So frustrating!

[Jaime&Khalid 0]

So my fiance and I got engaged in Scotland (where he lives) mid-April and filed the paperwork which USCIS received May 16th. We received the NOA1 very soon after that but are STILL stuck in the preliminary (background check) stage of the process. Our wedding is November 5th of this year and I'm terrified we aren't going to have this visa in time. I've spoken to USCIS and they said we could still get married but then we'd have to start the process all over again to file for a spouse visa and there's no guarantee he'd be able to stay. We've spent way too much time apart and I don't want to wait any longer! Anyone have any advice? Does it really only 5 months for this (in which case we'd be fine) or is it much longer?

PLEASE HELP!!

So my fiance and I got engaged in Scotland (where he lives) mid-April and filed the paperwork which USCIS received May 16th. We received the NOA1 very soon after that but are STILL stuck in the preliminary (background check) stage of the process. Our wedding is November 5th of this year and I'm terrified we aren't going to have this visa in time. I've spoken to USCIS and they said we could still get married but then we'd have to start the process all over again to file for a spouse visa and there's no guarantee he'd be able to stay. We've spent way too much time apart and I don't want to wait any longer! Anyone have any advice? Does it really only 5 months for this (in which case we'd be fine) or is it much longer?

PLEASE HELP!!

[Jaime&Khalid 0]

It has been almost 6 moths for me and my fiance that our application has been submitted.. I have learned that if you marry you do need to to file other applications..As far as the drugs go..I feel you should not talk about yourself doing drugs, no matter which drugs you are using..The USCIS will not take that lightly.. I wish you the best of luck on your journey!! sincerely Jaime

[Operator 1,927]

It has been almost 6 moths for me and my fiance that our application has been submitted.. I have learned that if you marry you do need to to file other applications..As far as the drugs go..I feel you should not talk about yourself doing drugs, no matter which drugs you are using..The USCIS will not take that lightly.. I wish you the best of luck on your journey!! sincerely Jaime

Jaime,

Did your post take a wrong turn or did I miss a reference to drugs in this thread?

[KrisandJennie 35]

Our timeline, to the first interview, is kinda typical. I'd cancel the wedding and reschedule once you have the visa in hand and not any earlier. This information is well established and well discussed; why you chose to ignore it is on your conscious.

First of all, thanks for the support (she says sarcastically) and second of all, nothing was ignored. We spoke with USCIS and other people who have been through this and everyone told us 5 months so we planned the wedding 6 months from the date we sent the paperwork. We were very prepared coming into this and went solely on what we told by USCIS.

Jaime,

Did your post take a wrong turn or did I miss a reference to drugs in this thread?

What drugs are we talking about? I DO NOT do drugs nor did I mention anything about drugs.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

First of all, thanks for the support (she says sarcastically) and second of all, nothing was ignored. We spoke with USCIS and other people who have been through this and everyone told us 5 months so we planned the wedding 6 months from the date we sent the paperwork. We were very prepared coming into this and went solely on what we told by USCIS.

None of this really matters at this point.. I was hoping someone more knowledgeable would say something about this: Hopefully by now you have started the process on postponing the wedding.. A few posts back someone mentioned that the paperwork is easier if you get married. Please don't attempt to get married on that date before the interview takes place.. You will have to start the paperwork again and there is no way they will believe he did not enter the country with the intention of remaining when there is a quick wedding and an abandoned K-1... He will have to leave the country while the I-130 takes its course or you will be taking a big risk.

Realize the consequences if you try to skirt these issues, they could be very bad - you already have a paper trail of your intentions. Postponing the wedding is the smart move for your situation.

[KrisandJennie 35]

I know that this process can be so frustrating. I had originally planned to get married on October 29th of this year (we filed our petition in March)...but with the way things are looking right now, I have decided to move my wedding date to December 3rd. It does take, on average, 4-5 months just to get the approval for your petition (I-129F), and that's if there are no RFE's. Then...the case is sent to NVC, where it can sit for nearly 2 weeks. Then...it is sent to the embassy in London.

Your fiance will also need to go to London for a medical exam, but this is done AFTER your petition is approved and after you get a case number from NVC. Around that time, you will also get a letter from the embassy (packet 3)...there will be more forms to complete and you will also need to gather more documentation for the interview. I am told that from the time that the embassy in London receives your completed packet 3 forms, there is an average wait time of 7 weeks before the interview date. My fiance and I are in this waiting period now. He just sent packet 3 back to the embassy yesterday, so I'm thinking he won't have an interview date until somewhere around the middle of October. He will not be able to come over to the states immediately because he will have a lot of packing to do, plus selling his car, getting rid of his flat, resigning from his job and securing a shipping container to ship his belongings over here (so if your fiance has anything like this to take care of...make sure you give him ample time to do all of it before he comes over).

So...I agree with others who have responded here....if you can possible change your wedding date, do it. Do NOT make any wedding arrangements at this time that can't be changed (such as renting a hall for your reception, or having your wedding invitations printed). The only advice I can give you at this time is....be flexible.

Good luck!

We have already planned the entire wedding and sent out the invites. We were so careful before starting this process, talking to friends who had done it before or who were currently going through it, not to mention talking to USCIS beforehand and we were always told the same thing. It will be within 5 months. I even asked USCIS if I could start planning the wedding for 6 months out of receiving the paperwork and they said yes. Stupid USCIS!!!! If we don't get the K 1 in time, we can still get married (he'll come visit under the VWP) and then he'll fly back to Scotland and we file the I-130. USCIS also told me that he can stay AND file for his AOS while it's all processing but I highly doubt that since we haven't been getting the most reliable info from USCIS... which is stupuid b/c they're, well, USCIS!!!

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

We have already planned the entire wedding and sent out the invites. We were so careful before starting this process, talking to friends who had done it before or who were currently going through it, not to mention talking to USCIS beforehand and we were always told the same thing. It will be within 5 months. I even asked USCIS if I could start planning the wedding for 6 months out of receiving the paperwork and they said yes. Stupid USCIS!!!! If we don't get the K 1 in time, we can still get married (he'll come visit under the VWP) and then he'll fly back to Scotland and we file the I-130. USCIS also told me that he can stay AND file for his AOS while it's all processing but I highly doubt that since we haven't been getting the most reliable info from USCIS... which is stupuid b/c they're, well, USCIS!!!

I wonder if USCIS was giving their robotic answer about when the petition would be approved. USCIS are done at that point and don't necessarily know anything about the embassy in London. It is the Dept of State that takes over from petition approval. The visa application doesn't start until London (under Dept of State umbrella) receives your file from NVC and you apply for the visa. There's a lot of waiting around for London to log your case, log your visa application forms as received,wait for your medical results, and then issue your interview which is typically a month from when you get the letter.

If you looked at those graphs I posted earlier, you can see how the times to each step change over a year. What happened to friends before may not hold true for today. We had a visa in 4.5 months start to finish, but that's nothing a person could count on today. I even thought 50 days to approval at VSC was crazy long because the month before us was getting approved in 14-21 days. The month after us took about 85 days and 100+ the next month. It changes quickly sometimes and there is no perfect prediction.

Here's the UK only timelines where you can browse the pages to see how long it took to get to the interview from those that already have an interview date entered. http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?cfl=&op1=&op2=&op3=1&op4=2&op5=5,6,7,8,10,11,13,14,15,16,17,18,20,21,22,23,25,26,27,28&op6=All&op7=United Kingdom&dfile=No

And don't get mislead by people not going through London about calling to make your own appointment. That doesn't happen. You wait for them to assign it. Each embassy is very different.

[slangofoil 50]

We have already planned the entire wedding and sent out the invites. We were so careful before starting this process, talking to friends who had done it before or who were currently going through it, not to mention talking to USCIS beforehand and we were always told the same thing. It will be within 5 months. I even asked USCIS if I could start planning the wedding for 6 months out of receiving the paperwork and they said yes. Stupid USCIS!!!! If we don't get the K 1 in time, we can still get married (he'll come visit under the VWP) and then he'll fly back to Scotland and we file the I-130. USCIS also told me that he can stay AND file for his AOS while it's all processing but I highly doubt that since we haven't been getting the most reliable info from USCIS... which is stupuid b/c they're, well, USCIS!!!

Since you seem dead-set on going ahead with the wedding as planned, I would just have the "wedding" ceremony/party, WITHOUT the legal marriage aspect. Then he can go back to Scotland and continue with the K-1 process. As long as you're not legally married, you can still get a K-1. Then once he gets the visa, he comes over and you get legally married at the court house immediately. You'd probably only have a couple of months between your "wedding" date and your legal marriage date. I honestly can't fathom starting the whole process over again at this point. You'd be putting yourselves all the way back at the start, and prolonging the time apart if you start over again with a CR-1. At this point if you stick with the K-1, he'll most likely be here by the new year. If you start over with the CR-1, you can't even START that process until after your wedding and it would probably be next summer before he'd be here for good.

[C Med 14]

We have already planned the entire wedding and sent out the invites. We were so careful before starting this process, talking to friends who had done it before or who were currently going through it, not to mention talking to USCIS beforehand and we were always told the same thing. It will be within 5 months. I even asked USCIS if I could start planning the wedding for 6 months out of receiving the paperwork and they said yes. Stupid USCIS!!!! If we don't get the K 1 in time, we can still get married (he'll come visit under the VWP) and then he'll fly back to Scotland and we file the I-130. USCIS also told me that he can stay AND file for his AOS while it's all processing but I highly doubt that since we haven't been getting the most reliable info from USCIS... which is stupuid b/c they're, well, USCIS!!!

I strongly advise you NOT to have your fiance come to the US under VWP, get married, and apply for AOS. US Immigration is becoming more and more strict about people abiding by the law. When someone enters the US under VWP, they are saying that they have no intention of immigrating to the US, and are here only for a visit. By marrying a US citizen and applying for AOS without leaving the country under the VWP, you are committing immigration fraud. There really is no other way around it. Yes, some people get away with it, but it happens less and less often. Also, the fact that you and your fiance started a K-1 process and have an entire wedding planned is going to make it very obvious to US Immigration that your fiance used the VWP for purposes that it was not created for. The results can be devastating. He will be jailed, and you can be jailed as well, and then he will be deported and banned from the US. If you then apply for a spousal visa, there is every chance that it will be denied because he has been deported. I know someone who has gone through this, and her marriage resulted in divorce because her husband received a 10 year ban, and she could not move to his country for other reasons.

To me, this seems like a risk NOT worth taking just to keep a wedding date of November 5th. I know you have already planned everything and sent out invitations, but wedding plans can be changed, and invitations can be revised. What good will a wedding be if your new husband is thrown in jail, deported, and banned from the US soon after? I am not a scare monger, I am being very realistic.

You CAN marry your fiance under the VWP and as long as he returns to Scotland before the 90 days, he will be eligible to apply for the spousal visa. Just keep in mind that if you go that route, you will be apart for awhile. The spousal visa takes longer than the k1 visa from what I hear. So once he returns to Scotland, you're looking at another 9+ months of being separated.

I received my NOA2 4 months after filing the petition. My fiance is from Ireland (which has similar processing times to the UK) so you may want to peek at my timeline. My fiance arrived in the US 7 months (nearly to the day) of our NOA1 date. I think November 5th is going to be a long shot, and USCIS will not grant an expedite request solely because the wait time is interfering with your plans. That I can guarantee.

In the end, it's up to you and your fiance. Weigh your options and see where you both stand. You have several options. The one that gets your fiance here permanently in the quickest amount of time, is postponing your wedding date and waiting for the K1 visa.

I hope this can be of some help. All the best.

[KrisandJennie 35]

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all of the helpful advice! I've talked to my fiance and my mom and we've decided to push the big wedding back until the end of March. That should be enough time, right?? Once he has his visa, he will come over and we'll go to the courthouse to get married so he can start filing all of his paperwork for AOS and to work and then we'll have the big wedding end of March. How does that sound?? Is it all legal and legit? We want to make sure we don't cut any corners and we dot every "I" and cross every "T".

[KrisandJennie 35]

We have talked to my mom and we're going to be moving the wedding back to March/ April. Once he has the visa, he'll come over and we'll do a civil ceremony so he can start the AOS process and then have the big wedding later. Do you think that gives us enough time? 7 more months and we're 3 months into the visa process?

[KrisandJennie 35]

I understand your feeling of frustration. That happened to me yesterday and hours later I was approved. I even called the USCIS yesterday to see what was going on. You should try to get your petition expedited. That's what I tried to do last Thursday and the Friday morning they emailed me letting me know that my expedition was denied because my petition was already with an adjudicator. So try getting it expedited. Whether or not you decide to do it, your petition will soon be approved.

I tried. We don't qualify for expedition We're now talking about moving it back to late March/ early April. That's a total of 10 months from receiving the NOA1 so HOPEFULLY that will be enough time!

[KrisandJennie 35]

Thanks everyone!!! We're going to try to reschedule our wedding for 10 months after we received the NOA1 (March/ April 2012) so that should give us plenty of time.

Jaime,

Did your post take a wrong turn or did I miss a reference to drugs in this thread?

Yeah, there was definitely no drug reference! My fiance and I are both drug-free and always have been!

[C Med 14]

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all of the helpful advice! I've talked to my fiance and my mom and we've decided to push the big wedding back until the end of March. That should be enough time, right?? Once he has his visa, he will come over and we'll go to the courthouse to get married so he can start filing all of his paperwork for AOS and to work and then we'll have the big wedding end of March. How does that sound?? Is it all legal and legit? We want to make sure we don't cut any corners and we dot every "I" and cross every "T".

That sounds like it should be enough time. Most people get married at the courthouse first and then have the big wedding later due to time restraints. Yep, that's all legal and legit! Good luck.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all of the helpful advice! I've talked to my fiance and my mom and we've decided to push the big wedding back until the end of March. That should be enough time, right?? Once he has his visa, he will come over and we'll go to the courthouse to get married so he can start filing all of his paperwork for AOS and to work and then we'll have the big wedding end of March. How does that sound?? Is it all legal and legit? We want to make sure we don't cut any corners and we dot every "I" and cross every "T".

Just check with your officiant as to how he feels about the big wedding when you are already married. Some priests, for example, will not do a wedding mass if the couple is not really getting legally married at that ceremony. Make sure everybody is on the same page as far as the ceremony will go. A spring wedding will be lovely and a wise decision.

Now start looking ahead to the London part of the process. Instructions here http://london.usembassy.gov/iv_15.html but look at all links left, right and center. There's lots of info to discover.