Pulaski

In support of my post above, the US Supreme Court, which is generally considered to currently have a conservative/ pro-Republican bias has just ruled that President Trump's attempt to end the DACA program for people who arrived in the US as children, is illegal.

JonB 47

I hope this happens as my 2nd wedding anniversary falls on 20th Oct, (i130 was sent in 1st Nov 2018 and received 14th Nov 2018 at uscis. back then it was only showing as 6-8 month processing time until it kept getting longer and longer 12-15 month) as it stands I am still waiting for London to re-open and get a new date as the day I received the interview date was the same day UK went into lockdown on 23rd March and interview was April 24th. With my luck it will be done before that, I know I could wait but as I haven't seen my wife since the end of Oct 2018 (just lots of skype calls etc) I just want to get back there as soon as possible

Given2Fly

I'm in pretty much the same boat. My interview should've been April 21st. 2 year wedding anniversary was June 10th.

Rete

USCIS is primarily funded by the fees from petitions. I've not heard that it is on the verge of collapse and our ears are finely attuned to all things immigration.

I-130's filed stateside have always taken 3 to 10 months to get approved before it is sent to the US Consulate/Embassy abroad. So a wait time of 9 months is not at all surprising. As CS stated with COVID-19 shutting down much of the government offices for many weeks, petitions have fallen behind and timelines are longer. As Mr. Pulaski advised for those that would have gotten a CR instead of an IR because their marriage is under two years in length at time of Consular approval, they are now looking at IR status which means a 10 year green card and no removal of conditions needed.

Rete

FWIW, the petitions President Trump has always been in favor of derailing were not the ones that are for spouses or immediate relatives of US Citizens. I can see that he is making some headway in doing what he wants to do in regards to several work visas but he has not singled out any visas or petitions for permanent residency for those legally in the US with USC immediately family members. IMHO, those with K-1s will face the longest and more stringent relationship contingencies simple because they are not married yet to a US Citizen. Their petitions will be far lower on the list of priority visas. And please remember that you do not get a green card at the time of getting an approved CR-1 or IR-1. You get a visa to enter the US and your green card production order is only processed after you enter with an approved CR/IR visa.

Pulaski

Hmmm. You might want to take a look here, Rete. That was fairly widely reported at that time, back in mid May. I know the BBC had at least one article on the subject.

Bruiser

I know I am coming to this stream late but with the Presidential Proclamations back in March, you cannot travel to the US from UK, Ireland or Schengen zone unless special exemptions. I travel on an ESTA and had an immigration lawyer in the US draft a "national interest exemption" (NIE) which is one of the exemptions. They are decisioned by the port official on a case by case basis. I declared my intent was to marry and to return home, showing lots of evidential ties to the UK (including a dependent child) as well as a negative covid test but was refused permission to travel twice. The airline won't let you board unless you have proof you can enter the country otherwise they are fined.
I have now married in a 3rd country and will attempt to enter the country via the "spouse exemption".
FYI related to a point above, on my previous trips under ETSA I declared I was visiting my fiancée and they had no issues with that.

Pulaski

Your marriage to a USC was "in the national interest"? WTF??? The waiver you solicited and presented was clearly at odds with the reasons you gave for travelling, so I am not surprise that you were denied entry!

civilservant

,,,,, National Interest Waiver? To get married?

I would LOVE for you to post a couple sentences from that letter. That attorney must have been laughing all the way to the bank!

Rete

Two posts to your credit and you have had me in stitches since the second one.

Did you inquire which drugs your attorney was using or if he has the nickname "Joker" as an alias. Damn, man, and you paid for this service.

Barnum was right ... a fool is born every minute.

Bruiser

Wow! So much positivity! Lucky I'm British otherwise I'd take offence!

So firstly you CAN marry on an ESTA as long as you leave - this is stated by multiple attorneys and CBP. I was transparent with my intent, but yes, we knew it was a reach, 50% chance of success at best, but I've not been able to visit my fiancée since January and there is no likelihood of the Proclamations being reversed anytime soon.

The NIE angle was more around I would not be a detriment to US society (rather than positive interest) based on my zero criminal record, good non-immigration record (regular visitor and leaver) and zero covid test result. Yes a stretch but options were very limited (marriages in UK basically on hold due massive backlog).

Finally, the immigration attorney is highly regarded in her field and recommended (by non-interested 3rd parties) - we did as much homework as possible.

Ended up marrying the other week in Antigua - so silver lining and all that

Anyway, I'm glad I made your day - I notice a complete lack of advice as to how it "should" have been done?

Pulaski

That is not disputed, and in fact I did so myself.
So apparently your lawyer has no idea what a National Interest Waiver actually is?
That would be because there is currently no way to achieve directly what you are trying to acheive, and your third country marriage route is probably the best workaround.

civilservant

Because right now it's basically impossible.

You would have saved yourself some money and headache by booking a flight to Antigua first!

Bruiser

Yes, perhaps you are right. We were considering Jamaica but that option was closed when it was removed from the UK safe corridor (i.e. invalidates my travel insurance). The resorts in Antigua had not opened then. It was and still is a very moving feast. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, hence the existence of this fabulous forum to gain it from those who have gone before.

Bruiser

At the time there was no published definition of what the NIE (exception, not waiver) and was down to each senior port official (authorised ports only) to make the decision, hence why we had to write to them personally. I see now (as of 1 Oct) there is official guidance and applications must now go via the embassy. So things have changed and rules are becoming clearer, which is good.

Pulaski I appreciate many of your very informative posts on a wide variety of subjects on this forum - thank you. Out of curiosity are you legally trained or just well read in these fields?