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We took your advice and filed the K-3 in late June (original filing date for the I-130 was 1/28/22). Just received the I-130 approval notice yesterday (8/11/22) through the Nebraska Service Center. 
 
I definitely feel that the K-3 helped. Currently processing times at Nebraska for the I-130 are 10.5 months, and 4.5 months for the K-3. Originally our lawyer told us not to expect anything before 13 months (March 2023) and the timelines here have suggested between November 2022 and March 2023 for us.

We took your advice and filed the K-3 in late June (original filing date for the I-130 was 1/28/22). Just received the I-130 approval notice yesterday (8/11/22) through the Nebraska Service Center. 
 
I definitely feel that the K-3 helped. Currently processing times at Nebraska for the I-130 are 10.5 months, and 4.5 months for the K-3. Originally our lawyer told us not to expect anything before 13 months (March 2023) and the timelines here have suggested between November 2022 and March 2023 for us.

We took your advice and filed the K-3 in late June (original filing date for the I-130 was 1/28/22). Just received the I-130 approval notice yesterday (8/11/22) through the Nebraska Service Center. 
 
I definitely feel that the K-3 helped. Currently processing times at Nebraska for the I-130 are 10.5 months, and 4.5 months for the K-3. Originally our lawyer told us not to expect anything before 13 months (March 2023) and the timelines here have suggested between November 2022 and March 2023 for us.

We took your advice and filed the K-3 in late June (original filing date for the I-130 was 1/28/22). Just received the I-130 approval notice yesterday (8/11/22) through the Nebraska Service Center. 
 
I definitely feel that the K-3 helped. Currently processing times at Nebraska for the I-130 are 10.5 months, and 4.5 months for the K-3. Originally our lawyer told us not to expect anything before 13 months (March 2023) and the timelines here have suggested between November 2022 and March 2023 for us.

Sent in the K-3 application, Sent an expedite request for the I 130, sent an expedite for the K3, sent an appeal for the expedite of the K3 being denied, sent an appeal for the I-130 expedite being denied. Asked my congressman for help and he emailed, etc. …. I made sure my file was opened as often as possible.  Squeaky wheel gets the grease. 

Just the I-797C.  Not the entire I-130 packet.  Just the bare minimum from the I-129F directions, which is very little actually.

Final update: Finally received our 2020 refund today (5/11/2022), just over a year after mailing the return.

@Mr and Mrs S

My wife filed for many years before efiling was invented and she said she always stapled the W2 to the left edge of the 1040. Before 2018, the 1040 was a full size piece of paper and showed an attachment place. Look at this 2017 halfway down on the left below the word “Income”. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/f1040--2017.pdf.  That spot allowed the W2 to fit perfectly in the middle of a three fold piece of paper and didn’t cover the Name part at the top and fit nicely into a standard envelope. With this new half sheet format, she says you will just have to wing it and attach the W2 maybe partway down to leave your names visible. 
 
So order of tax return:
1040 is always on top with the W2 attached to it on the left margin. (Wife says she would still staple that) Then the forms in order. Look for the attachment sequence in the top right corner of each form under the big 2019. Schedule 1 is attachment sequence 01. Form 2555 is attachment sequence 34. Put whatever forms you have in numeric order. If it doesn’t have an attachment sequence number, it’s not part of your return.  Then behind the forms, add your statement to be treated as a resident alien. Paper clip all of above at the top.
You do not attach proof of the foreign income. Also no cover letter or other notes to the IRS. 
 
 
The ITIN application is separate and would be form W7 on top, followed by any identity documentation, then paperclipped together. You can place that group in the mailing envelope on top of the tax return bundle since it will be processed before the return. 
 
(Photo attached shows where to find tax return sequence.)

All of this is copied from the instructions for Form 1040. This is for a paper return you mail.

Attach the first copy or Copy B of Form(s) W-2 to Form 1040. 
Assemble any schedules and forms behind Form 1040 or 1040-SR in order of the “Attachment Sequence No.” shown in the upper-right corner of the schedule or form.
If you have supporting statements, arrange them in the same order as the schedules or forms they support and attach them last. File your return, schedules, and other attachments on standard size paper. Cutting the paper may cause problems in processing your return.
———————

Mail your return and attachments to:
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Austin, TX 73301-0215
USA

Deadline: Postmarked by Wednesday, April 15, 2020
 
NOTE: the Austin address is because of the foreign income exclusion. Otherwise the return would go to some center more regional to your state.
 
There is no attachment like a W2 for the foreign income. You just report it converted to US dollars. I would save anything that you have showing that income in a file for your records.
 
Here’s a suggestion for you since you’re starting out, that my wife has done for years. Once the taxes are done (paper or efile) she prints a copy of the return and gathers any bits and pieces associated with that return and puts them in a large white envelope. She marks is on the long side “2019 TAXES” and puts It in the file cabinet. Or get a file box. Adulting 😂.
You may not have anything more than a spare W2 and something about the foreign income this year. As your financial situation grows, you will get 1099s from the bank for interest paid you, or dividend statements from investment accounts, or something from your health insurer. Those things don’t get sent to the IRS, so just stash them all in the white envelope to keep them together in case you do need them for an audit or whatever.

Since today is the regular filing deadline for 2020 taxes, I am starting a thread to share experiences on filing jointly while requesting an ITIN for the foreign spouse.
 
Our situation: my wife is outside the U.S. waiting for a CR-1 interview. I wanted to file jointly before the deadline, since I could not submit a federal extension without a SSN for her. I also didn't want to file separately (even if amending later) since that would result in owing a lot up front. I used TaxAct for the first time this year and have no complaints. I have used other tax software in the past but tend to go with whatever is available through free filing options, which can change from year to year.
 
With that in mind, my timeline so far is:
Late March: submitted a (paper) extension request for my state return, explaining that we are applying for an ITIN with the federal return and could not submit the state return until that was assigned No response received Mid-April: called the state taxpayer hotline and was advised that if I didn't receive a response to the extension request by the May 17 deadline, to submit the return with the spouse's SSN left blank and then wait for them to request the missing information Late April: visited my wife abroad and got necessary signatures and documents from her May 5: USPS Priority Mail Express envelope received at IRS Austin address containing the following: Nonresident Alien Spouse Election Statement (signed by both of us, prepared based on this IRS guidance) Form W-7 signed by my wife, plus supporting documents: Original state ID (to establish identity) - the details for this were included on part 6d of the form Certified copy of birth certificate (to establish foreign status) Accompanied by an additional information sheet with her name and "Form W-7" at the top, containing all the details requested in part 6d of the form - not sure if this was necessary, but I didn't want to chance it Also accompanied by a translation that I prepared and signed using the typical certification statement found in these forums Certified copy of marriage certificate (since the birth certificate had her maiden name and everything else used her married name) Form 1040 (signed by both of us) and all relevant schedules/forms W-2 May 15: USPS Priority Mail envelope received at PO Box for state returns, containing: Cover letter explaining the situation State return signed by both of us (SSN for wife left blank per the instructions I had previously received over the phone) W-2 Copy of the extension request I had previously submitted (stamped as "file copy") Printout of the "How do I apply for an ITIN?" page from the IRS website, highlighting the part that says how long it's supposed to take  
Now all I can do is wait patiently and hope I did everything right. I will update this thread if I have any news.
 
Anyone who is going through the same process, please feel free to post your own timeline.
 

They'll do it if you pay them.  My brother had a lawyer do his I-130 and they had no problem with him filing a K-3 on his own without them.

There is a long running thread on in the TurboTax chat board on the topic of ITIN timelines.  You can find a number of data points in there.
 
It looks like 'most' applications that proceed normally are taking 10 to 12 weeks give or take.  Then there are a handful of cases taking 5 or 6 months and a few random happenings, as you might expect on an internet chat board about the IRS.
 
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/after-you-file/discussion/apply-itin-for-my-wife-how-long-will-it-take/00/31329/page/_23

Just an update: my wife now has the true, certified copy of her passport in hand. So this definitely is an option, at least in Honduras.

Current case review time:
As of 7-FEB-2022, we are reviewing documents submitted to us on 3-NOV-2021.
source: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/nvc-timeframes.html
 
You can check VISAWHEN.COM/NVC to view the current the case review time and also see historical trends.
 
Previous NVC submission threads may be helpful to read:
October 2021
November 2021
December 2021

Contact the embassy/consulate you’ll deal with directly as well. I’ve seen that some embassies are quicker to respond than NVC is, and your NVC expedite is really just asking NVC to contact the consular section to see if they are willing to give your case priority. If you contact them directly and they agree to expedite, they’ll just contact NVC themselves and ask for your case file to be sent over and you’ll take your documents directly to your interview then, bypassing NVC. 

In Emma >> Live Chat >> select Case Status >> select Connect to Live Chat ... continue answering automated questions (Receipt Number, etc).  Then, ask your question.   Eventually a person answers.. (at least on mine).
 

This is from an email I received today:
 
WASHINGTON— Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is announcing a trio of efforts to increase efficiency and reduce burdens to the overall legal immigration system. USCIS will set new agency-wide backlog reduction goals, expand premium processing to additional form types, and work to improve timely access to employment authorization documents. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resource constraints resulting from the prior administration, USCIS inherited a significant number of pending cases and increased processing times. Through today’s actions by the Biden administration, USCIS is acting to reduce these caseloads and processing times, while also ensuring that fair and efficient services are available to applicants and petitioners.
“USCIS remains committed to delivering timely and fair decisions to all we serve,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “Every application we adjudicate represents the hopes and dreams of immigrants and their families, as well as their critical immediate needs such as financial stability and humanitarian protection.”
Reducing Processing Backlogs
To reduce the agency’s pending caseload, USCIS is establishing new internal cycle time goals this month. These goals are internal metrics that guide the backlog reduction efforts of the USCIS workforce and affect how long it takes the agency to process cases. As cycle times improve, processing times will follow, and applicants and petitioners will receive decisions on their cases more quickly. USCIS will be increase capacity, improve technology, and expand staffing to achieve these new goals by the end of FY 2023.
The agency’s publicly posted processing times show the average amount of time it took USCIS to process a particular form – from when the agency received the application until a decision was made on the case. Internally, USCIS monitors the number of pending cases in the agency’s workload through a metric called “cycle times.” A cycle time measures how many months’ worth of pending cases for a particular form are awaiting a decision. As an internal management metric, cycle times are generally comparable to the agency’s publicly posted median processing times. Cycle times are what the operational divisions of USCIS use to gauge how much progress the agency is, or is not, making on reducing our backlog and overall case processing times.
Expanding Premium Processing
Today the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a final rule that aligns premium processing regulations with the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act. The rule codifies premium processing fees and adjudication timeframes provided by Congress.
Premium processing is an expedited adjudication service now available only to petitioners filing a Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, and to certain employment-based immigrant visa petitioners filing a Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers. This final rule expands the categories of forms ultimately eligible for premium processing services, including Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status; Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization; and additional classifications under Form I-140.
USCIS intends to begin implementing, through a phased approach, premium processing availability of Form I-539, Form I-765 and Form I-140 in fiscal year 2022. USCIS will also adhere to the congressional requirement that the expansion of premium processing must not cause an increase in processing times for regular immigration benefit requests.
USCIS plans to begin this phased implementation process by expanding premium processing eligibility to Form I-140 filers requesting EB-1 immigrant classification as a multinational executive or manager, or EB-2 immigrant classification as a member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a national interest waiver.
Improving Access to Employment Authorization Documents
USCIS continues to make progress toward a temporary final rule currently named “Temporary Increase of the Automatic Extension Period of Employment Authorization and Documentation for Certain Renewal Applicants.”
In recent months, USCIS has begin streamlining many EAD processes, including extending validity periods for certain EADs and providing expedited work authorization renewals for healthcare and childcare workers. The temporary final rule aims to build on this progress and to ensure certain individuals will not lose their work authorization status while their applications are pending.
A full list of prior actions USCIS has taken to reduce processing times and the agency’s pending caseload is available on our website.
 

1040-NR is a one person document. Even two NRs can’t do a joint 1040-NR.  Your wife submitting one is pointless really. She has no income to tax. She wouldn’t get some kind of refund from doing so. It wouldn’t benefit you or lower your taxes. A joint 1040 return with a statement electing for her to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes is what you want.
 
If you want to file a joint return, your wife must have a SSN or ITIN. Applying with the submission of the return, they issue an ITIN,  then process the return with the new ITIN they have added to it.
 
You do not need a CAA. You may need a tax prep person if you can’t figure it out on software, but nobody has to certify anything. You can put your tax return (with the statement electing for her to be treated as a nonresident alien),  wife’s W-7, and the certified copy of the passport in an envelope of your choosing and mail it yourself to 
Internal Revenue Service
Austin Service Center
ITIN Operation
P.O. Box 149342
Austin, TX 78714-9342
The only required signatures are yours and your wife’s.  The person at the embassy will sign or stamp that it is a true copy of her passport, but they don’t deal with/look at/ sign the rest of the forms. If you pay somebody to fill out your tax return, then they have to sign the tax return as the paid preparer. If you do your own tax return, then there is no paid preparer signature. 
 
That is a question to ask them. Haven’t ever used a paid service or read their fine print as far as their liability or refunding of your fee. As far as the IRS, if they find something wrong they might reject the return if it’s way off like a joint 1040-NR. Or contact you in about a year saying you owe them something (only if your calculations were wrong or you failed to report some income and do actually owe.) so you straighten it out with them. Nothing bad happens like charging you with a crime or going to jail.

 
Your instincts and knowledge are very good. I would drop that specific preparer quickly.  If you want to file for an extension, you can do it yourself but you need some rough numbers like an estimate of your total tax and how much you’ve already paid in by employee withholding from your paychecks. The form  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4868.pdf
 
 

I'm in more or less the same situation except I did not receive any stimulus.  But specifically in the case of TurboTax,   In my situation I had to go in the menus to View>Forms>Recov Rebate Cr and manually complete the "Recovery Rebate Credit Worksheet" with the actual facts as they actually exist.  After that TurboTax did it's magic TurboTax thing and accurately handled stimulus payment issues automatically thereafter.  TurboTax will conclude your foreign spouse does not receive the stimulus credit unless they had a valid ss# or one of you was US Military.

The IRS want the original certified copy. You are going to have to evaluate how much mailing is going to be required for the ITIN process.  
You will have to prepare:
the joint tax return, the statement electing for her to be treated as a resident alien, her W7 application and mail all those to her to sign. Then she returns all those along with a certified passport document to you before you can send to Austin, Texas.

My wife and I were in almost exactly the same position.  We tried going through acceptance agents but none of them were interested in dealing with normal people (as opposed to businesses, people with corporations, etc).  The IRS will accept what is called a "certified copy" of your spouse's foreign passport.  The US embassy in Honduras may be able to do this for you.  We had to email the embassy back and forth to convince them that it was absolutely necessary (the IRS won't accept a normal photocopy with apostille, the acceptance agents won't help us, etc etc).  Finally they gave my spouse an appointment to go to the embassy and make a "certified" copy.  It costs $50.  You can send this copy to the US as opposed to the original passport.

Just as a follow-up to anyone looking for a solution: The US Embassy in Honduras confirmed that the embassy and its consulates can provide certified copies as well as notarized copies. An appointment must be scheduled with the notary which currently requires a $50 fee. Shipping an envelope of documents under .50kg via FedEx or DHL is approximately $80 from Honduras to the US.