Will it be a minus for your case if you don’t do the religious ceremony or wedding reception and only did the civil ceremony?

It’s your burden to prove you have a real relationship. There are certain things that immigration will look at that they consider to be important aspects of proving whether or not your relationship is real.

There is this category of commingling of finances which means you have financial things together. Joint bank accounts or joint financial obligations to show that you’re living together. A joint lease or a home that you’ve purchased together.

There’s what we like to call lovey-dovey relationship evidence. Photos, letters, cards, gifts, and things like that you’ve exchanged. Having that religious ceremony or wedding reception goes more into that category.

This category is important but it’s not the strongest type of evidence. Immigration looks at that but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they would deny your case just because you didn’t have a wedding ceremony or reception.

We have lots of couples and we tell all of our couples that immigration has a cookie-cutter way that they look at your relationship and not every couple fits into that cookie-cutter mold. What we do in our office is we work with what you decide to do with your relationship and we make sure you have evidence that can help immigration see that you’re in love.

There’s a lot of reasons why couples would decide to not have that religious ceremony. Immigration might ask about that at the interview and you just need to be prepared to tell the truth about why you decided to not have that ceremony.

Some couples decide not to hold a religious ceremony or celebration because they’re not feeling like it due to the difficult circumstances. Please know you’re not alone. A lot of individuals feel that because the immigration process is stressful but you can always have that party later.

For a lot of couples who tell us something like this, we talk about other options and another option would be having a celebration of your wedding when you’re done with the case. That’s a celebration that you can have with all of your family. Renew your vows and by then, you’ll be able to enjoy having that wedding ceremony, have your family there, and also celebrate receiving your green card.