I-129F Petitions, K-3 Visas, and Administrative Closure

K3 Visas are a popular visa category used by some married couples who wish to seek expedited immigration benefits for the United States. Recently, the National Visa Center, an agency under the jurisdiction of the American State Department, made an important notice about I-129f petitions used for K-3 visas:

"Important Notice: Effective February 1st, 2010, when both the I-129F petition for a nonimmigrant K visa and the I-130 petition for an IR-1 (or CR-1) spouse of a U.S. citizen visa have been approved by USCIS and sent to the National Visa Center (NVC), the availability as well as the need for a nonimmigrant K-3 visa ends. If the NVC receives both petitions:

The nonimmigrant K visa will be administratively closed. The application process explained below will not be applicable and cannot be used.

The NVC will contact the petitioner and you with instructions for processing your IR-1 (or CR-1) immigrant visa. For more information on the immigrant visa process review the Immigrant Visa for a Spouse webpage. If the NVC does not receive your I-130 petition and I-129F at the same time, the NVC will process your I-129F petition. Then NVC will send the petition to the embassy or consulate in the country where the marriage took place. If your marriage took place in the U.S., the NVC will send the petition to the embassy or consulate that issues visas in your country of nationality. If your marriage took place in a country that does not have an American embassy, or the embassy does not issue visas, the NVC will send your petition to the embassy or consulate that normally processes visas for citizens of that country. For example, if your marriage took place in Iran where the U.S. does not have an embassy your petition would be sent to Turkey." [cited from: http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=31340]

What does this announcement mean in real terms? Upon the date of the original publication of this article, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) is processing I-130 petitions very efficiently. The upshot of this somewhat fast adjudication process is that I-130 applications are often arriving either prior to their I-129f companion petition or at simultaneously. Should this be the case, the I-129f petition will be administratively closed and the Petitioner and Beneficiary will have no choice but to pursue the underlying Immigrant visa application for either a CR-1 visa or an IR-1 visa.

So long as USCIS is taking the same amount of time to process an I-130 petition and an I-129f application, the K-3 visa is virtually unobtainable because the I-129f petition will be administratively closed if it arrives at the National Visa Center contemporaneously with the I-130 petition.

About The Author Benjamin Hart is a licensed attorney from the United States. He currently acts as Managing Director of Integrity Legal (Thailand) Co. Ltd. Contact Integrity Legal at 1-877-231-7533, +66 (0)2-266-3698, or info@integrity-legal.com. For further information on the internet please see: K3 Visa or Fiance Visa.