After getting engaged to your foreign fiancé, you may be eager to start your lives together straightaway. However, they cannot move to the United States without getting approved for a fiancé visa, otherwise known as a K-1 visa. Even if they have a valid B-1, B-2, or ESTA visa to visit you in the meantime, they may face critical observations at the United States border for giving the impression of skirting the K-1 visa system. Without further ado, read on to discover how long the K-1 visa process takes and how a seasoned fiancé visa lawyer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at Sesini Law Group, S.C., can help you navigate through it as quickly as possible.
On average, how long does the K-1 visa process take?
As of July 2024, the average K-1 visa processing time was reported at three to six months. This countdown starts from the time you file Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé.
Of note, this processing time may vary from year to year depending on the number of applications, petitions, and requests the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) receives. The amount of K-1 visa applications submitted has dropped in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there still have been upwards of 31,000 applications submitted in these subsequent years for this visa type alone. With this, the USCIS may go through and accept a little over 60 percent of them.
Besides the COVID-19 pandemic, other catastrophic accidents beyond your reasonable control may make the K-1 visa process longer, like wars and natural disasters. What’s more, it may all depend on your fiancé’s country of origin.
What external factors may delay the K-1 visa process?
Understandably, you may want your K-1 visa processing time to take closer to the three-month mark, from start to finish. To make this more of a reality, you must avoid making any mistakes that may delay this already extensive process any further. Examples of mistakes to avoid read as follows:
- You must confirm that you and your fiancé meet the relationship requirements for the K-1 visa in the first place.
- You must not leave any section of your K-1 visa application blank, unclear, or filled with incorrect pieces of information.
- You must educate yourself on any of the USCIS’s operational and policy changes before submitting your K-1 visa application.
- You must not take too long to respond to any additional information requests from the USCIS to supplement your K-1 visa application.
- You must ensure your fiancé does not miss any appointments involved in the K-1 visa process (i.e., medical examination, visa interview, etc).
Now that you have this background knowledge, your next step should be to employ a competent family immigration lawyer in Milwaukee, WI to represent you. So contact us at Sesini Law Group, S.C.