I wonder if those of you that pursued both have any advice or info. Back when our I129 and I130 were approved at the same time... the I130 letter read that the spouse (Can. citizen) citizen was living in the US and should apply of AOS. That was an error and I recall others applying at the same time (NOA2's in FEB 07) were getting similar responses. I think it had something to do with I130's not being forwarded to NVC when K3's were being applied for at the same time. We abandoned the I130 thing and followed K3 thinking it would be faster but it's not really!
Did anyone follow up with their I130 and what should be my first step if I want to try that now?
Mon

Did your approved I-130 NOA2 say that it was being forwarded to NVC or held at USCIS?

If it was held by USCIS you need to file an I-824 Follow-up action on an approved application or petition. The fee is currently $200 but the fees are going up July 30. If it has already been forwarded to NVC you need to follow up with NVC.

Good luck

Hello Lance27 and thanks for your reply. On rereading my notice, it does say I have to file the I824 in order for them to forward the petition to NVC. I think I might pursue that route as well as nothing seems to be moving on the K3 and I understand even with the K3 in hand it would be yet another 90 days or more before work authorization. I emailed Montreal a few days ago requesting my interview status and no word back yet.
Good luck to you too
Mon

We are essentially doing both (see below) but the K3 has been faster for us... either way they both work the same really

Wow your K3 WAS pretty quick.
The consulate in Sydney is a lot faster than Montreal. Good for you. I think I'll send in my I824 before the fee goes up. It feels better than sitting here waiting. So many things are out of our control Like trying to get a mortgage based solely on my spouse's income/credit rating cuz I can't contribute a bloody thing being persona non grata in the US still and having zip credit history there to help him out. sigh. (venting ...sorry)
Mon

Just to let you know- we filed an I 824 in November for my I 130. It got approved a week ago. It took 9 months just for that $200 piece of paper that says- move this case to the NVC, to be approved.

We did the whole K3 process start to finish in 5 months.

thanks for the heads up! If waiting that long for the I130 is a common experience it might not be worth the bother at this point. I wish we could have used Vancouver for the K3....way faster. congrats! Without your timeline in front of me... how are you finding the EAD process? Did you get work authorization yet?
Mon

Yeah, doesn't seem like forwarding the I-130s are very speedy... I remember Stacey33 first coming to the board and inquiring about the K3 to get back to the states faster.

I filed for AOS & EAD (see my signature). The AOS interview times depend on how busy the district office is. EAD takes around 60-90 days (I got aproval yesterday... day 70 something). Some are lucky to get their AOS transferred to CSC which means they are most likely to get approved without an interview. Some are approved and greencard in hand in about 60-90 days though there are plenty that get held up in namechecks. But even if you get an interview over a transfer, you could still be held up in namechecks.

Anyway, from what I can tell, a LOT of K1s get transferred to CSC but very few K3s. Not really sure why. Maybe because there are more K1s to process than K3s when it comes to AOS.

My approved I-130 was retained and I opted to just do AOS here instead of filing to have it forwarded.

We were so naive about how long this was gonna take. Even US Immigration officers at the Toronto Airport thought it should be about 6-8 months from start to finish. Seems like it will be over a year by the time I can live and work with my man. What's up with that?!
Good luck Misa. You are in the home stretch!

I have the forms filled out. I just need to photocopy a few things and it is ready to go. I was so go go go with all the K3 stuff- now I am so lazy with getting the EAD and AOS done.