I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

Hi all,

I did post previously about the travails of making it past immigration officials on a VWP. Well, I made it through that bit easily enough, as I documented here. Now in the US until Christmas, my wife is looking at getting the immigration process started by filing the I-130 and, at the same time, minimise the time we have to spend apart. Firstly, I wanted to make sure that this is legal and above aboard. Note, I am not looking to do an AOS and submit an I-485 at the same time. However, there is a question on the I-130 form (No. 14 I think) that asks if "your relative is currently in the US" and gives options including "tourist, student, stowaway, etc." Obviously, I am currently here as a tourist but wondered whether admitting this might cause any problems.

The other query relates to the K-3 visa. The process that we are following is the standard I-130 route where I wait outside the country. I thought that this was the main option alongside the risky AOS filing. However, I have been reading some stuff on the K-3 visa (for which you fill in an I-29F at this stage) which seems to suggest that I can apply for this after the I-130 has been filed on my behalf and this would allow me to enter and work while the immigration process continues. Am I understanding it correctly. It strikes me that most people would do this if it was so straightforward. I'm guessing that the wait times are probably roughly similar.

As always, any help would be great.

Dan

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

Yes, it's fine to file the I-130 while you're still in the USA as a tourist.

Answer the question truthfully as it applies on the day she signs the I-130. You being in the USA as a tourist will not cause any problems with the I-130 approval.

You are correct, the wait times are roughly similar, and the IV is a far better visa than the K-3. The K-3 was made when IV's were taking YEARS to process (2 or 3 years), so the K-3 was invented to bring the spouse to the USA in under 1 year, to let the married couple be together while waiting for the IV to process. Nowadays, the IV itself takes less than a year, so the K-3 is redundant and provides no benefit to the immigrant.

Rene

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

Yes, it does suggest that, and it had some merit when I-130s were taking 18-36 months to be approved.

Since that is no longer the case, the Immigrant Visa (I-130 only) option is far superior, takes the same amount of time and delivers Permanent REsidence status at the end.
The K-3 will require another $1100+ worth of your money and several months more (even if you are in the US) to get to the same result.

Most people today are not happy after choosing the K-3.

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

Many thanks to you both for clearing those things up. I guess we can go ahead and process the I-130 asap. As for the K-3 visa, I kinda thought that if it was a viable option, more people would be doing it. Still, scary to think that the process use to take that much longer - it seems long and complicated enough now. For my wife to emigrate to the UK, it took less than 3 months (although she then had to reapply after 2 years to get permanent residency).

Thanks,

Dan

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

DD,

What you're overlooking - over-simplifying, actually, and you've got a lot of company in that regard - is that "the immigration process" is not one process. It's a sequence of two, sometime three, processes by two different government departments:
- visa petition by CIS
- visa application by DoS Consular Services
- adjustment of status by CIS in the case of the K visas

The K3 visa was created to allow the pending immigrant to enter the USA, unifying the family, while the I-130 visa petition process is in progress.

The K3 visa does not bypass the visa application process, it merely substitutes one visa type for another. And it introduces an adjustment of status process that would otherwise be unnecessary for married immigrants.

Regards, JEff

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

Thanks for the comment, JEff. I don't think it's a question of oversimplification, more one of terminology! I view immigration as a single 'process' i.e. that of obtaining a green card, which is made up of a number of steps/stages! My question about the K-3 visa wasn't concerned with the process per se but with overcoming the requirement to reside outside the country while waiting for the process to be completed. From the answers given, it doesn't seem like there is much benefit in getting the K-3 visa nowadays and, if anything, it actually adds complications to the whole process.

Regards,

Dan

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

DD,

OK, terminology then.

In any case - using your terminology or mine - the K3 visa was not created to allow the alien spouse to come to the USA while waiting for the immigration process to be completed. It was to allow the alien spouse to come to the USA while waiting for the I-130 petition to be processed.

At which point, the alien has the choice of either applying for an immigrant visa or adjusting status.

Regards, JEff

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

Please, please, please. If I had a US Dollar for everytime I saw this posted in the last 12 years, I would be able to retire to my own island. Why do people constantly compare the immigration policies of different countries?

So why didn't she file for you to get your Immediate Relative Visa at the USCIS/US Consulate in London when she was living there in the UK legally?

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

lol, that's OK Rete, my pet phrase is when someone rants about our 'special relationship' between US/UK.
I guess if your visa app had only taken 3 months, you'd think it's weird that it take so much longer coming the other way. Same way Canada is 'USA Lite'. ;)
It's hard to see sometimes that they're each unique countries.

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

Hmm. I'm not really sure how to read this comment. It seems an unnecessarily aggressive/defensive response to an observation that I'm perfectly entitled to make. The US immigration process strikes me as unreasonably long, tortuous and bureaucratic and imposes upon my wife and I a period of separation that is disruptive to both our lives and not very enjoyable. My other main experience with immigration relates to the UK. It is a developed country and, proportionate to its size, has a high percentage of immigration applications every year. The UKBA (by no means an efficient organisation) managed to process everything inside three months, so I think it is acceptable to wonder why the US takes so long. Yes, each country is unique but comparisons are still made on issues like healthcare systems, tax systems so I don't think immigration is beyond the scope of such comparisons. If you don't like this kind of comment, then don't bother to reply. It adds nothing of value. If, on the other hand, you can enlighten me as to why the US system is as it is and why all of this is necessary, then I am happy to learn.

You know, my wife and I are in the situation we're in, I don't like it much and if we could have speeded up the process, then we would have but we couldn't. Asking me about it after the fact doesn't really help anyone. A little sensitivity to people's predicament wouldn't go amiss.

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

DD,

Comments about the differences between the processes of different countries also do not add value, when the need is to accomplish something within the existing framework, which I think was the reason for Rete's comment.

This forum is for the purpose of helping people deal with the system that is, not for the purpose of fixing it or changing it to be like others. Fixing or changing is a noble purpose, and there are forums for such discussion, but this is not one of them.

Regards, JEff

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

As you can see if you read my comment in its entirety, JEff, it was not substantively concerned with the differences between various immigration systems. Rather, it was about the I-130 and the K-3 - the subject of this thread. The bit about UK waiting times was the final sentence, and only included because I was thinking about how long people must have waited when the K-3 visa was initially introduced. That's all. No comparison with the US was made nor was any judgement about the US system given. Hence, it is unhelpful to have someone coming onto the thread, being aggressive/defensive and making a comment unrelated to the subject of the thread. It was unnecessary, unconstructive and uncalled for. And if, as you seem to think, it was intended to prevent comparisons, it was not only irrelevant but could have been expressed in a more courteous way.

Regards,

Dan

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

Dan, you've made your point.
Don't dwell, please? :)

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

That's just it Dan. You are coming to MY country, the US. You have to deal with MY country's immigration rules and regulations. This is not the UK and it would make me a very rich woman if I had a dollar for every time someone points out the difference in time lengths as you did. It was my way of saying ... YIKES ... they are saying it again :eek: No job security. One or two week vacations. Limited official holidays. Little or no sick/personal paid time off.

I don't have to enlighten you. It is what it is. You will come to the US and you will find many differences between living in the UK and living in the US and you will NOT be happy with most of those differences, bacon being the first thing you will hate and the lack of mushy peas and good chocolate. ;)



I don't know why you and your wife are in your situation. You didn't say and I didn't ask. But I was pointing out to you that you didn't have to be separated from one another for any period of time if you had done a little research before she moved back to the US. You could have processed through London, living and enjoying your lives together, rather than being apart but that is neither here nor there because neither of you researched.

I've been there and done, Dan. I imported my husband 11 years ago. Not much new under the immigration sun that you can tell me or the long timers on the forum.

Now show us the thicker skin that Brits are suppose to have which they call humour ;)

Re: I-130 + K-3 visa?
 

I like humour as much as the next person but, for it to be enjoyable, it should generally be funny ;)

I'll keep my comments brief this time (lest I get accused of "dwelling") in order to make the broader point that, in the event that commenters don't know the particular situation of someone, it would be more helpful if they don't make assumptions to fill the gap. In this case, being told that the separation between my wife and I could have been shortened by doing a little research is as offensive as it is ignorant. FYI, the time between when my wife interviewed for the job, was offered the job and started the job was so short that we couldn't practically apply in the UK. But that's by the bye and isn't what I came on the thread to discuss. That said, for the most part, people on this forum have been really helpful and I am genuinely grateful for all the informative comments and appreciative of the time people give in answering these queries.