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If the arrest 23 years ago was his only criminal issue, Canada will be fine. It's tougher on recent convictions, but more lenient on older ones and most people are 'deemed rehabilitated' automatically after 10 years.

Yep, anybody with dependent child derivatives would normally be hoping it takes as long as possible.

Is your I-94 still valid? If so you can still get one. See the link above on the guides section - Good luck.

OK, it's good that it's not something that would make him permanently inadmissible and that there is a waiver available to him. So I assume the misrep comes from him ticking no on the application when it asked if he'd ever been arrested? When you say you cannot go back to the UK does that include just for visits? Another option is to visit together in a third country i.e. Canada.

I'm sorry, but a waiver is the only option to overcome this. He's inadmissible without that. The fact that you can't go back to the UK is a good thing, as it gives you valid 'hardship' grounds for the waiver. When you say 'minor offence', was it drug related? Was a waiver recommended on the denial letter?

That must be consulate dependent, as many do require you to register it. London for example - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Supplements/Supplements_by_Post/LND-London.html It’s basically just confirming the appointment and details for the courier service for passport return, but it has to be done ahead of time or you can be turned away.

No way of knowing unfortunately. Extended AP is very common for Pakistanis, it can vary between a few weeks to much longer. What was the confusion on the divorce certificate?

That wouldn’t be true though? You need to say not employed, as that’s correct. The reasons aren’t relevant.

Oh much quicker then if you're resident in SA. Hopefully not too much longer for you, good luck.

It depends on the consulate, some have sent them out for EB applicants, some haven't yet. Are you interviewing at Islamabad? If so, what's your PD and DQ date? If you could fill your timeline in that would be fab, thanks.

That's actually much stronger than a lot of people applying for CR-1's. Most people can only visit together once a year or so, and don't share any financial ties when they live in different countries. I don't know if refusal rates are published for K-1's/CR-1's I'm afraid.

Yep, that's a good way of doing it. But of course what you don't know is how many people will actually be eligible for visas out of those 500k petitions - don't forget any eligible derivative family members count as well, so for example if half of those people had a spouse then that adds another 250k to the visa quota. If a quarter have two children, that's another 250k, so the 500k petitions actually becomes 1 million visas. Only the sibling gets petitioned, but any derivatives also count towards the annual quota. And one big thing we don't know about is how Covid times will impact things. Visa issuance was paused then, which could mean less people bothered applying, or could mean the backlog grew exponentially. There are tons of stats issued by USCIS each year if you wanted to dig a bit deeper, but tbh I don't see the point. Just file and then try and forget about it, as said above if it's earlier the you expected then great, but I wouldn't have any expectations at this stage. Best of luck.

You're understanding correctly, that people who are eligible for visas now applied 19ish years ago. But you can't assume anybody applying now will have the same wait, as it's not linear. For example, if you go back 5 years and look at the November 2020 bulletin, you'll see the date was Sept 2006. Meaning it's only moved forward 2.5 years in 5 years. If you go back 10 years to the November 2014 bulletin, the date was March 2003, so it's only moved forwards 6 years in the past decade. Basically, the backlog is growing all the time, so it doesn't move forward a year for each year of waiting.

You are understanding it correctly, but the case can be sent to NVC when the PD is current on Table B (rather than Table A), so usually a few years before there is actually a visa available. The NVC side of things is usually only a month or so (assuming you upload docs promptly) but then you have to wait until the PD becomes current on Table A once DQ'ed. Then when that happens, it's a case of waiting for an interview, and that can be anywhere between 2 months and 2+ years depending on the consulate. I don't think 20 years is realistic given the backlog that's increasing all the time unfortunately. I'd estimate at least 25 years until PD is current, so assume that and then be pleasantly surprised if things speed up. Best of luck.

I totally agree. What ties do they have for a SB-1? Not likely many if they've been gone for 7 years. Have they filed taxes every year? I would suggest they get on a plane urgently. They can't be refused entry with a valid GC, they could be referred if there are doubts about their status, but they may just be allowed in as normal. And that would be less risky than a SB-1 application. Do they have Global Entry? If neither works, is there a USC child that can petition him/her again?

For a spouse visa, there's no adjustment either way for you. The spouse becomes a green card holder immediately upon entry, the only difference is that (as @Crazy Cat said above) it's either a 2 year or 10 year GC issued. If you went the K-1 route you'd have the extra cost and hassle of the adjustment of status, but not with a spouse visa. And with a K-1 you'd still have a 2 year GC rather than a 10 year one.

I agree that K2 makes much more sense. But as we've said above, the OP would petition the child as he's the stepparent and a USC, if they did need to go down the I-130 route, so there would be no AoS stage to consider.

It would have to be consular processing, so no AoS to consider.

It would be faster for the parents to come and then them petition the sister, but still 10-12 years and I’m assuming they couldn’t leave her. But is the cost of healthcare in the US feasible for them? That sounds like the kind of treatment that would easily run to six figures.

That’s just one inept DMV worker, but if he’d shown details from the government website it would have been fine. He was a LPR the moment he landed in the US on his visa, and the plastic green card is just proof of that status, not the status itself. An endorsed visa, or an ADIT stamp do exactly the same thing too, there’s no difference. But I do find it very odd that anybody hiring employees, or working in HR, isn’t well aware of the list of acceptable documents. You say ‘apparently some employers’ but is that actually your son’s experience, or just random stuff he’s heard somewhere?

If you have to go down the I-130 route and petition her daughter, then it would be around 18 months to 2 years (depending on consulate).

Surely her mother leaving would be more of a shock than moving with her mother and adjusting to a new school? Could you maybe do some research on the schools in the area whilst your fiancée waits for her visa? Just thinking it would be a lot less stress and upheaval for you all to do that.

They weren't when there were no visas available. Nobody can get a visa by law then, it's not a discretionary thing.

If the only reason to delay is for a school place that seems like a huge cost and hassle just for that? You just need a place in your school district of choice, you can always move later on if it's only a temporary place.

The annual quota was met, so no visas could be issued until the fiscal year reset on 1st October, and interviews aren't scheduled when a visa isn't available.