Foreign Background Check

[Heliosphan 1]

I read in another forum that if you entered the US less than a year before filing the AOS then they do a foreign background check. If longer they don't, does anyone know if that's true?

Is that a reason for the huge variation in AOS timelines?

Also, if K1s/K3s have to get police certificates anyway, would that make a difference there?

[cdn_in_wa 1]

I read in another forum that if you entered the US less than a year before filing the AOS then they do a foreign background check. If longer they don't, does anyone know if that's true?

Is that a reason for the huge variation in AOS timelines?

Also, if K1s/K3s have to get police certificates anyway, would that make a difference there?

I think the the reasons for most of the variations in timelines are:

the fact that some K1s/K3s don't get interviewed at AOS

the fact that some offices have higher numbers of applications to process than other offices

The FBI Namecheck / Background checks definitely slow some applicants down, but if you follow the monthly filers posts, it looks mostly to be a case of workload - if your local office is interviewing others in your month of filing, yours will probably come then, too. That's what I've noticed from following the threads. And if your office has interviewed everyone else, then I'd say there's probably something about your application that has slowed it down - might be the namecheck.