Mark A Framness

Greetings,

We know someone who married a woman from the Philippines. AFAIK they
married in the Philippines and he applied for the I-130 relative visa
about one year ago. He recently contacted the INS to follow up and to
try to expedite, they advised him to file a I-129F visa to speed
things up.

What is going on here, in your opinion? Is the INS trying to get more
money? Have you heard of the INS offering such advice in other cases?
I am very suspicious of this.

Sorry I do not have any more details.
thanks

Mtravelkay

Mark A Framness wrote:
    > Greetings,
    >
    > We know someone who married a woman from the Philippines. AFAIK they
    > married in the Philippines and he applied for the I-130 relative visa
    > about one year ago. He recently contacted the INS to follow up and to
    > try to expedite, they advised him to file a I-129F visa to speed
    > things up.
    >
    > What is going on here, in your opinion? Is the INS trying to get more
    > money? Have you heard of the INS offering such advice in other cases?
    > I am very suspicious of this.

I-130/Immigrant visa processing takes far too long.
To be "helpful" the LIFE Act added K-3/4 visas.
This "should" be faster, but if your spouse arrives on a K-3 visa, she
will have to file for adjustment of status and wait longer to get
permanent resident status. If she arrives on a CR-1/IR-1 (spouse
immigrant visas), she will be permanent resident as soon as she arrives
in the US.

To get K-3.

1. File I-130 and get 1st NOA (you might have this already)
2. File I-129F (which used to be used for fiance visa only.. Note, make
sure you send it to the correct location for a k-3 visa
3. Then it depends on whether the I-130 or I-129F approval reaches the
consulate (or consular section of the embassy) first.

Mark A Framness

mtravelkay <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected] om>...
    > Mark A Framness wrote:
    > > Greetings,
    > >
    > > We know someone who married a woman from the Philippines. AFAIK they
    > > married in the Philippines and he applied for the I-130 relative visa
    > > about one year ago. He recently contacted the INS to follow up and to
    > > try to expedite, they advised him to file a I-129F visa to speed
    > > things up.
    > >
    > > What is going on here, in your opinion? Is the INS trying to get more
    > > money? Have you heard of the INS offering such advice in other cases?
    > > I am very suspicious of this.
    >
    > I-130/Immigrant visa processing takes far too long.
    > To be "helpful" the LIFE Act added K-3/4 visas.
    > This "should" be faster, but if your spouse arrives on a K-3 visa, she
    > will have to file for adjustment of status and wait longer to get
    > permanent resident status. If she arrives on a CR-1/IR-1 (spouse
    > immigrant visas), she will be permanent resident as soon as she arrives
    > in the US.
    >
    > To get K-3.
    >
    > 1. File I-130 and get 1st NOA (you might have this already)
    > 2. File I-129F (which used to be used for fiance visa only.. Note, make
    > sure you send it to the correct location for a k-3 visa
    > 3. Then it depends on whether the I-130 or I-129F approval reaches the
    > consulate (or consular section of the embassy) first.

Wow,

Quite a bit different then the process my wife and I went through. We
just did a I-129F and that was it.

So it does sound like things have changed and it will not cause
problems.

Thanks