I’m wondering if I should reconsider visa type

[Joe98 31]

I’m wondering if I should look into the possibility of considering the cr1 visa or whatever the type of visa it is for my fiancee in the Philippines and myself. Neither of us have ever been married or have any kids. We were engaged back in July of 2019 while I went to visit her in the country. I filed the k1 petition back in December of 2019. It was approved in June of 2020 and has been stuck at the nvc ever since. I have been reading up on k1 visa issuance at the Manila embassy and at the rate they are going, it could be several years before we get an interview and that’s not acceptable and I’m not planning to wait that long and I doubt she will either. So I’m wondering if we should consider finding a way to go the other route and do the marriage visa instead and possibly even consider transferring the paperwork to another embassy somewhere else. I think the Manila embassy will keep screwing around and it doesn’t appear that anyone or any law firm will do anything about it. I’m hoping to get some advice from anyone who is also interested in doing this or has done it. But it really appears that the k1 visa process is going out the door. 

[Gail and Derrick 270]

I can't answer this from experience, but there are stories on her and over on reddit from people who have done this. From what I've seen, they've done it early on, say before NOA2. If you switch to CR1 you're going to face the same process of approvals and checks and waiting at the embassy etc so I don't think that's going to change things. The wait for CR1 has historically been longer than K-1. I'm sorry it's taking so long for you. The Philippines has a high percentage (~20%) of overall K-1 applicants per year - more than the next 5 countries combined so it sorta of makes sense that there's a longer wait.