Just Engaged - Best Course of Action?

[frostiana 12]

k1'ers have to evetually do that as well!! The real only downside of the CR-1 is it usually takes longer. At 1 time, they were pretty neck and neck, but that has not been the case the past few yrs! My cr-1 in 2004 took 6 months.

How long do cr's take now? We filed the K1 end of March, were approved sept. 20, and then clicked for an appointment until October 16 or so when they finally came available, got appointment for Nov. 2nd.

so even though approval was sept. 20, we had to wait all those extra weeks for an appointment.

I hope all this info is helping... I know what I would do!!

[frostiana 12]

Then why does it still show K3 Visa on the travel state .gov site? Maybe it takes just as long as the CR1? I agree don't hire a lawyer! We did and he gave us bad advice ... they can't keep up with the rules any better than we can. Although he was NOT exclusively an immigration lawyer and that was a big mistake also. Anyway, one other advantage I know for sure to being married first: When it comes time for your appointment to be booked for Montreal, they GIVE YOU an appointment date!! With the K-1 visa, you have to wait til appointments are available and go online and click on the site til you get one.... see threads on here re. booking appointments in montreal... people spend weeks and months clicking as often as possible... I spent 6 weeks clicken almost every few minutes.. if I wasn't clicking, my fiance or a friend was... from about 6 a.m. til I went to bed at night. It is torture!!

Like I said if you're married, they just contact you and tell you your appointment date. Besides, I would rather be married and going through all this ! It just added to the pressure to be figuring out getting married after I came over with the visa... we wanted to get the rest of the paperwork done so we could get my permission to go back and visit my 88 year old mother... even the advanced parole takes two or three months (as well as permission to work).

Unless you are just not comfortable getting married first... then that's a different story.

For example my husband thought that getting married first was not romantic as we were doing it just to facilitate the visa issues.

[Flames9_RN 358]

Then why does it still show K3 Visa on the travel state .gov site? Maybe it takes just as long as the CR1? I agree don't hire a lawyer! We did and he gave us bad advice ... they can't keep up with the rules any better than we can. Although he was NOT exclusively an immigration lawyer and that was a big mistake also. Anyway, one other advantage I know for sure to being married first: When it comes time for your appointment to be booked for Montreal, they GIVE YOU an appointment date!! With the K-1 visa, you have to wait til appointments are available and go online and click on the site til you get one.... see threads on here re. booking appointments in montreal... people spend weeks and months clicking as often as possible... I spent 6 weeks clicken almost every few minutes.. if I wasn't clicking, my fiance or a friend was... from about 6 a.m. til I went to bed at night. It is torture!!

Like I said if you're married, they just contact you and tell you your appointment date. Besides, I would rather be married and going through all this ! It just added to the pressure to be figuring out getting married after I came over with the visa... we wanted to get the rest of the paperwork done so we could get my permission to go back and visit my 88 year old mother... even the advanced parole takes two or three months (as well as permission to work).

Unless you are just not comfortable getting married first... then that's a different story.

At 1 time the k3 was faster than the CR-1. But most of the time that is no longer true! And what others have said, I think they may have stopped the k3 all together, but not sure as I no longer really follow it. At 1 time, you could file the k3 and cr-1 paperwork at the same time, thats what we did back in 2004, our CR-1 was complete well ahead of the k3! We got a notice like 4 moinths after that I had already moved to the USA that the k3 was approved,lol

And when does govt stuff make sense,lol

[Kathryn41 3,205]

The K-3 was first initiated as an interim type of visa to address the long processing time involved in getting a spousal visa as it would allow separated spouses the opportunity to live together in the US while the rest of their immigration process was completed.

To apply for a K-3 one has to file both the I-130 and the I-129f petitions. Both of them then work their way through the process. At one time I-129fs were approved much faster than I-130s, so with the I-130 'waitng' for approval, a K-3 applicant with an approved I-129f was able to move to the US and then either continue with a CR-1 visa when the I-130 was approved or file for Adjustment of Status from within the US. It was developed as a temporary visa to cut back on the time married couples were apart.

In recent years, the processing time for the I-129f has nearly equaled the processing time for the I-130. In a number of cases, the I-130 was approved before the I-129f. Since the CR-1 is a superior visa, the I-129f was cancelled and the processing switched to the CR-1 visa. Now, if it appears that the I-129f and the I-130 are going to have similar time lines for approval, even before there is an approval, USCIS has been administratively closing the I-129fs filed for a K-3 and turning the K-3 into a straight CR-1 visa.

The K-3 is still listed and there are still a few circumstances where the K-3 does continue as a K-3 as the I-129f is approved prior to the I-130 but they are few and far between. Virtually all K-3s are administratively transferred to a CR-1. There was an official memo a while back stating that this was happening and that the K-3 would probably be phased out all together, although that has not yet happened.

So, since I-129fs and I-130s are taking about the same length of time for processing right now, administratively there is not an option for a K-3 at this time. There is no longer the perceived 'need' for the K-3 as its purpose was to get a married couple reunited sooner as they waited for the completion of the immigration paperwork.

Edited November 24, 2011 by Kathryn41