ewienert

No there's no changing. You would have to start all over again and file the I-130 which is taking 5 months to a year to approve. And really gets you no where. The path for a K3 is you have to be married first file the I-130 then after that is accepted you would have that NOA1 and attach to a I-129F. I don;t think you want to put yourself back to the end of the line and the I-129F would be closed anyway because of the I-130. Sorry for al you went through.

But maybe contact embassy once your petition gets there and ask for an expedite get all your ducks in a row now and your paperwork. Contact NVC talk to supervisor see if you can get Case# faster because of USCIS error.

What would your suggestion be? Do the marriage ceremony but not register, finish the K1 Visa process and then just do a Vegas or Justice of the Peace wedding to register?

I doubt what you have been told is correct. My case went thru this exact same thing ending at 408 days.

If your Senator did anything to affect the situation they could tell you what that was. Again I doubt anything was really done by that office.

USCIS places a bar code on the case in the final step. That action finalizes the case. The case is then bundled with others and forwarded to NVC. In time NVC scans that code into its system which means they recognize the case.

I dont know why NVC would send it back to have it reapproved. If they did it seems USCIS would have sent an RFE to you. These things are hard to understand and very frustrating. The good thing is that you now know where the case is & that it wont be long until it is sent to BKK. NVC doesnt need much time on a K 1.

I actually received a call yesterday from Sen Cruz's office almost immediately after posting my previous message. The lady on the phone was not taking any credit for moving the package forward, but she did find out what had happened. There was mistake by the Texas Service Center and that is why the packet was returned. The person doing the processing at the TSC approved the package, but didn't put on the official seal or stamp, or something like that. Therefore the NVC returned it to the TSC to ensure that it did actually go through the approval process. The packet was then misplaced or lost in a stack of other applications that were returned / rejected and therefore weren't on a "high priorty" to process immediately. There was never an RFE sent because there wasn't a problem with anything we submitted. She went on to say that its been reaffirmed and sent back to the NVC for processing. She said because it already has a NVC case number, it should go through faster processing and will be sent to BKK shortly.

Now the problem is that due to my work, I've had to schedule our wedding well in advance in order to get the time off. We plan to get married on July 12, and its almost impossible that the visa will be completed by then. Does anyone know if you can change the K1 app to the K3 app? The I129F form is the same, so that shouldn't matter, right? I think there is an additional form to fill out. I don't mind paying any additional costs, its just the time that is the key issue.

Our NOA2 letter said the exact same thing, but it went to the NVC.

We were assigned a case number, but the NVC said they returned it to USCIS for some reason (but wouldn't tell us). USCIS said they never received the packet back from NVC. Its just reappeared after 4 months of USCIS and NVC pointing fingers at each other saying the other department had the packet. Not to scare you, but it might be lost between the USCIS / NVC just like ours was.

Update...

In Feb, NVC said that they returned the packet to USCIS for further review (No interview date was ever set) and would not provide any information about why it was returned.

USCIS said they never received the packet back from NVC. I contacted USCIS in Feb, March, April, and May about every 2 weeks and they claimed that they never received the packet back from NVC. They opened up an investigation but said they were not able to find anything and promptly closed it again saying that I needed to contact NVC. So essentially USCIS and NVC pointed fingers at each other for the past 4 months while our packet said somewhere outside of both systems.

I wound up contacting Texas Sen. Cruz's office to see if there was anything they could do to at least provide us some information on why it was returned in the first place. I'm not sure if this prompted anything or not, but yesterday we received a letter saying that the package was re-approved and forwarded to NVC for processing.

What a waste of time...

Thanks. I should have done a search first but didn't think of it.

We double/triple checked the packet of paperwork, so I'm pretty certain it was all in there.

I lived in Thailand with my fiance for 3 years while I was there for work. Neither of us have ever been married, nor have kids, or anything extraordinary about our personal lives. She says that she's never filed for any other visa, which i believe.

In addition, she already has a 10-yr US tourist visa (visited 3 times) and was just issued a UK tourist Visa, so I don't think its any kind criminal issues as they would have likely been picked up previously.

I'll stay on it...

Anyone have any examples of this and what it is typically returned for? Is it as bad as it sounds?

After receiving the NOA2, we have started to make wedding plans, taking into consideration the typical timelines and adding some buffer to be conservative. Its been 2 weeks since its been returned and USCIS still doesn't have it in their system, so I don't know the specifics. They said it could take 1 month to get back into their system and then they have up to 120 days to review it. This would obviously blow our current plans out of the water.

Anyone have any examples of this and what it is typically returned for? Is it as bad as it sounds?

After receiving the NOA2, we have started to make wedding plans, taking into consideration the typical timelines and adding some buffer to be conservative. Its been 2 weeks since its been returned and USCIS still doesn't have it in their system, so I don't know the specifics. They said it could take 1 month to get back into their system and then they have up to 120 days to review it. This would obviously blow our current plans out of the water.

Thank you very much

We received our NOA2 last night from the Texas Service Center. The NOA says that the petition has been approved and forwarded to the listed consulate. This appears to be different than all the other NOA2 letters that say it is being forwarded to the National Visa Center. I called the customer service number on the bottom and it says that our case has been forwarded to the State Department and we need to check there for the status. Does this mean that its skipped the NVC? Is that possible? Doesn't seem to be the normal process that everyone else is going through. Or am I just being confused by some slightly different wording in the document?

Thanks for any help.