MLA

First off, don't be discouraged - time really does fly by and "would have," "should haves" feel really miserable!

In retrospect, my Fiance and I wish we had married in France, and then applied for the CR1 so he could work sooner, but we applied for the K1 believing it would be faster. Our application was received March 2021, and we received approval of petition around February 2022, Interview September 6, 2022- and he was approved that day and had his visa two weeks later. We're marrying December 20th of this year (literally the only time his overseas friends and family could come). All of that said, from beginning to end it took 18 months for the interview and approval, and will have taken 21 months for him to get here. 

He could have come sooner after getting the visa, but because we can't apply for AOS on K1 visa until AFTER the wedding, that likewise means he can't apply for his work visa before. So that's the downside of a k1. HE could come sooner if it wasn't such a loss economically.

Anyway, we applied at the tail end of covid shenanigans- right when they were processing again, and while there will be delays for some time, I honestly expect them to be about the same length of time as our visa, or even less since we are now more than a year out from our initial application (almost 2). There's a great guy on youtube who tracks 2022 visa applications, and he was saying 13-16months as an average for applications made in 2022. I hope that helps!!

The worst part is waiting for the processing. It will be a really long wait, possibly up to a year BUT once it moves the NVC, it can start to pick up pace, and once the interview is set, it really goes by fast. Is interview was LITERALLY 5 minutes. They asked 4 simple questions, and it was done. I ranted a lot about the waste of time for 4 questions and 5 minutes, but that's just our immigration process, and at the end of the day, we're just so lucky to have that visa.

I wish you all the luck!

Hi there. My fiancé and I received our receipt notice march 2021 for 129-f application. We're so hoping we get an approval between now and the end of march, since it will have been a year of waiting. I'm curious if there's a way to see interview slots for embassies where k1 interview is to be held. It's probably better to be ignorant that to know because of the crazies of waiting, BUT I'm so nervous he won't be able to get an interview this year with the backlog, and we'll have to wait until 2023 to FINALLY marry and live together.