VisaQuestions2754

Time to get stop listening to this attorney 
 
People's actual experience for the past several years is one source of the truth.   Everyone's case number begins with WAC, which is California 

Our experience is that K-1 visas are adjudicated 99% at California,  1% at Vermont and 0% at Potomic and also 0% at Texas. Just what we see.

Thanks @payxibka, @Greenbaum. It's good to have the source confirmed. Guess I'll just have to submit the form and see what happens...

July/August would be optimistic for a K-1 visa. The current average is around 7-9 months from petition filing to interview (so it's possible if you filed ASAP), then add in time for the visa to be issued after the interview. This assumes everything goes fine, no RFEs, no missing documents at the interview, etc. Possible, but I would not plan on it.
https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/stats.php?cfl=
 
Planning a traditional wedding is very difficult, unless you are planning to wait after the visa is issued to do so. Most people tend to either have smaller ceremonies or do a courthouse wedding, then later do a larger celebration/reception if they want.
If having a traditional wedding is desired, then the best thing is probably to marry now (you can use an ESTA to visit the US and marry), return home, and do the CR-1 (spousal) visa instead. it takes a little longer but has many benefits over a K-1. Or plan to wait until after the visa is issued to finalize a wedding date. Doing so beforehand is not suggested as the timeline for any individual case is always impossible to know.
 
After entering on a K-1 visa and marrying within 90 days, they would file for AOS to obtain a green card. This can take from a few months to 18+ months depending on local field office. Many offices are taking around a year, with busier ones being closer to 18+ months.
When filing for AOS, you can apply for an EAD (work permit) and AP (travel document). Timelines for those are currently ~4-7 months.
You must remain in the US either AP is obtained or you get a green card. Leaving beforehand will abandon the AOS application and basically need to start over with a CR-1 visa abroad (and likely won't be able to visit the US due to demonstrated immigrant intent).
 
Read the guides. Study the form instructions. Ask questions.

It depends on the embassy.  My fiancee's interview was scheduled for almost two months in the future. I have heard of others getting it scheduled in 2-3 weeks.  
 
As a general rule, you don't walk out of the embassy with the visa in hand, it needs to be prepared, printed, put in your passport, and given back to you along with a sealed envelope  containing your file that you hand to the CBP officer. Expect that to take about a week. 

It is more complicated than that.  The petition processing (at CSC for I-129Fs) is completely separate from what comes after that.  Last year for example, our petition took 185 days from NOA1 to NOA2.  No RFEs.  This year, it seems to be taking about half as long.  However:  the total time it took for our approved petition to clear the NVC, transit to Auckland NZ, and for my fiance's interview was <6 weeks, and the consulate originally offered an even earlier date.  NVC/transit time alone is taking much longer now.  The biggest variable is the consulate and availability of interviews. So from the date we mailed the petition to the wedding date was 257 days, which I consider to be quite fast.

Every petition begins at CSC.  Ignore everything else

The per-consulate breakdown is on the stats page: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/stats.php?cfl=
 
The visa will be issued after the interview. It is not issued immediately. In many cases - assuming no issues - this is a matter of days to a couple weeks after the interview. If the case is delayed for some reason (missing document, verification of documents, etc.) then this can add a few weeks or longer. If your case gets caught in extended background checks, this can take from weeks to months or longer (very rare for UK).

Incorrect. 1) It's not based on residency. 2) All I-129Fs for a K-1 are currently sent to CSC.
You do not want to be sent to VSC...
 
It also says TSC processes them, which it stopped doing years ago.

Visajourney data is based on member data and their timelines. Some people don't enter their info correctly, some forget to update it, etc. That being said, USCIS also is just giving an estimate. 5-7 months from NOA1 to NOA2 is the range it has averaged for as long as I've been here (6+ years now). Sometimes USCIS has been slower than that, sometimes faster.
 
VSC doesn't do K-1s. TSC used to years ago, but doesn't now either. 
 
 

The data you see here is generated by the community's own timelines. This has several consequences...
1) It's only a very small subset of all filers. VJ is a decently sized community, but it's still small compared to the total data set.
2) The predictions here are usually pretty accurate for an average case. That said, they are only estimates.
3) The data is for people that applied x days ago. Somebody filing today may take much less or much more time. When I filed for my now-wife, I-129F processing time was around 1 month. It took 4 months, and grew to 8+ months for people who filed a few months after me. backlogs happen, as do the reductions of backlogs.
4) Users sometimes enter bad data. Many times people don't update after approval of completion of a step...they're done with the site for their purposes (at least for some time) and never bother to update their timelines after approval.
 
With regard to #4 especially, some of the stats above are definitely misleading. Namely anything involving TSC. TSC does not process I-129Fs for a fiance/fiancee. They stopped that early this decade. People incorrectly think that the Texas lockbox that they send the I-129F to is the Texas Service Center. It's not. That's why you don't see any data on it from USCIS directly.
All I-129Fs for a fiance/fiancee are currently sent to CSC originally. In rare cases (typically regarding certain criminal activity of the petitioner, or otherwise more complex cases...) they are then transferred to VSC.
Edit: That's also why you see a long time for processing at VSC from USCIS directly. Most people with cases sent to VSC either never update their VJ timelines or come to VJ (especially given the subject matter of those types of crimes resulting in being sent to VSC + likely needed a good lawyer).
 
That said, overall the estimates here are the best IMHO. The ones on the other websites you mentioned seem to be more outdated.
The official processing timelines from USCIS are what matters for being outside of normal processing times for USCIS purposes, although they are generally based on data from up to 3 months ago. It's harder to say with the new format they use, but previously they would post a chart with "current as of...", which was usually at least 2 months prior.