NOA1 March 19th. timeline question

[gclhd 0]

Hey guys,

So my Fiance in London was recently given a promotion at her job, with this promotion comes the added stipulation that she must now give 90 days notice if she is going to leave the company. This obviously presents a bit of a problem for us as we do not really know anything about the status of our visa petition other than the fact that we received the NOA1 on 3/19/14. Based on the information that I can get from the timelines would it be safe to assume that she will be able to move to New York this September or is that a bit early? The timelines reflect that it should be about 6 months from the time of NOA1 to interview if I am understanding them correctly. But based on other people's posts/experiences I am thinking that it perhaps might take longer than the immigration timelines section of this site suggests?

I know this is a pretty typical inquiry but we need some sound advice here as she can't really risk being stuck in London after giving up her job. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Gary/Laura

[bunnygirl 86]

Hey guys,

So my Fiance in London was recently given a promotion at her job, with this promotion comes the added stipulation that she must now give 90 days notice if she is going to leave the company. This obviously presents a bit of a problem for us as we do not really know anything about the status of our visa petition other than the fact that we received the NOA1 on 3/19/14. Based on the information that I can get from the timelines would it be safe to assume that she will be able to move to New York this September or is that a bit early? The timelines reflect that it should be about 6 months from the time of NOA1 to interview if I am understanding them correctly. But based on other people's posts/experiences I am thinking that it perhaps might take longer than the immigration timelines section of this site suggests?

I know this is a pretty typical inquiry but we need some sound advice here as she can't really risk being stuck in London after giving up her job. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Gary/Laura

First of all, where did you file? Your profile says Vermont but they haven't handled I129Fs for nearly a year now.

If it's Texas then you're probably looking at being approved i approx. 6 months - so September. Plan on the K1 application part of the process taking 3-4 months, so your fiancee might be with you December/January time.

Secondly, I know her contract says she has to give 90 days notice but it's very unlikely she'd have to actually work that. I've negotiated early exits before when I've had to give 90 days. Is she able to discuss her plans with her boss? Or would that cause problems at work?

[gclhd 0]

First of all, where did you file? Your profile says Vermont but they haven't handled I129Fs for nearly a year now.

If it's Texas then you're probably looking at being approved i approx. 6 months - so September. Plan on the K1 application part of the process taking 3-4 months, so your fiancee might be with you December/January time.

Secondly, I know her contract says she has to give 90 days notice but it's very unlikely she'd have to actually work that. I've negotiated early exits before when I've had to give 90 days. Is she able to discuss her plans with her boss? Or would that cause problems at work?

I had originally mailed everything to Texas, but I thought that they forwarded it to Vermont from there. Is that not the case? If not I guess Texas is handling our petition. So you're saying that if we received our NOA1 in mid March that we should not expect to have visa in hand until Dec/Jan? This would be very bad because we were planning on getting married November 22nd and her family has already purchased flights....

As for the job thing, that's something she is going to have to sort out, I was just trying to help provide her with some more informed intel to make the best decisions regarding how to handle it.

[bunnygirl 86]

I had originally mailed everything to Texas, but I thought that they forwarded it to Vermont from there. Is that not the case? If not I guess Texas is handling our petition. So you're saying that if we received our NOA1 in mid March that we should not expect to have visa in hand until Dec/Jan? This would be very bad because we were planning on getting married November 22nd and her family has already purchased flights....

As for the job thing, that's something she is going to have to sort out, I was just trying to help provide her with some more informed intel to make the best decisions regarding how to handle it.

All petitions are mailed to the Dallas Lockbox, this is not the Texas Service Centre though. If your receipt number starts SRC... then you're being processed by Texas. Vermont hasn't handled any new applications since July 2013.

Unfortunately it might take that long, her family really shouldn't have bought tickets before she had the visa. You may get lucky and get approved soon but you need to be prepared to wait 6 months and plan accordingly.

[gclhd 0]

All petitions are mailed to the Dallas Lockbox, this is not the Texas Service Centre though. If your receipt number starts SRC... then you're being processed by Texas. Vermont hasn't handled any new applications since July 2013.

Unfortunately it might take that long, her family really shouldn't have bought tickets before she had the visa. You may get lucky and get approved soon but you need to be prepared to wait 6 months and plan accordingly.

Are you saying that we should expect to wait an ADDITIONAL six months in addition to the three months we have already been waiting. Or that it's about a six month TOTAL process. Because six months from mid March (when we received NOA1) would imply that the visa should be in hand Sometime before the end of September. If you're saying it should be an additional six months then we are talking about a 9-10 month total visa process.

Edited June 19, 2014 by gclhd

[Marco&Bettina 502]

Are you saying that we should expect to wait an ADDITIONAL six months in addition to the three months we have already been waiting. Or that it's about a six month TOTAL process. Because six months from mid March (when we received NOA1) would imply that the visa should be in hand Sometime before the end of September. If you're saying it should be an additional six months then we are talking about a 9-10 month total visa process.

6 months is an average processing time by the TSC. That's just referring to the I-129F. Then it's forwarded to the NVC & then the US Embassy in the beneficiary's country. After the I-129F is processed, you could be looking at up to 3 additional months to receive the K-1 Visa.

Edited June 19, 2014 by Marco&Bettina

[bunnygirl 86]

Are you saying that we should expect to wait an ADDITIONAL six months in addition to the three months we have already been waiting. Or that it's about a six month TOTAL process. Because six months from mid March (when we received NOA1) would imply that the visa should be in hand Sometime before the end of September. If you're saying it should be an additional six months then we are talking about a 9-10 month total visa process.

Lol, I'm not sure you understand the process!

From when you submitted your I129F it normally takes 4-6 months for that petition to be approved. At the moment Texas are working on about a 6 month timescale, so you should expect your petition to be approved around September time.

After approval your file is forwarded to the National Visa Centre and then onto the Consulate in London. This can take 6-8 weeks.

Then the Consulate will write to your fiancee and ask her to attend a medical and complete her visa application. When they receive the results of her medical they'll send her an interview date. This can take 4-6 weeks.

After her visa is approved it can take 1-2 weeks for her passport to be returned to her.

So, whilst you might be lucky and everything happens really quickly (including the NOA2 stage which is the longest) yes, the whole process (from submitting the petition to visa in hand) normally takes 8-10 months.

Edited June 19, 2014 by bunnygirl

[sweet cakes 326]

Are you saying that we should expect to wait an ADDITIONAL six months in addition to the three months we have already been waiting. Or that it's about a six month TOTAL process. Because six months from mid March (when we received NOA1) would imply that the visa should be in hand Sometime before the end of September. If you're saying it should be an additional six months then we are talking about a 9-10 month total visa process.

Since you are in NY, you're definitely assigned to TSC. The 6 months approximate waiting time is only for NOA1 to NOA2. It can even take longer. I just read somebody getting approved after 7 months through TSC. The timeline after this stage may vary significantly due to a lot of factors, mainly: NVC, how the embassy schedule the interviews, and medical. 3 months after NOA2 is a good estimate. But any others going or went through London embassy can maybe weigh on this.

As advised by bunnygirl, it is not advisable to book flights and schedule a wedding when the visa is not yet on hand.

Edited June 19, 2014 by sweet cakes

[gclhd 0]

Since you are in NY, you're definitely assigned to TSC. The 6 months approximate waiting time is only for NOA1 to NOA2. It can even take longer. I just read somebody getting approved after 7 months through TSC. The timeline after this stage may vary significantly due to a lot of factors, mainly: NVC, how the embassy schedule the interviews, and medical. 3 months after NOA2 is a good estimate. But any others going or went through London embassy can maybe weigh on this.

As advised by bunnygirl, it is not advisable to book flights and schedule a wedding when the visa is not yet on hand.

So I guess we have jumped the gun a bit... thanks for the information folks. Only thing we can do now is pray that this works out quickly

[G Walters 136]

We were processed through California but you can see from my signature what our time line was with London. This might give you an idea of what will happen after approval.

Please fill in your timeline. It helps gather info and can help when you have questions.

Edited June 19, 2014 by G Walters

[Stef & Andrew 9]

Are you saying that we should expect to wait an ADDITIONAL six months in addition to the three months we have already been waiting. Or that it's about a six month TOTAL process. Because six months from mid March (when we received NOA1) would imply that the visa should be in hand Sometime before the end of September. If you're saying it should be an additional six months then we are talking about a 9-10 month total visa process.

We filed back in November 2013, and didn't get the NOA2 approval until April 30th. And now there's still people who filed in November that are still waiting for the NOA2. After that, for us, it took a month to get to the London embassy. Now were sent in all the paper had the medical, everything two weeks ago and were still waiting on an interview date from London. So for us, it's been a 7 month process so far, and were still not done. Hope this helps with getting an estimate timeline. Don't expect a NOA2 sooner than 5 months though, unless you get lucky.

[gclhd 0]

Really appreciate everyone's feedback on this. Thanks a bunch guys, I will fill in my timeline now as well.

Edited June 20, 2014 by gclhd

[gclhd 0]

Really appreciate everyone's feedback on this. Thanks a bunch guys, I will fill in my timeline now as well.

timeline added

[TBoneTX 46,016]

*** Thread moved from K-1 Process forum to the UK regional subforum, for further insights. ***

[Big Papa Zone 93]

With regard to the 90 day notice thing - I've never understood anyone's need to adhere to that. You're emigrating to America - so what if your boss says you have to give 90 days notice?? You can just finish on Friday and say "bye" giving no notice at all if you felt like it surely? What are they going to do? Ask the U.S. government to extradite you for failing to give the required notice at work??? Or am I missing something??