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American marrying a German, is it worth doing in the US?
I'm an American living in Iceland on a permanent residence permit, recently engaged to a German. We've been discussing wedding locations and are trying to figure out whether his home country or mine would be logistically the best.
I've got a good grasp on the paperwork I'd need for the ceremony in Germany but need some advice regarding the paperwork he'd need if we wanted to get married in the USA, and hope someone here has more information!
It seems like he'd need the usual birth certificate (translated?) and passport, but I haven't found a good site that lists what else he might need. The other issue is whether we'd have problems if he just came as a tourist and we got married while he was in the US. Our plans going forward are to reside in Germany, but we'd like to keep the option open to live in the US in the future.
The fianc? visa can't be filed at an embassy, which is a problem for me since I live in Iceland and spend my spare time in Germany these days, not to mention it's a LOT more paperwork/bureaucracy. We'd only be staying in the USA long enough for the marriage and possibly some honeymoon time, so well within his tourist allowance.
Any advice? Will we be in big future trouble if he's not married on a fianc? visa given that I'm not even a resident of the US? Is the whole American paperwork bureaucracy simply not worth it if the German process seems to be much simpler? Does anyone have a good source of info on exactly what paperwork he'd need for us to be legally married in the US?
Re: American marrying a German, is it worth doing in the US?
Others may have a lot more information, but I think the only problem would be if he entered on a tourist visa, got married, and then applied to have his visa status changed while he was still in the US.
I hear of people here in Australia going to Vegas to get married and then coming back home.
ETA: On the form for "reason for visit" I would not put down "to get married". ;-)
You would only need to do the fiance visa if you were planning for him to become a resident. believe me, I am Canadian and went through the whole process to move here on the fiance visa so I could marry my husband.
If you are just coming here to have the wedding with your family, then all you would need is whatever you need to get the marriage license. And just put vacation on his travel visa as reason for the trip
all my dh needed to get married in the US was his drivers license to prove his identity (but I suppose that may differ by state - we got married in MN)
the only issue you will have is at customs if you say he's coming to get married - because they could suspect he'd try to just stay after the wedding, and they COULD deny him entry into the US
like pps have said, just have him say he's going for a holiday and do NOT mention the wedding & all will be fine (thats what we did
What she said.
I married my German DH in Switzerland. But we did extensive research on all the different ways. Except ironically Germany. Check out visajourney.com too.
And if you happened to need the fiance visa you can do it through the mail for the most part. Then I guess the interview would be at the closest embassy to Iceland.
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This. He can get married in the US while on a visitor visa as long as you are not planning on changing his status from that visa after the wedding. If you are leaving, staying in Iceland, maybe Germany, maybe coming back to the US later, it's not a problem. Like pp's said, I wouldn't necessarily say 'to get married' when they ask the reason for the visit. But just in case it did come up, I might bring some proof that I'm not planning to stay int he US to help clear things up (like pay stub/work contract/lease or mortgage agreement, etc)
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Do not let it come up that he's entering the US to get married! Even with proof that he's leaving immediately after I don't trust them to let him in at all. It's not like they'll ask "Are you getting married on this visit to the States?" He shouldn't mention that he has an American fiance.
We got legally married in Germany and it took almost six months to get all of our paperwork done and everything approved. One of the courts took super long to give the final ok. I?ve had friends who got approved in as little as 3 months, but that?s as fast as it seems to get for the German marrying an American in Germany. And it was sort of expensive, too.
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<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DI was just married in PA in May to my English H. It took longer to go through the marriage license process b/c where he was born, his parents were born were not options on the computer. Two and a half couples went through the station next to us while they put in H's info. Other than that it wasn't an issue.
We did not show any proof that we were leaving the country at that point and were not asked any questions.
As WiseRita said though DO NOT tell immigration that you are getting married. My IL said they were there for their son's wedding and they got a ton of questions so H was sure to say he was there visiting friends.
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Requirements for getting a marriage license in the US vary from state to state and I think even from county to county. When I asked in my US county, DH would have had to fill out a 2-page form (with info like name, birthdate, address, etc), show his passport and the form to a notary to have it notarized, and then send that with me to get our marriage license in the States. That was it.
For some reason we instead decided to get married in Germany, which involved me collecting a ton of paperwork, most of which had time limitations like "Meldebescheinigung - nicht aelter als 4 Wochen," so getting it all collected was quite a coordination feat. Then, like a PP said, you have to send it all in so the OLG can decide whether you're capable of getting married ("heiratsfaehig"). Oh, and did I mention all your documents have to be officially translated, for which they charge by the LETTER? Yeah, and you need to turn in a Ledigkeitsbescheinigung, which we don't have in the US, so they accept a notarized affidavit from someone you know swearing you've never been married. Our approval actually only took about 4 weeks, but in that time they contacted me twice to send in something that doesn't exist. Giving a rough translation, they wanted my residency visa (Aufenthaltsbescheinigung) and my residency permit (Aufenthaltsgenehmigung). I had to explain to them twice that those aren't separate things but one and the same. I thought it was a little ridiculous that I had to explain that to the bureaucrats approving my application.
Anyway, I think you can infer my opinion on which would have been easier. And as PPs said, as long as your DH isn't planning on staying in the US after the wedding, there's no need for him to apply for a visa. He can just come on the visa waiver program as long as he's not staying longer than 90 days. If it's possible you'll stay longer, then you'll need to go through the fiance visa process, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're going for now.
yikes.. somehow I thought it was a bit easier than that, based on this:
http://germany.usembassy.gov/acs/getting_married/
however, as this does say, the papers required do vary so I guess I need to have my fella go and talk it out with the auslander office. I've had a really hard time getting straight answers on paperwork in Germany in general though- the German embassy in Iceland will say one thing, an American living in Germany will say another thing, and the auslander office will have yet another answer. For a country that loves rules they seem to be a bit inconsistent with this!
My other option that I'm considering is trying to get citizenship in Iceland. I'm almost eligible, dual citizenship is allowed for both America and Iceland, and since Iceland is part of the EEA, moving around is much less of a hassle.
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<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DI'm American and DH is Ethiopian. We got married in the US while he was on a tourist visa. Then he stayed and we applied for adjustment of status. This is not allowed, but our lawyer kinda talked them into it.
We got married in California. We each had to show a photo ID. They did not ask about nor care about his immigration status. If we had gotten married in Massachusetts, where we live now, we wouldn't even have needed ID to get a marriage license.
we haven't considered Iceland for several reasons:
1) not the best weather so if you want to have a hope and a prayer to have an outdoor wedding, best not to do it there
2) only I live in Iceland at the moment
3) our future plans don?t include Iceland
4) expense- pretty much everything is way more spendy in Iceland, like wine, food other than fish and potatoes, transportation, and all the other claptrap that involves weddings. If we do it in America or Germany, we?ve got various friends and relatives with wedding-friendly connections to help make things more cost effective, plus our families who?re excited to help us plan.
5) since neither of us are Icelandic, it doesn?t feel representative of us, although we met there and lived together there for several years.
Hooray for another Nordic Nestie!
Regarding the wedding in Iceland, have you considered just getting married in Iceland and then having the big wedding elsewhere? Then you don't have to deal with the legal logistics of the location where the wedding will be held, so it gives you more flexibility in planning.
I know of multiple ex-pat couples who've done this here in Oslo, since getting married is such a straightforward process but having a wedding here costs a small fortune (I know of local Norwegians who had their wedding party across the border in Sweden to save costs). And a lot of us here on the board have had "multiple" weddings for various logistical reasons (visas, timing, bureaucracy, etc). It's really not at all uncommon for international couples.