Is K3 still useful in 2023?

[Crazy Cat 41,761]

10 minutes ago, VirginiaYasin said:

then does she complete the i130 process in the USA?

Consular interviews are never done in the US.....only Adjustment of Status are done inside the US.

[Mike E 11,739]

3 minutes ago, VirginiaYasin said:

thank you, if k3 is approved before i130..

spouse has an option to come to usa and finish pending i130 when interview is ready in her HOME COUNTRY, right?

Interesting question. If I-130 gets approved by USCIS after the K-3 enters the U.S., logically it would be sent to NVC for consular processing. Possibly the CR-1, likely IR-1 by that time, would be approved before any I-485.

 

As an aside, this brings up an interesting idea.  Every couple of months  we see at least one post from someone who filed I-130 without naming a consulate. Would filing I-129F be a faster and cheaper way than I-824 to get to consular processing? 
 

3 minutes ago, VirginiaYasin said:

 

i mean is there any other downside of approved k3? does that approval hurt I130 or change I130 process at all?

No.

 

I do not puree my  food. So I would be unafraid of real or imagined consequences from filing I-129F. 

[Redro 4,611]

16 minutes ago, VirginiaYasin said:

yes thanks for heads up, i know not a lot of k3s are approved but i still hear it is worth a shot so why not try. 

 

if k3 is approved, does that change I130 at all? i mean, spouse can enter the USA with k3 while i130 is pending.. then does she complete the i130 process in the USA?

You are allowed to adjust status inside the US. 

There is a choice. 

From travel.state website:

The K-3 nonimmigrant visa is for the foreign-citizen spouse of a United States (U.S.) citizen. This visa category is intended to shorten the physical separation between the foreign-citizen and U.S. citizen spouses by having the option to obtain a nonimmigrant K-3 visa overseas and enter the United States to await approval of the immigrant visa petition.  K-3 visa recipients subsequently apply to adjust status to a permanent resident (LPR) with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) upon approval of the petition. Because the spouse of a U.S. citizen applying for a nonimmigrant K-3 visa must have a immigrant visa petition filed on his or her behalf by his or her U.S. citizen spouse and pending approval, a K-3 applicant must meet some of the requirements of an immigrant visa. It should be noted that under U.S. immigration law, a foreign citizen who marries a U.S. citizen outside the U.S. must apply for the K-3 visa in the country where the marriage took place. Learn more in the Applying for a Visa section below.

[Ontarkie 14,205]

~~Two hijack posts in other member's threads have been removed. Do not post your question more than once and do not post them in other member's threads.~~

[Boiler 45,427]

A K3 takes nearly as long as an I 130, I am not sure I have seen one on here for many many years so a lot of speculation.

 

So unlikely that I am not going to look it up but I seem to remember a K3 requires you to have married in the Country you interview in.

[Micam 32]

I sent off the I130 in Sept 2022, K3 was sent in Dec 2022. I made a mental note (and then later physical notes) of the times I saw people get their I130 approved faster when they applied for a K3. I looked at reddit/facebook/visajourney (I know, not exactly perfect places to get data, but all I had!). I learnt that it heavily depends where your I-130 is being processed at - from the top of my head those at Nebraska often heard back in a couple of months, California was closer to 4-6 months after sending off the K3. I can't remember the other ones, but I did notice that some locations didn't seem to process them at all. I got approved the same day as the K3 was rejected, around 5 months after I sent off for the K3 (I was processing at California, so about what my 'research' suggested)

 

So, in my opinion, I think the K3 helped me speed up the entire process. Unfortunately, the whole thing seems like luck. And just because it worked for me/some others doesn't necessarily mean it would work for someone else in my situation. I would say go ahead and file the K3 since it won't harm the visa process (and might even help!)

[Shan29 1]

On 7/15/2023 at 12:21 PM, VirginiaYasin said:

yes thanks for heads up, i know not a lot of k3s are approved but i still hear it is worth a shot so why not try. 

 

if k3 is approved, does that change I130 at all? i mean, spouse can enter the USA with k3 while i130 is pending.. then does she complete the i130 process in the USA?

They can wa

it in the usa and go back home whenever the interview

 is ready in their home country. It’s a win win situation.

[TBoneTX 45,222]

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