After applying for a fiance visa in the US, how long does it take to process?
Answer:
Once the petition is approved (a week or two) it will take three or four months to get an appointment at the Embassy. Once you are in the USA and married (as stated you must do that within 90 days) you can apply for adjustment of status. At the same time you will want to apply for a work permit. The work permit takes 3-4 months and the temporary green card takes about nine. One year and nine months after you get the temporary green card you can apply for the permanent one. You MUST apply for the permanent one before the two years are up otherwise you go back to the beginning, which means putting your life and marriage on hold for a year or more. Once you have the permanent card, you can think about citizenship, which you can apply for three years after you got the temporary green card.
Congrats on the wedding and welcome to the USA
The process doesn't take too long. So start getting ready to travel abroad to go to your fiance(e)'s consular appointment.
Remember that some US Consulates have a larger volume of applicants than others. In some cases the wait can take as long as 3 months, but I have met with people waiting for over 8 months.
Congratulations in your soon to be wedding. Remember that your fiance(e) and you will only have 90 days to get married and submit to the USCIS the evidence of the marriage.
Hey, I've been thru this process with INS and U.S.State Dept. before. It was pre 9/11, but somethings are the same.:
1) immigration visas for spouses have a higher priority for processing than fiancee visas.
2) it depends upon which country your fiancee is from ... some countries like:The Philippines can take a year or longer while less busy US Embassies can handle the processing in a matter of months. My now ex-wife came from Kazakhstan in 1996 ... she came on a marriage visa and it took less than 4 months.
3) it depends upon where in USA that you live ... your paperwork is processed thru the regional INS office nearest your city of residence. Some offices are swamped and others have a relatively light load. Calif. and Texas are swamped and St. Albans, VT (for New England) has a light back load.
If you've got plenty of money ... hire an immigration attorney to help you. You will end up doing all of the legwork anyway. If you are fairly smart ... you don't really need an attorney ... do your research on line ... get the forms ... fill out the paper work and do it yourself. That's what I did ... it took me over 20 hours of work. You've got to send paper work back and forth to your fiancee ... get it all notarize ... translated, etc. ... It's doable, but not a piece of cake..
Don't try and short cut the process by enlisting your senator or congressperson to help expedite things. They usually won't anyway, but if you have enough influence on them and they intercede on your behalf ... it'll backfire ... piss the bureaucrats off and your paperwork will go to the bottom of the pile. INS and State Dept. feel no heat from Congress and resent outside interference.
Good luck
You are not required to attend the interview with your fiance, but can if you want to and if the Embassy allows it. A lot of Embassies don't allow the petitioner to attend the interview with the fiance.
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