Anyone have any statistics?

[AmyWrites 593]

About marriage visa approvals? What are the odds of being approved? I think I've seen for tourist visas and K visas, but that's it. Anyone have anything on the IR-1/CR-1 visas?

[jaycali 415]

About marriage visa approvals? What are the odds of being approved? I think I've seen for tourist visas and K visas, but that's it. Anyone have anything on the IR-1/CR-1 visas?

I haven't seen any stats, but I would imagine them being similar to that of K-1, if not a tad bit higher. Could you give me a link to the K-1 stats btw?

Edited May 8, 2012 by jaejayC

[SOflaherty 40]

This says almost 50% are denied. Given the complications of the paperwork I'd suspect it's almost always due to incorrect filing or not meeting the income requirement.

http://www.internationalfianceevisa.com/index.php/us-visa-faq.html

Edited May 8, 2012 by SOflaherty

[AmyWrites 593]

This says almost 50% are denied. Given the complications of the paperwork I'd suspect it's almost always due to incorrect filing or not meeting the income requirement.

http://www.internationalfianceevisa.com/index.php/us-visa-faq.html

Thanks, but I'm kind of hesitant to trust websites made by lawyers. Of course they want it to seem very difficult so you go and run to them.

I'm looking for the K-1 stats, will post them when I find them.

[Xanax 349]

I cannot find the statistics right now, but I am almost 100% sure that for k1 it is around 99% approval. I can only assume as the previous poster said that cr1/ir1 approval rates are similar if not higher.

The statistics are there if you can find them, unfortunately on my cell I can't find it.

[Xanax 349]

Wiki does say this for k1 visas in 09' (but it is wiki): http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-1_visa

[LeftCoastLady 441]

The State Dept. website is your friend. If you go to state.gov, under Travel on the top nav, select Visas from the drop-down. Scroll down a bit and on the left navigation, you'll see a link to "Visa Statistics." From there, you can select Immigrant or Non-Immigrant.

This doc shows the Non-Immigrant Visas issued in Fiscal Year 2011 (October 1, 2010 - September 30, 2011): http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/FY2011NIVWorkloadbyVisaCategory.pdf

K-1 Visas issued: 24,585

K-1 Visas refused: 744

Total K-1 Visa Workload: 25,329

K-1 Visas overcome/waived: 651

Thus, *sound of squeaks as brain does math*, that's about a 94.5% approval rate if you combine the visas issued and the visas overcome/waived over the total workload. That's pretty much in line with previous years, give or take a fraction of a percentage.

Unfortunately, there isn't a comparable doc under State Dept.'s Immigrant Visa Statistics that easily lists out this data for CR-1 and/or IR-1 visa issuances.

[AmyWrites 593]

Yeah, I don't get that, why are K-1 visa stats listed but not for marriage visas? It's just strange

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Yeah, I don't get that, why are K-1 visa stats listed but not for marriage visas? It's just strange

Probably because not enough people ask for it. There would be no other reason.

This is not a game of chance, it is not roulette or even card counting. 99% approval of the last 23,456 visas is no indication yours will be approved, better or worse. (OMG I studied statistics too much and with one doctoral student in Physics ands another on the way in AP Stats now it is not getting any better)I can tell you precisely the odds of getting a green light at the corner if you leave my driveway and average 23 miles per hour...but the fact that visas were approved or denied before yours has no affect on yours. Sorry.

In general 100% of qualified spouse applications are approved. YOU determine if the application was qualified. Was it?

If you are just killing time because of nervous energy, disregard my statement.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

This says almost 50% are denied. Given the complications of the paperwork I'd suspect it's almost always due to incorrect filing or not meeting the income requirement.

http://www.internationalfianceevisa.com/index.php/us-visa-faq.html

1. This site wants you to pay them money to use their service

2. USCIS does not issue visas

If there is any truth to the 50% number it could include rejections which are quite high but are NOT denials, abandoned petitions, and even RFEs, in other words, petitions that do not fly through without issues...that I can believe.

It also needs to be pointed out that petitions and visas are issued on a "shall issue" basis. There is no provision in the law for the petition approval or visa to be withheld without cause. If you meet the criteria, you get the visa. Now I will not deny that different consulates have different interpretations of what "meets" the criteria, but it is not something where a 50% approval rate means YOUR case has a 50% chance of approval. It could mean 50% of the applicants are stupid and cannot fill out a form.

[AmyWrites 593]

Probably because not enough people ask for it. There would be no other reason.

This is not a game of chance, it is not roulette or even card counting. 99% approval of the last 23,456 visas is no indication yours will be approved, better or worse. (OMG I studied statistics too much and with one doctoral student in Physics ands another on the way in AP Stats now it is not getting any better)I can tell you precisely the odds of getting a green light at the corner if you leave my driveway and average 23 miles per hour...but the fact that visas were approved or denied before yours has no affect on yours. Sorry.

In general 100% of qualified spouse applications are approved. YOU determine if the application was qualified. Was it?

If you are just killing time because of nervous energy, disregard my statement.

Yeah, just killing time while I get my approval (knock on wood) on the mail. I've noticed many denials are usually from certain regions, or because of certain crucial evidence missing or it's contradictory to something else. It doesn't look like, according to what I've read, that petitions (most times) are denied for stupid reasons; at least you get an RFE usually. I thought the lack of actual statistics for it maybe had to do with the fact that there's one fiance visa but supposedly three visas for married people (if we include the nearly dead K3).

[SOflaherty 40]

That was just a very quick google search done at work. Sorry wasn't so accurate!

I do wonder though about the 99% number. Over the last couple of years here I've seen a good few people say theirs was denied, I'm wondering if they count appealed cases also, and how they count those that were denied K-1's, who then went on to do the CR-1 instead.

[LeftCoastLady 441]

That was just a very quick google search done at work. Sorry wasn't so accurate!

I do wonder though about the 99% number. Over the last couple of years here I've seen a good few people say theirs was denied, I'm wondering if they count appealed cases also, and how they count those that were denied K-1's, who then went on to do the CR-1 instead.

For K-1s, the appealed and approved cases would be under the "overcome/waived" portion of the chart I linked upthread. If those who were denied a K-1 visa decided to petition for CR-1/IR-1, there likely isn't concrete data on that subset beyond anecdotal since they're different processes (non-immigrant --> immigrant).