Expediting your Fiancee or Spouse Visa Application

Getting your case processed and getting your partner to the USA faster than average is not possible for most. 99% must wait in line like everyone else.

However in a few cases if a couple has a legitimate reason, US immigration will grant special treatment to expedite their case skipping to the head of the line.

US immigration may agree to expedite your case, for one of the following reasons:

Imminent US Military deployment

• Medical Emergency
• Imminent Danger
• Fiancées Child in danger of ageing out
• Extreme Hardship
• Let’s talk about each in turn.

Imminent US Military deployment

If the American sponsor is on active duty, and has orders cut for deployment, or is in a category that faces immediate deployment on short notice, US immigration is willing to expedite the case so that the service man or woman has time to settle his partner in the USA before
deployment begins.

For such cases, we submit copies of deployment orders, or proof that the service men’s skill set was such even while no deployment was currently in the works, it might happen on short notice.

All imminent deployment type waiver requests we have submitted were granted.

Medical Emergency

What if you or your partner suffer a serious medical issue?

In some cases that would be deemed acceptable to allow expedited processing.

For example, perhaps your foreign partner has a condition that requires the type of medical assistance or expertise, only offered in the USA.  One of VisaCoach’s clients needed treatment at the Mayo Clinic and her case was approved for expedite.  And we have had cases where the US sponsor is hospitalized, and upon discharge needs full time home care
to aid in his recovery.

Imminent Danger

Imminent danger usually means that the foreign partner’s life is in danger.
This could be due to direct or indirect threats, civil unrest, and/ or natural disasters.

The more specific we can prove that the threat is personal to the individual, the better the chance the request for expedite will be granted.

Fiancées Child in danger of ageing out

When applying for a K1 fiance visa, the foreign fiancee’s children can be included in the same application. However the child is only considered a child until his or her 21’st birthday.  This means the application process must be complete, the interview held, the visa issued, and the child on the
flight to USA before midnight on the 21’st birthday.

So if a case has been in process and it appears likely that the child will “age out”, US immigration will put that case ahead of the others in order to allow the fiance parent and children to arrive to USA together. Last summer at the height of Covid quarantines shut downs in Vietnam, we successfully not only got the consulate to expedite our case, but to allow the interview while
officially the consulate was closed and not providing any interviews.

Extreme Hardship

Extreme hardship, is a catchall category, that allows US immigration to expedite a case, to alleviate the extreme hardship of either you or your foreign partner is experiencing.

Emphasis is on the word “extreme”. They do understand that being separated from your partner, with your life’s on hold waiting for the wheels of immigration to turn is a hardship. But that is a normal and expected hardship one accepts when entering into a long distance romance, not considered “extreme”.

As an sample of an “extreme” hardship that we have worked on was when
the home of my client’s Philippine fiancé was destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda. The entire town she lived in was declared a disaster area. We immediately submitted evidence of what was happening and her case was expedited. In another recent case, my American client was suffering extreme stress and anxiety attacks from being separated from his partner. We submitted his diagnosis and doctors recommendations and his request to expedite was granted.

I have helped prepare expedite requests for many VisaCoach clients.

In order to be successful, our requests had to be for legitimate and compelling reasons, that US immigration would understand and relate to, and each request had to be supported with solid verifiable evidence.

Do not submit a Frivolous Expedite Request

It is tempting to submit an expedite request, just to see if it will work, even
though the underlying reason and evidence really are not enough.

Well, submitting such a request is a bad idea. In good faith US immigration takes all requests for expedite seriously. On receipt of an expedite request,
a case is taken out of the normal processing line up and given to specialized reviewers. For example if the request was based on medical reasons it will be taken aside and reviewed by Medical experts.

If the request is legitimate, then all is well and the case remains outside the normal queue and zooms to the top of the processing pile.

But if the case is not found to provide acceptable reasons, then it is be returned back to the regular processing queue back to whatever stage it was in.

All the time needed, and this can be many months to evaluate a request basically ends up added to the the time the case would have normally experienced if left to process as normal.

So instead of saving time, a frivolous request ends up lengthening how long you are separated from your partner.

This was Fred Wahl, The VisaCoach,
here to personally guide you on this journey.