Delaying K-1 once you get it?

[NICUnurse 0]

Hi everyone,

I'm a long-time lurker and have made good use of the search forum and reading the guides posted (ohmigosh, so helpful, thanks!!).

My question is that if you have the visa on-hand, is there any way to delay it? I ask because I'd like to get married in August/September 2010 and am paranoid about filing next month because of all the stories of things going wrong/delays. Our case should be straight-forward (he's from the UK; we've seen each other about every other month for the last 7 months, knew each other long before then)...but I've seen wait times posted on this board as short as 4 months and as long as a year!

The easy solution I suppose is to file now to have more comfort about a wedding date and that 15 months should be a relatively good worst-case scenario, getting a court wedding when he gets here, and then having the ceremony later. I really don't want to do this, but if there's no other option...

I know you have 6 months + 90 days to get married once you get the visa...but is there any way to delay the visa?

Edited April 29, 2009 by NICUnurse

[Hell0W0rld 10]

no way to extend, like you said, first you have 6 months to use it then when you are here in the states you have 90 days..

[Krikit 1,163]

Yes, if you look at my timeline you can see where I delayed the interview by holding off returning Package 3. I also discussed this issue with the Consulate Officer and he told me they could postpone issuance of the visa until I was ready to leave, then send them my passport at that time and they would insert the visa. You can also request a later interview date if yours comes up too soon.

Welcome to VJ.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

If you're dead set on a specific date (and with the visa process, this is never a particularly good idea) in August 2010, don't file yet. K1s through London usually take about 6 months, can take a few months more (but not much less), so delay filing until perhaps September. If things go to plan, you would have 6 months (average) processing which brings you to March, and six months to leave the UK, which brings you to September 2010. Things can still go wrong though, so if you were delayed at some point, you would have about five months to get things sorted.

It is never a dead cert though, so always have contingencies planned. I know, it sucks, but that's just the way it is.

Just read Krikit's reply, and it is also eminently sensible, as always. London is better than a lot of embassies at working with people, so holding on to your P3 is a good idea.

Edited April 29, 2009 by elmcitymaven

[NICUnurse 0]

Thanks everyone!

I read something in the archives about telling the bridezillas to stop whining when we have the immigration to deal with as well, lol, and it's a good thing that I'm a lover of lists and organization...

Because we have the immigration, we're planning to get married in Seattle, Washington but live in Washington, D.C. and pretty much locked into a large wedding with ~60 close extended family relatives in the same state (not to mention friends! or his family!), and a Catholic wedding so trying to plan the marriage encounter retreat/counseling before the visa gets issued since he can't return to England after that.

But, as my title states, I'm a NICU RN (premature/sick infants) so being organized in a chaotic environment is my life during the week : )

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hi everyone,

I'm a long-time lurker and have made good use of the search forum and reading the guides posted (ohmigosh, so helpful, thanks!!).

My question is that if you have the visa on-hand, is there any way to delay it? I ask because I'd like to get married in August/September 2010 and am paranoid about filing next month because of all the stories of things going wrong/delays. Our case should be straight-forward (he's from the UK; we've seen each other about every other month for the last 7 months, knew each other long before then)...but I've seen wait times posted on this board as short as 4 months and as long as a year!

The easy solution I suppose is to file now to have more comfort about a wedding date and that 15 months should be a relatively good worst-case scenario, getting a court wedding when he gets here, and then having the ceremony later. I really don't want to do this, but if there's no other option...

I know you have 6 months + 90 days to get married once you get the visa...but is there any way to delay the visa?

Not really to extend the visa, but...

Say you file today or May 1. It can take 4-6 months to get petition approved (but maybe faster if CSC right now) so that puts you into Sept for approval of petition, you then have up to four months to schedule an interview but that can be extended by request at the consulate. So that puts you into May of next year before you have your interview. You would then have up to nine months from then to travel to the US and get married. So your timeline is feasible, with an extension of the petition approval, to file now. If you are really shooting for next September I would wait until about June/July of this year to file the petition which would probably allow you to hit your time frame without any extensions.

Any such estimate is just that. I would also advise against, in this process, of making any "carved in stone" plans until the visa is in your hand. One of the things we surrender is the precise control of timing things such as weddings.