Pretend not to be married to apply for k3

[immihelp]

I am a US ctizen and OCI. I am working in India since November. In December I married a British citizen and PIO. We have not registered our marriage yet. Her passport is valid till Oct which means most countries would like to see at least 6 months left on the passport and so she must renew next month. I might be getting a job in US and have to go back within the next few months. What is the best way?

• Pretend we are single, and I go file for her a fiancee visa and she renews her passport as a single person without name change? Will this be a lie or not considering we have not registered the marriage yet.
• She renews her passport as a single person, enters the US as a tourist (she does not need a visa because she is British citizen), and we get married there? Will this be a lie or not considering we haven't registered the marriage yet? Also someone said if anyone enters the US on a visa waiver programme, that person can simply not change their status to anything else, no matter what. Is this true? In this process would she have to answer anywhere whether or not she is married?
• We declare ourselves married and file through Delhi embassy. Will I be able to do so although I haven't been living in India for more than 1 year yet? How long will that process take. The embassy says 4 to 5 months - is this correct? is this info reliable?
• Is K3 something I should be concerned about? Someone said that is a bad idea.

Should we get our marriage registered or not? Please advise. Goal is to minimize separation time, without getting into trouble (obviously)
What's the risk of taking the position that since we are not registered yet we are technically not married? The US embassy spokesperson on the public information phone line said in India a religious ceremony counts as a valid marriage ceremony. I am not sure if this is the view of the US immigration law or that of her guesswork.
Kindly advise. Would appreciate a knowledgeable response. I have had good info from you in the past and look towards you with hope of a reliable answer.

[immihelp]

If you did Hindu religious ceremony in India, you are MARRIED. There is no other interpretation.

You can not pretend not to be married. If you do, you are in big legal trouble.

You can't apply for fiance visa. K3 visa is bad idea now a days.

The best one would be to file immigrant petition for her. However, there may be complications as you are not resident of US currently. Read https://www.immihelp.com/family-based-greencard/ for complete information.