Guides for couples
Find your stage, check what to do next, and read the official instructions. These guides explain U.S. spouse and fiancé(e) visa processes. They are not legal advice.
Current policy changes
Each update includes its official source and recorded review date.
Awaiting a fresh check
We have not re-read the sources behind these pages recently enough to lead with them. They are still here, and each one says exactly where it stands.
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Grouped by where you are in the process. Search or pick a group to narrow the list.
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49 guides
Before and while you file
Working out which route you are on, what the filing asks for, and what the published timing figures actually measure.
Choosing a visa route
K-1 and spouse immigrant visas: process differences
Compare the K-1 fiancé(e) process with the CR-1/IR-1 spouse immigrant-visa process, from petition type to what happens after U.S. arrival.
Last reviewed
Preparing forms and documents
K-2 children: applications, travel, and adjustment
Organize each K-2 child's application, documents, medical, visa, travel, and later adjustment separately from the K-1 principal.
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Preparing forms and documents
What Form I-130 does: the spouse petition explained
What the spouse petition establishes, who files it, and what an approval does and does not settle.
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Preparing forms and documents
What Form I-129F does: the K-1 petition explained
What the fiancé(e) petition establishes, who may file it, and what the published K-1 route expects after arrival.
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Preparing forms and documents
I-130 spouse petition: what goes in the package
What USCIS lists for an I-130 spouse petition, which items depend on your circumstances, and where to read the current official instructions.
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Preparing forms and documents
I-129F fiancé(e) petition: what goes in the package
A K-1 petition checklist based on USCIS form instructions, with conditional items and an official source behind each one.
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Preparing forms and documents
NVC document checklist for couples
Civil and financial documents at the National Visa Center stage, and the country and post rules that change the list.
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Preparing forms and documents
Bona fide marriage evidence for long-distance couples
The categories USCIS names for showing a marriage is bona fide, and how couples who have never shared a household document the relationship they actually have.
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Understanding processing times
K-1 visa processing times
Where to check official information for each K-1 stage, from Form I-129F through consular processing, entry, marriage, and adjustment of status.
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Understanding processing times
Spouse visa processing times
Where to find current USCIS, NVC, Visa Bulletin, and interview-scheduling information for CR-1, IR-1, and F2A spouse cases.
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Understanding processing times
How to read the Visa Bulletin as a couple
Priority dates, Final Action Dates versus Dates for Filing, and what the F2A row means for spouses of green card holders.
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While the case is moving
Waiting, answering what comes back, the consular stage, and the medical exam and interview.
Waiting and responding
What USCIS case status language means
What a status line reports on a pending family petition, and why wording such as “actively reviewed” says nothing about queue position or timing.
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Waiting and responding
Working through a request for evidence together
How to read an RFE as the authoritative instruction, map each requirement to a document and an owner, and keep proof of what you sent and when.
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Waiting and responding
Adding or correcting evidence after you have filed
How USCIS handles address changes while a petition is pending, which records to keep, and what this guide cannot decide about evidence or corrections.
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Waiting and responding
Visiting the US while an I-130 is pending
General orientation on why a pending spouse petition makes visitor travel a question for professional advice, and what no page can tell you about admission.
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NVC and visa documents
After I-129F approval: the K-1 visa application
Follow the K-1 handoff from USCIS through NVC to the embassy or consulate, with separate DS-160 applications and post instructions.
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NVC and visa documents
What happens after an I-130 approval
Who handles each step after USCIS approves a spouse petition for consular processing, what couples can check at NVC, and how interview scheduling works.
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NVC and visa documents
What the CEAC fee, form, and document states mean
The vocabulary the consular portal uses for fees, forms, and documents, and why none of those states is a decision about your case.
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NVC and visa documents
Preparing to complete the DS-260
What the immigrant visa application asks for, how to gather the history it covers as a couple, and what submitting it does and does not do.
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NVC and visa documents
The I-864 affidavit of support, in outline
Who signs an affidavit of support, what a joint sponsor or household member is, and why domicile and income questions belong with an attorney.
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NVC and visa documents
Civil documents, police certificates, and translations
Who issues each civil record, why the rules differ by country, and what the published requirements say about translations and originals.
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NVC and visa documents
How an approved petition moves through the NVC and CEAC
What creates a National Visa Center case, what CEAC is used for, and how NVC review and interview scheduling work.
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NVC and visa documents
What documentarily qualified means for NVC scheduling
How the Department of State defines documentarily qualified, what its monthly scheduling status shows, and what may still need attention before an interview.
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The medical exam and the interview
The immigrant visa medical exam explained
Who performs the examination, how it fits around an interview, and how to organise records for it — process only, with no medical guidance.
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The medical exam and the interview
Vaccination records for the medical exam
How to gather records held across countries before the examination, and who decides what a gap means — paperwork only, no medical guidance.
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The medical exam and the interview
Should the petitioner attend the visa interview?
Whose appointment the interview is, why building access is a post rule, and how to make the travel decision without reading meaning into it.
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The medical exam and the interview
Interpreters and accessibility at the interview
How interpreting and accessibility requests are made to a consular post, and why the arrangements differ from one building to the next.
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The medical exam and the interview
What to take to the interview, and in what form
Why uploading is not the same as bringing, how originals, certified copies, and translations differ, and how to keep the folder current.
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The medical exam and the interview
What happens at an immigrant visa interview
The general shape of the interview, who decides what, and why attendance, security, and interpreters are questions only your post can answer.
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The medical exam and the interview
Interview question categories and truthful practice
How reviewed Togetherward prompts are organized, why they are not official questions, and how couples can practice without scripting.
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The medical exam and the interview
Spouse visa interview questions and truthful preparation
Route-specific preparation prompts for CR-1, IR-1, and F2A interviews, grounded in the couple's own records.
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The medical exam and the interview
K-1 visa interview questions and truthful preparation
K-1-specific preparation prompts for truthful recall, record review, current plans, and post logistics.
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The medical exam and the interview
If an interview has to be moved or is missed
Why rescheduling is handled entirely by the post that scheduled the appointment, and how to keep a record of every request and reply.
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Decisions, arrival, and problems
What happens after the interview, the first months after arrival, and what to do when a case stalls or gets complicated.
After the interview
K-1 visa entry: printed dates, documents, and admission
Separate the K-1 visa's printed travel window from admission, the I-94 record, and the later marriage period.
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After the interview
221(g): the letter handed over after an interview
What the Department says about a current section 221(g) refusal, what the notice requests, and what may lead to later reconsideration.
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After the interview
Waiting in administrative processing
What the Department says about administrative processing after a 221(g) refusal, possible later reconsideration, and variable duration.
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After the interview
If a visa is refused
How the Department describes 221(g) refusals and other cited legal grounds, what a notice may say, and where individual interpretation stops.
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After the interview
After an immigrant visa is issued
The visa packet, the window printed on the visa, the USCIS immigrant fee, and what follows entry, from the official pages only.
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After arrival
K-1 marriage and adjustment: two separate records
Use actual K-1 admission for the marriage period, preserve the marriage record, and organize the separate adjustment-of-status application.
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After arrival
Arriving at a U.S. port of entry
What an immigrant visa lets you do at the border, who decides admission, and what the official pages do and do not say about arrival.
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After arrival
When and how the green card arrives
What USCIS publishes about producing and mailing the card, why the address on file matters, and what to do if it does not arrive.
Last reviewed · This guide is temporarily withdrawn
After arrival
A Social Security number after IR-1/CR-1 arrival
What the Department of State says about the Social Security number request and card after IR-1/CR-1 admission, without predicting an individual delivery date.
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After arrival
CR-1, IR-1, and conditional residence
What separates the two spouse categories, what conditional permanent residence means, and where USCIS publishes the rule.
Last reviewed · This guide is temporarily withdrawn
After arrival
Removing conditions on residence with Form I-751
What Form I-751 is for, how USCIS describes the joint filing and its window, and which parts are attorney questions rather than admin.
Last reviewed · This guide is temporarily withdrawn
Delays and changes
When a case is taking longer than published
How USCIS's live processing-time tool shows current case timing and inquiry options, without predicting an individual decision.
Last reviewed
Delays and changes
Asking for a case to be expedited
Where the published expedite criteria live, who decides, and why no request carries a published likelihood.
Last reviewed · This guide is temporarily withdrawn
Delays and changes
Moving a case to a different embassy
Who decides where an immigrant visa case is interviewed, how a change is requested, and why acceptance is never assumed.
Last reviewed · This guide is temporarily withdrawn
Delays and changes
When documents go out of date mid-case
How current immigrant-visa and K-1/K-2 instructions treat changing documents, including where official police-certificate pages leave a question open.
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Delays and changes
Finding legal services for an immigration case
Official information on finding immigration legal services and understanding visa-denial guidance, with clear limits on what a shared case can do.
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Where to go next
Use Togetherward to keep your tasks, documents, and dates together.