I-130 and working in the USA in the interim

[Ajkauffman 0]

I am an American citizen by birth. I live with my wife in Australia. She is Australian and we have been married for nearly nine years. We have just sent off our I-130 application for her (mailed out two days ago). I am looking at a possible new job in the USA in the next couple months and we want to move back, possibly before her green card is approved.

I understand that we can apply for a K-3 to get my wife travel rights into the USA as a non-immigrant until the I-130 is approved. However we need both of our salaries and so I am wondering:

1. How long does it generally take to get a K-3 approved and

2. What can we do to get my wife work rights in the USA while the I-130 application is pending? As a subquestion, how long will the process to get work rights take? Is it even worth the effort if *in the best case it might take about 6 months for her I-130 to be approved*??

Thanks for any help or advice!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

K-3 is dead, no longer attainable. If it were attainable, it is actually slower right now. That is why it is no longer available, since I-130/CR-1 visa are going so fast, the reason for the K-3 no loner exists.

However, read this: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/357465-usc-petitioner-living-abroad/

Edited July 8, 2012 by Harpa Timsah

[Boiler 46,122]

There is no other option, you wait.

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

Yeah, unfortunately the K3 option was viable in the days when I-130s were taking far longer than 6 months (try 1 yr+) to be approved. Now you can get a spouse into the US with IR1 faster than with K3 in the old days, which is why it's been phased out administratively for the most part. Unfortunately, even with employment-based paths, which only apply in certain rare cases for certain hard-to-staff industries in the US, any other process is still likely to take longer than the IR1 process.

As referenced in the Harpa Timsah's thread (thanks, BTW, I was just looking for that thread today...), filing a petition while legally residing outside the US can often result in extremely expedited processing of the I-130 mailed to the Chicago lockbox, bringing your wait for the visa down to a very minimum if you have all the necessary documents ready for the NVC stage. If all goes well and the process referenced in that thread applies to your case, you could have your wife in the US either upon starting the new job, or very shortly thereafter, and the added advantage of an IR1 vs K3 visa (if it were possible) is that with IR1 she can start work almost immediately.