Fix the K1 Fiance Visa #FixTheFianceVisa

U.S. citizens and their loved ones are facing historic delays in the legal immigration process for the K1 Fiance visa while patiently waiting to marry and start their lives at home with their overseas partners. Approximately 80,000 people are trapped in this unexpected and heartbreaking experience of family separation, waiting an estimated 13+ months for a review of their petition. And this is only the first step of the process. These families have taken all available actions to seek assistance with the timely adjudication of their case without success. They aren’t asking to cut the line. They want this problem fixed immediately for themselves and the tens of thousands of others whose lives are caught in these inhumane and unnecessary delays. USCIS’s processing times for Form I-129F, the first step of the K1 visa, are now at a historic high, and posted processing times are retrospective, meaning that those that have been waiting for over 13 months applied when the posted times were 5-7 months. This timeline continues to get longer every month, as USCIS has completed only 5,000-9,000 cases per quarter since mid-2020. This is heartbreaking for thousands of US citizens who have filed I-129F and are looking forward to their wedding day. Many have lost family members their partner will now never be able to meet. Others have been forced to become single parents and delay starting the families they have been dreaming of with their partners for years. All want to have their life partner at home in the U.S. as soon as possible to face life’s various joys and challenges together. Instead, they are waiting alone for USCIS to process their petition, anxiously watching processing times increase without any transparency or outreach from USCIS. USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou’s remarks on the need to reduce processing times are welcomed. Still, as a voter and taxpayer, I expect swift and meaningful action from USCIS to remedy the suffering of I-129F Petitioners. Data, interviews with those suffering from this visa backlog, and the next steps for you and others in power in our country are entirely laid out under the #FixTheFianceVisa hashtag.