K 1 Visa would like some input

[KULtoATL 1,551]

2 minutes ago, justus2017 said:

Yes you can but I wanted the attention ☺☺☺☺

Did you go with your mom or girlfriend? I'm imagining the "Say Yes To The Dress" scene!!

[wewillmakeit 11]

1 minute ago, KULtoATL said:

Did you go with your mom or girlfriend? I'm imagining the "Say Yes To The Dress" scene!!

Lol you are funny I went with my mom and my maid of honor and it was fun I think I tried on like 12 dresses 

[KULtoATL 1,551]

2 minutes ago, justus2017 said:

Lol you are funny I went with my mom and my maid of honor and it was fun I think I tried on like 12 dresses 

Must be so difficult to pick with so many choices. How long do they take to do alterations? Any idea?

[Redheadguy03 505]

2 hours ago, justus2017 said:

Hello everyone 

New to the site glad I found it too. I was hoping I can get some input from you guys that have been dealing with this long process for some time now. My case is a little different because I did hire and attorney. Me and my fiancé who lives in Dominican Republic send out our I-129F on March 11th and I got the receipt that the case was received March 17th and now we have been waiting for almost 3 months to get our NOA2 but still nothing. I called my attorney and all he can say is that we have to have patience and wait because this is the longest wait period between NOA1 & NOA2. From reading all of your guys stories has me really worried & in panic mode because we do have our wedding set for September How much longer do we still have to wait? What month is USCIS is currently working on? Any advice would be gladly appreciated

Your case doesn't seem unique at all. Average wait time is over 100 days. Some wait around 6 months.

Attorneys cannot speed up the process, they can actually slow it down if they mess up on something. 

[Dutchster 1,107]

2 hours ago, justus2017 said:

Because I was told that it can be faster do it being an attorney 

Oh boy, that is so not true. They can even mess up or slow down the process even more. 

Technically seen USCIS adjudicates petitions within five months. Three months or less is no guarantee, unfortunately. 

[Becci391 339]

When we applied for my K1 visa back in May 2016,  I was told that the average time for processing the visa until you have it in the mail can take anywhere between 5 and 8 months.

Don't know if that's still correct. A friend of mine got her K1 visa after 4,5 months. I got mine in the mail after 8 months( we received an RFE).

Let's hope you won't receive an RFE because if that's the case it CAN take a little longer for USCIS to process your case.

[Dianalorena 1,153]

Ok girl, a few things, that you'll learn navigating this awesome website and that might help you in the future: 

 

1. Timelines are not precise, they can change. You are within the timeframe. 

2. Never make planes/buy tickets in advance during an immigration process 

3. Don't compare your timeline/journey to others you will go crazy.

4. No attorney in the world can make USCIS work your case faster. 

 

Having said that, you feel that ''3 months is forever'' while there are other people here waiting years. I'm closing five months  and still have a long road ahead of me. Of course I miss my husband, we all miss our loved ones. Count your blessings, be patient  take all the advice you can, take a deep breathe and remember, this few months are nothing compared to what hopefully will be a lifetime with your partner. 

[Pennycat 880]

You can't get your deposits back but you may be able to get them to credit those deposits for a future date. This happened to us (snowstorm not visa issues). Your contacts may have that already built in and if not, a sympathatic vendor will probably do it for you if you ask sooner than later. I'm not saying that's what you *need* to do because September is still possible. Just throwing an option out there because I personally would NOT want that hanging over my head while going through this process (it's been over a year and I still have actual nightmares about wedding planning).

 

Now, I say that September is possible assuming that you're within the similar timelines for NOA2 as the rest of folks here have been, and that embassy processing goes smoothly. See if you can check out threads for others from DR who have gone through embassy processing recently and get a sense of the timelines involved and how "tough" they are. It's not all about getting NOA2-- there are a lot more steps and each one can have its own waiting period (embassy doctors get backlogged at busy embassies for example). 

 

Only you'll know what feels the most comfortable for you. Most people would probably just ride it out at this stage and hope for the best, I'd probably work to reschedule/postpone now. Personal decision there

[wewillmakeit 11]

13 minutes ago, CatherineA said:

You can't get your deposits back but you may be able to get them to credit those deposits for a future date. This happened to us (snowstorm not visa issues). Your contacts may have that already built in and if not, a sympathatic vendor will probably do it for you if you ask sooner than later. I'm not saying that's what you *need* to do because September is still possible. Just throwing an option out there because I personally would NOT want that hanging over my head while going through this process (it's been over a year and I still have actual nightmares about wedding planning).

 

Now, I say that September is possible assuming that you're within the similar timelines for NOA2 as the rest of folks here have been, and that embassy processing goes smoothly. See if you can check out threads for others from DR who have gone through embassy processing recently and get a sense of the timelines involved and how "tough" they are. It's not all about getting NOA2-- there are a lot more steps and each one can have its own waiting period (embassy doctors get backlogged at busy embassies for example). 

 

Only you'll know what feels the most comfortable for you. Most people would probably just ride it out at this stage and hope for the best, I'd probably work to reschedule/postpone now. Personal decision there

Thank you so much for your input and you are correct September is still possible just came back from my attorney office and he said the same thing. So i will get in contact with the vendors and hope for the best

[wewillmakeit 11]

37 minutes ago, Dilorena said:

Ok girl, a few things, that you'll learn navigating this awesome website and that might help you in the future: 

 

1. Timelines are not precise, they can change. You are within the timeframe. 

2. Never make planes/buy tickets in advance during an immigration process 

3. Don't compare your timeline/journey to others you will go crazy.

4. No attorney in the world can make USCIS work your case faster. 

 

Having said that, you feel that ''3 months is forever'' while there are other people here waiting years. I'm closing five months  and still have a long road ahead of me. Of course I miss my husband, we all miss our loved ones. Count your blessings, be patient  take all the advice you can, take a deep breathe and remember, this few months are nothing compared to what hopefully will be a lifetime with your partner. 

Thank you for your input I guess i can have a little more patience. It is the whole process of not knowing what is going on and how long it will be i guess gets the best of me plus not being able to see him doesn't help (Skype doesn't help) I am sure there is a lot more couples out there been waiting for longer time then 3 months 

[wewillmakeit 11]

3 hours ago, KULtoATL said:

Must be so difficult to pick with so many choices. How long do they take to do alterations? Any idea?

Yes it was definitely hard to pick but you will know it in your heart when the dress is yours. I have no idea about alterations because my appointment is next month 

[Dianalorena 1,153]

Just now, justus2017 said:

Thank you for your input I guess i can have a little more patience. It is the whole process of not knowing what is going on and how long it will be i guess gets the best of me plus not being able to see him doesn't help (Skype doesn't help) I am sure there is a lot more couples out there been waiting for longer time then 3 months 

That's why reading about it and preparing yourself for what's coming might be beneficial  or at least make you feel a little better. The K1 involves more paperwork and you do have a wedding to look into, even without a set date you can start prepping it. But especially focus on the money/documents you'll need: AOS etc. 

Personally I feel that Skype/FaceTime helps a little but it depends on how you use it. My husband and I go on ''dates'' and we watch movies together, order food together, I send him gifts and he opens them up while I'm watching, we discuss future travel plans and I show him my corny scrapbook. Showing him new clothes. the list goes on. 

Use the time as best as you can, to work on yourself and other projects you might not focus on when you're in a relationship/spending a lot of time with your partner. 

 

 

[Pennycat 880]

15 minutes ago, justus2017 said:

Thank you for your input I guess i can have a little more patience. It is the whole process of not knowing what is going on and how long it will be i guess gets the best of me plus not being able to see him doesn't help (Skype doesn't help) I am sure there is a lot more couples out there been waiting for longer time then 3 months 

 

We applied during a huge backlog in which the average wait time just for NOA2 was 7 months. It was nothing short of a miracle that we got ours in just under six months. There are other people who have delt with visa denials, and waivers and years of separation. It's hard, and we all know it. But 3 months is a blip, and you've probably got more wait time behind you than in front of you.

 

And seriously, if you're going to go for that September wedding, you need to focus on that. Start figuring out exactly what needs to happen next and get ahead of the game. Not sure if your attorney can help on that front, or how much control you've given over to them (are forms going to be sent to you/your email or the attorney). Find a recent DR K1 applicant and see if they can share the "checklist" with you. See if you can start to make arrangements to do the things on the checklist soon (I'd still wait for NOA2 for a lot of those things because of different expiry dates etc). If you're fast and lucky, you can shave off two weeks of embassy processing time.

[tevans2 27]

Hey there! I am a Feb 10 filer. Today is 123 days of waiting. VJ estimated our approval for May 23ish and it's obviously way past that time. The worst part of the wait is seeing those lucky people that applied more than 15 days after you already getting their approvals. Some February filers got approved over a month ago and are already getting ready for their interviews. I wish the USCIS had an organized way of approving cases so we could avoid these situations and the dreaded waiting game were are all playing. I had to regroup and change my mindset because i was driving myself crazy thinking about it. It also doesn't help that the case status tracker is not updating approvals online anymore. we at least had an idea of what was going on when it was working. I had wedding plans and had to completely cancel everything because according to past approval times we thought he would be here in june. (yet here we are still waiting for noa2 lol). It was and still is really hard for me to accept that he may not be here until september. Do you plan on going to SD for the interview? 

[wewillmakeit 11]

21 minutes ago, tevans2 said:

Hey there! I am a Feb 10 filer. Today is 123 days of waiting. VJ estimated our approval for May 23ish and it's obviously way past that time. The worst part of the wait is seeing those lucky people that applied more than 15 days after you already getting their approvals. Some February filers got approved over a month ago and are already getting ready for their interviews. I wish the USCIS had an organized way of approving cases so we could avoid these situations and the dreaded waiting game were are all playing. I had to regroup and change my mindset because i was driving myself crazy thinking about it. It also doesn't help that the case status tracker is not updating approvals online anymore. we at least had an idea of what was going on when it was working. I had wedding plans and had to completely cancel everything because according to past approval times we thought he would be here in june. (yet here we are still waiting for noa2 lol). It was and still is really hard for me to accept that he may not be here until september. Do you plan on going to SD for the interview? 

Omg really that is crazy. I just left my attorney office and he told me that is still to early to say anything about NOA2 for us the only thing that anyone can tell me including my future husband is to have patience because it's a waiting process. Looks like I will cancel my wedding plans because nobody knows when he will be here. VJ Timeline is showing our date between June 24 and June 27th but obviously I can't go by that and checking status online is pointless because it says the same thing. Yes I will go to his interview even though i was told that they will not allow me to go inside the building but I am going for moral support. Keep me updated on your progress