civil ceremony witness question

DevinCal

Registered Users (C)
my g/f and i would like to get married as soon as possible since her J1 visa is going to expire at the end of may, and we would like to file a work permit for her so she can keep working once it does expire.

wedding-wise, we would like to do the civil ceremony now, but do an 'official' wedding at the end of the year, or next year. we did not want to mention to anyone that we were going to get married right now, since we both need to take care of personal things before the 'official' wedding timeframe.

question is, in regards to the witness at the civil ceremony, does it have to be a friend or a relative, or can we use a county clerk as a witness? will this draw a red flag? we have pictures of the two of us from the last two years in- San Diego, Cabo San Lucas, Los Angeles, Napa, San Fran; would any of that evidence offset any potential questions that may arise?

Thanks.
 
First things first. Does she have a 2 year HRR attached to her current J-1 status?

my g/f and i would like to get married as soon as possible since her J1 visa is going to expire at the end of may, and we would like to file a work permit for her so she can keep working once it does expire.
 
Unless your marriage lacks other proof of cohabitation or in general sticks out like a sore thumb, USCIS will not really care who all was present at the civil ceremony. Specially if you both will have a "traditional" wedding reception later on :)

so at the interview, won't they wonder why family and friends were not present? that is our biggest worry.
 
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