S. on a K-1 fiance visa, which I’ve read is good for only one entry into the United States. But to get ready for the wedding, a friend of mine wants to take me shopping in Toronto, Canada. Someone told me that that’s okay, that I can come back again based on my fiance visa. Is that true?
Answer:
For once, the rumors are true: Although the K-1 visa is single entry, its holder can take advantage of a concept called “automatic revalidation.” That means that you can take a short trip – of up to 30 days -- to either Canada or Mexico, without having to give up your I-94 when you leave.
But you’ll definitely need to take a copy of your Form I-94, as well as your passport. (For extra safety, make copies of both and leave them with a friend in the U.S.) So long as you are within the time limit on the I-94 when you ask to come back, and haven’t become inadmissible to the U.S., you should be allowed reentry for the balance of the time remaining on your I-94.
This possibility comes from the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, at 22 C.F.R. Section 41.112.
Any time you leave the U.S., however, you are taking a risk. A U.S. border official could be unfamiliar with this provision of the law, or not believe that you’re still planning to get married, or could decide that you have become inadmissible. Consult an experienced immigration attorney for a personal analysis.
Also, you didn’t mention which country you are from, but if it’s among those that the U.S. considers to be “state sponsors of terrorism,” you will be ineligible for automatic visa revalidation. As of early 2014, that list included Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Sudan."
So would that allow my fiancée and I to get legally married in the US, have the ceremony in Canada, then return to the US within 30 days? Although the sentence, "A U.S. border official could be unfamiliar with this provision of the law, or not believe that you’re still planning to get married, or could decide that you have become inadmissible," makes it sound like this provision is only allowable before the K1 visa holder get married.
I've also considered the immigrant visa, but I would only want to consider it if she were to be able to move into the US immediately after getting married to me. I'm not sure how, but maybe there is some sort of provision or something.
What do you guys think?
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