Petition For Alien Relative-i-130

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Being married to a United States Citizen does not grant you automatic privileges of moving to the US.

Most of us who decide to do it legally, are faced with such strain, whether, emotional, financial or both.  Each case before USCIS is different and unique.

It is not as simple as getting married, paying a fee and getting a visa. The first step is filing the Petition with a cost of $420 US dollars. This petition has a background check and to make sure there is no fraud. Once the Petition has been filed to either the country's embassy of beneficiary or a lock Box in the US. Then, the waiting.

Some get approved within weeks, some approved in months and some are still waiting over a year.

USCIS has announced recently that the stand alone i-130's (no other forms included) are being transferred to other service centers for faster processing. You can check on the times but instead of 13 months, it has shortened to 7-9 months, depending on the service center.

Once that is complete, you then it the National Visa Center where you submit your actual application for the visa and pay any administrative fees. This sounds simple but for it to go from the service ce center to NVC, it could take 4-8 weeks. Then it can take a month or so to get through visa processing.

Once these 2 steps are completed, your case will be forwarded to your respective embassy and complete your medical and wait for your interview date. This being said, embassies/consulates are backlogged and you could be lucky to get your interview 3 months or more after waiting for NVC to mail it.

I would like to bring attention to this matter as it is deplorable for some to be seperated for so long.

It seems unfair that illegals in the country have rights to education, those who marry in the US can apply for Adjustment of Status but what about us in foreign countries? maybe there wouldnt be an issue with illegals if the process wasn't so extreme.

I encourage you to read our stories,  All we want is our cases to be adjudicated in a timely fashion, not to duck the system or ask for a free pass.