Which is approved quicker: I-130 alone, or I-130/I-129F together?

[LvivLovers 39]

It seems to me that many people after me have been approved but it looks like they were only going for a CR-1 visa. I on the other hand submitted an I-129F form also as a backup in case the I-130 got held up for some reason, but now I'm wondering if that will make my I-130 take longer to be processed than it would have been had I not sent the I-129F. Anyone know if one takes longer than the other?

[YuAndDan 153]

One thing that is being seen lately is that USCIS will hold the I-130 after approval in K-3 cases, that is they keep the I-130 assuming that the K-3 will file for AOS after entering the USA.

The reason they are doing this is that the majority of K-3 petitioners where abandoning the CR-1/IR-1 visa at NVC or at consulate and adjusting status (AOS), this was wasting resources at NVC and Consulates.

In order to get the I-130 moved on to NVC in K-3 cases the petitioner needs to file I-824 and pay $200 to keep the CR-1/IR-1 process moving in K-3 visa cases.

The K-3 has the benifit of speed, the CR-1/IR-1 has the benefit of being less expensive, and green-card on entry but takes longer to process at the NVC and Consulate level.

[viccardenas 0]

I filed both the i129f and the i130 and I only got a NOA1 for the i129. I never heard a word after that about the i129 but the i130 went through smoothly and now my wife has her CR-1 as of june 14th. What a waste of money for me.

Edited June 22, 2007 by viccardenas

[LvivLovers 39]

What I'm most trying to find out is....is it quicker to get an NOA2 for an I-130 if you never submit an I-129F and just go for the CR-1 visa? Does filing the I-129F afterwards like you are pursuing a K3 have any effect on the I-130 approval time? Originally when I filed both of these I was hoping that the I-130 might actually be approved faster once I filed the I-129F...reason being, if they started processing my I-129F first, they would see that I had previously filed the I-130 and thus, go get it and process them both together.

As an interesting side note, I'm trying to bypass that whole holding up of the I-130 form once my forms are approved. I wrote in several places on my I-130 that I didn't want them to hold it because we planned to pursue the consular option. It was in their own instructions to do that to avoid having the I-130 held once approved along with an I-129F. So I'm hoping that sidesteps the nasty extra filing, $200, and wait (the wait which is so long it makes the I-130 completely worthless...what the hell are they thinking!). I can't wait to report back whether this works or not, but I gotta get approved first!

Reason I ask this, I saw someone post recently that an Immigration Officer actually told them that going for a K3 made it take longer to get the I-130 approved. That's a little disappointing to me if true! And I'm just talking about the NOA2 approval step at the USCIS here...not all the good stuff that comes afterwards! This part of the process is by far the worst due to the lack of feedback for many months (aka the black hole effect) and the apparent complete randomness of approval times (wish they would just sort them by NOA1 date to be fair and post the REAL date for most of the forms they are currently working on)!

Anyway, I hope someone can provide some insight on this before I've completely chewed off all my fingernails!

[mike & elena 0]

I filed both the i129f and the i130 and I only got a NOA1 for the i129. I never heard a word after that about the i129 but the i130 went through smoothly and now my wife has her CR-1 as of june 14th. What a waste of money for me.

Interesting...You filed for your I129F two weeks after I did for the same country. I filed My I130 on Jan 6th. I am sending in my DS 230 packet this week and the I1129 is at the consulate at Kiev. I intend to cancel the I 129f (K3) application after I am notified the CR1 is in Kiev. What I am hoping to do is trade the K3 appointment for the CR1 appointment and further shorten the process. It reqires some coordination with the embassy but I here it works. It does not appear to me that either case is running slow. I made a few mistakes and that alone has caused some slowing but it is going faster than I expected at this point.

[waiting4ever 0]

It does appear to me that I-130 is approved quicker if it is the only form that is filed. The people who file both I129F and I130 seem to wait longer to get their petition approved.

What I'm most trying to find out is....is it quicker to get an NOA2 for an I-130 if you never submit an I-129F and just go for the CR-1 visa? Does filing the I-129F afterwards like you are pursuing a K3 have any effect on the I-130 approval time? Originally when I filed both of these I was hoping that the I-130 might actually be approved faster once I filed the I-129F...reason being, if they started processing my I-129F first, they would see that I had previously filed the I-130 and thus, go get it and process them both together.

As an interesting side note, I'm trying to bypass that whole holding up of the I-130 form once my forms are approved. I wrote in several places on my I-130 that I didn't want them to hold it because we planned to pursue the consular option. It was in their own instructions to do that to avoid having the I-130 held once approved along with an I-129F. So I'm hoping that sidesteps the nasty extra filing, $200, and wait (the wait which is so long it makes the I-130 completely worthless...what the hell are they thinking!). I can't wait to report back whether this works or not, but I gotta get approved first!

Reason I ask this, I saw someone post recently that an Immigration Officer actually told them that going for a K3 made it take longer to get the I-130 approved. That's a little disappointing to me if true! And I'm just talking about the NOA2 approval step at the USCIS here...not all the good stuff that comes afterwards! This part of the process is by far the worst due to the lack of feedback for many months (aka the black hole effect) and the apparent complete randomness of approval times (wish they would just sort them by NOA1 date to be fair and post the REAL date for most of the forms they are currently working on)!

Anyway, I hope someone can provide some insight on this before I've completely chewed off all my fingernails!

[rika60607 215]

Actually, from what I have seen, people who file both I-129F and I-130 get approved faster.

Or at least they did, in case of January - March filers.

May be it is that if you submit both forms, then I-129F determines the speed of double approval and now I-129Fs slowed down?...

Good Luck,

Rika

It does appear to me that I-130 is approved quicker if it is the only form that is filed. The people who file both I129F and I130 seem to wait longer to get their petition approved.

What I'm most trying to find out is....is it quicker to get an NOA2 for an I-130 if you never submit an I-129F and just go for the CR-1 visa? Does filing the I-129F afterwards like you are pursuing a K3 have any effect on the I-130 approval time? Originally when I filed both of these I was hoping that the I-130 might actually be approved faster once I filed the I-129F...reason being, if they started processing my I-129F first, they would see that I had previously filed the I-130 and thus, go get it and process them both together.

As an interesting side note, I'm trying to bypass that whole holding up of the I-130 form once my forms are approved. I wrote in several places on my I-130 that I didn't want them to hold it because we planned to pursue the consular option. It was in their own instructions to do that to avoid having the I-130 held once approved along with an I-129F. So I'm hoping that sidesteps the nasty extra filing, $200, and wait (the wait which is so long it makes the I-130 completely worthless...what the hell are they thinking!). I can't wait to report back whether this works or not, but I gotta get approved first!

Reason I ask this, I saw someone post recently that an Immigration Officer actually told them that going for a K3 made it take longer to get the I-130 approved. That's a little disappointing to me if true! And I'm just talking about the NOA2 approval step at the USCIS here...not all the good stuff that comes afterwards! This part of the process is by far the worst due to the lack of feedback for many months (aka the black hole effect) and the apparent complete randomness of approval times (wish they would just sort them by NOA1 date to be fair and post the REAL date for most of the forms they are currently working on)!

Anyway, I hope someone can provide some insight on this before I've completely chewed off all my fingernails!

[simple_male 1]

There is no such rule that when one files I-130 and I-129F will get faster approval.

Actually, from what I have seen, people who file both I-129F and I-130 get approved faster.

Or at least they did, in case of January - March filers.

May be it is that if you submit both forms, then I-129F determines the speed of double approval and now I-129Fs slowed down?...

Good Luck,

Rika

[Yodrak 7]

LvivLovers,

Perhaps you can try analyzing the data available in the VJ Immigration Timelines.

Might depend on how the CSC and the VSC organize the processing of the 2 petitions, and they may not organize it in the same way. I think I saw something once (a very dangerous phrase!) that they do not do it the same - one has a line for I-130 and a line for I-129f while the other puts the 2 petitions through the same line, perhaps even getting the cases put together with the same adjudicator. The point being - I don't think there's a meaningful answer to you question.

Yodrak

It seems to me that many people after me have been approved but it looks like they were only going for a CR-1 visa. I on the other hand submitted an I-129F form also as a backup in case the I-130 got held up for some reason, but now I'm wondering if that will make my I-130 take longer to be processed than it would have been had I not sent the I-129F. Anyone know if one takes longer than the other?

Edited June 22, 2007 by Yodrak

[LvivLovers 39]

LvivLovers,

Perhaps you can try analyzing the data available in the VJ Immigration Timelines.

Might depend on how the CSC and the VSC organize the processing of the 2 petitions, and they may not organize it in the same way. I think I saw something once (a very dangerous phrase!) that they do not do it the same - one has a line for I-130 and a line for I-129f while the other puts the 2 petitions through the same line, perhaps even getting the cases put together with the same adjudicator. The point being - I don't think there's a meaningful answer to you question.

Yodrak

It seems to me that many people after me have been approved but it looks like they were only going for a CR-1 visa. I on the other hand submitted an I-129F form also as a backup in case the I-130 got held up for some reason, but now I'm wondering if that will make my I-130 take longer to be processed than it would have been had I not sent the I-129F. Anyone know if one takes longer than the other?

I thought about analysing this also, but the more I think about it, the less possible I think it is, since there have been so many variables lately with forms being transferred from one service center to another, the effect of the business visa surge, the effect of killing DCF for a while, etc. So even if I figure out some pattern in past behavior for this, I'm very doubtful it would be meaningful for the present or future. Guess I'll just have to keep watching and waiting! Thanks for the input everyone!