Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the K-1 Fiancé Visa in the context of processing times. We are talking about processing times for petition processing at the USCIS, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security. 

So this has been a topic of a great deal of consternation especially coming off COVID. Processing times are way higher than they were going into COVID. As I discussed in another video US Marriage Visa petition processing times are really off the chart but underlying K-1 Visa processing times are higher than what we have seen in the past. I remember a time you could process a K-1 Fiancé Visa in about 4 to 6 months, now you are looking at a year probably minimum, depending on circumstances. 

That said, in the time I have been doing this some 15 years now, something that has come about are these USCIS estimated processing times. They have always sort of had them by service center but more recently as they sort of upgraded their website, which is one of those kind of catch-22 things where they say “well we upgraded our website so now are sort of personal services are going to be downgraded”, which is an understatement based on what I am seeing when dealing with them, but another thing that always kind of I sort of want to put out there I guess is, be very cautious I don't know how - "take processing time estimates with a grain of salt" both on the long end and the short end. I used to have people when things were moving a little quicker, they would call me the day after the estimated processing time had elapsed and say, "well what are we doing about this?" Well, not much of anything. At the end of the day cases process differently; they are kind of like snowflakes for lack of a better term; they're all kind of unique. Now if you get too far outside the estimated processing time, and a day isn't enough in my opinion, but if it really becomes unreasonable and I don't know where the bright line is to determine that but you know it when you see it, I know when I see it. A few weeks goes by and you start going, "hey what's going on?" A couple more go by and you say, "okay maybe we need to do something about this." But long story short, a day after the estimated processing time, in the past was being a little unreasonable. These days, where the estimated processing times are really off the charts, and I have questions about the current estimated processing times because I am seeing cases move faster than what they are saying sometimes. So again you have got to take it with a grain of salt on both sides of that equation. But long story short, what can you really do about it? 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent, well after reading on the DHS's website, dhs.gov, under Case Assistance Notice, and this was on the Ombudsman's, for DHS Ombudsman. Quoting directly: "Due to the unprecedented processing delays at USCIS and the resulting volume of case assistance request we have been receiving, it is taking us longer to assist when the only issue is the case is outside processing times. We will still assist with these types of requests, but it will take us some time before they are assigned to one of our immigration law analysts." I would love to know what an immigration law analyst is, especially somebody who isn't professionally trained in the law; it would be really curious to know how that all works. 

But the long story short though, basically the response is, "yeah we'll take in your request, but we have got so many of these things hanging from the rafters, don't expect much." is basically the response I'm seeing on their website. They are sort of being proactive in saying this. So take that anyway you wish. Again, we strive to get our cases processed, obviously as quickly as we can and as efficiently as we can but we are also kind of stuck at the mercy of the system itself.