Us Visa Interview: K3 Visa Applications No Longer Ensure Interview Forum

The forthcoming article discusses recent changes made to the K3 visa process. In the coming months, the "administrative closing" of certain K3 applications will likely result in less "venue shopping" by Applicants and Petitioners.

In previous articles this author has written about the current status of the K3 visa process. At present, K3 visa processing is becoming increasingly erratic as the National Visa Center (NVC) will no longer process I-129f petitions for K3 visas if the underlying I-130 application arrives before, or concurrently with, the I-129f. It is a credit to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service's (USCIS) efficiency that they are processing I-129f applications as well as I-130 applications in a quick and efficient manner. However, for those looking for expedited marriage visa benefits this efficiency could end up creating an unwanted situation.

The National Visa Center has stated that they will "administratively close" aforementioned I-129f applications. This could lead to an unforeseen obstacle for those bi-national couples who specifically got married in a predetermined jurisdiction in order to ensure that the foreign spouse's visa application would be processed at that jurisdiction's US Embassy or Consulate-General. Pursuant to the language of the statute creating the K3 Visa, the K3 visa application must be adjudicated by the Diplomatic of Consular Post in the foreign jurisdiction where the marriage took place. This provided some couples with an opportunity to "Forum Shop" for the overseas Embassy or Consulate where they wished the process their visa application. As an example, if a bi-national couple wanted to process a visa application in Japan, then, under the rules regarding the K3 visa, the couple could virtually guarantee that the K3 visa application would be processed in Japan simply by executing a lawful marriage in Japan.

Now, because the future of the K3 Visa remains uncertain, there is a distinct possibility that visa interview "forum shopping" will become a thing of the past. That being said, Immigrant visa applications for travel documents such as the CR1 visa and the IR1 visa could be sent to the foreign spouse's country of Nationality as Embassies and Consulates only process third country nationals as a courtesy and if inconvenient will send the application to the Post in the country of the Beneficiary's nationality.

One can hope that these recent changes will not result in too many difficulties, but it remains to be seen if this will, in fact, be the case. Therefore, as long as the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) continues to process I-130 petitions quickly, it remains probable that the United States National Visa Center will continue to administratively close K3 cases and thereby forestall the previously mentioned practice of forum shopping. For those foreign fiancees in countries such as Burma (Myanmar) or Cambodia this change in policy could cause hardships as both of these countries' bureaucracies can make it extremely difficult for a native born woman to marry an American man.