K3 Process Time Discrepancy

[preston206 0]

Hello, I am new here, but I have been reading a lot. I Stumbled on to something today that I can't make sense of.

On the comparison page, in the table at the top it lists the K3 as taking 16 months. However, in the K3 description it says that it will take 'Roughly 6 months'.

Could I please get some clarification on that? See screenshots below.

Also, I have a couple more processing time related questions:

1) Does the country have anything to do with the amount of time it will take? E.g. my fiancee resides in Jakarta, Indonesia. Would the time it takes to bring her to the US be any different than another country? That is mostly out of curiosity as I'm trying to make sense of the timeline.

2) While I've been researching, I have seen comments like:

'Alternately, if prior to filing for AOS the K-3 Visa Holder has their underlying I-130 petition approved by the USCIS they may instead (of filing for AOS) choose to return to their consulate abroad to interview and obtain an IR-1 / CR-1 Visa. In this case they would abandon their status as a K-3 Visa Holder and re-enter the US as a IR-1 / CR-1 Visa Holder.'

That would potentially extend the time before she is allowed to enter the US, correct? Or would it take about the same time at that point, for the CR1 to process compared to the remaining K3 steps?

thank you for the help!

[preston206 0]

I think I posted this in the wrong section. Could an admin please move it to "K-3 Spouse Visa Process & Procedures?" Thanks

[Penguin_ie 5,994]

I am actually going to move this to Site Discussion, as it is about updating our pages, so our Admin, Captain Ewok, can see it.

As to your questions- the K3 is for married couples, so if you have a fiance, you need the K1, fiance visa.

It is an obsolete visa, because it was useful when the CR-1 spousal visa took 2+ years, so then it was a quicker way to be together. However, these days both visas, IF you can grt the K3, take around 14-16 months, and the K3 is mostly impossible to get because it will be administratively closed at NVC stage. Getting a correct timeline for it is exceedingly difficult because we see 2-3 K3s a year here.

[preston206 0]

hey Penguin, thanks for moving it and also thanks for the info. I left out some important info about my situation. I guess I assumed everybody could read my mind haha. Our wedding is scheduled for December 2016. So we thought that the K3 was the best route. The K1 won't work for us since we'll be married.

The K3 is obsolete? wow I had no idea. I think on the comparison page you should mention that. That is the firs time I have heard that and I have been researching visa option for about eight months. Would you be able to help me find a few recent threads where the K3 was closed? I would like to read up on that a bit. Do we know the reason why they are closing them? Has the USCIS posted an announcement about it?

So, for a married couple, the CR1 is the only option?

[NikLR 13,227]

You can try for the k3 but generally its closed at the NVC stage and occasionally at the consulate stage. There are a lot of threads regarding how the K3 is processed in the K3 forum. It's still granted occasionally but it's less than 1%. It's technically viable, but due to how the USCIS and the NVC process petitions, it's very very rare.

[preston206 0]

ok, interesting, thanks. I just feel quite shocked hearing that. It's literally the first I have heard of that. I guess I'll set my sights on the CR1 then.

[TBoneTX 45,324]

The CR-1 is definitely the superior visa anyway.

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

Guide fixed!