Hi, everyone! Welcome, I'm Attorney Megan Pastrana of Immigration for Couples. Let's dive in.
K1 visa welcome letters and when you can actually begin the next step in the K1 visa process.
We've had a lot of people asking questions ranging from "When will I receive the welcome letter? "When can I
get started with the next steps?" "I have received multiple letters, what do they mean?" "Can I get
started yet or not?" and "When am I going to have my interview?" I really want to break down how
the welcome letter works for the K1 visa and what we're seeing right now. There have been changes
with COVID in the process for notifying individuals going through the K1 visa process.
For those of you who maybe are just starting your K1 visa journey,
I'd like to quickly go over the basic steps that are involved. The first step in the K1 visa
journey is filing a petition, an I-129F petition is what it's called, to show that you have a real
relationship. That's the petition, it's not the actual visa. Once that petition is approved,
your case will be forwarded to the US embassy or consulate in the country where you are residing.
Once that petition is approved, the National Visa Center is involved
in that process. Previously, what we saw pre-COVID is that someone's petition would be
approved, their I-129F petition would be approved and we used to see that we would get an email
from the US embassy or consulate usually within a matter of a few weeks to get
started on the next steps. When COVID happened, the US embassies and
consulates had really slowed down. Most of them closed during COVId and then they reopened
slowly. There's some US embassies and consulates that are really only processing emergency-based
K1 visas. The Philippines is the one that is top of mind. What has changed with
the welcome letter, what we are seeing is that there have been really three letters. A series
of three letters. If you don't get three letters, don't panic. Immigration is constantly
changing things and it just might be different based on your country of origin.
What we are seeing in most of our cases is that after the petition is approved, we will see that
all of our couples, all of our clients, we receive a letter from the National Visa Center.
The letter from the National Visa Center says, "We are holding your petition until the US
embassy or consulate lets us know that they have appointments available and then we will forward
your application to that US embassy or consulate to be reviewed." That's the first
letter we're seeing. If you receive that letter from the National Visa Center, it'll let you
know we're holding your case. At this point, that's not the welcome letter. That's just a notification
that your file is in queue, so that doesn't mean that you should start doing anything with
regards to the next steps. You're just in a holding pattern. You can look ahead and be prepared to know
things like the police clearance where you would need to obtain it. But you definitely want to
hold off on getting those items officially until you receive the actual welcome letter
because a lot of them have expiration dates. What we do with our clients is we receive that letter
and then, we just keep track of it and keep watching and waiting for the
case to be transferred. That's the second letter we receive is we receive a notification from the
National Visa Center that says, "Great news. We're transferring your file to the US embassy
or consulate abroad." In that letter, it will tell you wait for the US embassy or consulate
to provide you with additional instructions. With that letter, again, you aren't needing to take
any steps yet. Just knowing great news, your file is being transferred. Usually, it will take a few weeks.
After we get that transfer notice, then within two to three weeks typically
we will receive the official welcome letter and that is the letter that comes from the US embassy
or consulate letting you know, "We have received your petition. You are welcome
to move forward with preparing the next set of application forms." There's a
mini affidavit of support. It's the I-134 and I have other videos about that but that's one of
the parts getting your certified records, your police clearance, scheduling your medical exam.
When you get that letter letting from the US embassy or consulate letting you know,
"We have your petition. We're ready. Go ahead, get started." That is when you would start scheduling
your medical exam and doing those other things to get ready for your interview.
With regards to timing, those were just some of the estimates with
regards to when you get the transfer notice, you'll receive that follow-up
notice from the embassy within a few weeks. However with regards to
when you personally will receive your welcome letter, it really depends. I know that that's not an
answer that anybody likes to hear but that is the reality. It will depend on the country
where you are living, the country where your case will be processed. Some US embassies, we
will have clients that will quickly move through those three letters. We'll have
clients where we just get letter after letter after letter within a period of about
two months and we get to get started right away in having an interview. There are other
countries, again I know that's really hard for those of you who are in the Philippines
that everything is on hold. It'll be a very long time before
individuals receive the welcome letter. Though we hope that things start moving forward more quickly.
In general, timing will really just depend. But at least you have a breakdown and understand
approximately once you get that transfer letter, that's really good news and hopefully you
should be receiving that notice that official welcome email within a few weeks. I hope that
helps give you clarity. Best of luck to all of you who are going through the K1 visa process.