Hello Wolle, You are not alone! I filed July 11, 2023 for my husband and he is in France! Our case is at the Texas Service Center. We didn’t expect this to take so long.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence other than anecdotal evidence that the K3 helps. I did a lot of research when I joined VJ because we wanted to stay ahead of the process. I saw a lot of anecdotal references for the K3 potentially helping if you file it early. It doesn't help so much when filing it later in USCUS phase because your I-130 petition is likely to get adjudicated before the look at the K3 which has projections of 6 months.
As far as online filing, I chose that option because I felt the online process of walking me through the form was more beneficial that filling it out on paper, and we got our NOA1 the same day.
I recommend doing as much research as possible here on VJ to understand how you can best navigate the remainder of your journey. For example, your next step is the NVC stage. Research all you can about how to get through the NVC process. Read up on paying the AOS and IV fees, become an expert on completing the I-864 and DS-260 and start gathering as many of the necessary docs as you can, i.e. taxes, financials, his civil documents, etc. For example, we weren't prepared for such a quick petition approval, and one civil document needed for the beneficiary is a police certificate from every country the beneficiary has lived in for 6 months or more. My wife is Burmese but lives in Thailand and the Thai Police certificate takes 3 weeks to process. Understand if there is an expiration or other caveats on each record. She had to return to Myanmar to get an updated police certificate and recreate her vaccination record since her mother could not find the original. All of these things take time, and if you know what to expect in advance you can move through the process smoother...not necessarily smooth, but smoother.
I wish you the best of luck and hopefully you will get an approval on your petition soon.
mocha12 got a reaction from Wolle in July 2023 Filers I 130