What happens between the NOA1 and NOA2?

[chicurious 0]

Another question for the day. What does the Service Center do between the NOA1 (when they acknowledge that they have opened the K-1 case) to the NOA2 (when they permit an interview at the embassy/consulate?)? Other than the typical "it's the government" reason, why does this part takes so long?

I've read that they have basically already decided whether you'll get the visa before you go to the interview. So, does the interview just serve as a procedural thing?

[YuAndDan 153]

Between NOA1 and NOA2, the petition may wait it's turn with an adjudicator, petitions tend to be processed in the order that they are received.

USCIS, approves the case, and the Consoler officer at the consulate, only denies if they see evidence of misrepresentation. NOA2 is APPROVAL by USCIS, part of Homeland Security. And an different department of the government The State Department, then gets to process the Case, and may find more things when doing name checks.

[kitkat1 5]

Another question for the day. What does the Service Center do between the NOA1 (when they acknowledge that they have opened the K-1 case) to the NOA2 (when they permit an interview at the embassy/consulate?)? Other than the typical "it's the government" reason, why does this part takes so long?

I've read that they have basically already decided whether you'll get the visa before you go to the interview. So, does the interview just serve as a procedural thing?

USCIS adjudicates petitions. Between receipt of your petition and approval, there's wait time. Once they look at your petition, they are looking to make sure you have met the requirements of the petition: 1) The petitioner has proven that they are a USC and therefore eligible to file 2) The petitioner has proven that the two people have met in the previous two years.

Petition approval does not equal visa approval. Petition approval means the foreign fiance has been granted the privilege of interviewing for a Fiance Visa at their consulate. The consular officer makes the final decision on whether or not a visa will be granted, depending on validity of relationship, ineligiblities, etc.

[TracyTN 237]

Search for threads by Huskerkiev, a former NSC adjudicator, who gave good insights into the process. Interesting read!

[Urge To Race 2]

Another question for the day. What does the Service Center do between the NOA1 (when they acknowledge that they have opened the K-1 case) to the NOA2 (when they permit an interview at the embassy/consulate?)? Other than the typical "it's the government" reason, why does this part takes so long?

I've read that they have basically already decided whether you'll get the visa before you go to the interview. So, does the interview just serve as a procedural thing?

Basically after you get your NOA1 you petition sits, collects some dust. Finally, its picked up and adjudicated, which actually doesn't take that long for the normal case.

[TimsDaisy 0]

It takes between 6 and 15 minutes, on average, to process a petition. But it takes 2.9 months for the adjudicator to get to your petition, which spends that time waiting in line to be processed.

If you poke around the www.uscis.gov website, you'll find all sorts of juicy data. The document that accompanied the recent fee increase proposal (now a reality, not just a proposal) goes into quite a bit of detail about processing times for different sorts of petitions and forms.