I-129F after I-130

[Sean John 0]

Hello all,

I got married to my non-US spouse in July of '09. I cam back and filed an I-130 on September 24th 2009. I received my first NOA on September 29th 2009. I have been waiting for my second NOA ever since. I did not know I could file an I-129F at the time of filing the I-130 and therefore did not file one after. I now found out I could have filed for a K-3 and expedited things. I am now deliberating whether it would be a good idea to spend another $160.00 on something that would probably have no Return on Investment since its been 4 months now and I could possibly be receiving my NOA2 anytime soon. Or am I wrong and should I go ahead and file my K-3 application(I-129F). I wish I had found this site sooner!

Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you all.

[payxibka 10,045]

Hello all,

I got married to my non-US spouse in July of '09. I cam back and filed an I-130 on September 24th 2009. I received my first NOA on September 29th 2009. I have been waiting for my second NOA ever since. I did not know I could file an I-129F at the time of filing the I-130 and therefore did not file one after. I now found out I could have filed for a K-3 and expedited things. I am now deliberating whether it would be a good idea to spend another $160.00 on something that would probably have no Return on Investment since its been 4 months now and I could possibly be receiving my NOA2 anytime soon. Or am I wrong and should I go ahead and file my K-3 application(I-129F). I wish I had found this site sooner!

Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you all.

$160? for what? A I-129F filed after a I-130 for a K-3 spousal visa is fee waived... however, since you are now 4 mos. in process the chances of a I-129f helping to speed things up are no longer there (if ever)... many here are believers that teh I-129f actually slows down the process nowadays

[Ready2Kl 1]

$160? for what? A I-129F filed after a I-130 for a K-3 spousal visa is fee waived... however, since you are now 4 mos. in process the chances of a I-129f helping to speed things up are no longer there (if ever)... many here are believers that teh I-129f actually slows down the process nowadays

We just got our I-129F and I-130 approved this month and Personal experience is that atleast in India consulates 129F for sure does not slow down I-130 process. I will agree that it wont fasten things up much but definitely there is a one month - two month advantage going the K3 route for India. Now is the 1-2month advantage worth the hassle of going through AOS is for each individual to decide based on their case to case factors. For us we felt that even a 1-2 month speedup is worth and at this point we are pursuing both simultaneously and will go for whichever interview is first scheduled. When we called NVC they said we can pursue both.

For the Chennai consulate that I am going through , Chennai directly gets the case from NVC and Chennai consulate sends out packet 4 with interview date(skips Packet 3 for K-3) and hence you see that 1-2 month advantage going over the I-130 route. I am not sure how other consulates do this.

[payxibka 10,045]

We just got our I-129F and I-130 approved this month and Personal experience is that atleast in India consulates 129F for sure does not slow down I-130 process. I will agree that it wont fasten things up much but definitely there is a one month - two month advantage going the K3 route for India. Now is the 1-2month advantage worth the hassle of going through AOS is for each individual to decide based on their case to case factors. For us we felt that even a 1-2 month speedup is worth and at this point we are pursuing both simultaneously and will go for whichever interview is first scheduled. When we called NVC they said we can pursue both.

For the Chennai consulate that I am going through , Chennai directly gets the case from NVC and Chennai consulate sends out packet 4 with interview date(skips Packet 3 for K-3) and hence you see that 1-2 month advantage going over the I-130 route. I am not sure how other consulates do this.

petition approval has nothing to do with the consulate activity as what you describe is all POST petition activity.... which there can be some processing time differences for the visa

[Sean John 0]

We just got our I-129F and I-130 approved this month and Personal experience is that atleast in India consulates 129F for sure does not slow down I-130 process. I will agree that it wont fasten things up much but definitely there is a one month - two month advantage going the K3 route for India. Now is the 1-2month advantage worth the hassle of going through AOS is for each individual to decide based on their case to case factors. For us we felt that even a 1-2 month speedup is worth and at this point we are pursuing both simultaneously and will go for whichever interview is first scheduled. When we called NVC they said we can pursue both.

For the Chennai consulate that I am going through , Chennai directly gets the case from NVC and Chennai consulate sends out packet 4 with interview date(skips Packet 3 for K-3) and hence you see that 1-2 month advantage going over the I-130 route. I am not sure how other consulates do this.

@Payxibka - I thought the $155 fee was for everyone.

@Ready2Kl - Thats what my initial thoughts were for the K-3, but since its been 4 months (I filed in September), I was wondering if there was any benefit at this time. Apparently not as listed in some other posts. Also, I saw you filed in September as well, how far along are you now?

[payxibka 10,045]

@Payxibka - I thought the $155 fee was for everyone.

that all changed on 7.30.2007... The filing fee for the I-129F is $455 but is fee waived for a spouse pursuing a K-3

it is believed that an I-130 is pulled out of line and matched up with the I-129F so they can be adjudicated together (put back in line based on the I-129F submission date)... at this point you do NOT want to be pulled out of line to facilitate the I-129F

Edited January 25, 2010 by payxibka

[Deb+Steve 13]

Don't bother with the K3 now. It is way too late. Besides, they're processing September petitions at the moment. There are a few of us from September who have just received our approvals and hopefully, the rest will follow within in the next week.

Good luck ...

[Ready2Kl 1]

Don't bother with the K3 now. It is way too late. Besides, they're processing September petitions at the moment. There are a few of us from September who have just received our approvals and hopefully, the rest will follow within in the next week.

Good luck ...

Thats true just as DontWhateverMe said it looks like they are processing September petitions at the moment. And the reason I said petition approval doesnt slow down cuz of K3 is because I pretty much got my petition approved the same time as the rest of I-130 folks got theirs approved (basically all of us september filers).

However as both of the above posters said since you are already 4 months into the process I think for your case you might not see much benefit at this stage. IN my case the difference in NOA 1 dates for both I-130 and I129F was less than 10 days.

[hobokenworkingman 4]

We just got our I-129F and I-130 approved this month and Personal experience is that atleast in India consulates 129F for sure does not slow down I-130 process. I will agree that it wont fasten things up much but definitely there is a one month - two month advantage going the K3 route for India. Now is the 1-2month advantage worth the hassle of going through AOS is for each individual to decide based on their case to case factors. For us we felt that even a 1-2 month speedup is worth and at this point we are pursuing both simultaneously and will go for whichever interview is first scheduled. When we called NVC they said we can pursue both.

For the Chennai consulate that I am going through , Chennai directly gets the case from NVC and Chennai consulate sends out packet 4 with interview date(skips Packet 3 for K-3) and hence you see that 1-2 month advantage going over the I-130 route. I am not sure how other consulates do this.

Is this true??? I'm also going through Chennai - is it so that Chennai sends the packet 4 WITH the interview date??? Do you happen to know what the time period after NVC receives it and Chennai schedules the interview?? My wife needs to get her police clearance certificate (she just has to get it from the local passport office, as her passport is less than 6 months old) and I was planning for her to do it after we got NOA2 approval. I guess I thought we had some time, but looks like we indeed might not (which is great!). I'll get her to get it ASAP!