K-1 Vias: 3rd Party Processing & Running Out of Time

[Pudge 1]

Hi Everyone,

My situation is that I am engaged to a Malaysian citizen that is working in Japan. We met and fell in love while I was on an overseas assignment with my company from 2008 until 2010. We spent 8 and a half wonderful months together before I had to leave to come back to the US. This summer during her last trip here I proposed to her and we started the K-1 Visa process. At that time I was thinking that it takes about 6 - 9 months to get a K-1 Visa processed. I was assuming that we could received NOA2 on or before the 5 month mark, 1 month to go through the NVC, and 3 months for consular level processing. Using this estimate I thought that it should be no problem to receive her Visa before she has to leave Japan on May 1st, 2012, however now that the CSC is only processing application from June 17th, 2011 I am a little worried. I am concerned that we may not receive NOA2 with enough time to get her K-1 processed in Tokyo, so I am looking for backup plans. Can anyone tell me if one of my following ideas might work?

1. Request and expedite based on financial hardship. - Basically, I don’t believe it is possible to get her things shipped to the US without a valid visa. In the case that she doesn’t have a visa her company will ship all of her belongings back to Malaysia and we will have to pay to ship them to the US out of our pockets. Needed less to say she owns her own home there, so she has a lot of stuff so I am sure it will cost a lot to ship it here.

2. Can we switch the consulate that she files for the visa at? Change it from Tokyo to KL in Malaysia. This is still a difficult option because she would have to fly back and forth from Japan to Malaysia 2 or 3 times in the next few months to process.

3. Her visa is still valid in Japan so she could keep her alien registration card “Gaiji Card” and return to Japan to finish processing. The only problem with this is that her company pays the Japanese inhabitance tax for her, so if she leaves and then comes back her company will be responsible to pay which may be a problem since she signed a contract (Same as me) that she would turn in the Gaiji Card when she leaves. She has been lucky, the same company has said that they will hire her when she gets AOS in the US, so it might not be a good idea to jeopardize that. Although she might be able to negotiate something…

If anyone here has been in the same situation, or has some thoughts I would be very interested to hear from you.

Thank you!

[ELB 0]

I don't have much experience with it, but I would expect that the first option would take a LONG time. Take a look at the processing times on the USCIS website. And to request anything based on financial hardship also means that you are REALLY in hard strapped circumstances. I would expect that #1 would be MUCH harder than waiting for the K-1.

#2 seems more like a reasonable option. Check out the processing times on VJ for both embassies and you can see approximately how long it would take from NOA2-Interview. You can also download Packet 4 right now and start gathering the docs. In my case in Ecuador, the government didn't send us anything (not even a Packet 3 or 4), and you can get an appointment only 1 week after the Consulate receives the file. In case you want to switch it for halfway around the world

1. Request and expedite based on financial hardship. - Basically, I don’t believe it is possible to get her things shipped to the US without a valid visa. In the case that she doesn’t have a visa her company will ship all of her belongings back to Malaysia and we will have to pay to ship them to the US out of our pockets. Needed less to say she owns her own home there, so she has a lot of stuff so I am sure it will cost a lot to ship it here.

2. Can we switch the consulate that she files for the visa at? Change it from Tokyo to KL in Malaysia. This is still a difficult option because she would have to fly back and forth from Japan to Malaysia 2 or 3 times in the next few months to process.

3. Her visa is still valid in Japan so she could keep her alien registration card “Gaiji Card” and return to Japan to finish processing. The only problem with this is that her company pays the Japanese inhabitance tax for her, so if she leaves and then comes back her company will be responsible to pay which may be a problem since she signed a contract (Same as me) that she would turn in the Gaiji Card when she leaves. She has been lucky, the same company has said that they will hire her when she gets AOS in the US, so it might not be a good idea to jeopardize that. Although she might be able to negotiate something…

If anyone here has been in the same situation, or has some thoughts I would be very interested to hear from you.

Thank you!