I-129F Approved by USCIS in 4.5 months

[panamerican 36]

Hi all,

 

I wanted to share my quick story and recent updates on the K1 visa process I am going through with my Panamanian fiancee. I used this site quite a bit to gather information so I feel it is prudent to give back to the community and hopefully save some other people from searching for answers. I did not use a lawyer for any of this and simply used my best judgment in gathering resources from the internet. Please be careful with pulling information from potentially unreliable sources (a lot of the YouTube videos I saw were full of fluffy baloney like putting everything in a colorful binder with some silly heart-covered front page, remember these are government employees, any extra work for them is probably annoying) or sources that are outdated. Below is a (hopefully) short summary:

 

-I met my fiance in the United States as she was here under the Au Pair program on a J-1 Visa where she stayed for a year and a half (from November 2016 to June 2018)

-I proposed to her on my second trip to Panama about 4 months after she returned home (proposed early October 2018)

-I submitted the paperwork for the I-129F mid-November 2018 and received the NOA1 about 2 weeks after (late November 2018)

-Just yesterday (April 1st, 2019), I received the NOA2 showing that our request was approved (about 4.5 months total)

 

Hopefully, this gives good hope to those in the middle of waiting for their response. It is literally some of the worst anxiety I have ever experienced in my life and receiving this great news well ahead of time was a major relief.

 

Some notes that I believe helped our case go so quickly and smoothly:

 

-She is from Panama, a country that demonstrates a very low occurrence of visa overstays and fraud (from what research I have done)

-She already spent a year and a half in the US and, despite meeting through Tinder, we had spent plenty of time together face-to-face in the two years prior which continued even after she moved back to Panama

-She did not have any immigration issues between her visit in 2015 as a tourist and her stay as Au Pair; she left on time and did not get in any trouble with the law while here

-We had known each other for about two years by the time I had filed the I-129f paperwork

-Despite me having a criminal record (misdemeanor marijuana possession in 2007, served unsupervised probation successfully), I still had all of the original paperwork which I included in the submission (and made copies for myself to keep), and I wrote a letter specifically describing the circumstances and outcome (because, really, the whole thing was not a big deal)

-Included original documentation to prove legitimacy of the relationship and having seen her in the past two years (boarding passes, hotel reservations, receipts for the necklace and engagement ring, dinner receipts)

-The packet was organized by section with an outline included for easy searching and all papers with photos were labeled with date, location, and names of everyone

-The entire packet was two-hole punched at the top and I used ACCO prong fasteners (apparently, this is how they will file it anyway, it saves them time)

 

One major thing I want to mention is double-check, double-check, double-check your work!

 

I spent about two whole months on this and I am glad I took my time to do it correctly. I gathered documents that I had been collecting for quite some time and information from her and her family. It was very arduous, but it is incredibly important to be accurate in your submission. I probably rewrote parts of the I-129F form 10-15 times because I kept doing it incorrectly or I would later realize that I misinterpreted what was being asked of me (it's not straight-forward in all parts of the form).

 

Another major thing I want to mention is MAKE COPIES OF EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU SEND IT! Your fiance(e) will need to know what's going on and it doesn't hurt to have copies of the exact submission to verify what USCIS and the NVC have.

 

I very well may have overdone it, but I prefer the extra time put forth to getting an RFE or being outright denied.

 

Good luck to everyone else out there and I hope this helps. I was surprised to know that even with declining approvals for I-129F applications in the past two years, some of us can still be lucky to have their process move quicker than the 7+ months that we have been told.

 

-Panamerican

[Dinho 1]

Same timeline as mine. It took 4.5 months to get the approval notice. I just my notice of action approval letter 03/27/19. I apllied for the K1 visa mid NOV 2018.

[panamerican 36]

18 minutes ago, Dinho said:

Same timeline as mine. It took 4.5 months to get the approval notice. I just my notice of action approval letter 03/27/19. I apllied for the K1 visa mid NOV 2018.

That's awesome! I forgot to mention, maybe this is all happening much quicker now because the alleged changes to international field offices at USCIS. See the article below:

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/12/citizenship-immigration-international-offices-close-1218137

[Ben&Zian 4,398]

Yes some petitions get through quickly. Can have many variables such as organization of the petition, clear and concise evidence, the person reviewing the forms is not too picky. Also time lines fluctuate, and as mentioned possibly could be do to personal movements within USCIS to help. 

 

But remember this is just half the process.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Ben&Zian

[payxibka 10,045]

9 minutes ago, panamerican said:

That's awesome! I forgot to mention, maybe this is all happening much quicker now because the alleged changes to international field offices at USCIS. See the article below:

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/12/citizenship-immigration-international-offices-close-1218137

Not the reason as the international field offices are still open

[panamerican 36]

3 minutes ago, payxibka said:

Not the reason as the international field offices are still open

Thanks for confirming. I had not followed up on this information since reading it.

[Shellimedz 33]

Congrats, very similar to my situation. I sent mine off before really getting involved with this site. I got everything done in a few hours one morning and sent it in, not realizing how many things could go wrong. I'm a November 2018 filer, I got mine approved in a little under 4 months. 

[Ray&Ang 4]

We were pleasantly shocked this morning that we got approved, we thought it was a April Fools joke haha. We got our NOA1 Dec 19th 2018 and we just got our NOA2 approval this morning so that makes ours 3.5 Months!! We feel beyond blessed and happy!

[panamerican 36]

12 hours ago, Ray&Ang said:

We were pleasantly shocked this morning that we got approved, we thought it was a April Fools joke haha. We got our NOA1 Dec 19th 2018 and we just got our NOA2 approval this morning so that makes ours 3.5 Months!! We feel beyond blessed and happy!

I also had the quick thought of it being an April Fool's joke as well 🤦‍♂️ but it's definitely printed on some really official paper 😂

[Silove 0]

Just for anyone out there wondering, my timeline to receive the NOA2 was 4 months. A few things about our case that may or may not help others compare their situation to ours:

 

-He is from Mexico, and we still had a pretty quick process so far (although it did not feel quick haha, we were dying.)

-He never stayed in the US on an expired visa

-Neither of us had a criminal background or divorce...I imagine that helps the process go faster, though I'm not sure.

-We knew each other less than a year (met online in Feb. 2018, met in person in July, and were engaged Nov. 2018 during his second visit)

-Our proof of relationship included boarding passes and visa stamps, pictures together (a few with his family and in front of landmarks), and a statement from my roommate/close friend who was our photographer for the engagement.

[panamerican 36]

27 minutes ago, Silove said:

Just for anyone out there wondering, my timeline to receive the NOA2 was 4 months. A few things about our case that may or may not help others compare their situation to ours:

 

-He is from Mexico, and we still had a pretty quick process so far (although it did not feel quick haha, we were dying.)

-He never stayed in the US on an expired visa

-Neither of us had a criminal background or divorce...I imagine that helps the process go faster, though I'm not sure.

-We knew each other less than a year (met online in Feb. 2018, met in person in July, and were engaged Nov. 2018 during his second visit)

-Our proof of relationship included boarding passes and visa stamps, pictures together (a few with his family and in front of landmarks), and a statement from my roommate/close friend who was our photographer for the engagement.

Agreed that no past marriages or serious criminal background likely helps significantly with the speediness.

 

If it helps others, I did not have any family members or friends make statements nor did we have engagement photos. Seems as though the statement of intent to marry was sufficient for our situation.

[Silove 0]

7 minutes ago, panamerican said:

Agreed that no past marriages or serious criminal background likely helps significantly with the speediness.

 

If it helps others, I did not have any family members or friends make statements nor did we have engagement photos. Seems as though the statement of intent to marry was sufficient for our situation.

The engagement photos were just kind of a nice surprise from my fiance haha. I don't think we actually included any of them in our packet  But just using her statement as a witness that she was there for the proposal. But yeah, probably not necessary to get a statement in most cases, I was literally just covering about 45 bases when I put this together hahaha.

[panamerican 36]

4 minutes ago, Silove said:

The engagement photos were just kind of a nice surprise from my fiance haha. I don't think we actually included any of them in our packet  But just using her statement as a witness that she was there for the proposal. But yeah, probably not necessary to get a statement in most cases, I was literally just covering about 45 bases when I put this together hahaha.

Likewise. I overdid it so much that I imagine the USCIS officer who opened my packet just went "ugh" and approved it quickly to move on to the next one 😂

[AnneA 72]

Congratulations to all of you 👍😁

We did the applications pretty much the same (holes on top, sevtions, numbered pages with name on top of every dingle one etc) and hoped to have a short wait ... well NOA1 September 24th and still waiting. 🙄

As my fiance so wisely said "we're both in our 50s so much more background to check" 😂

[Ryan H 3,813]

Moved from Process & Procedures to Progress Reports.