brigeet

OK I have a question here that I haven't been able to figure out. How come so many people file both the i129f and i130? I thought the former was in order to get permission to enter w/ the intention to marry and the latter was if you already have gotten married. What is the strategy that I am missing? Or do people file a i129 and get impatient, get married and then do a 130?

lairdside

I believe you are thinking of those who are already married.

They must file an I-130 but as the processing times are quite slow many also choose to file an I-129F- this is not for a fiance(e) visa (K-1) but for a spousal visa (K-3).

K-3 enables the alien spouse to enter the US and reside prior to the processing of the I-130. The I-129F for the K-3 often has a considerably faster processing time than an I-130.

Mtravelkay

brigeet wrote:

    > OK I have a question here that I haven't been able to figure out. How
    > come so many people file both the i129f and i130? I thought the former
    > was in order to get permission to enter w/ the intention to marry and
    > the latter was if you already have gotten married. What is the strategy
    > that I am missing? Or do people file a i129 and get impatient, get
    > married and then do a 130?
    >

I-12F used to be used for fiances. The LIFE Act added K-3 and K-4 (child
of K-3) visas due to the amount of time it takes to process CR-1/IR-1
after filing I-130. IMHO, Congress should have NOT added MORE work and
should have used the resources to speed up the CR-1/IR-1. Adding the K-3
visa adds more work to the USCIS pile.

In any case, after receiving the first NOA for the I-130, I-129F can be
filed to petition for a K-3 visa. Processing of this is "supposed" to be
faster.
If you enter on a K-3, you have to file I-485 to get a green card. If
you enter on IR-1/CR-1, you have have green card status on the day of
arrival in the US. Unlike the fiance K-1, the K-3 is multientry.

lairdside

Here here!

Since the K-3/K-4 was introduced I would also swear that I-130 processing has gotten slower.

Not everyone is eligible for a K visa and these people have to wait for the I-130 to progress to IV issuance.

I have a minor child in this situation at present.

They had a hardware problem and attempted to solve it by throwing more of the same faulty hardware at it imho.

cindyabs

Please note that the K3 recipient still has the option of using an approved 130 to go back to the country of origin to complete processing for the green card rather than file for AOS here in the US. This is of course providing the 130 is approved in a timely manner. Currently I am marveling that TSC (my SC) has jumped from summer of 01 to spring of 02 for processing dates in a manner of weeks.

utopiacowboy

Exactly right! Instead of fixing the REAL problem which was the glacial pace of the I-130 process, they decided to compound it by adding the K3 and K4. Then they complain about all the applications they have to prcess and how they don't have enough money etc. They have enough enough money. What they don't have is enough intelligence to streamline their process so that national security concerns are met in an efficient manner. The organization that I work for has 5 million members and $71 billion in assets and if we worked like the USCIS, we would have about 5 members and $71.