Posts Tagged I-130
You options to bring your foreign wife/husband to United States
Posted by Josun in Avoid Green Card Mistakes on March 3, 2010
What would be the best approach for you if you, as a U.S. citizen, want to live as husband and wife in the United States as soon as possible?
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, formerly Immigration and Naturalization Service – INS) made changes in processing K-3 marriage-based visa petitions. If you make an application by filling out Form I-130 and form K-3 via National Visa Center (NVC) to speed up the process, then NVC will close your K-3 petition. This procedure went into effect as of February 1, 2010.
How will new procedure affect your status?
Here’s more clarification: as a U.S. citizen, you married a foreign national. You want your wife or husband to come to United States to live together. You have two options:
1) You apply to the USCIS by filing immigrant petition I-130 for your foreign spouse to bring him/her to United States. USCIS approves your petition and forwards it to NVC with your financial support affidavit. NVC forwards it to consular section of the U.S. embassy in the country of your spouse.
2) You choose to make an application for K-3 (not K-1 fiancé) visa. Because, processing time for K-3 visa is faster.
In the past, NVC was processing both petitions (I-130 and K-3) and you, as an American citizen, were able to bring your spouse while your immigrant visa application was in progress. So, your foreign spouse was able to come to United States as legal resident and stay with you while waiting for visa.
Your options under new USCIS rule
Now, if you make two applications (I-130 and K-3) to speed up the process, NVC will not process both of your applications as it did in the past. Instead, NVC will close your K-3 petition and process only your I-130 petition. The reason is simple: USCIS will reduce its workload by processing only one petition.
According to Paul Szeto, Esq., if you make an application for K-3 only, you may see your spouse faster than applying for I-130. Furthermore, as a result of reduction in workload, USCIS and NVC processing time will be shorter.
