Is Madrid filing CR1s?

[Sabela 16]

Hi. My fiancé and I are thinking about filing CR1 from Spain, but heard that K1s are not being processed in Madrid. Does anybody know if this is the case for cr1S as well? Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

[HRQX 4,145]

18 minutes ago, Sabela said:

Does anybody know if this is the case for cr1S as well?

Yes, they are processing CR-1: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/immigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-immigrant-visa-issuances.html

19 minutes ago, Sabela said:

Hi. My fiancé and I are thinking about filing CR1 from Spain

When you marry will you both be physically present? INA 101(a)(35): "The term "spouse", "wife", or "husband" do not include a spouse, wife, or husband by reason of any marriage ceremony where the contracting parties thereto are not physically present in the presence of each other, unless the marriage shall have been consummated."

[Sabela 16]

OMG, @HRQX. Thank you so much for responding. I am new to the site and very confused on where to post and obtain information. Yes, we'll get married and be physically present. Is your case an expedite process?  Or are everyone's cases being processed right now in Spain? I sent you a private message.

[pushbrk 13,148]

3 hours ago, Sabela said:

OMG, @HRQX. Thank you so much for responding. I am new to the site and very confused on where to post and obtain information. Yes, we'll get married and be physically present. Is your case an expedite process?  Or are everyone's cases being processed right now in Spain? I sent you a private message.

You're not married yet.  You start the process after you marry, by filing a petition that takes several months to be approved.  If you marry and file today, you won't be worrying about an interview until 2022.  Start by clicking on the word GUIDES at the top of any page here and start your homework there.

 

[JKLSemicolon 426]

3 hours ago, Sabela said:

OMG, @HRQX. Thank you so much for responding. I am new to the site and very confused on where to post and obtain information. Yes, we'll get married and be physically present. Is your case an expedite process?  Or are everyone's cases being processed right now in Spain? I sent you a private message.

@HRQX wasn't necessarily speaking about a personal case from Madrid; they gave you a link to the Monthly Immigrant Visa Issuance Statistics. Go there, then click on one of the links that shows IV Issuances by Post and Visa Class. For example, the most recent month available (as of the time of this post) is January 2021. Scroll down and look at the visas issued from Madrid. You can see that 17 CR-1 visas and 17 IR-1 visas were issued. If you want, go back and compare those numbers to previous months, or look at what was happening pre-COVID, etc. For example, January 2020 shows similar numbers (12 CR-1, 12 IR-1). The fact that these visas are being issued means that interviews are happening, as that is a requirement.

 

If you do the same for Nonimmigrant Visas, you will likely see that there are very few K1s being issued right now, which are likely only emergency appointments. But take a look for yourself to confirm.

 

That might help you to know whether there is a backlog at the interview stage, but keep in mind that this backlog will only come into play after the case has been approved/marked complete by 1) USCIS and 2) NVC, and it takes many months to get to that point. That goes for both the K1 and CR-1/IR-1.

 

So technically all cases everywhere are being processed, they are just getting somewhat stuck at the interview stage (one of the last steps) due to the backlog. This means that there is no advantage in waiting to file a petition, but it might be a good reason to prefer the CR-1/IR-1 over the K-1 as the backlog for interviews for the latter may be longer once you actually reach that point (but again, look at the statistics yourself to see if that is the case).

 

 

[HRQX 4,145]

6 minutes ago, JKLSemicolon said:

If you do the same for Nonimmigrant Visas, you will likely see that there are very few K1s being issued right now, which are likely only emergency appointments. But take a look for yourself to confirm.

The few K-1 issued there are either exempt to the Schengen Area proclamation (for example parent of US citizen child is exempt) or Madrid was ordered by a federal judge to issue visas to named Plaintiffs in Milligan v. Pompeo case.

[Sabela 16]

You guys are great. @JKL semicolon, I owe you a coffee. I initially went to the link you shared, saw a lot of links that I did not understand, and left. With your explanation, I was able to get an idea of the current situation by comparing visas, cases processed and different months. I'm now leaning towards moving back to Spain while my CR1 is processed (have not filed yet and won't for a month, only because we did not get married yet). It's just hard to be sure to be taking such a drastic life-changing decision. Thanks again everyone.

[pushbrk 13,148]

23 hours ago, Sabela said:

You guys are great. @JKL semicolon, I owe you a coffee. I initially went to the link you shared, saw a lot of links that I did not understand, and left. With your explanation, I was able to get an idea of the current situation by comparing visas, cases processed and different months. I'm now leaning towards moving back to Spain while my CR1 is processed (have not filed yet and won't for a month, only because we did not get married yet). It's just hard to be sure to be taking such a drastic life-changing decision. Thanks again everyone.

If you are sure you want to marry, then the decision about where to live might be easier.  I take it you are the non-US Citizen.  If so, please get the US Citizen involved right away.  First actions are by the citizen, not the foreign spouse.  You won't deal with any Consulate directly until the interview itself, sometime in 2022.