“Hi this is immigration attorney Abhisha Parikh and today i will be going over the steps to a K3 marriage based green card. if you are married to a us citizen and decided to not go through the whole immigration visa application process while your overseas but instead to use the alternate K3 visa for the US entry to be followed by a green card application in the US. This segment decides how the process was meant to play out. but be warned the us government has pretty much decided that the K3 visa process isnt a useful one and will probably arrange the process so that you end up applying for a regular immigrant process. ill explain why briefly. Step 1 the US citizen spouse will have to submit a I-130 petition. Step 2 after the US citizen has received a I- 797 receipt notice for the I-130, he or she submits a separate fiance visa petition form I-129F to the USCIS service center from which the I-130 receipt came. Step 3 after the USCIS approves form I-129F it sends word to the national visa center NVC which conducts some processing procedures and then transfers the case to the appropriate US consulate. Here’s where the process may not go as planned. If the I-130 petition is approved before the consular interview and the approved paperwork gets forwarded to the consulate the immigrant is no longer eligible for the K3 visa and will have to go through the entire immigrant visa application process overseas. the concept behind the K3 visa was to compensate for the delayed experienced by the married couples as they wait for their approval on the form I-130. that can be a good thing you will not have to submit a whole separate application to adjust status and get a green card after you are in the US. but you can obtain immigrant visa at the consulate which makes you a permanent residence the minute you enter the USA. if you do wish to pursue the K3 visa you may wonder how long the entire process of getting into he US takes. if you do somehow manage to get a K3 visa rather than a immigrant visa it depends mostly on how long it takes for the form I-129F visa petition to be approved. This can be many months by itself. after that expect another 6 weeks or so to get your consular instructions and assuming you send your forms back the right away. another 6 weeks or so to get you appointment. You should consult an immigration to see which option would be most suitable for your case.”
