USCIS K1 Fiance Visa Approval in ONLY Two Months !
I-129F K1 Visa Goldrush !
VisaCoach’s recent Cases only took two months from receipt of petition to approval, that’s two months between NOA1 (Notice of Action One, the notice USCIS sends you that confirms they received your case) to NOA2 (Notice of Action Two, the notice confirming USCIS completed processing, and sent your case on to the State Department for their consular processing.
So far this year, over a half dozen of my k1 visa clients have experienced their cases zooming through the USCIS approval stage in only two months.
Why is this amazing?
Well because during recent years USCIS has normally been taking 12 to 15 months to do the same amount of work. So my clients whose cases got approved by USCIS in only two months, are going to get their fiancés home to the USA a whole year sooner than anyone else.
In this video, I will explain what is going on, how long it may continue, and finally what you can do to take advantage of the situation.
I am Fred Wahl the VisaCoach.
I personally work with you preparing for you the forms and documents needed to bring your loved ones home to the USA, Unlike those common second rate services that abandon you once your application has been submitted, I remain with you providing support throughout this complicated immigration journey.
Now, let’s talk about what’s happening at USCIS. How and why are applicants recently experiencing “USCIS K1 Fiance Visa Approval in ONLY Two Months !”
To bring your fiancé to the USA to marry, you must submit an application called a K-1 fiancé visa application. It is processed in step fashion by two sections of the US government, first at USCIS, which stands for United States Citizenship, and Immigration service, and then onto the US Department of State. USCIS first reviews your case stateside, then
forwards it to the State Department which in turn passes it on to a US Embassy in your fiancee’s country for consular interview and approval and printing of the fiancé visa.
During most of 2022 and 2023 the application process to bring your fiancé to the USA took total time of around a year and a half. The slowest part of the process has been at USCIS where during the initial USCIS process, cases took 12 to 15 months between NOA1 and NOA2. That’s the time it took for USCIS to review your case, approve it (at least for their USCIS’s part) before passing it over to the US State Department. Then on average the next stage, at State Department, took about 3 to 5 months more to your fiance’s interview and K-1 visa.
So the normal total time needed for most K-1 fiancé visa applications, from start to visa, USCIS + State Department stages combined, ended up being about a year and a half of waiting during the processing.
But recently, amazingly, many of the brand new, k-1 visa cases we at Visacoach prepared for our clients that were sent to USCIS early this year, during February, March and April have already zoomed through the USCIS processing stage and were approved by USCIS in an AMAZING TWO months. Let me repeat. USCIS has recently taken only 2 months to approve new cases, versus the expected 15. For those lucky applicants, their cases,
have jumped ahead a whole year compared to cases submitted earlier.
So the big question is “How did USCIS go from 15 months processing time to only two?
I think I have the answer.
Unlike other branches of our government, USCIS is not funded by our income taxes, instead it funds itself solely through the fees it charges its clients.
That’s you and me, anyone applying for an immigration benefit, like permission to live, or work in the USA, wanting to get a green card or become a US Citizen.
For many years, USCIS complained that the fees they charged were not enough.
They wanted to increase charges to pay their bills, keep the lights on and attract and keep qualified employees. But first Congress had to approve the price increase. And year after year, Congress refused to go along with the request. For over a decade, again and again Congress denied their requests.
Until recently.
FINALLY a 20% fee increase was approved and took effect April 1.
Once it was clear that USCIS could expect more money coming in, they started to spend their increased budget by hiring new staff, upgrading procedures, and investing in new equipment.
I believe that new staff are currently being assigned and trained on K-1 visa cases. With no other assignments, and a new boss to impress, they are knocking them out of the park.
Cases submitted earlier had already been assigned to more experienced seasoned reviewers, their in-boxes are full, and cases sitting on their desks and are in process are still waiting 12 to 15 months to finally be approved USCIS, get their NOA2 and finally passed on to the State Department, .
Sure, it would be more fair to the older cases to take those that have already
waited the longest in someones overflowing in-box and reassign it to the new employees, but that idea does not appear to be happening. At least not yet.
So, the lucky new cases submitted during the last few months are getting (at least temporarily) special speedy treatment while earlier cases still wait and wait.
Imagine being in a long, slow checkout line at a grocery store. You’ve been waiting patiently to get to the cashier. Another cashier opens a new line and the lucky shoppers passing nearby rush to jump into that empty line while you are still stuck in your original line. You watch them as they cash out and leave the store while your line has not moved an inch.,
Eventually things will balance out, new staff will be assigned more cases and their individual case backlogs will pile up. At the same time the older staff will reduce their backlogs before being given new cases.
Eventually a new steady-state, a new average backlog and processing time will be established. But, as a unicorn event, at this MOMENT, new cases get 2 months turnaround time while older cases are still waiting for 15 months.
I call this the k-1 fiancé visa Gold Rush.
It won’t last. And just like the California gold rush, the first to arrive who pan for gold before the rest, got the rewards.
If you are near ready to submit your application, don’t delay a moment. Because every day counts. Such fast processing won’t last long. Submitting right away, may get your partner home as much as a year sooner.
How much time do you have to take action?
Probably you only have a few months, maybe six or less to submit your application before things settle down to a new system wide processing time normal.
I forecast during the next few months newly submitted K-1 visa cases will gradually experience slower processing times. Now it’s 2 months, after a while it will slow to 3, then 4 and so on until overall processing times (between new and old cases) eventually settles out.
I feel that by the end of this year and going into 2025, the average processing time at USCIS for K-1 fiancé visas may settle at around nine months, NOA1 to NOA2. That’s not as fantastic as two months but is a vast improvement from yesterdays 15 months wait time..
Time will tell what actually happens. Ask me this time next year.
At the moment though, if you are ready to submit your K-1 visa application, now is truly the honeymoon period. The earlier you get your case to USCIS the better your chance to enjoy speedier processing.
And sad to say, those who already have been patiently waiting in line, sorry you will continue to wait. Your case is still assigned to, and stuck on a desk whose in-basket needs 15 months to clear..
Overall though, it’s good news. USCIS has gotten their price increase. Today k1 visa applicants benefit. Eventually there should be a “sea change” of faster processing times across the boards for all applications such as spouse visas, green cards, and citizenship processed at USCIS
This was Fred Wahl, The VisaCoach,
