Pregnancy and expedition

Ktav · December 14, 2015

Hi,

I am pregnant and hoping to get my fiancé to the United States as soon as possible. I was living with him while working in Argentina but came home to California to visit family and found out I while here that I'm pregnant. I had been planning to return to Argentina, but now I think I should stay in California.

I read a few of these that said that pregnancy is not something that will expedite the process. Any other suggestions? This is my first pregnancy so obviously I want him to be here with me, and he does too.

I will start working in January, and I will be able to financially support us and cover the rest of the costs that come later, but in THIS MOMENT, I don't have the $340 to file the initial fee. I called and got advice from the help line and she assured me that pregnancy could be a valid expedition and that filing a fee waiver would not be an indication of inability to support ourselves. Now it seems like that information was not true. Plus now that I'm trying to fill out the fee waiver, it seems as though the 129 F form's fee cannot be waived.

If my fiance can't get here any sooner than the 6-8 months that it will take, he will miss the birth. I can't even imagine that scenario, but I am terrified to go back and give birth in Argentina. Is there any other way he can get here and be with me without all of this K1 visa stuff? We can get married another time, but we want to be together for the birth.

So my questions are:

1. Can pregnancy be a reason for expediting a K1 visa? If not, do you have any recommendations on how I can expedite my fiance's visa so he can come here and be here with me (emotionally of course, but also financially).

2. Is there any way I can get the $340 fee waived and if I do, will it make me less likely to get approved?

(I've seen some condescending responses on other people's comment threads. I've done the research too but I've gotten conflicting info from the webpage and from when I called and spoke to them. Please only respond if you have experience with this question. I also know it will be more expensive later, but I just got back to the country and haven't started working yet, later we will be fine, but now it's impossible.)

3. If there's no way he can get here on the K1 visa in less than 6 months, is there another way he can just get here and be with me?

I'm going to call the USCIS again for these questions, but if you can offer any informed decisions with experience that I don't have, I would really appreciate your respectful advice.

Thank you

Kathryn

TBoneTX · December 14, 2015

No to all three.

Avoid relying on the "misinformation line" of USCIS for correct answers.

Edited December 14, 2015 by TBoneTX

Pitaya · December 14, 2015

Hi,

I am pregnant and hoping to get my fiancé to the United States as soon as possible. I was living with him while working in Argentina but came home to California to visit family and found out I while here that I'm pregnant. I had been planning to return to Argentina, but now I think I should stay in California.

I read a few of these that said that pregnancy is not something that will expedite the process. Any other suggestions? This is my first pregnancy so obviously I want him to be here with me, and he does too.

I will start working in January, and I will be able to financially support us and cover the rest of the costs that come later, but in THIS MOMENT, I don't have the $340 to file the initial fee. I called and got advice from the help line and she assured me that pregnancy could be a valid expedition and that filing a fee waiver would not be an indication of inability to support ourselves. Now it seems like that information was not true. Plus now that I'm trying to fill out the fee waiver, it seems as though the 129 F form's fee cannot be waived.

If my fiance can't get here any sooner than the 6-8 months that it will take, he will miss the birth. I can't even imagine that scenario, but I am terrified to go back and give birth in Argentina. Is there any other way he can get here and be with me without all of this K1 visa stuff? We can get married another time, but we want to be together for the birth.

So my questions are:

1. Can pregnancy be a reason for expediting a K1 visa?No, it if were, there would be a lot more pregnant fiancees. If not, do you have any recommendations on how I can expedite my fiance's visa so he can come here and be here with me (emotionally of course, but also financially).

2. Is there any way I can get the $340 fee waived and if I do, will it make me less likely to get approved?

(I've seen some condescending responses on other people's comment threads. I've done the research too but I've gotten conflicting info from the webpage and from when I called and spoke to them. Please only respond if you have experience with this question. I also know it will be more expensive later, but I just got back to the country and haven't started working yet, later we will be fine, but now it's impossible.)

3. If there's no way he can get here on the K1 visa in less than 6 months, is there another way he can just get here and be with me? Refer to answer no. 1.

I'm going to call the USCIS again for these questions, but if you can offer any informed decisions with experience that I don't have, I would really appreciate your respectful advice.

Thank you

Kathryn

Welcome to the forum.

Here are the USCIS expedite criteria: http://www.uscis.gov/forms/expedite-criteria

Good luck on your immigration journey.

Transborderwife · December 14, 2015

Nope, nope and nope. Good luck, perhaps he can visit for the birth of his child, but don't count on it unfortunately

Pennycat · December 14, 2015

Hi,

I am pregnant and hoping to get my fiancé to the United States as soon as possible. I was living with him while working in Argentina but came home to California to visit family and found out I while here that I'm pregnant. I had been planning to return to Argentina, but now I think I should stay in California.

I read a few of these that said that pregnancy is not something that will expedite the process. Any other suggestions? This is my first pregnancy so obviously I want him to be here with me, and he does too.

I will start working in January, and I will be able to financially support us and cover the rest of the costs that come later, but in THIS MOMENT, I don't have the $340 to file the initial fee. I called and got advice from the help line and she assured me that pregnancy could be a valid expedition and that filing a fee waiver would not be an indication of inability to support ourselves. Now it seems like that information was not true. Plus now that I'm trying to fill out the fee waiver, it seems as though the 129 F form's fee cannot be waived.

If my fiance can't get here any sooner than the 6-8 months that it will take, he will miss the birth. I can't even imagine that scenario, but I am terrified to go back and give birth in Argentina. Is there any other way he can get here and be with me without all of this K1 visa stuff? We can get married another time, but we want to be together for the birth.

So my questions are:

1. Can pregnancy be a reason for expediting a K1 visa? If not, do you have any recommendations on how I can expedite my fiance's visa so he can come here and be here with me (emotionally of course, but also financially).

2. Is there any way I can get the $340 fee waived and if I do, will it make me less likely to get approved?

(I've seen some condescending responses on other people's comment threads. I've done the research too but I've gotten conflicting info from the webpage and from when I called and spoke to them. Please only respond if you have experience with this question. I also know it will be more expensive later, but I just got back to the country and haven't started working yet, later we will be fine, but now it's impossible.)

3. If there's no way he can get here on the K1 visa in less than 6 months, is there another way he can just get here and be with me?

I'm going to call the USCIS again for these questions, but if you can offer any informed decisions with experience that I don't have, I would really appreciate your respectful advice.

Thank you

Kathryn

No to all three, sorry. The main goal of that USCIS line is to get you off the phone, honestly. They can't tell you anything you can't find on the website (they don't know). And it is easier for them to give you a "maybe, here's how to apply" than it is to say "no" and deal with the emotions that follow that.

In terms of expediting things, first you really won't need to-- it's generally going fairly fast at this point-- 4 months or under for most people. Second, there are two phases of this process, each would need its own expedite.

Phase 1: USCIS. That is the office that is nearly impossible to get expedited through and *used to be* the portion that took the longest (8+ months for some people stuck in service centers with huge backlogs). HOWEVER, right now, all new petitions to USCIS are going to the same office, and that office has been consistently processing them in about 4 or 5 weeks for a year now. You wouldn't need an expedite from USICS under these circumstances.

Phase 2: State Department/embassy. (1) Your petition will then go to the State Department (National Visa Center) where it will be routed to the correct embassy in about 2 weeks. Again, no point in expediting here-- it would probably take as long to apply for the expedite as you'd spend at NVC. Other visa applicants spend 6 months to over a year (or many many years for certain visa classes). K1s are already expedited through NVC. (2) Then, you'll wait about a month to hear from the embassy, then spend however long it takes your fiance to do all the work for that (lots of paperwork and documents gathering and medical appointments), then schedule an interview which can be anywhere from available the next-day or 3 months in the future. Here is where you have the best chance of an expedite and where it could make a difference in your case. That first month it takes to hear from the embassy-- maybe they can process it faster for you. You MUST get your ducks in a row and force your fiance to get through all that paperwork quickly. This is a whole lot less easy than it sounds (and if yours is anything like mine, basically impossible). Then they may be able to give you an interview quickly (if there's even a line-- our embassy had availability within 5 days).

You really just need to get a move-on on applying (and remember, the application fee is just a fraction of the overall cost. Mandatory medical appointments are around $200, the interview is $245, getting his required documents can cost money etc). You also need to consider what type of job you'll be getting in January and if it will meet the income requirements for the visa. I'd highly suggest borrowing the application fee if at all possible, and having this person (or someone else) lined up to be a co-sponsor in case you don't meet the income requirements-- just to get the wheels turning.