6 month pre-cana engagement?

shanell411

I am engaged my fiancee lives in another country. I am in the process of doing the church annulment. It will be finished in a few weeks. I will be doing a K1 Fiancee visa. However we must marry within 90 days per immigration rules within him coming here (US). I have read on my archdiocese website that pre-marriage/pre-cana is a min of 6 mths. I know that we must take pre-cana classes but can we be given dispenstation of the 6 mth wait? If were to take as many classes as possible during the 90 days could we get married in the church? That is what I want so much! We are only restricted by immigration rules. I am in Metro Detroit area.
Thanks!

pjseabee

All you can do is ask your parish.  Sounds like you'll need to have a civil ceremony first for the legal requirements of immigration.  You can complete your pre cana requirements and then have the church service after.

fcla16

you probably will have to have a civil service first.  Talk to your pastor, see what they say.  Each (arch)diocese is different.

shanell411

I really want a wedding something I didn't have with first marriage. And Catholic church doesn't a second wedding ceremony. It is a convalidation ceremony. Blessing of marriage :-(

ring_pop

Ditto others that you just need to ask your parish. Maybe you can start some of the preparation steps while he is still overseas.

Theresa626

I think you definitely need to ask your parish this. In general, the six month rule means six months after you first contact the parish.  So, let's say you want to get married a year from now.  Contact the parish right now and schedule your date then three months before the wedding, do the engaged encounter retreat, the Foccus test and the meeting with the priest.  You can usually get all that stuff done in three months easily as long as your parish is flexible and will accomodate you.  If you let them know way in advance they can schedule you on a retreat now so that it won't be filled up when he gets here. 

habanew

Technology is amazing these days, have you thought of Skype? I don't know how long the visa will take but maybe you can Skpe some of the pre-cana classes?

akg0053

I have friends that are apart, and they each completed their FOCCUS test while living separately (because apparently you aren't supposed to be together when you fill that out anyway). My friend went to one parish, and her fiance found a parish where he was living that agreed to administer the FOCCUS for him, and send the results to her parish where they are getting married.

Building on what a pp said, you could possibly skype or conference call the results discussion. It's not as personal as doing it in person, but maybe it'll work. Anyway, at the end of the day, the pps were right: speak to your parish. ASAP.

Theresa626

Habanew, the church would never allow that.  Pre-cana definitely needs to be face to face. 

But, like I said, pre-cana doesn't take six months. I takes maybe two to three weekends.  YOu can get it done in ninety days. 

agapecarrie

The 6 month time is NOT just to fit in marriage prep. (BTW, "pre-cana" is a specific kind of marriage preparation, it is not an umbrella that covers all of them).

The time period is to allow time for discernment and formation before a sacrament. Seminarians and Sisters take anywhere from 5-8 years in formation before making permanaent life long vows.

Most churches say you should not set a date or plan anything else before the pre-nuptial investigation. This is to insure that no sitaution comes up that forces a delay in the marriage. Don't invest any money in a particular day until it is set with the priest/church.

samurai21

I've never heard of waiting to set a date to talk with a priest/parish. The first thing the priest is marrying us asked was when the big day was to see if he was available, then he agreed to celebrate, then we went from there.

Like almost everyone said before, you just need to go talk to the parish/priest where you're getting married. We're getting married in one city, ordained by a priest living in a different city where we're also doing our marriage prep, and my old home parish is in a different city and we just moved out of state.  Everyone we've been working with has been willing to work with us and our schedule. Just talk to them.