LiverpoolMSP

Hi everyone!

This is my first time posting here but I have been lurking in the shadows reading up on posts a number of months previously, lot of useful stuff here!

I'm in the final stages of my I-130 visa, I'm British moving out to my wife in the US. I have my interview in the coming weeks, but my wife is very keen to get plane tickets booked before the prices get hiked up closer to the date. I was wondering if anyone could shine some light on the current timeframe from post-interview til the final grant of documents?

Appreciate any help on this!

Twinkle0927

Whereabouts are you in the process? There's no such thing as an I-130 visa. The I-130 is just the petition to request permission for you to be invited to apply for a visa. That's a bunch of stuff to do after the I-130 is approved. Expect the whole process to take about a year unless you are going through the London embassy only (if your wife is resident in the U.K. with you) where it can go quicker.
Don't book any tickets (however tempting it might be) until the visa has been granted
and issued. Anything can happen... The process is expensive enough as it is without wasting money on flight tickets you can't use because your visa hasn't been issued yet.

LiverpoolMSP

My apologies for not being more clear. I have been given my NVC number, completed my medical, and I am attending my London interview in the next couple of weeks.

Noorah101

Hi and welcome to BE. There's no "I-130 visa". What you are getting is an "Immigrant Visa". The I-130 was just a petition to establish the relationship between you and your USC wife. Terminology is important when it comes to immigration.

Typically around a week, but could be several weeks, or even longer if you don't get approved at the interview and have to send in further documents. You just never know.

It's fine if she wants to book plane tickets, as long as she is also OK with having to pay a change fee if you can't fly on the date she booked.

It is always recommended NOT to purchase plane tickets until you have the visa in hand.

Rene

Noorah101

I think you mean LND number. NVC assigns the LND case number.

Rene

ian-mstm

We generally don't advise booking plane tickets until after you have the visa in your passport, and your passport is in your hands. But so long as she books flights about 2+ months after your interview she should be fine.


If your visa is approved at the interview, you'll leave your passport with them and they'll courier it back to you with the visa - usually in less than 2 weeks.

Ian

civilservant

And there's why you shouldn't book any flights until you have the Visa. If you get put into AP then there goes the cost of the flight...