Tourist visa approval for Philippines, spouse with pending CR-1 application

[Dwain 2]

I read that each country views applications differently culturally. My spouse is from the Philippines. There is a There is an 20 year There is an age gap: My wife is 45, and I’m 65. Our CR-1/ I-130 application has been pending for over one year now. We hope to get NOA 2 approval in December 2024. The Philippine consulate seems to have a backlog, and they’re taking almost another year to get an end interview. We’ve been married for almost two years now. What is the likelihood of her getting a B-2 Visa to visit the USA while the CR-1 application is pending? 

[Daphne . 1,888]

Not great probably, but no harm in trying. 

[Boiler 45,712]

Low

[pushbrk 12,984]

14 hours ago, Dwain said:

I read that each country views applications differently culturally. My spouse is from the Philippines. There is a There is an 20 year There is an age gap: My wife is 45, and I’m 65. Our CR-1/ I-130 application has been pending for over one year now. We hope to get NOA 2 approval in December 2024. The Philippine consulate seems to have a backlog, and they’re taking almost another year to get an end interview. We’ve been married for almost two years now. What is the likelihood of her getting a B-2 Visa to visit the USA while the CR-1 application is pending? 

Not worth the fee and travel expense, in my opinion, but it's only money and time.  Of course, you are free to visit her.

Edited December 7 by pushbrk

[W199 343]

16 hours ago, Dwain said:

I read that each country views applications differently culturally. My spouse is from the Philippines. There is a There is an 20 year There is an age gap: My wife is 45, and I’m 65. Our CR-1/ I-130 application has been pending for over one year now. We hope to get NOA 2 approval in December 2024. The Philippine consulate seems to have a backlog, and they’re taking almost another year to get an end interview. We’ve been married for almost two years now. What is the likelihood of her getting a B-2 Visa to visit the USA while the CR-1 application is pending? 

She has zero chance of getting a tourist visa. There is such a thing as a K-3 for this purpose, but that is also not feasible so late in the game and is extremely rare of being granted. 

[Boiler 45,712]

Less than 10 K3s are issued every year 

[W199 343]

42 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Less than 10 K3s are issued every year 

True, but the claim is that the low issuance is because it forces the speed up of the I-130 approval in order to allow USCIS to cancel the K-3. There is a lot of evidence this true. However, I don't know if it iis really true or just coincidences. But it would have been harmless to try, but its too late for that now. 

 

In anycase, the point of this is that the OP will not get a B-2 VISA from the Philippines embassy. Heck, my gf could not even get a student visa for her master's degree (after just receiving her Bachelor's degree) simply because she had a USA bf (me) at the time. They told her to get a K-1 instead. So getting a tourist visa with a pending CR1 in this case, just isn't going to happen.

[OldUser 6,920]

29 minutes ago, W199 said:

True, but the claim is that the low issuance is because it forces the speed up of the I-130 approval in order to allow USCIS to cancel the K-3. There is a lot of evidence this true. However, I don't know if it iis really true or just coincidences. But it would have been harmless to try, but its too late for that now. 

It's mostly an urban myth debunked with many examples and by lawyers.

[pushbrk 12,984]

4 hours ago, W199 said:

True, but the claim is that the low issuance is because it forces the speed up of the I-130 approval in order to allow USCIS to cancel the K-3. There is a lot of evidence this true. However, I don't know if it iis really true or just coincidences. But it would have been harmless to try, but its too late for that now. 

 

I

 

I've not seen that claim.  If I did, I will explain, as now, that it is not true.  The low issuance of K3 visas since 2010 has been the result of first, changes in USCIS policy to approve both petitions together.  NVC later adjusted their policy to deem the immigrant visa was now available when they received both petitions together.  They started cancelling the I-129F for spouse in all those cases.  Later, USCIS adjusted their policy to cancel the I-129F for spouse as soon as they detected the two cases.  What rarely, but sometimes happens is that they pull the I-130 and while it's in front of them, go ahead and approve it.  That rare thing has nothing to do with the death of the k3 visa, effectively February, of 2010.

[Dwain 2]

4 hours ago, OldUser said:

It's mostly an urban myth debunked with many examples and by attorneys.

In any case, I was just curious about the possibility of my spouse being able to get a B-2 or K-3 since we are married and have a pending I-130. The consensus has been primarily negative. K3’s are rarely approved and it seems to have som,ething to do with the processing times of both applications being almost similar which probably needlessly increased the workload

I have been on this site since September of last year when we submitted ourI- 130 and found it to be pretty useful to determine processing times. The database provides an indication of processing times but, our I-130 time went back up to 7 months even though we’re right now about 15 months into the process.USCIS 16 month estimate. 

 

For the last two years, I have been visiting my wife every six months, which has made this process bearable.

 

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience