Effective October 23, 2006, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) National Benefits Center (NBC) has begun transferring petitions for K-3-spouses of U.S. citizens, to the California Service Center (CSC) and the Vermont Service Center (VSC), depending on the location of the related Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative. This transfer is being implemented as an initiative to use centralized filing and bi-specialized adjudication. USCIS has aligned similar workloads between the service centers to better manage cases and improve customer service.
Approved Form I-129F (K-3) petitions will be forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC) for consular processing by USCIS. However, the approved Form I-130 petitions will be retained by USCIS, based upon a mutual agreement with the Department of State. USCIS will store approved Form I-130 petitions at its National Record Center (NRC).
This internal transfer of work will not alter the existing filing instructions for any of the forms. Accordingly, those who file Forms I-130, I-129F (K-3-spouses of U.S. citizens only), and I-485 should continue to follow the current filing instructions on these forms. Applicants affected by this transfer will receive a receipt notice from the NBC notifying them of the location to which their Form I-129F has been transferred.
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