Processing times for K1 fiancé visas went up again. It now is saying 9 to 12 months and it’s extremely stressful to see those wait times increase. A lot of you are asking, “Why is this happening? What does this mean for my case?”

USCIS hasn’t made an official announcement but immigration, in general, is still having issues with being short-staffed. They don’t have enough people power and they’re overwhelmed by the number of applications they’ve been receiving.

Removal of Conditions

There’s an application that individuals who receive a two-year green card have to file called removal of conditions. That application had a long processing time and it went from 12 months to 18 months. When this happens, immigration tends to start moving cases to other service centers that can take on more work.

Because these wait times are increasing for fiancé visas, they can hopefully start trying to move cases to other service centers as well to decrease that wait time.

What You Can Do

You can reach out to your congressional representatives to tell them about your experience with immigration. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about your specific case but more on your experience with the immigration process.

That’s what our firm is always doing; lobbying and advocating for our clients, helping the government understand the implications that these wait times are having on all of you, and encouraging them to find a solution.

Immigration is working on hiring more people to address the backlogs but for now, we hope that with these increased wait times, they are going to address it by moving the cases to another service center that can take on the load.

Possibility of Early Case Decision

While those wait times have gone up, some individuals get decisions in much less than a year. It is ideal that you receive decisions in way less time than what the estimate is. The estimates are just that; an estimate.

Immigration likes to give longer estimates to give themselves some wiggle room to be able to make a decision.