OK! I must have done something SO WRONG! What the heck is IMBRA and how did this guy get his I-129F approved so freaking fast!?:

New Form with Imbra question, NOA 1 date June 26, 2006

Rob and Melinda


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I-129F
Filed New I-129F form with IMBRA June 19, 2006
NOA 1 June 26, 2006
Touched July 3, 2006
I-129F Approved by E mail August 21, 2006, Just 63 Days
NOA 2 for I-129F Received in the Mail August 26th, 2006

I-129F at NVC
Case Number assigned at NVC August 29, 2006 MNL2006XXXXXXXXX
NVC sends the I-129F to the Manila Embassy August 29th, 2006
Embassy in Manila Receives I-129F August 31st, 2006
Packet 4 Received by Melinda from Manila Embassy October 1, 2006
Interview at Us Embassy Manila, October 18, 2006
Visa Approved! Interview Completed.
Visa Delivered by DELBROS October 28th, 2006
October 30, 2006 Arrived back in LAX with Melinda, were going to Disneyland!!!
November 6th, 2006, Melinda and I are back home in Winslow Arizona loving Life!

Do a search for IMBRA, either Google, or here on VJ and you will have your answer.

It is a law that was passed last year that the USCIS was unprepared to handle, it caused a large backup of cases around April-June 2006. The new I-129F form has the required questions added to page 3, that were not there prior to June, so people who used the newer form were not subject to the backup, but those who used the older form were held up and had an RFE sent to them with a question form with the page 3 questions.

As for the fast case, you never know how things get processed.

IMBRA is a part of a law signed last year and effective in 2006. It stands for International Marriage Broker Regulation Act and was attached to the Violence Against Women Act of 2005. (It was unable to pass on its own.) It was intended to find men that are either trafficking in women or looking for submissive women that the men can abuse. Unfortunately, it has hit everyone that filed a form I-129F after March 6, 2006. It requires everyone to state if they have met their fiance/fiancee through a marriage broker, whether they have convictions for abuse, drugs or other criminal activities. The intent was to inform the foreign fiancee of the prior actions of their intended spouse.

Regarding why this one case got approved in such a short time all I can offer is a couple of possible explanations. This person could not be reporting their correct time line. They might have been selected as a teaching tool for new employees from receipt through to completion. Or, they might have some significant political connection.

I can relate a pre-IMBRA story about something like this. I filed for my I-129F in July 2005 and a friend of mine filed in August 2005. His was approved late in September and mine was not approved until mid-October. His attorney asked if he has political connections, but he didn't. So it happens some times.

You can't blindly compare timelines without looking at the dependent variables like visa type and service center.

In your example, you have a I-129F/K3, but the person you are comparing to could be a I-129F/K1.. in which case your service centers will definitely start out different, and yours then had to undergo a movement to another center.

it's best to compare your timelines to the same visa type and then the same center.. once it goes to the consulate, to the same consulate.