Hi all,

I'm about to do the I-130 to petition my wife from Philippines who is working in Canada (we were married in Canada just a few months ago).

I'm a little confused. I had always expected that the next step after I-130 would be the I-129F, but from what I'm reading is there any reason I shouldn't just proceed with the normal CR-1 and not bother with the I-129F and adjustments/fees that go with it?

I've read that the CR-1 used to take "significantly longer" than the K3 process, but then I read that the CR-1 as of 2005 was taking even less time than the K3? Now I think I'm reading that the CR-1 is taking "just a little longer".

Does that mean she could be here in the US with me sooner with the CR-1 than the K3 would allow, or maybe just a month or two later than the K3 would have her here? If we're only talking a month or two longer to have her here it seems like CR-1 is the way to go. Am I misunderstanding something?

Thanks!

My K3 and CR-1 both were approved at the same time. unless something falls through the cracks, this should not happen. you're best to stick with CR-1 as that is the final visa she needs for her residency. with K3, there is no guarantee that it will be faster and plus she will need to go through further processing once in the U.S as you get no rights to work with K3. it is also only valid for 2 years. the additional processing once in the US is 1010 plus passport pictures, plus an additional medical examination which could range from 100-200.

The process is 3 phases.

1) USCIS - validation of valid petition. This takes the same no matter what as far as I can tell. A guy I know files his k1 2 weeks before I filed my I-130, we received our noa2 almost exactly 2 weeks apart.

2) NVC - K petitions pass thru here in a few weeks, I-130 takes months. The reason is the fee payment and application portion takes place in the US for I-130 instead of in applicants home country for K visas.

3) Application - K Visas receive 2 packets, a "p3" which is the application, and a "p4" which is interview date. I-130 visas receive only the "p4".

So, really the major gains to the K visas is in the mail turn around for the p3 packet. The I-130 visas may take as long as 6 months (looks at some peoples timelines) in NVC because of the awkward way it is processed. No fewer than 3 round trip mail cycles are involved, and each return to NVC takes about 2 weeks for them to process.
The P3 on the K visas is a single packet, mailed from the embassy to the applicant.

If you read here in the NVC forum there are some time savers that can significantly reduce your NVC timeline.
My wife for instance never received her ds-3032, if not for the email shortcut I'd still be in step one of nvc processing 3 months later.
If you utilize the shortcuts though, you can get through NVC in about 3 months.
That is still longer than the 1-2 months the p3 for K visas takes, but you get the benefit of an imigration visa, the american petitioner pays the fees, and files the paper work.

So, yes the I-130 is still slower than the K visas, but not by a lot, especially if you utilize the short cuts.

Best of luck to you.

The above pretty much spells it out. All this "same time to process" talk only refers to the initial petition approval at a USCIS service center. If your wife will be interviewing in Canada, there is an additional consideration, however. The wait for a CR1 interview in Montreal is significantly longer than the wait for a K3 interview in Vancouver, so you'll want to weigh how that impacts your case as well.

well you also have to figure in the adjustment of statues for the k visa if you figure that in the process k visa is longer either way both are longer then one should have to endure

As pushbrk mentioned, where your wife will interview should also be a consideration.

At the moment Montreal is scheduling 2 months after completion - Vancouver usually just a couple of weeks. (Prior to November Montreal was taking 4-6 months to schedule an interview - they have picked up).

If you decided to go with the CR1 your wife will interview in Montreal (regardless of where she lives in Canada). If you go with the K visa it will depend where she lives in Canada. If she lives in Manitoba or west - interview is in Vancouver, Ontario or East - interview takes place in Montreal.

You might want to check out this recent thread in the Canada forum: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=104265

CR1 vs K3 in Canada - if she is in the East - from what I have seen, you are looking at roughly the same timing - give or take 2-3 months.

Recently, Vancouver started conducting the Cr-1/IR-1 interviews as well, so hopefully, the Montreal Consulate will no longer have such long backlogs waiting for an interview.

Actually that turned out not to be true (see later posts in the thread)

Yeah, mybad. Too very bad for everyone. So, Montreal is still the only interview location for CR-1/IR-1 and they still take 4-6 months.

We don't HAVE to file for the k-3 right? I have just sent my I-130 and my husband travels a lot as he is an artist. I'd rather he enter the U.S. with CR-1 than to be here and have to go through all of the paperwork here. I just wanted to make sure that we could just stick with the CR-1 if we wanted to.

Thanks for all of your help!!

Newbie