Weddingbee Blog

The D’orsays have gone into a flurry of activity. Mr. D is filling out forms in duplicate and I’m… blogging about it.

The Cliff’s Notes version of our journey so far: fill out I-129F forms, the G forms that accompany them, and send these (along with $455) to the immigration folks, wait 6 months, receive a letter saying the petition (not the visa) is approved and is being sent to the State Dept., wait 4 weeks, wait on hold at international calling rates to find out your package was sent to the embassy in London the day prior, wait 2-3 weeks and receive a letter from the embassy directing you to two internet links. Set up medical appointment in London (£300 {approx $435} in travel for us to get to London and £180 {approx $260} for the medical appointment). Contact the police for a police certificate (pay £35 {approx $50}, get my tax returns notarized ($75 approx $110), find Mr. D’s birth certificate, passport photos (approx £15 {approx $21}), mail a letter and several forms in duplicate to the embassy, wait, wait, wait, and receive an interview date.

Since I’m more efficient than the US government, I’m going to give you the two links, though I’m sure if I had searched earlier I would have found them after a while. This is the link which has the forms you need and this is the link to the medical appointment info (you have to click the link on the right for any real info). I had been tipped off about several of the forms we’d need from WB readers (thanks blightygirl!) and from Visa Journey.com. Because of my fears of not making enough money to sponsor Mr. D, my mother has graciously agreed to co-sponsor him to ensure that we’re actually able to be married.

What I wish we had done in retrospect?

Applied a year out for the whole process. We thought the second half of the process would be much faster than the first part. Boy, were we wrong! We budgeted 6 months for the first step and 2 months for the part we’re in now. We should have budgeted 4-5 months for all the paperwork and mail to go back and forth before the actual interview at the embassy takes place (when Mr. D will hopefully receive his visa). Since the K1 visa is good for 6 months, we would have still had plenty of time to use it, AND Mr. D could fly back with me in June.

The way it’s currently looking is that I’ll have to fly back alone in June and Mr. D will have to wait a few months before he can join me. Have I mentioned that our wedding is in August? Yeah… thankfully our wedding is at the end of August, which should hopefully allow the government time to approve our upcoming nuptials.

We only budgeted $455 for the K1 visa and $1,100 for the Adjustment of Status part, and it’s looking like we should have budgeted $2,000+ for the whole process (bye bye videographer…).

D’orsay Immigration 1

D’orsay Immigration 2

D’orsay Immigration 3

What are some surprise costs that you’ve come across in wedding planning?