Why did you file for a K-1 visa and not a spouse visa, or vice-versa? (merged)

[yuna628 9,527]

Thanks for posting such a well thought out response to a complicated question.

How did you learn that Texas will be clearning the backlog? We sent our K-1 application in, and it was sent to Texas (you're right it's the black hole-how can it posssibly take 5 times longer than Ca or Vt?). Got the NOA1 March 29. So we are part of that backlog for sure. Any information will be helpful. I can't believe that people who filed in April have already got their visas-but I'm so happy for them.

One other point about K-1 vs Spouse visa is that with the spouse visa you actually CAN plan your wedding. We can't because we have no idea when the visa will be granted. I realize I have a 6 month window but I don't want to postpone him coming here any longer than we have already endured. (The 3 months in which we must marry doesn't give us a lot of time so we want to do it asap after he arrives). And so I feel like I'm in a kind of "shotgun wedding" situation. I want something simple-but don't feel I can plan it very much. We have severe winters here and planning even an indoor wedding in the winter is a bad idea with my family 5 hours away. So...although I wanted a nice, intimate wedding I don't think I can have what I want. Or the date I wanted, etc. I feel it will be thrown together and that's pretty sad to me.

Another question-if all future applications are sent to CA will they still have a one month turn around? Seems like they will be flooded with applications-and their time could increase by seveal months.

I notice you said you sent in a K1 application. You actually have it listed that you sent in a spousal application.

I would say you just missed the cutoff date for applications being directed to California, which is a great shame. I think the announcement came on the 27th of March ish, and I suspect you became unlucky and were not one of those directed there. The tumblr link in my signature talks about the letter that was sent to the President in an effort by many here to get attention on the subject of the ridiculous blacklog and uneven processing times at both service centers. A response by a representative authorized on behalf of the President confirmed that changes were being made, and the announcement was posted on the USCIS website around the same time. I know other efforts were being made with getting the word out to senators on the subject too.

When an application.. any application takes a great length of time; on the one hand it does give a stretch of time to plan, and on the other the uncertain nature of how long it will take creates it's own set of problems in planning and booking on a certain date. The reality is we were stuck in Texas, and it wasn't until the 300th or so day from sending in the application that my fiancé was even able to finally have his interview and everything was completed. We started planning our wedding before we even sent in the application and have continued planning throughout the process, even when we had to keep our date floating. When all is said and done, we're having a pretty darn normal wedding. Small with sacrifices, but normal. Had we been at California and breezed through this process, we may have had to make additional sacrifices, and snap to decisions faster, but I think a wedding is just as doable. Remember that with a K1 you also don't have to enter the USA immediately. If you need additional time to plan, you can wait to enter. Was the date we picked, really the date we wanted? Well no. But it's one of those sacrifices.

So far there is not a lot of evidence to suggest that California has slowed. Perhaps slightly? But it remains to be seen. We don't truly know for certain the reason entirely why one service center was backlogged compared to another. You could argue that Texas is forced to potentially handle more applications per capita of persons (given the east and southern states have more volume of potential people) than California. Or you could simply argue that Texas, is for lack of better words, inept.. incompetent, and inefficient . We could suspect a lot of things, but we don't know for sure. They could have simply shifted the load evenly, but it seems they felt taking the situation out of Texas' hands entirely (with exception of applications they already had) was the easier option (which does lead me to suspect things are badly run down there). I'd like to think POTUS gave someone an earful, but I don't see it actually fixing the problem in the long term.

Edited August 12, 2015 by yuna628

[Pennycat 880]

Thanks for posting such a well thought out response to a complicated question.

How did you learn that Texas will be clearning the backlog? We sent our K-1 application in, and it was sent to Texas (you're right it's the black hole-how can it posssibly take 5 times longer than Ca or Vt?). Got the NOA1 March 29. So we are part of that backlog for sure. Any information will be helpful. I can't believe that people who filed in April have already got their visas-but I'm so happy for them.

One other point about K-1 vs Spouse visa is that with the spouse visa you actually CAN plan your wedding. We can't because we have no idea when the visa will be granted. I realize I have a 6 month window but I don't want to postpone him coming here any longer than we have already endured. (The 3 months in which we must marry doesn't give us a lot of time so we want to do it asap after he arrives). And so I feel like I'm in a kind of "shotgun wedding" situation. I want something simple-but don't feel I can plan it very much. We have severe winters here and planning even an indoor wedding in the winter is a bad idea with my family 5 hours away. So...although I wanted a nice, intimate wedding I don't think I can have what I want. Or the date I wanted, etc. I feel it will be thrown together and that's pretty sad to me.

Another question-if all future applications are sent to CA will they still have a one month turn around? Seems like they will be flooded with applications-and their time could increase by seveal months.

Vermont hasn't been doing I-129fs in almost 2 years. I know it shows up when you check your zip code, and I know that they're showing a timeline on the USCIS site and here on Visajourney, but the Visajourney folks are mistakes---those people chose the wrong service center when filling gout their timelines. Not sure why it shows up for USCIS. Either because they still have the ability to start processing the forms again or because no one changed the form...who knows.

We know that they're clearing the backlog because USCIS announced the change starting March 27 which you can see here: http://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/workload-transfer-within-service-center-operations. There was, as you can imagine, a LOT of talk about that here. At first, we thought that it meant that they were picking up those of us "in line" at TSC and transferring us elsewhere. No. It quickly became obvious that 100% (or very close to it) of new applicants were being sent to CSC. Newbies were coming on here from TSC states with CSC receipt numbers. So yes. It was like being in a long line at the post office and then they opened up a new window, but they don't let anyone switch lines. And even though you've been waiting 3 hours, people who just showed up get in and out in the blink of an eye. I would highly suggest not lingering on that fact or on their timelines for your own sanity.

We have no idea how this may effect CSC in the long run. But so far, in the 4 months they've been doing this, their average has never gone above 45 days. Which is more than double what it was this winter (21 days)....but is now back down to 37. I simply believe that they have more staff assigned to K1s there. I think they will be fine. Maybe the plan is to ONLY have CSC do K1s ever again and all new hires were sent there too? Who knows?

You may want to double check....does your receipt number begin with SRC or WAC? SRC is Texas WAC is California.

From a different website that has "real time" data for TSC (Immifairy...it is a subscription site to see the full reports), you can see that a few people who applied after March 27 still got sent to TSC. I can only guess that this was a mistake made by someone at the Lockbox who literally didn't get the memo linked above lol . There are only 72 April applicants at TSC, about 50 or so March (after March 27) and zero from May forward. If your receipt number begins with SRC and this site: https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/landing.do saysthat they received your application after March 27.....you just managed to get really unlucky and can imagine a special place in hell for that worker at the Lockbox who wasn't paying attention.

You could also be at California and be on the high end of their average. Although 4 months at California would be very unusual right now.

Anyway, all this means that because TSC hasn't been getting new applicants since March 27....the line is getting shorter. So anyone who shows up now will only have half of January, most of February and all of March filers "in line" ahead of them. Whereas when I applied in February, there was half of September and all of October, November, December and January in line ahead of me. So good news for any new filer. They're either going to lightening-fast CSC or going TSC where the line is half the length it used to be.

Good news for YOU is that the persistent rumors about TSC having hired hundreds of new people (for all visas, not just K1) may very well be true, and we are seeing the average wait there drop. It should not be much longer for you. Just don't think about how fast it could have/should have been.

Weddings:

You can most certainly plan a big wedding with a K1. I am right now. You have to be flexible, and maybe you're not going to get to one of those super-popular venues that have a year long wait list, or the #1 wedding band in town, but it is very much possible. Particularly if you explain your situation to them, you get a LOT more flexibility out of people than you'd think. I can't help but wonder if some of them picture the Knot or Yelp reviews about "I had 90 days to plan a wedding to my foreign husband and they pulled it all off with flying colors!!!"

I've already ordered my dress (it takes 4 to 5 months generally...so you may want to get on that too), and I'll have it altered a month before the wedding just like every other bride. I have a few "irons in the fire" for ceremony/reception sites and will go with whichever one is available on the same day that my photographer of choice is available. I don't need a "backup" photographer because this woman is a friend of mine and she says that winter weddings are pretty rare for her, so I'll be good with just her). Any caterer who wants to make a living can do something with a month's notice. I'm even having custom wedding invitations designed---the process takes 8 weeks. I'm having her do the design now, and plug in the information later. Here's the artist: https://www.etsy.com/shop/chicksnhens?section_id=12025264&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

Or, you can always get paper married to fulfill the requirements of the visa and take a year or more to plan the wedding of your dreams. Lots of options with weddings, here.

[NikLR 13,220]

Sounds like a big wedding you're planning.

Ours was also planned in less than two months but was amazing and small. Perfect for us.

[Pennycat 880]

Sounds like a big wedding you're planning.

Ours was also planned in less than two months but was amazing and small. Perfect for us.

Yes and no. I did the dress early because I am not a common "off the rack" size. I'd have dome that whether we did the big wedding or eloped.

I sort of wanted to elope for the romantic adventure part of it (and seriously looked into it...Colorado was the plan)....but it just didn't feel right. Plus we're both really social, love a good party and I've got a huge family and tons of friends. We would have wound up having a reception anyway because of this and we're doing a religious ceremony in Costa Rica and I'm not in the mood to plan 3 weddings lol.

I've got two community center type places in mind for the reception (basically VFW hall type places). I have friends who are members at both and will have rental fee waived. Both say that they won't be fully booked in winter (a month ago I did the math and figured that we were likely to have a winter wedding no matter what and started planning accordingly). There's a Costa Rican mother /daughter catering team around here. The do all the CR embassy's picnics and things. They're good for anytime in thr winter and are very reasonably priced. We'll bring kegs and cases of wine, I have 2 friends who have volunteered to be bartenders (we wont even need ONE lol) the Costa Ricans will bring the linens ans plates, we've got iPods, a photographer friend and boom you have a wedding. No bridesmaids and such and maybe flowers if I remember to do it. We may do the ceremony there, or do THAT "elopement style " earlier in the day, the two of us. Unknown. I sprang for the custom invites mostly because pretty paper products are my weakness (I worked at the Paper Source in college) and Pinterest is thr devil

[NikLR 13,220]

well much bigger than mine! LOL we didn't even have a typical reception. Just a luncheon at a hotel and a party the night before.

[jess100 53]

I notice you said you sent in a K1 application. You actually have it listed that you sent in a spousal application.

I would say you just missed the cutoff date for applications being directed to California, which is a great shame. I think the announcement came on the 27th of March ish, and I suspect you became unlucky and were not one of those directed there. The tumblr link in my signature talks about the letter that was sent to the President in an effort by many here to get attention on the subject of the ridiculous blacklog and uneven processing times at both service centers. A response by a representative authorized on behalf of the President confirmed that changes were being made, and the announcement was posted on the USCIS website around the same time. I know other efforts were being made with getting the word out to senators on the subject too.

When an application.. any application takes a great length of time; on the one hand it does give a stretch of time to plan, and on the other the uncertain nature of how long it will take creates it's own set of problems in planning and booking on a certain date. The reality is we were stuck in Texas, and it wasn't until the 300th or so day from sending in the application that my fiancé was even able to finally have his interview and everything was completed. We started planning our wedding before we even sent in the application and have continued planning throughout the process, even when we had to keep our date floating. When all is said and done, we're having a pretty darn normal wedding. Small with sacrifices, but normal. Had we been at California and breezed through this process, we may have had to make additional sacrifices, and snap to decisions faster, but I think a wedding is just as doable. Remember that with a K1 you also don't have to enter the USA immediately. If you need additional time to plan, you can wait to enter. Was the date we picked, really the date we wanted? Well no. But it's one of those sacrifices.

So far there is not a lot of evidence to suggest that California has slowed. Perhaps slightly? But it remains to be seen. We don't truly know for certain the reason entirely why one service center was backlogged compared to another. You could argue that Texas is forced to potentially handle more applications per capita of persons (given the east and southern states have more volume of potential people) than California. Or you could simply argue that Texas, is for lack of better words, inept.. incompetent, and inefficient . We could suspect a lot of things, but we don't know for sure. They could have simply shifted the load evenly, but it seems they felt taking the situation out of Texas' hands entirely (with exception of applications they already had) was the easier option (which does lead me to suspect things are badly run down there). I'd like to think POTUS gave someone an earful, but I don't see it actually fixing the problem in the long term.

Yes I'd say we missed the date too bc my NOA 1 arrived March 29. But that is pretty close so I will do what another member said and check the code to see if it went to CSC. I'm OK with it going to TSC bc I need time to plan-I would be caught really off guard if things when through too soon. We have kind of planned around the 7 month TSC dates. (and if it went to CSC I probably would have my NOA2 by now-it's been almost 5 months)

I'm a little surprised my lawyer didn't recommend waiting 2 weeks to submit it. (I submitted it about March 15)

I had NO idea Vermont was closed. It's listed everywhere-with time frames, etc.

But Jeez 300 days? You are probably right that things are not well run there. I hope some of those problems were solved when the changes were made.

Thanks for the upbeat advice about continuing to plan your wedding....It's given me hope!

Yes I'd say we missed the date too bc my NOA 1 arrived March 29. But that is pretty close so I will do what another member said and check the code to see if it went to CSC. I'm OK with it going to TSC bc I need time to plan-I would be caught really off guard if things when through too soon. We have kind of planned around the 7 month TSC dates. (and if it went to CSC I probably would have my NOA2 by now-it's been almost 5 months)

I'm a little surprised my lawyer didn't recommend waiting 2 weeks to submit it. (I submitted it about March 15)

I had NO idea Vermont was closed. It's listed everywhere-with time frames, etc.

But Jeez 300 days? You are probably right that things are not well run there. I hope some of those problems were solved when the changes were made.

Thanks for the upbeat advice about continuing to plan your wedding....It's given me hope!

I changed my profile to K-1 Spouse was our original plan -thanks for pointing that out.

[jess100 53]

Vermont hasn't been doing I-129fs in almost 2 years. I know it shows up when you check your zip code, and I know that they're showing a timeline on the USCIS site and here on Visajourney, but the Visajourney folks are mistakes---those people chose the wrong service center when filling gout their timelines. Not sure why it shows up for USCIS. Either because they still have the ability to start processing the forms again or because no one changed the form...who knows.

We know that they're clearing the backlog because USCIS announced the change starting March 27 which you can see here: http://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/workload-transfer-within-service-center-operations. There was, as you can imagine, a LOT of talk about that here. At first, we thought that it meant that they were picking up those of us "in line" at TSC and transferring us elsewhere. No. It quickly became obvious that 100% (or very close to it) of new applicants were being sent to CSC. Newbies were coming on here from TSC states with CSC receipt numbers. So yes. It was like being in a long line at the post office and then they opened up a new window, but they don't let anyone switch lines. And even though you've been waiting 3 hours, people who just showed up get in and out in the blink of an eye. I would highly suggest not lingering on that fact or on their timelines for your own sanity.

We have no idea how this may effect CSC in the long run. But so far, in the 4 months they've been doing this, their average has never gone above 45 days. Which is more than double what it was this winter (21 days)....but is now back down to 37. I simply believe that they have more staff assigned to K1s there. I think they will be fine. Maybe the plan is to ONLY have CSC do K1s ever again and all new hires were sent there too? Who knows?

You may want to double check....does your receipt number begin with SRC or WAC? SRC is Texas WAC is California.

From a different website that has "real time" data for TSC (Immifairy...it is a subscription site to see the full reports), you can see that a few people who applied after March 27 still got sent to TSC. I can only guess that this was a mistake made by someone at the Lockbox who literally didn't get the memo linked above lol . There are only 72 April applicants at TSC, about 50 or so March (after March 27) and zero from May forward. If your receipt number begins with SRC and this site: https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/landing.do saysthat they received your application after March 27.....you just managed to get really unlucky and can imagine a special place in hell for that worker at the Lockbox who wasn't paying attention.

You could also be at California and be on the high end of their average. Although 4 months at California would be very unusual right now.

Anyway, all this means that because TSC hasn't been getting new applicants since March 27....the line is getting shorter. So anyone who shows up now will only have half of January, most of February and all of March filers "in line" ahead of them. Whereas when I applied in February, there was half of September and all of October, November, December and January in line ahead of me. So good news for any new filer. They're either going to lightening-fast CSC or going TSC where the line is half the length it used to be.

Good news for YOU is that the persistent rumors about TSC having hired hundreds of new people (for all visas, not just K1) may very well be true, and we are seeing the average wait there drop. It should not be much longer for you. Just don't think about how fast it could have/should have been.

Weddings:

You can most certainly plan a big wedding with a K1. I am right now. You have to be flexible, and maybe you're not going to get to one of those super-popular venues that have a year long wait list, or the #1 wedding band in town, but it is very much possible. Particularly if you explain your situation to them, you get a LOT more flexibility out of people than you'd think. I can't help but wonder if some of them picture the Knot or Yelp reviews about "I had 90 days to plan a wedding to my foreign husband and they pulled it all off with flying colors!!!"

I've already ordered my dress (it takes 4 to 5 months generally...so you may want to get on that too), and I'll have it altered a month before the wedding just like every other bride. I have a few "irons in the fire" for ceremony/reception sites and will go with whichever one is available on the same day that my photographer of choice is available. I don't need a "backup" photographer because this woman is a friend of mine and she says that winter weddings are pretty rare for her, so I'll be good with just her). Any caterer who wants to make a living can do something with a month's notice. I'm even having custom wedding invitations designed---the process takes 8 weeks. I'm having her do the design now, and plug in the information later. Here's the artist: https://www.etsy.com/shop/chicksnhens?section_id=12025264&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

Or, you can always get paper married to fulfill the requirements of the visa and take a year or more to plan the wedding of your dreams. Lots of options with weddings, here.

It's actually been 5 months (since I sent it) so I have to assume it went to Texas-but I will check the receipt and thanks for that information.

I imagine special places in hell for lots of people-but in our case it doesn't matter that much now. It's already been 5 months anyway. And hundreds of new people being hired actually scares me-surely there will be lots of mistakes.

Thanks for all that great advice about the wedding. Between your response and that of another member you've given me hope again.

Really I don't know what I would do without this website

thanks again

Edited August 12, 2015 by jess100

[jess100 53]

It's actually been 5 months (since I sent it) so I have to assume it went to Texas-but I will check the receipt and thanks for that information.

I imagine special places in hell for lots of people-but in our case it doesn't matter that much now. It's already been 5 months anyway. And hundreds of new people being hired actually scares me-surely there will be lots of mistakes.

Thanks for all that great advice about the wedding. Between your response and that of another member you've given me hope again.

Really I don't know what I would do without this website

thanks again

I'm even having custom wedding invitations designed---the process takes 8 weeks. I'm having her do the design now, and plug in the information later. Here's the artist: https://www.etsy.com...ction_leftnav_1

and thanks so much for sending this along-i had no idea I could do that.!!

Did you think about doing lavender for flowers? Might work well for a winter wedding!

[Pennycat 880]

I'm even having custom wedding invitations designed---the process takes 8 weeks. I'm having her do the design now, and plug in the information later. Here's the artist: https://www.etsy.com...ction_leftnav_1

and thanks so much for sending this along-i had no idea I could do that.!!

Did you think about doing lavender for flowers? Might work well for a winter wedding!

Happy to! If you do happen to go with her....mention where you heard about it. I won't get anything this is not a commission thing. I just think she'd get a kick out of it!

I liked the idea because were going to have a Catholic ceremony in Costa Rica next year. So we'll do a different one with the same couple illustration and "send " them to Costa Rica . This one will be in my historic district town at winter with snow etc and a cardinal (A Virginia symbol) in the tree, and maybe some magnolias making the border. The Costa Rica one will be up in the tropical mountains with a small country church in thr background, coffee flower (also white flowers with waxy green leaves) border and a sloth or toucan in thr tree I am a little overly obsessed with graphic design .

Oh also your lawyer couldn't have recommended waiting because this announcement just kind of showed up one day....I don't think it was released yet and if it was....maybe he didn't see it in time?

Edited August 13, 2015 by CatherineA

[londongal 17]

you never answered the question I asked before. You said you lived together. Does the American currently live in the UK? The best possible shortcut is available if both live in the UK. Just checking before you decide.

By the way, here are your application costs

K1 London route = $1705 + £295

$340 (USCIS) I-129F petition

£45 (ACPO) Police certificate just before petition approval

£250 (Knightsbridge Doctors) medical exam. Pay at exam.

$265 (Embassy) Visa fee prior to interview. Online pay.

$30 Courier fee if home delivery, $0 to pick up at a depot. Online.

$1070 (USCIS) Adjustment of Status/Work Authorization/Advance Parole

CR1 route = $1060 + £295

$420 (USCIS) I-130 petition

$325 (National Visa Center) Visa fee

$120 (National Visa Center) Affidavit of Support Review fee

£45 ACPO Police certificate https://www.acro.police.uk/police_certificates.aspx

£250 (Knightsbridge Doctors) medical exam http://www.visamedicals.info/us.asp

$30 Courier fee if home delivery, $0 to pick up at a depot

$165.00 (USCIS) Immigrant Fee via the Department of State's website - https://ceac.state.gov/IV/Login.aspx

Sorry I missed your question earlier.

We don't live together unfortunately. He lives in Texas and I live in London.

I think what I was getting confused about was with the K1 we would live apart during the application and Cr1 we would also have to live apart too. But now I understand that it's the living apart from a spouse rather than a fiance that people don't like.