should I drop my I-129F application

[Unknown Guest 15]

My fiance and I filed our I-129F K-1 application at the end of Jan '13. Received NOA on Feb. 1 and assigned to the California Service Center. Concurrently, my finance applied to grad school and was accepted to two schools, one of which she was also granted a 50% scholarship. School begins in August. Unfortunately, the Califonia Service center now has a 7.5 months wait time. So it is unlikely she will be approved for K-1 until September.

I put in a request for Expedited processing based on the financial hardship that we would suffer if she is not approved for the Visa before school starts. However the expedite request was denied.

Would it be wise to cancel the I-129 k1 visa application and just have my fiance apply for a I-20 School Visa (non-immigrant) instead. We could then get married while she is here on the I-20. But the problem is that USCIS might then deny a subsequent visa-change to a marriage visa.

Any thoughts on this?

[lost_at_sea 995]

My fiance and I filed our I-129F K-1 application at the end of Jan '13. Received NOA on Feb. 1 and assigned to the California Service Center. Concurrently, my finance applied to grad school and was accepted to two schools, one of which she was also granted a 50% scholarship. School begins in August. Unfortunately, the Califonia Service center now has a 7.5 months wait time. So it is unlikely she will be approved for K-1 until September.

I put in a request for Expedited processing based on the financial hardship that we would suffer if she is not approved for the Visa before school starts. However the expedite request was denied.

Would it be wise to cancel the I-129 k1 visa application and just have my fiance apply for a I-20 School Visa (non-immigrant) instead. We could then get married while she is here on the I-20. But the problem is that USCIS might then deny a subsequent visa-change to a marriage visa.

Any thoughts on this?

I guess the question is more about whether she wants to attend school definitely this year or not. If so, then you may have no choice but to follow the student visa route. If she can put off attending until next year, you could continue on the K1. Most folks on here would not recommend making any plans, particularly expensive ones, that rely on your K1 visa until you actually have it in-hand, as the wait times are so variable and unreliable.

Changing visa routes should not affect your future visa outlooks - folks withdraw or change their plans all the time. You may want to check whether the school visa allows a change of status and under what circumstances.

If you complete your timeline, you'll get a vague estimate on when you may get your NOA2, but note that NOA2 is only half the process.

There will be another 2-3 months on the local consulate side for medical, interview and visa issuance. All in all, I think it highly unlikely that you'll have a visa by August if you got NOA1 in February, since it's 7.5 months average wait for NOA2 + 2/3 more months.

Timeline completion: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/102797-create-a-vj-timeline-to-track-your-case-and-get-estimated-approval-dates/

Edited April 9, 2013 by lost_at_sea

[baron555 934]

Would it be wise to cancel the I-129 k1 visa application and just have my fiance apply for a I-20 School Visa (non-immigrant) instead.

You could do this so that she could only attend school. To use this visa with the intention to marry and stay here permanently is visa fraud. Yes you could get married while she is here as a student but then she'd have to leave when that visa is over.

We could then get married while she is here on the I-20. But the problem is that USCIS might then deny a subsequent visa-change to a marriage visa.

Continuing from above.....she'd return home when the student visa is over and then you file CR-1 since you'd already be married.

Any thoughts on this?