I-130 decision for green card holder

[Mike E 11,752]

31 minutes ago, devid456 said:

What did you mean by delaying the kids' US citizenship?

Your proposal is to not file for U.S. citizenship and instead make babies.

 

If you are not a U.S. citizen before they are born, they will not be born U.S. citizens.

 

If you are not a U.S. citizen when they enter the U.S. on their immigration visas, they will not automatically become U.S. citizens.

 

 

[JeanneAdil 7,078]

1 hour ago, devid456 said:

Everyone, please do not be offended if it looks like I am not serious with my questions. I am trying to gather as much information as possible. I appreciate your candid responses to the topic. There is not a lot of places where I can get the actual experiences of those who have gone to through the process I am about to take. So summarizing,

(a) my fiance can come to the US on an F1 visa., file the I-130 (maybe after 5 months) but has to leave the country once the I-130 petition is approved and it has reached the NVC stage, correct?
(b) @JeanneAdil when you talked about derivatives, did you mean that my fiance can bring any kid we have (unlikely) to the US on an F-2 visa if she gets granted an F1 visa?
(c) Based on the above, I am trying to timebox my attempts. That is, apply for the F1 visa for next year January 2024 and wait to see if it gets approved or denied? If it gets denied, then apply for I-130 in December 2024. Is this timeline even doable?
(d) @Mike E What did you mean by delaying the kids' US citizenship? Based on the replies above, I cannot depend on an expedited I-130 application. So if I want to have my kids be US citizens using a CBRA, then I and my fiance would have to wait until August 2027 before we can start trying to have kids. Is my understanding incorrect?

Thanks.
 

F1 student????

[devid456 0]

@Boiler@Mike E@JeanneAdil@appleblossom

Good morning, I waited a bit on this decision, but i had some questions. I have discarded the plan of a F1 visa looking at the approval rate for an F1 visa and the increased cost of attending college here in the US.

I wanted to proceed on with this plan:
(a) File for I-130 in Apr 2025
(b) Wait until I am a citizen so I could upgrade the petition to a CR1/IR1. That way I would not be bothered about the visa numbers for F2A being available
(c) No kids until I become a citizen

This plan is about 4 years as I plan to file for my citizenship in Feb 2027 (I got my green card in December 2021).

After compulsively checking out the stories on this forum of filing for the K1 visa and the excellent @Crazy Cat comparison about CR1/IR1 and K1, I was thinking that it might be better to go for K1 visa based on the processing times.

Pros:
(a) I am waiting for my citizenship anyway so K1 might be faster
(b) My fiance would not be working when she comes into the US, so the K1 might be a better fit
(c) I could take the time to visit her in Nigeria more to gather more evidence
(d) K1 looks more bounded, that is. it will take at most 1 year for approval (Service Center + NVC).

Cons:
(a) She might not be able to travel immediately to Nigeria after receiving the K1 visa

My question is that , would it be safer for me to just file I-130 and wait or to get my citizenship and then file the K-1 visa?

Thank you all for your continued clarification about this process.

[appleblossom 4,390]

8 minutes ago, devid456 said:

@Boiler@Mike E@JeanneAdil@appleblossom

Good morning, I waited a bit on this decision, but i had some questions. I have discarded the plan of a F1 visa looking at the approval rate for an F1 visa and the increased cost of attending college here in the US.

I wanted to proceed on with this plan:
(a) File for I-130 in Apr 2025
(b) Wait until I am a citizen so I could upgrade the petition to a CR1/IR1. That way I would not be bothered about the visa numbers for F2A being available
(c) No kids until I become a citizen

This plan is about 4 years as I plan to file for my citizenship in Feb 2027 (I got my green card in December 2021).

After compulsively checking out the stories on this forum of filing for the K1 visa and the excellent @Crazy Cat comparison about CR1/IR1 and K1, I was thinking that it might be better to go for K1 visa based on the processing times.

Pros:
(a) I am waiting for my citizenship anyway so K1 might be faster
(b) My fiance would not be working when she comes into the US, so the K1 might be a better fit
(c) I could take the time to visit her in Nigeria more to gather more evidence
(d) K1 looks more bounded, that is. it will take at most 1 year for approval (Service Center + NVC).

Cons:
(a) She might not be able to travel immediately to Nigeria after receiving the K1 visa

My question is that , would it be safer for me to just file I-130 and wait or to get my citizenship and then file the K-1 visa?

Thank you all for your continued clarification about this process.

 

Personally I wouldn't make any plans based on current processing times for the K1. By the time you're a citizen and then can apply for that, they'll have changed anyway and could be much longer than the CR1. 

 

Why are you waiting until Feb 2027 to apply for citizenship if you got your GC in December 2021? You can apply 90 days before the 5 year anniversary, so September 2026. 

 

You can visit your fiancee in the interim either way. Just make sure you keep up your time in the US for your citizenship application. 

 

Good luck. 

[JeanneAdil 7,078]

Questions are personal judgement call 

My thinking

I would make the trip to Nigeria and marry,  then apply CR1   ASAP as all other options u mention add time to the process

Get it started now 

when u become a citizen,  send copy of naturalization to NVC as they will more than likely have the case at that time.   then wait and wait as Nigeria is backlogged for all visa interviews

Best to u both

 

 

[devid456 0]

@JeanneAdil @appleblossom @Mike E

So I started the process for the I-130, that is

- got married in Lagos (February 19,2025)
- filed the I-130 application on April 28,2025
- received the NOA on April 29,2025
- updated my timeline

With rumors about the President extending the visa ban (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/06/restricting-the-entry-of-foreign-nationals-to-protect-the-united-states-from-foreign-terrorists-and-other-national-security-and-public-safety-threats/)) to include Nigeria, do you think that the ban would include those like my situation with my now wife, that is, bringing my Nigerian wife (who is not a citizen or LPR of the US) to the US through an IR-1/CR-1 visa? Does the aforementioned ban mean that she cannot be given a B1/B2 visa?

Thanks

[appleblossom 4,390]

22 minutes ago, devid456 said:

@JeanneAdil @appleblossom @Mike E

So I started the process for the I-130, that is

- got married in Lagos (February 19,2025)
- filed the I-130 application on April 28,2025
- received the NOA on April 29,2025
- updated my timeline

With rumors about the President extending the visa ban (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/06/restricting-the-entry-of-foreign-nationals-to-protect-the-united-states-from-foreign-terrorists-and-other-national-security-and-public-safety-threats/)) to include Nigeria, do you think that the ban would include those like my situation with my now wife, that is, bringing my Nigerian wife (who is not a citizen or LPR of the US) to the US through an IR-1/CR-1 visa? Does the aforementioned ban mean that she cannot be given a B1/B2 visa?

Thanks

As it says in the link above, immediate relatives on CR1/IR1 are exempt from the current ban. But if you’re still currently a LPR then that’s not relevant anyway as your wife's case is F2A? She’s still many years away from a visa, realistically she probably won’t get one until the next administration is in power. So it’s fairly pointless worrying about something that isn’t likely to be relevant by then anyway. 
 

The only visa classes exempt from the ban are listed in the proclamation, B visas aren’t among them. 
 

 

Edited June 16 by appleblossom

[devid456 0]

@appleblossom

Thanks for quick response. The reason why I was confused was because I saw this line
 

Quote

immediate family immigrant visas (IR-1/CR-1, IR-2/CR-2, IR-5) with clear and convincing evidence of identity and family relationship (e.g., DNA);

So does immediate family here refer to this definition (https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-immediate-relatives-of-us-citizen) or does the line mean that only blood relatives are allowed (that is, child of US Citizen or parent of a US Citizen).

As you have said, there is little chance this applies to me now I am still an LPR and Racheal and I just started the F-2A visa process (just submitted the I-130). But I just wanted to know so that I could maybe plan differently.

Thanks.

[appleblossom 4,390]

6 hours ago, devid456 said:

@appleblossom

Thanks for quick response. The reason why I was confused was because I saw this line
 

So does immediate family here refer to this definition (https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-immediate-relatives-of-us-citizen) or does the line mean that only blood relatives are allowed (that is, child of US Citizen or parent of a US Citizen).

As you have said, there is little chance this applies to me now I am still an LPR and Racheal and I just started the F-2A visa process (just submitted the I-130). But I just wanted to know so that I could maybe plan differently.

Thanks.

It specifically mentions IR-1/CR-1. ´E.g’ means for example. 
 

As it is very unlikely to apply to you by the time Rachael becomes eligible for a visa I don’t think you need to plan anything, or worry about it for a long time (if at all). 

Edited June 16 by appleblossom

[JeanneAdil 7,078]

On 11/14/2024 at 7:57 AM, devid456 said:

@Boiler@Mike E@JeanneAdil@appleblossom

Good morning, I waited a bit on this decision, but i had some questions. I have discarded the plan of a F1 visa looking at the approval rate for an F1 visa and the increased cost of attending college here in the US.

I wanted to proceed on with this plan:
(a) File for I-130 in Apr 2025
(b) Wait until I am a citizen so I could upgrade the petition to a CR1/IR1. That way I would not be bothered about the visa numbers for F2A being available
(c) No kids until I become a citizen

This plan is about 4 years as I plan to file for my citizenship in Feb 2027 (I got my green card in December 2021).

After compulsively checking out the stories on this forum of filing for the K1 visa and the excellent @Crazy Cat comparison about CR1/IR1 and K1, I was thinking that it might be better to go for K1 visa based on the processing times.

Pros:
(a) I am waiting for my citizenship anyway so K1 might be faster
(b) My fiance would not be working when she comes into the US, so the K1 might be a better fit
(c) I could take the time to visit her in Nigeria more to gather more evidence
(d) K1 looks more bounded, that is. it will take at most 1 year for approval (Service Center + NVC).

Cons:
(a) She might not be able to travel immediately to Nigeria after receiving the K1 visa

My question is that , would it be safer for me to just file I-130 and wait or to get my citizenship and then file the K-1 visa?

Thank you all for your continued clarification about this process.

green card 12/2021  / u can apply under 5 year rule minus 90 days   / that would be winter of 2026 (not know exact date as u did not post day)

 

marry in March as u plan and do the petition in April / no need to wait as the process will be about 2 years 

If all goes well when u petition the N 400 for naturalization, u will be a USC by time she interviews / just make sure it is known to immigration when you have the oath and document so she changes from LPR spouse to spouse of USC `

[appleblossom 4,390]

1 hour ago, JeanneAdil said:

green card 12/2021  / u can apply under 5 year rule minus 90 days   / that would be winter of 2026 (not know exact date as u did not post day)

 

marry in March as u plan and do the petition in April / no need to wait as the process will be about 2 years 

If all goes well when u petition the N 400 for naturalization, u will be a USC by time she interviews / just make sure it is known to immigration when you have the oath and document so she changes from LPR spouse to spouse of USC `

 

He's already applied in April - see the later post. But it's F2A and Nigeria, so won't be 2 years.

[devid456 0]

@JeanneAdil

I am planning to apply for my naturalization in October 2026. I got my green card on December 15,2021. We got married in February 2025 and I have already applied in April 2025.

@appleblossom

I guess I will just wait. Hopefully me becoming a citizen would make this situation not matter.

Thanks.

[appleblossom 4,390]

7 hours ago, devid456 said:

@JeanneAdil

I am planning to apply for my naturalization in October 2026. I got my green card on December 15,2021. We got married in February 2025 and I have already applied in April 2025.

@appleblossom

I guess I will just wait. Hopefully me becoming a citizen would make this situation not matter.

Thanks.

I think it’s the change in administration that will make this not matter. If you don’t get citizenship until 2027, and if it’s still a 2+ year wait for an interview in Lagos, then by then we’ll have a new administration so the ban isn’t likely to still be in place.