jbfaust

Hi all.

USC married to UKC in UK, August 2008. We filed for K3 visa in September 2008.

Our I-130 and I-129F were both approved on March 6, 2009. We received a letter on March 17 from the NVC that our I-129F (K3) was being transfered to the London Embassy. Today (March 21) my husband received a letter in the UK from the Embassy with instructions for the K3 appointment package.

We are pleased that our visa is moving forward so quickly. However, should we continue to follow through with our K3 given that our I-130 has already been approved? What do we do to cancel the K3? Has anyone else recently gone through this process? Also, if we get all our appointment materials ready and mail our request for an interview, approximately how long will we wait for this interview?

Thanks in advance for advice!

Folinskyinla

Hi:

The decision is yours. As an attorney, there is an internal part of me that would have a conflict -- If you were my clients [which you are not], the prospect of multiple applications, more drawn out procedures and the concomitant extra fees would be attractive to me if you chose to use the K-3 route to expedite the actual arrival.

One thing to note in consideration of everything, it is possible to enter on the K-3 and still continue to use the IV process. However, immediate relative adjustments seem to be speedier at the moment.

I'm sure others will chime in with their opinions -- but again -- it is up to YOU.

meauxna

The answer will depend on what has happened at the NVC with your case.

Have you received and returned ANY documents for the Immigrant Visa application? DS-3032, fee bill for I-864, for the DS-230?

NVC has been dealing with cases like your differently each time. Sometimes they retain the I-130 in the US for the eventual AOS application. Sometimes they start an IV application.

So, the answer to 'what else has happened' will determine what you should do next.

jeffreyhy

jbf,

Have you received anything from the NVC yet with respect to the I-130 petition?

CIS may hold on to that petition, not send it to the NVC, in anticipation that the beneficiary will proceed with the K3 visa and subsequently adjust status.

If CIS does hold on to the petition then you will have the additional time and expense of sending an I-824 application to CIS, requesting that they forward the I-130 to the NVC, in order for your husband to apply for an immigrant visa.

Regards, JEff

jbfaust

We have not sent in any documents at all. At this point we are gathering the documents asked of us on the following link which we were sent in a letter from the embassy in anticipation of the interview: http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new...iv/ds2001.html

As I said before, we got a letter from the State Department's NVC which only discussed the approved I-129F and the fact that they were forwarding the case to the embassy in London (which they obviously did).

Another question I had was about the affidavit of support. For the K3, I thought this form was filled out at AOS step, not at the embassy interview. The link we got from the embassy asked us to file the I-864. Perhaps I was just mistaken about the timing for this document, can someone please clarify?

Also, I am a bit confused by the different answers. Shall we go ahead with the K3 application and immediately adjust the status once in the US? Again, our I-130 was also approved so it seems ridiculous to have to adjust status but obviously the timing was off for this case.

meauxna

I don't understand.
You petitioned for an Immigrant Visa, and then added a petition for a K-3 visa. NVC has taken you at your word that you would rather have the non-immigrant K-3 instead of the Immigrant Visa.
The non-immigrant by definition needs to become an immigrant at some point by applying to adjust status.

The I-130 merely establishes the petitioner's citizenship (or LPR status) and relationship to the beneficiary. Its approval doesn't do anything WRT to the K-3.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I'm confused now. Your post does not make sense. The link you provide has to do with the issuance of the immigrant visa and not the K-3.

It is true that you have to do the I-864 for the immigrant classification either by adjustment or an immigrant visa. For the K-3 visa you do the I-134.

meauxna

Have you received anything from the NVC about the Immigrant Visa? Anything about form DS-3032 even if you didn't send it back in?

The Affidavit of Support for a K visa is usually the I-134. You can read more about what is needed for the visa WRT financial support here.

K-3 Visa Processing - Spouse of a U.S. Citizen

Evidence of Support: An applicant for a K visa is not required to file an affidavit of support, Form I-864 at the time he or she applies for the visa. However, the Immigration and Nationality Act does require the applicant to establish to the satisfaction of the consular officer at the time of the application for a visa, and also to the satisfaction of an officer of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration at the time of application for admission to the United States, that he or she is not likely at any time to become a public charge.


That 2nd link has all the detailed info.

The page you're pointing at doesn't ask you for I-864.

Affidavit of Support

Form I-864, a contractual affidavit of support, must be submitted for most family-based applicants and employment-based applicants when a relative is the petitioner or has ownership interest in the petitioner's business.

Employment based visa applicants must show a recent letter from their employer confirming that the job offer upon which their application is based is still available to them. Qualified nurses must also present their Visa Screen Certificate. All other applicants must show evidence that they are not likely to become public charges while in the United States. Use of the form I-134 is an efficient way to provide this information to the Consular Officer.


my bolding.

meauxna

To be fair to our OP, London has not changed its website and it's a little sloppy now.
Since the K visas are processed by the IVU, London seems to be using that link for the document checklist.

Actual Immigrant Visa applicants have to submit all those docs ahead of time via NVC, so it's inaccurate for more IV applicants as well.


Poor OP's head is probably going to explode.

jbfaust

This is the exact letter we received from the embassy in london (with our names and numbers omitted).

Regarding meauxna's post:
We have only recieved approval receipts stating that the K3 and I-130 have both been forwarded on to the NVC to be passed to the London Embassy. The letter I recieved and the one above which my husband received as you can see references only the I-129F and not the I-130. As such, does this mean that the I-130 has not been passed on by the NVC to the London Embassy, or will we end up getting another letter?

It seems silly to proceed with what is effectively an inferior visa application (I-129F) when we have already received approval for the I-130 which was supposed to take so much longer. Is there anyone we can contact to cancel the K3 and proceed with the I-130 instead?

Noorah101

That's exactly why we usually recommend not even applying for the K-3. It's an inferior visa, and the processing time is the same as the much better Immigrant Visa.

NVC has already forwarded the approved I-129F to London, so I'm not sure if they are the ones to cancel that visa process now or not. You might have to contact both NVC and London to tell them you don't want to proceed with the K-3. Once that's cancelled, ask NVC to process the approved I-130 instead. There is probably a form to file and perhaps a fee to pay for cancelling the K-3.

Rene

meauxna

It appears that in your case, the I-130 is going to be retained for your Adjustment of Status. You can try calling the NVC to see what they have to say; will your I-130 start IV processing or be retained.

If they haven't yet started IV processing, like your letter suggests, you have a decision to make. You have the K-3 appointment and you can use that visa if you want to come to the US very soon.
If you want to stay for Immigrant Visa processing, there may be a fee to start it (form I-824 for the current fee) and there will be a couple/few months more processing at NVC, plus the wait for an IV interview.

Depends on how 'silly' the additional time would be vs the $1100 or so for AOS.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Again, there is nothing confusing about it -- what do YOU want to do? If you think it is ridiculous to do the K-3 followed by the adjustment of status, then that is your answer, no?

On the affidavit of support question, the link is a tad inaccurate when it comes to the K visa -- you do the I-134 in LND and the I-864 in the US.

BTW, I believe you also have to do two medicals -- one in LND, and the second in the US under the K-3/AOS scenario.

A further BTW, the K-3 is a stupid visa IMHO. It was introduced as a congressional "patch" to the problem of long delayed I-130 adjudications to put in a speeding K-3 to get people here sooner. Well, the time to adjudicate I-129f's have gotten a tad longer and that for I-130's have got a lot shorter. Also, the adjudication of I-130's are now pretty centralized, which was not the case previously -- I'm actually surprised that doesn't speed up the I-130 a little more so they can deny the I-129f -- but I guess that would be too easy on their "customers" -- I guess a monopoly business can do that.

jeffreyhy

Write to the consulate, tell them that you no longer wish to pursue the K3 visa because you have an approved I-130 and will be applying for an immigrant visa, and ask that they send the approved I-129f petition back.

You might want to wait and do this after you receive the K3 visa application package from the embassy so as to minimize the possibility of confusion.

Also wait until you're sure that the I-130 petition was sent to the NVC, because if it wasn't you might prefer to continue with the K3 rather than endure the time and cost of I-824.

No form to submit and no fee to pay to stop the K3, just don't apply for it. Telling them what you're doing and why is always a good idea.

Regards, JEff

jbfaust

Update:

We received a package today from the NVC regarding our Immigrant Petition which means that our I-130 did arrive at the NVC. We are planning to pursue this visa rather than the K3. Should we contact the NVC or the London Embassy to let them know this? (Or perhaps both?) Thanks for all the replies so far.

JBF