Do we have to wait to file I-129F?

[Bride-to-Be 0]

Hiya,

I'm recently engaged and my fiance and I are planning our marriage for January 2008, but I've just looked at the processing times for where my US fiance would be filing the I-129F petition at and it says there only just getting started on ones filed June 15th 2006, so panicking a little now cus we were going to wait till my 18th birthday on the November 3rd for him to file it, just to be on the safe side. if its going to take that long though ideally we need him to file it now, will they accept it since i'll be legally able to marry at the time of marriage, even if i'm not legally able to marry without parental permission when he files for the petition?? please help, any advice or links would be really useful, i'm not going to be sleeping till i've found something reliable that tells me one way or the other.

[Turboguy 6]

Without knowing where you would be filing it is hard to give you an idea of how long it will take but I can tell you for sure you will not be able to file in Mid November and have your visa for January.

Since you are from the UK you may be able to get a tourist visa, come here, marry, then file for a K-3 That is about the only option I can see.

[joeyjoey 1]

Hiya,

I'm recently engaged and my fiance and I are planning our marriage for January 2008, but I've just looked at the processing times for where my US fiance would be filing the I-129F petition at and it says there only just getting started on ones filed June 15th 2006, so panicking a little now cus we were going to wait till my 18th birthday on the November 3rd for him to file it, just to be on the safe side. if its going to take that long though ideally we need him to file it now, will they accept it since i'll be legally able to marry at the time of marriage, even if i'm not legally able to marry without parental permission when he files for the petition?? please help, any advice or links would be really useful, i'm not going to be sleeping till i've found something reliable that tells me one way or the other.

My advice is that it makes no sense to plan a wedding before you start the Visa process. The VISA is not a guaranteed thing. Besides, you're not even 18 years old yet. Stop planning the wedding and start reading the GUIDES on this site for the K-1 Visa. How to apply, what to send, documents that you should have to prove your case, etc. Gather the information necessary to submit the I-129F. We started June 2006 and we're waiting now for an Interview date. Should be late February, early March 2007, we hope.

[KarenCee 3]

Exactly!! Planning a wedding BEFORE the visa is in your fiancé's hands is inadvisable. My husband and I planned the little details, the things that didn't require a date or a deposit (come to think of it, nothing about our wedding required a deposit) while we waited for the interview. When he arrived in the US, most of the wedding was planned.

[Caladan 19]

Couple things:

First, the "dates processed" listed on the website are not representative of a typical processing time. They're just the upper bound of cases being processed. Right now CSC is taking about 90 days to approve an I-129F, and VSC is anywhere from two weeks to two months. (When mine was approved in October, they were officially on April cases.) Once that's approved, it takes some more time (month or so) to get through the NVC and onto the consulate, and then it's completely dependent on the consulate for when you get the interview. Check out the timelines to get a better sense of it.

As a result, if your fiancé files in November of 2007, it's all but guaranteed that you won't have the visa by January.

Second, in order to *file* the I-129F both parties must be free to marry (first page of the instructions, top of the first column.) I'm interpreting this to mean that you'd need to wait till you're 18 (unless you obtain parental permission.) for you two to file.

[misa 2]

While you're waiting until you're legally free to marry, plan visits to see each other and document the relationship. You'll need proof of meeting within the past 2 years of filing.

[Martin 0]

I would say you can start the process of the K1. And in all the documentation that you have to present you can add a letter indicating you will be marry on January 2008 so you will be 18 th by that time.

The porcessing time that you have seen is completely way off. My VISA processing took only three months.

Good Luck and congratulations. !!!

[Bride-to-Be 0]

hi again,

first of all thanks to everyone who's responded, and in response to what people have said so far...

Without knowing where you would be filing it is hard to give you an idea of how long it will take

It would be the Vermont Service Center (he lives in New York State)

My advice is that it makes no sense to plan a wedding before you start the Visa process. The VISA is not a guaranteed thing. Besides, you're not even 18 years old yet. Stop planning the wedding and start reading the GUIDES on this site for the K-1 Visa. How to apply, what to send, documents that you should have to prove your case, etc. Gather the information necessary to submit the I-129F.

I've already done my homework on all that, a long time before we were even engaged, we've gone through all the forms we'll need, not just for the K-1 but for the change of status following etc, making sure there wasn't anything we'd have problems with. however its only recently that its sunk in how long this could take, which is why i was asking if we'd be able to move things along a bit by applying for the I-129F now. And your comment about not planning the wedding before starting the visa process makes no sense at all to me, i'm moving to america to marry him, not marrying him so i can move to america. the visa is just the red tape and the paperwork and headaches, the main part of all this is getting married and planning to make it a really special occasion. i'm not naive enough to put down any deposits on venues or anything, but that doesn't mean we can't plan how, where, and when we want our wedding.

First, the "dates processed" listed on the website are not representative of a typical processing time. They're just the upper bound of cases being processed. Right now CSC is taking about 90 days to approve an I-129F, and VSC is anywhere from two weeks to two months. (When mine was approved in October, they were officially on April cases.) Once that's approved, it takes some more time (month or so) to get through the NVC and onto the consulate, and then it's completely dependent on the consulate for when you get the interview. Check out the timelines to get a better sense of it.

As a result, if your fiancé files in November of 2007, it's all but guaranteed that you won't have the visa by January.

Second, in order to *file* the I-129F both parties must be free to marry (first page of the instructions, top of the first column.) I'm interpreting this to mean that you'd need to wait till you're 18 (unless you obtain parental permission.) for you two to file.

it gives me hope if the dates proccessed on the website aren't necessarily typical, i could live with it taking 2 months. and if we were waiting till i was 18 it would be November 3rd he'd be filing, with our ideal date of marriage Febuary 23rd (i put january in my first post but that was a typo, i meant febuary) so that would give us 3 months and 20 days for it to all go through, if it took a little longer than that i could handle it, its just the thought of it taking more like an extra year that got me worried.

and to your second point, i've also read that in the instructions that both parties must be free to marry, but i don't think it gives enough of a definetion of what that means to be 100% on what way to interpret it. because at age 17 i am free to marry, i just need parental permission, but surely cus i wouldn't be marrying till after i turned 18 i wouldn't need to submit parental permission as part of the petition (which by the way is impossible, i have no contact with my mother at all, and i haven't heard from my dad once since i told him i was engaged, apart from one angry phone call ) i just need to know for sure whether thats right or not. My fiance is going to call the USCIS helpline for me tonight, but i don't know how helpful they'll be

While you're waiting until you're legally free to marry, plan visits to see each other and document the relationship. You'll need proof of meeting within the past 2 years of filing

we should be fine for proof, he's flown to england to visit me three times within the past year, and before that i was living over in america for 3 years, although we are planning more visits anyway, i've got a flight booked for febuary 27th to go see him for nearly the full 90 days which i'm actually going to be quitting my job in order to do, i've saved up enough from working crazy overtime for a long while that i can afford to do the back and forth flights to spend as much time with him as possible before i get my visa, which is part of the reason the extra time it might take is worrying me, because untill i'm married and have my change of status and work papers sorted i won't be able to work, and my cash supply isn't exactly endless, plus i don't think immigration will keep letting me in like that for many visits, even if i'm leaving a fair amount of time between them.

I would say you can start the process of the K1. And in all the documentation that you have to present you can add a letter indicating you will be marry on January 2008 so you will be 18 th by that time.

The porcessing time that you have seen is completely way off. My VISA processing took only three months.

Good Luck and congratulations. !!!

Yay fianlly a positive response, that helps lift my spirits a little, before i can really smile i'd need a link to an offical source of information that agrees with you. but thankyou so much for the encouragement anyway more of this please people

[Martin 0]

ok but the only thing that worries me is that in the best of the cases will take 3 months. But in the worst much more than that. Nobody can tell you is going to be 3 months for sure.

[~Jackie~ 30]

Turboguy what you are suggesting is illegal. The K3 is for married couples to reunite faster while waiting for I130 approval. If someone marries while on a tourist visa, they must apply for AOS and convince the officer that there was no intent to marry on the tourist visa.

Good luck OP.

Jackie

[ladykelia 0]

And your comment about not planning the wedding before starting the visa process makes no sense at all to me, i'm moving to america to marry him, not marrying him so i can move to america. the visa is just the red tape and the paperwork and headaches, the main part of all this is getting married and planning to make it a really special occasion. i'm not naive enough to put down any deposits on venues or anything, but that doesn't mean we can't plan how, where, and when we want our wedding.

I don't want to put words in his mouth or anything, but I think what he means by not planning the wedding is-- don't plan a wedding that can't have its date changed (like, don't hire the band yet). Since you don't plan to have your wedding until january of next year, then *i think* that should be plenty of time for this process, but maybe even too much. All of the steps have their own expiry dates and everything, (like I think 6 months to use the K1 for entry and then 3 months to get married) so you might even be cutting things rather close. But no one can say for sure how long any individuals case may be.

But anyway, I'm new on my journey too and I definately understand your concerns and questions, and also understand the frustration when people come off as rude . It is however, extremely hard to plan when a wedding will be when the USCIS and the consulates have you by the coat strings. You might want to consider planning to have a civil ceremony, at first until things get settled, and then plan your dream wedding ceremony.

But anyway, good luck with your journey, and congratulations on finding someone you love

[Caladan 19]

OP, you seem to be weighting more the people who tell you what you want to hear, but I'm pretty sure you need to be eighteen to file. You can read the instructions however you like, but it does say to *file* you have to be free to marry, not to *file* you must be free to marry when the average processing time is finished. In the first round of processing their job is pretty much to determine 1) free to marry 2) the petitioner is a citizen 3) that you've met.

Consider: if you filed today, the service center would have what, your word for it that if you got the visa at age 17 in June you'd just sit on it until you were 18?

Three months and twenty days will likely be cutting it close. It could happen, but it would require pretty much everything to be right. No mistakes on your end, no delays on their end (and this is over the Christmas holidays, too, when you'd be filing), and a consulate that doesn't have a long wait for an interview. We've had an easy time getting through the process and Vancouver is a consulate that normally schedules about one month after they receive your information, and it's still taking us five months.

And while you say you won't put a deposit down on anything, by a month before the wedding, most places will expect you to have some deposit made, your guests will be making travel arrangements... not the sort of thing you'd really want to leave until the last minute.

[Caladan 19]

Turboguy what you are suggesting is illegal. The K3 is for married couples to reunite faster while waiting for I130 approval. If someone marries while on a tourist visa, they must apply for AOS and convince the officer that there was no intent to marry on the tourist visa.

Good luck OP.

Jackie

There is nothing illegal about coming to the U.S., marrying, *leaving*, and then filing for a K-3. Coming on a tourist visa, marrying, and *staying* is problematic.

[KarenCee 3]

I've already done my homework on all that, a long time before we were even engaged, we've gone through all the forms we'll need, not just for the K-1 but for the change of status following etc, making sure there wasn't anything we'd have problems with. however its only recently that its sunk in how long this could take, which is why i was asking if we'd be able to move things along a bit by applying for the I-129F now. And your comment about not planning the wedding before starting the visa process makes no sense at all to me, i'm moving to america to marry him, not marrying him so i can move to america. the visa is just the red tape and the paperwork and headaches, the main part of all this is getting married and planning to make it a really special occasion. i'm not naive enough to put down any deposits on venues or anything, but that doesn't mean we can't plan how, where, and when we want our wedding.

There's nothing wrong with planning. But when you start trying to pinpoint a date, that could cause some headaches. At this point you can't really say WHEN the wedding will be. Maybe a ballpark date...this summer, this fall, this winter...something like that. There have been a few on here who set the date before they got the visa, invited friends and family, etc. and wound up in a mess.

As for the age thing, here in the States there are some states that require one to be 18 to marry without parental consent. I didn't take the time to read all of what you posted in regards to that so if I've told you something you already know then please forgive me for repeating it. Maybe your fiancé should check with the laws in his state about marriage.

Please take some of the advice given here with serious consideration. We're not all trying to be negative, just trying to be helpful...even if it's not what you want to hear.

[misa 2]

Three months and twenty days will likely be cutting it close. It could happen, but it would require pretty much everything to be right. No mistakes on your end, no delays on their end (and this is over the Christmas holidays, too, when you'd be filing), and a consulate that doesn't have a long wait for an interview. We've had an easy time getting through the process and Vancouver is a consulate that normally schedules about one month after they receive your information, and it's still taking us five months.

Also Thanksgiving holidays. Plus who knows what wrenches USCIS could throw into the mix in 2007. Lots of people were affected by IMBRA recalls/RFEs last year and there's no telling what new policies would be put in place at any given time.

There is nothing illegal about coming to the U.S., marrying, *leaving*, and then filing for a K-3. Coming on a tourist visa, marrying, and *staying* is problematic.

I was just going to say that too.