I have been looking at some of the timelines of I 129F. They seem to be fairly quick.

We have an approved I 130. I am now in Canada, which messes up our situation and makes it more complicated. We filed an I 824 so that my case will, at some point be transferred to a US Consulate in Canada.

The dates on the I 824 are looking to be about 6 months. I know it's hard to go by the dates on the USCIS site. Then my case will have to go to NVC and then to a Consulate here in Canada.

What if we file the I 129F? If it can get me to the US faster, can we finish the CR1 process there? Is it too late? Is it not worth it?

I know going back with my CR1 would be very nice, but so would getting back to my Husband.

Any advice you have is welcome! Thanks!

Hi,

Thought I would give you my 2 cents. My wife is Canadian and we filed for I-130 back in April and filed for the I-129F immediately after (about mid-May). The k-3 is meant to be quicker than the CR-1 but in my experience the difference is minimal.
We did have an interview for the K-3 on December 28th but we cancelled it as her CR-1 application was completed at the NVC on December 6th. (Various reasons for cancelling; my wife is currently visiting me in the US so we are togther, the NVC has all our original documents we need for the K-3 interview, and lastly we hope that the CR-1 interview will be around February and with that we do not need to worry about EAD, AOS etc)
Looking at your timeline and comparing it to ours there is no chance your K-3 application would get ahead of your CR-1 as it has already been approved at the service center. My opinion (and that is all it is) is that it would be a waste of money and of your time.
About the consulate it will go to:
All CR-1 applications in Canada go through Montreal
K-3 visas go through Montreal or Vancouver (Vancouver is if you live ther or get your case transferred there)

I hope this helps you in your decision

All the best and good luck with the process

My question is , why did you file an I-824? Were you told to file it to have your I-130 forwarded?

I was in the US when we filed the I 130. Me now being in Canada compicates things. Mel consulted with an Immigration Attorney. It was the Lawyer who told Mel we need to file the I 824 to move my case to a US Consulate here in Canada.

What makes me mad is that we have to wait for an approval on the I 824. It won't be automatic, they see the form and know "ok, we have to move this case" and they do. Right now this I 824 is sitting at the California Service Center and who knows when it will be touched, approved, or anything done with it. We are at a standstill.

We have no idea what will happen next and when.

If you were in the US when you filed the I-130 did you also file for a I-485 AOS at the same time?
On my wife's I-130 form I said she would be in the US to get her CR-1 visa because we were also applying for a K-3 visa. Luckily, because the K-3 is ridiculously slow, the service center and NVC ignored this and Montreal was always designated as the consulate. I discovered this by phoning the NVC about 2 weeks after the I-130 was approved by the service center. So I would phone the NVC and see if they received it. Also on our I-797 approval it stated the case had been sent to the NVC.
However on all the forms we did put my wife's Canadian address as the permanent one because this is where her residence is. I never had to file an I-824 but I have seen these forms appear a lot more on this forum than when I applied so I am not too sure how much my case relates to yours but I thought I would let you know.

We didn't file an I 485. We didn't know we could at the time. I did phone the NVC, they do not have my case.

My Canadian address is on the I 130. But we did say I was at the US address when we filed it. My husband has copies of everything in the US.

This all got so confusing and frustrating so fast. If I knew that my case is actually moving somewhere, and I knew where and when that was or will be, I'd feel a little more settled about things. Neither of the forms have been touched in a while. The I 130 hasn't been touched since it was approved, and the I 824 hasn't been touched since they sent the notice they had recieved it.

http://www.usvisahelp.com/art_i824.html

So even though this article reads of the I-824 as it relates to the I-140 rather than the I-130, I'm wondering if any of the procedures that it recommends for faster processing would apply in the case of the I-130. I guess it's worth a discussion.

I read the link about the I 824. Thanks. I tried phoning the NVC and the US Consulate in Montreal about it. No body knows anyhing about anything. Consulates tell you to phone NVC. NVC tells you to phone USCIS. I can't phone the 1 800 number to USCIS from Canada. Because my case is not yet at NVC or a US Consulate, there is no way I can get any clear answers on anything. I need a drink.

If you have an extra couple of hundred dollars, I don't see the harm in filing an I129F.

It seems like this new I824 procedure is really uncertain as to the time frame, and if it actually takes 6 months, then it will likely take another 6 months on top of that to get through the NVC and consulate.

With the K3 it's possible you could be done in 6 or 7 months. Usually if people have an approved I130 the general wisdom is not to apply for the I129F, but I think if I was in your situation I would strongly consider it.

I really do want to file it. There is no harm in doing so. It is convincing Mel that may take work.

Sounds like your husband is like mine - he really wants to be together, but he doesn't want to spend money unless it's something we have to apply for Tell him I said I would do it, and I'm a gold member lol