How long to bring a new spouse to the US

[jmt111 0]

For an immigrant visa where the sponsor is an American citizen and spouse, does it take a few weeks to get the visa or 6 months to a year? A US diplomat told me a few weeks but an immigration attorney told me six-eight weeks.

[leishi 11]

depends on your situation, if you are filing DCF or regular, but either way, you not gonna get finished in a few weeks.

[kzielu 1,147]

6-8 months at least.

[aaron2020 11,651]

For an immigrant visa where the sponsor is an American citizen and spouse, does it take a few weeks to get the visa or 6 months to a year? A US diplomat told me a few weeks but an immigration attorney told me six-eight weeks.

Six months to one year. Absolutely, no way in 6-8 weeks.

[Jon and Gay 3]

Sibling or parents of the spouse? Wait with patience.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Jon and Gay

[jmt111 0]

Sorry for the typo. The immigration attorney told me six months to a year.

The diplomat who told me a few weeks was a high-ranking member of a US Consulate in the Middle East and another lower ranking diplomat gave me similar information. Could they both have been wrong? Here is what I was told:

For an immigrant visa, if the sponsor is an American citizen, the visa petition falls into preference categories that makes the wait shorter. For a spouse or unmarried child under 21, it can take a few weeks.

Visas in the IR [immediate relative - I believe spouse falls into this] categories are not limited in number by Congress, so there is always a visa available and they can be processed quickly.

Edited January 10, 2013 by jmt111

[Asia 2,491]

Here is what I was told:

For an immigrant visa, if the sponsor is an American citizen, the visa petition falls into preference categories that makes the wait shorter. For a spouse or unmarried child under 21, it can take a few weeks.

Visas in the IR [immediate relative - I believe spouse falls into this] categories are not limited in number by Congress, so there is always a visa available and they can be processed quickly.

Maybe they both meant the time when a petition is accepted to being proceeded.

No way you can petition someone and they could get a visa (and join you in the US) within a couple of weeks.

Sure there's no limit to IR, but many people are coming to the US via this way, so still time is needed to proceed these all petitions.

[Penguin_ie 5,985]

It took me 6 weeks to get a spousal visa, because we filed DCF (directly with the local embassy rather than via a lockbox). This option is now only available in countries whose US embassies have USCIS offices, a list is here: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=1ac900c262197210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=1ac900c262197210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

[jmt111 0]

Can a person file his application for a spousal immigrant visa with a US Embassy having USCIS offices if he does not live in the country in which the US Embassy having USCIS offices is located?

[kzielu 1,147]

Can a person file his application for a spousal immigrant visa with a US Embassy having USCIS offices if he does not live in the country in which the US Embassy having USCIS offices is located?

Of course no. You typically have to have 6 months of residency to apply for DCF.

[jmt111 0]

In the case of a US citizen who wants to marry a non-US citizen, which of these would take less time to get the non-US citizen into the US:

- Get married in the non-US citizen's country and then apply for a spousal immigrant visa (6-12 months);

- Apply for a fiancé visa (is there such a thing?) in order for the fiancé to come to the US to get married (is that how it works?) (??? months).

Please let me know if there are any other suggestions.

[Darnell 8,478]

yes, there's a fiance visa.

maybe study this page?

http://www.visajourney.com/content/compare