K-3 How to process

J

jawa7910

Registered Users (C)
I am a US citizen and at the end of the december i am going to India to get married to an indian resident.

We are going to naturally apply for the K-3 Spouse Visa. So far I have got 2 copies of both the I-130 as as the I-129F. According to the website we can file the I-130 after the I-129F so she can come here earlier. So I am trying find sort a checklist of things I need to prior to getting married. Although I know I will have to submit the I-130 here in the US, I am wondering if there is any documentation I will need to bring with me?

Also I would like to know what sort of things my fiance can start doing to get ready for the filing of this form. For instance doesn't she have to get a medical exam? Any forms she can begin to fill out? It would be helpful to get as much things done prior to me arriving as possible as i will only be there for a certain amount of days.

Thank you

Jason
 
Hi there.
I think theres a little confusion about the K3.....to apply for the K3 you firstly file the I-130....once you recieve the first notice of action, then you file the I-129F. It is the filing of the I-129F that turns your petition into a K3....without filing it, the petition will be processed as a CR1/IR1 visa. All this is done after you are married. Filing the I-129F on its own is done for the K1 fiance visa.....if you file this first and then get married, the petition is voided and you have to start again by applying for a spousal visa.

Here the step by step guide to filing for a K3...read through that and see what she can do.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?autocom=custom&page=k3guide

Off the top of my head she would need to fill out/have ready:
All 4 copies of G-325A (x2 one for I-130 and one set for I-129F)
2 passport photos
Evidence of bonafide marriage

The medical can be arranged once the petition reaches the Indian Embassy.
 
THat was helpful. Thank you!

I am curious about the processing time of the I-129F. If i am appyling for the spouse visa and during the time I am waiting for the I-130 to be approved, how long will it take for the 129F to be approved to get that visa so my wife can come to the US?
 
What you are looking at, according to current timelines is round about 250 days for the petition to be approved on the US side....and then I would say about another 2 months or so to get the interview at the local embassy which will determine whether or not the visa will be granted.

Heres a information based on real peoples petitions on how long the process is taking:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?autocom=custom&page=k3historical

Step one shows how long it is taking for the I-130 first notice of action to be recieved (NOA1)...this is just the processing centre informing you that they have officially opened your petition and it is now in the system. It is once you recieve this, that you file the I-129F. (VSC and CSC are code names for the two service centres that process these petitions...VSC= vermont service centre, and CSC= California service centre....depending on what state you live in will determine which centre you send your paperwork to.

Step 2 shows the timeframe between the first notice of action (NOA1) to the second notice of action (NOA2) for the I-130. When you recieve your NOA2 that means that it has been approved stateside and they have no problem with your paperwork/you have no documents missing etc. From this point your petition will be forwarded to the National Visa Centre (NVC) in the States, and then they will forward it to the appropriate consulate. Once the consulate receieves it, they will notify your wife that they have it and they will send her a checklist. On this check list will be things like full length birth certificate, police certificate, I-134 with supporting documents etc. If the Indian consulate is anything like the UK one, they will only ask her to return the signed checklist indicating that she has these documents in person (along with another form....I cant remember the name of it off the top of my head...but it will say in the instructions). Personally, I didnt have all the documents ready before I sent the checklist, but I knew that I would have them ready by the time I had my interview. Also, Im assuming just like the UK, the Indian embassy wont require her to send her birth certificate etc with the checklist...they should only require her to bring the selected items to the actual interview (it will once again though say so in the instructions).
The letter from the consulate will also give your wife instructions on how to schedule a medical. The consulate will have designated doctors that they will only accept medicals from......your wife will also have an identifier number assigned to her which she will need to book the medical with.

Once the checklist has been sent to the embassy, the embassy will then write back (this is known as 'packet 4'...the checklist is known as 'packet3') and they will tell her the date and time of the interview.

K- so Ive gone and waffled on a bit, but you can see from that webpage how each process of the application is broken down step by step. The I-129F has a much quicker approval time (as it is filed later than the I-130)....though my understanding is that the I-129F and I-130 are approved together. The best graph to look at on that page is the very last one....'I-130 NOA1 to K3 Interview History'...that is indicating that it is taking 292 from the NOA1 until the foreign spouse attends the interview.

Hope that helps.
 
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