JD2

The I-129F instructions do have a waiver for the 2 year meeting requirement. I don't know how hard it is to get. "You must request a waiver and demonstrate that meeting in person would have posed an extreme hardship on you or violated strict and long-established customs of your fiancé(e)’s foreign culture or social practice, and that any and all aspects of the traditional arrangements have been or will be met in accordance with the custom or practice. Include evidence to support your claim. Evidence may include things like medical records, statements from religious leaders, or evidence of immediate danger. " The juice may not be worth the squeeze. I would probably spend the money to meet in the 3rd country rather than gamble on this waiver.

Yes, just filed for removal of conditions. You can see someone's timeline by clicking timeline under their username. Our I-130 got approved freakishly fast so our timeline is not a realistic example. But to look at USCIS processing times and click "Immigration Timelines" at the top of this website.

We shipped it the day after we got the marriage certificate in our hands.

We filed right away after marrying. Lot's of people do that. As long as you file with good evidence, you will be fine.

You may want to look up the vaccine schedule on the CDC website. Go to CVS or Walgreens or Rite Aid or whichever Aetna covers. Get the vaccines there beforehand and take the proof of vaccination to the Civil Surgeon appointment. That way, even if the doc isn't in network, at least you only have to pay for the visit not the vaccines.

You can do that every 5 years I believe. I always put it off or forget or slack off but do as I say not as I do. 🫣

In Virginia, if you have a foreign license, you are exempted from certain requirements. Also in VA, some countries, you could "transfer" (i.e. just fill form no new test etc.) but it was a very limited number of countries. You could have gotten an international license from UK before coming to hold you over until you got the new license. My wife did that. Technically you are not supposed to use an international license if you are living in a country, but police never had an issue. My wife and sister-in-law both did that.

My coworker got her interview: 12/27/24 NOA1 1/17/25 Biometrics Reuse & Active Review 1/27/25 Interview Scheduled 3/4/25 Interview Date

You have to add it manually to your online account. I put my online account number in the I-129F and I still had to add it manually. That was back in 2021 so things may have changed.

Did biometrics today then a couple hours after got an update said Case is Being Actively Reviewed. 12/11/24 - I-751 NOA1 1/22/25 - Biometrics 1/22/25 - Active Review

There's also the issue that, assuming it works, the more people do it, the less it'll work.

"Once USCIS approves the I-130 petition, the immigrant visa is available and there is no longer eligibility for K status. Since your immigrant visa petition has been approved and an immediate relative visa is available, your spouse no longer requires the issuance of a K-3 visa to await adjudication of the immigrant visa petition. Therefore, your I-129F visa petition is denied." Correct. By law, the K-3 is meant to come to the US to await I-130 approval. They can't administratively close an I-129F for no reason. I think by regulation, USCIS must issue a NOID before denying any petition unless you no longer qualify (like in our case). Now, who knows if it actually helps or not. I did see someone post that on Lawfully that the average time to denial for an I-129F for K-3 was significantly less than the time to approval for an I-130. If you assume they were denied due to approved I-130, you can deduce that the K-3 helped to some extent but those are a lot of assumptions and Lawfully is probably a small sample size too.

When I was thinking about the I-129F, so many people told me theoretical problems with it but I've never seen a single case of someone hurting from filing other than a little bit of time and postage. If a K-3 were approved, there would have to be some freak delay in the I-130 at USCIS so would it really be so bad? I saw a case on here. I'll try to find it. If I remember correctly, UK beneficiary, I think Chicago based petitioner. During Covid, USCIS asked for an interview of the petitioner (which the I-130 form instructions says is possible). But, due to Covid, the field office was closed so they were stuck. He filed the I-129F and actually got a K-3 approved and his wife came over and adjusted status.

They can't close the K-3 without a reason. Mine was closed after I-130 was approved. I've never seen one closed without a valid reason and that is almost always I-130 approval.

So just staying and doing Adjustment of Status is not an option? She has to go back? If time to work authorization is your main concern, then CR-1/IR-1 is probably faster than K-1. Y'all can get married and file now but still consular process. You don't have to wait for her to leave.

There's a K-3 group on Facebook.

It's very simple. Only takes like 30-45 minutes and most of the evidence you already have from the I-130. I debated this myself when I filed. But, I concluded it shouldn't be up to individuals to self-restrict benefits they are legally allowed to apply for. It's up to Congress to get it's act together and change the laws.

They don't want to approve the I-129F and issue a K-3 so they quickly approve the I-130; or somehow it gets the attention of USCIS and they adjudicate the I-130. If nothing else, it gives an earlier case inquiry time. I and my brother both did it for our wives and we both got approvals in roughly 2/2.5 months. Did it help? or would we have gotten freakishly fast approvals anyway? Who knows? but it was free, easy, and I was worried during Covid and wanted to do everything I could.

They can go to any of the service centers. Ours went to Vermont.

If someone filed by paper at the Elgin Lockbox, how do we fill out our timeline? There's no option for Elgin. Only Online, Phoenix, Dallas/Lewisville, and Nebraska.

A co-worker of mine just did it. Her package was delivered on Dec. 28th and she got her SMS with case number on Jan. 15th and her money order was cashed on Jan. 16th. She filled the reduced fee section out but also wrote in her cover letter that she was applying for the reduced fee. She also put all the evidence she could to prove she qualified (her last 3 years tax transcripts, last month's pay stubs, and her last W-2). Might have been overkill but she figured it overlapped with other sections (e.g. tax transcripts). I don't know if it was the right move but she got her case number and they cashed her payment so we shall see.

My spouse is waiting for citizenship to change her name. It's free at that time and the form has a space for name change.

Sure, I would agree as long as the attorney, and more importantly their paralegals and associates, are savvy and conscientious. The last thing you want is to have to pay someone thousands of dollars then have them put more work onto yourself. I hired a lawyer for our I-130 and that happened to us. Repeated typos and misspellings and errors. And so I figured if I'm supplying everything and double checking everything anyway, why do I need them?

Why did you use an attorney? It's so simple.

You need to press your attorney for a refund for their mistakes and leave public reviews so others are aware. This is unacceptable.