Traveling outside of U.S. on K3

[Kreyandor 0]

Hi everyone,

 

i am trying to gather some information on a K3 visa. My question is: if my foreign spouse has a K3 visa, she wants to visit her parents in her home country and for how long can the trip be before she has to come back?

[millefleur 5,047]

**Moved from IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Process & Procedures to Working & Traveling During US Immigration**

[pushbrk 13,044]

2 hours ago, Kreyandor said:

Hi everyone,

 

i am trying to gather some information on a K3 visa. My question is: if my foreign spouse has a K3 visa, she wants to visit her parents in her home country and for how long can the trip be before she has to come back?

Your spouse will not ever have a K3 visa, as they have been unavailable since February 2010.  With the CR1 or IR1 visa she will actually apply for, she is free to travel internationally.  Trips of more than six months can impact her resident status and reset her time from green card to eligibility to Naturalize.  Actually all overnight trips extend the three years to citizenship eligibility by one day per overnight absence.

[Kreyandor 0]

Hi pushbrk,

 

To confirm as I read from this gov site: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/family/spouse-citizen.html#5

 

from my understanding I thought K3 will not be applied only if I-130 gets approved before I-129F but can still apply for it. Does this mean one can apply for CR1 instead which is the same processing time as K3? Do you know what the processing time for this visa is nowadays? Thanks!

[Penguin_ie 5,996]

Yes the process time is the same even in the very, veyr rare case the K3 is obtainable.  Currently around a year,

[Kreyandor 0]

Got it. Thank you guys for the helpful insights.

[pushbrk 13,044]

You just don't ever send the I-129F.  When you do, the two petitions get approved and set to NVC together.  This has been true since November, 2006.  NVC got around to changing their rules so that when the two petition arrive together, they administratively close the I-129F and proceed with the immigrant visa.  What no government website will tell you is that the two petitions virtually ALWAYS arrive together, rendering the K3 unobtainable.

[RandyW 149]

On 6/5/2017 at 4:12 PM, pushbrk said:

You just don't ever send the I-129F.  When you do, the two petitions get approved and set to NVC together.  This has been true since November, 2006.  NVC got around to changing their rules so that when the two petition arrive together, they administratively close the I-129F and proceed with the immigrant visa.  What no government website will tell you is that the two petitions virtually ALWAYS arrive together, rendering the K3 unobtainable.

 

One hypothesis is that when the timetables are different, this CAN result in the I-130 following a (potentially) FASTER I-129F timetable for USCIS processing.

But yes, once the I-130 is APPROVED. then,  by law, the I-129F is no longer available

[pushbrk 13,044]

10 minutes ago, RandyW said:

 

One hypothesis is that when the timetables are different, this CAN result in the I-130 following a (potentially) FASTER I-129F timetable for USCIS processing.

But yes, once the I-130 is APPROVED. then,  by law, the I-129F is no longer available

It's not by law.  It's a policy change.  Before February 1, 2010 the Dept. of State policy was that an immigrant visa was considered "immediately available" when the I-130 file arrived at the Consulate.  They changed the policy so that they considered the immigrant visa to be immediately available when the I-130 arrived at NVC, instead of the Consulate.  The law does not define "immediately available".  State Dept. policy does.

[RandyW 149]

The LAW which created the K3 is the LIFE Act of 2001 - see https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/FR/HTML/FR/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-70259/0-0-0-72758/0-0-0-77964.html.  . . . and you are correct, it didn't change.

 

The "immediately available" concept tends to be applied when the I-130 "catches up" to the K3, whether at NVC, or the Consulate - which yes, nowadays tends to virtually always happen at NVC.