K1 visa approved!!! 363 days
Hi guys! First time poster here. Have followed this thread for over a year with anxiety, hope and anticipation for our own process. Since a lot of the posts helped me/us stay relatively calm in the process I wanted to provide some insight and timeline on our journey as well. Our background: I am a German citizen and my fiancé is American, we met in September 2023 in the US, have had a long-distance relationship for almost two years after that and he moved to Germany June 2025 to stay for one year on the “chancenkarte”, a temporary work seeking visa, to be with me and help me with my k1. So here’s our timeline:
July 3rd 2025: sent I-129 F petition from Germany to the US via DHL
July 10th 2025: NOA1
February 4th 2026: NOA2
April 21st 2026: USCIS sent to NVC
May 2nd 2026: DS160 submission
May 28th 2026: medical exam
June 26th 2026: interview in consulate general Frankfurt, 4 hours later approved
June 29th 2026: visa issued
July 1st 2026: passport with visa in hand (premium delivery to home Address)
Everything went pretty smooth for us, but it was a lot of paperwork and long nights going over the details. Some more things we did:
- When filing the I-129 F we only included like 8 pictures or so that showed me and him on vacation, at home and with his parents on different occasions. We added flight tickets (both his and mine). We also included a letter of intent to marry but that was it for the proof.
- prior to my medical exam I checked the official CDC website and talk to my doctor about getting the necessary vaccines. That way you can avoid extra costs for vaccines during your medical exam. As far as I know they are voluntary in general but I have no problem with vaccines, so that was a money saver for us.
-on the day of the interview, since he came with me, we were actually able to go into the embassy together and do the interview together which was incredibly helpful, both for our case as well as my nerves lol. They said we might be able to do it when we queued up in front of the embassy and inside we were told that the consular officers actually prefer if the petitioner comes with the beneficiary. Now this was the case at the Frankfurt embassy, I can’t speak for other embassy’s.
-the interview itself was very quick, after waiting for 2 hours in an open room that felt more like a ticketing booth area. I was asked these 4 questions:
- where did you meet?
- how long have you been dating?
- what does he plan to do for work in the us?
-what do you plan to do for work in the us?
After that the officer just said thanks and that they would have to review my social media. At first I was very disappointed having thought that I would know right there and then if I was approved or not. After 4 hours or so we checked my status online again and it said “approved”. So all good there. Just make sure you tell them about all the social media you have and put it on public.
We have booked our one way flights for the end of August and are beyond excited to finally start our life together in the USA. AOS will be a whole other process, right now we are just relieved that this first/ long part is done.
Hope this helps!