Clink2023

Hi thanks for your reply: I guess I am still confused about the next steps as the letters we've received indicate otherwise. Before moving forward we need to login to CEAC. Without the above mentioned ID's we are unable to do so: "After USCIS approves your petition, they will transfer your case to the Department of State's National Visa Center (NVC) for pre-processing. The first step in this processing is the creation of your case in our system. Once this is complete, we will send you a Welcome Letter by e-mail or physical mail. With the information in this letter, you can log in to our Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) to check your status, receive messages, and manage your case."

We have received notice from the NZ consulate informing us that: "This office has received the approved I-129F petition filed by your U.S. citizen fiancé from the USCIS. You are now entitled to apply for a K-1 visa. To complete the DS-260, you need the Invoice ID Number and each traveling applicant’s Beneficiary ID Number from the “Notice to Applicant” page of your NVC appointment letter." Would the NVC appointment letter have come via email or mail? We are unclear on the next steps and how to proceed to pay for the DS-260 as we don't have an Invoice ID Number nor Beneficiary ID number. What are we missing? Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions/comments.

Thanks everyone for your responses/insights. - My partner is not renouncing his SA citizenship, he is just giving it up and not requesting to keep it. There is not enough of an advantage to keep it for the process to be worth it - especially once he gets his NZ citizenship. We've battled with SA processes before and they are a nightmare. The K1 interview is at the NZ consulate. - Thank you for that advice we will update that information at the K1 interview. And keep it consistent across the AOS and I-485. Thanks all for your comments - sounds like change of citizenship will not be an issue.

Hello, My partner will be changing his citizenship from South Africa to New Zealand in the coming months. He will no longer have his SA citizenship. We started the K-1 process having listed him as a South African. Will the change from SA to NZ citizenship affect our application? We are now at the stage in which we are assembling our documents for the NVC to prepare for the interview. Thanks in advance for any advice/recommendations.

Response to your questions 1 - I am afraid, we may regret not getting married for cr1 visa because i heard fiance(k1) visa is taking 2 years, is this right? K-1 visa for us (I understand everyone goes through different lengths and time for various reasons) has been 2 years to get to the second step of process. I've known others in similar circumstances who were ahead of us because they were on the marriage visa route. We still have at least another year, so 3 years total in our k-1 journey. 2 - I am afraid, uscis doesn't care about k1 visa and may ignore it or let it wait, is this true? We had some complications with USCIS and NVC tossing our application back and forth - I am not sure why but cr1 visa route may have avoided this. I don't believe they actively ignored any visa, but others may be prioritised. 3 - do most people regret choosing k1, i heard mixed reviews. what would you do if you were in our sitatuion(please review our option 1 and option 2) I can't fully say I regret anything yet until we've made it through the process. Because of other factors (work, life) we are not in any rush to get to the states, so if time was of an essence, the cr1 visa would have been more advantageous. 4- is it ok if we have a cultural/religious ceremony(not official marriage) after we applied k1 visa? We will only be engaged but have a small ceremony. Not sure. 5- what would you do if you were in our situation? wait 3 months and apply for cr1 or start k1 right away(our goal is to be together in the usa, as soon as possible) K-1 visa will take longer it seems like, so applying for cr1 "might" be the best option if you want to decrease the wait, but again haven't not gotten through our own process - I cannot say for sure. I think everyone's situation is incredibly unique and the process far from easy. Wish you and your partner the best.

Sounds like it. This morning received notification that NVC has finally forwarded our case to our embassy in NZ. So looks like our process is now starting on get back on track. Best of luck to you.

Apologies subject line should be: USCIS petition was approved; sent to NVC then sent back to USCIS

Hello, New to this page, happy to know one exists to seek advice. We started our K-1 process of submitting the 129-F in October 2021. The case was approved by USCIS in January 2023 and sent to NVC, however for some reason it has been sent back to USCIS with the message (returned to department of state). USCIS then approved it again in March 2023. We have heard nothing. When I sent an inquiry to NVC I got a message that it was sent back again but no explanation. Has anyone experienced this? What moved the process along? Thanks in advance!