Expidate - Nearly 12 months since NOA1.....help?

[RoLao 0]

Hi there,

My Fiance is in the US Military. We filed out l-129F Fiance petition last July and received our NOA1 25th July 2012. Since then our we have seen our application remain as "initial Review" on the UCIS website. No movement!

We are wondering if we have grounds to expedite as we are nervous as, his likely window for deployment could be any time now, and I am worried that he will be away when my Visa is issued, and my one and only 3 month window to get married to him could be missed.

I rather naively thought we were the textbook easy applicants - he's in the special forces, I have a clean record, no previous marriages, and no kids! I was wrong it seems!

Furthermore, in preparation last month (thinking I must surely be close) I have rented my house out (that I own) and am relying on the kindness of friends and family to put me up as I would have to enter a 6 month minimum contract to rent a place, and to make things worse my boss has hired and trained my replacement and is making noises that he isn't happy to pay us both!

I was wondering do any of these facts give us ground to expedite. Which criteria would any of these issues fall into? (if any)

I read a thread on here, and my fiance has already spoken to his commander and he is able to supply a letter which states that he could potentially be deployed any time now, and that orders are short notice due to his role etc, and also that he strongly supports the expedition of our application as he doesn't believe additional pressure to those in my fiances role are helpful etc. Is this any good?

Could we also add any of my potential financial/homelessness to the expedite? What evidence would I need....my employer wants me gone, so happy to comply with supportive letters etc.

Could anyone give any advice to us?

Many many thanks for any support you can give x

[andy ngeci 18]

yes you can. why didnt you call them after 8months u got noa1? if u dont follow up your case maybe it got forgoten. now that u got deployment orders you fiance can apply an expedite and send a proof of the order. wishing you a quick response

[RoLao 0]

Thanks for your response.

We called UCIS in Feb then in March, then in April, and May, several times, they just said that it was under review and to wait 45 days. every time they ring, they say the same thing....even the level 2 guys seem unhelpful.

Your confident that this letter thing might help? It's not orders as such, because his orders come in last minute (5 days sometimes), but all this means is it could literally be anytime (Special Forces), and that;s what the letter from his commander says. You think this'll be enough for a positive expedite request for a Fiance application like mine, not just a spousal one?

[India23 22]

I agree with Sashah2006.. What do you have to loose? Asking for an expedite can't hurt so like they said just send it in. I'm sure you must have grounds for an expedite & being your NOA1 was almost 12 months ago.. Even if its approved with this expedite you've already been waiting too long! Do what you have to & make some noise until they approve u! Good luck!

[Stuart and Tina 4]

We too waited 10 months for a proper response.We called lots of time after our 6 months was up,only to be told its being proccessed.Eventually we were told after 10 months that we had not supplied any supporting documents,which was 100% our faults.As I said in a previous post though,surely someone could have told us this after a week when our envelope was opened and our cheque was cashed!

I-129f approved last week though so we are almost there but it's taken 18 months in all!

Good luck.

[TBoneTX 45,672]

*** Thread moved from K-1 Process forum to the Military Discussion forum for specialized insights. ***

[JP and Tee 13]

A letter from his CO would definitely help. I've read about military applicants who only supplied letter from CO and their requests got expedited. Just send in all the necessary letters/documents and hopefully they'll expedite your petition. We made the mistake of waiting for the X days to call and check with USCIS but got quite proactive with NVC, since we realise they probably won't bother to keep track of our case for us. still waiting today! Good luck, hope your request will get approved!

[Messybrownhair 251]

Get a letter from co about impending deployment then request an expedite on that basis. You can also contact your congressman for help due to increased processing time and impending deployment. Goodluck!

[April-n-Gary 17]

Have you tried calling the military hotline? I called them, told them that I was notified of an upcoming deployment. That same day I got an email, requesting that I fax supporting documents, I sent a cover letter explaining my reasons for expedite, and a notification of selection for deployment letter signed my my commander. Received my NOA2 the next day. Considering your fiancee is SOF, you probably should have applied for the expedite 8 months ago!

[NikLR 13,230]

Your fiance really needs to be contacting his congressman and/or senator and get this moving. A year is much too long for a fiance visa! Even though after the interview you have 6 months in which to enter the US, and then 90 days to get married but really, you should have been adjudicated long ago!

If he needs to go through his military contacts and get a higher ranking officer involved as well, that may help too.

[JP and Tee 13]

I find that USCIS stage, you really need the USC to do something to speed things up. We made the mistake of waiting it out and in hindsight, would probably have gotten expedited (or at least get a faster case complete) if my husband the USC pushed it more during the USCIS. I tried calling but they wouldn't let me find out anything about our case without him present. So I'd call only when he's home, which is hard to do since he's at work and comes home late, sometimes after the hotline closes.