Just Sharing My Story

[pracmac]

Hello everyone,

I am a U.S citizen married to a U.K citizen. We have been married for 1 1/2 years. (love of my life). For the past 2 years he has been going back and forth between here and the U.K (on a tourist visa). While we decided which country we were going to live in.

We finally made the decision to live here, bought a house and filed his I130 (this was on December 5, 2009).

He went back to the U.K (before his tourist visa expired) on December 16th. I joined him a week later to spend the holidays with his side of the family. We returned to Minnesota on December 31st. The officers at immigration would not let him into the country and sent him back to the U.K on the next flight out. They told us to file a K3 and told us they have never seen it take more than 30 days to get processed and then he could come back.

I filed the K3 (I129F) and got the receipt in the mail on January 21st.

From what I read, the officers at the airport lied as from the research I have done it takes more like 5 months to get approval.

My husband called the embassy in the U.K today and they said that after the approval it could still take an additional 5 months to get his visa. I called UCIS and they said that wasn't the case.

I'm a little confused. Should I look May or June as his return date or should I resign myself to the fact that I am going to be without my husband for who the heck knows how long.

I am already devastated. I would love to hear some input or thoughts.

Thank you all

 

[elcupacabras]

The average time from the initial petition and visa is hand is around 8-12 months.
While your I-130 and I-129F may take 5 months to get approved this side (ie, on the US side), the approved petition is then sent to NVC who then forward it to the consulate/embassy in the foreign spouse's country (in this case, London). From here it may very well take an additional 5 months for an interview to be arranged.....though for London, 5 months does seem a little excessive, though people definitely HAVE waited this long to get an interview.
In my case, my petition was approved in the beginning of January 2008......and my interview in London was scheduled for mid April, so thats a 3.5 month wait from petition approval to interview.....it then took a week to get my passport back with the visa in it, so overall, round about 4 months from approval stateside to visa in hand UK side.
Hope that helps.