I-130 Processing time and phases

[ntoc80 0]

My wife and I were married in March this year. She is a UK Citizen, I'm a US citizen. I hired a lawyer, filed an I-130 and now we wait. The USCIS received our I-130 on July 23rd, and it still says "Initial Review" on the site. What are the phases it goes through after this? Any estimates on how long each will take? My lawyer is now recommending submitting a K-3 Visa because those are being processed quicker lately. Thoughts? Words of encouragement? The waiting process sucks and it only seems that the wait times are increasing.

[allyinchicago 8]

this whole process is very long...hopefully you will get something soon but every case is different...i'm on 15 months of waiting got my senator involved in march

[TBoneTX 43,435]

*** Thread moved from CR-1 Process forum to the CR-1 Case Progress subforum. ***

[B & G 200]

 

I would suggest as she is UK citizen, she should come to USA on visiting Visa, once she is here then file Adjustment of Status for her, it will take hardly 3 months and she will get Conditional GC,

Thanks
TA

 

It is illegal to enter the US on the visa waiver program for the sole purpose of adjusting status. She will be attemping to enter with the intention of staying and it could end up hurting them in the long run especially if she lies to the CBP officer.

Please refrain from advicing someone to do something illegal. It is against VJ TOS.

Edited November 7, 2013 by B & G

[TAandNA 13]

Thanks for letting me know - Admin please delete my post - thanks

[B & G 200]

My wife and I were married in March this year. She is a UK Citizen, I'm a US citizen. I hired a lawyer, filed an I-130 and now we wait. The USCIS received our I-130 on July 23rd, and it still says "Initial Review" on the site. What are the phases it goes through after this? Any estimates on how long each will take? My lawyer is now recommending submitting a K-3 Visa because those are being processed quicker lately. Thoughts? Words of encouragement? The waiting process sucks and it only seems that the wait times are increasing.

I do feel your pain, we filed for our CR1 a month after you so we have not been waiting as long you but the wait is just as hard nonetheless.

Right now the processing times are ridiculously long. Half of the Feb filers and almost all March filers are still wating for approvals so I don't see either you or me receiving approvals by the end of the year.

As for the K3 visa, alot of other members have filed for them in hopes of getting their spouses faster into the US. Unfortunately, from reading through all the CR1-IR1 forums, it seems that the K3 is attached with its respective CR1/IR1 visa and they both get adjusticated at the same time. So it doesnt seem like filing for the K3 will bring an approval around faster.

That being said, there is no filing fee for the K3 so it might not hurt to file it and see what happens.

[cathy2904 97]

Your status on the USCIS website will probably say Initial Review until you are approved - there are no interim steps unless you get an RFE. The website is also notoriously unreliable and for some people it remains on Initial Review even after they have received their visa!

From what I read, I-130's are taking a long time at the moment so unfortunately it's just a waiting game. Our wait was only eight months so we were pretty lucky. My husband remodeled our bathroom while we waited and he needed every minute of that time. ? I tried to spend as much time as I could with family and friends. I have been here nearly two years now and that wait is a distant memory.

At least you can both visit while you are waiting.

[GabbyBird 53]

My wife and I were married in March this year. She is a UK Citizen, I'm a US citizen. I hired a lawyer, filed an I-130 and now we wait. The USCIS received our I-130 on July 23rd, and it still says "Initial Review" on the site. What are the phases it goes through after this? Any estimates on how long each will take? My lawyer is now recommending submitting a K-3 Visa because those are being processed quicker lately. Thoughts? Words of encouragement? The waiting process sucks and it only seems that the wait times are increasing.

As previous posters have stated, the USCIS approval time has skyrocketed out of control since the end of January. Some estimates currently put them at 11 months just to get accepted. There is no real way to know how long they will take, and some are starting to get approvals after 8 or so months of waiting, others are waiting for even longer.

After USCIS approval your information will be forwarded to the NVC (National Visa Center) where you submid the DS-260 (Application for Immigrant Visa) and AoS (Affidavit of Support). These documents require original civil documents (not copies). The usual wait time for USCIS to NVC receiving your case and supplying a case # is about 6 weeks. Assuming all of your paperwork and evidence is perfect, it will take about 6 weeks after submitting the documents (30 business days) for the NVC to review and close the case. If there are mistakes ("checklists") or more documents needed (RFE - Request for evidence), that 30-business days gets reset until everything is perfect.

From there NVC will forward the documents the embassy and will add you to a queue for an interview date. It usually takes about a month to get an interview scheduled, and they are typically one to two months into the future. You need the medical exam completed by the time of the interview.

After the embassy interview is approved, they will take your passport and return it to you, usually in a week or so. From that point on you can enter the USA.

My signature has some dates, but each person's case is unique and in ours, we encountered enormous luck (just made the USCIS fiasco by a day or 2 before the delays hit) to NVC causing us major headaches. We were granted an expedite at the NVC which helped us move out of that phase and made the embassy phase very fast.

Edited November 7, 2013 by GabbyBird

[rysa 3]

For I-130, whether you ended up at a regional center or manged to stay at the Nat'l Benefits Center makes a notable difference (I think it did for us). There is little control over the processing times that you can exert other than to be super careful about your documents, especially once you get to NVC. Since you're using a lawyer, maybe the chances of an error is low but double-check everything... triplecheck. The i-864 form language is particularly obtuse and irritating. Request tax transcripts from IRS and use those numbers, not tax documents, in case you made an error on your tax form (I apparently did). Each review cycle @NVC costs you another 3+ weeks. Also, don't assume the online payment at NVC went through. Even if their system is at fault and doesn't process a pending payment for whatever reason (which was happening in June), they will not bother to email you with notifications. We found out the hard way. The burden is on you to make sure they are not making mistakes and are sending on the documents to the next agency.

[SoCalMark 49]

I have read several times over and over that there is no such filing as the K-3 any longer they are obsolete - Is that not right?

The K-3 was much more expensive and is treated the same as an I-130 anyways ... NO time difference.

[Avery Cates 1,141]

I have read several times over and over that there is no such filing as the K-3 any longer they are obsolete - Is that not right?

Seems to be the right of it, yes.

[En-oh-eh-to now 147]

I contacted the consulate where I live and they told me that they have issued very few K-3 visas lately.