Fiance Visa Thailand: Will NVC "Administratively Close" K-1 Visa Applications?

The National Visa Center and its administrative policies have become of increasing interest in recent weeks particularly in the context of the I-129f petition. The following article will look at whether recent policy changes will likely have an impact upon those seeking K-1 visa benefits.

The National Visa Center (NVC) recently stated that as of the 1st of February 2010 they will no longer process I-129f petitions for marriage visa benefits if the underlying I-130 petition arrives before, or contemporaneously with, the supplemental I-129f petition. There may be those readers who are probably wondering what impact this will have upon visa seekers. For those trying to obtain a K-3 visa, the consequences of this recent announcement are very important due to the fact the NVC, in certain circumstances, is now basically compelling couples to seek immigrant spouse visas such as the IR-1 visa and the CR-1 visa rather than the expedited K-3 visa. Although, the K3 visa petitioner submits an I-129f petition form in order to apply for K3 visa benefits this petition is also utilized when applying for fiance visa benefits as well. What, if any, impact will the recent rule change have upon the K1 visa process?

In order to obtain a US fiancee visa, the US Citizen must file an I-129f petition for K-1 visa benefits. If the petition is approved, then it will be sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) for processing. After the National Visa Center processes the petition, it will be forwarded to the American Embassy or Consulate with appropriate jurisdiction. Confusion may arise as there are those who may be placed under the mistaken impression that the I-129f petition will be administratively closed by NVC in a K-1 visa case. This is likely not the case, as administrative closures of I-129f petitions are only supposed to happen in the context of applications for K-3 benefits and not for K-1 benefits. This recent change in the rules will likely have no impact upon the K-1 visa process as the rule is designed to only impact the K-3 visa process.

One possible consequence of this recent announcement is that the resources that the NVC was exhausting in processing I-129f petitions for K-3 visas may be used to process other types of visas. Although, it is this author's opinion that the K1 visa process is quite efficient and NVC usually takes very little time to process K1 visa applications. In cases in which the the visa application is to be adjudicated by the Consular Section of the US Embassy in Thailand, there is generally a two week wait time between I-129f petition approval by USCIS and the forwarding of the case file from NVC to the Embassy in Bangkok. By most people's estimate, this is a reasonable period of time to wait. In the case of Immigrant visas, the NVC processing time is considerably longer as the NVC requires submission of more documentation in Immigrant visa matters when compared to non-immigrant visa cases.


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Benjamin W Hart is licensed to practice law in the United States District Court. He currently acts as Managing Director of Integrity Legal (Thailand) Co. Ltd. For more information contact: 1-877-231-7533, +66 (0)2-266-3698, or info@integrity-legal.com. For information about attorney assistance with Consular Processing please see
US Embassy Thailand
or
K1 Visa Process
.