Holy Moley...US Spouse Visas Take FOREVER!!

First off, thanks for the links on my other post about US spouse visas.  My friend came over today and we spent hours researching info for US spouse visa (CR1).  By the looks of the information we found, they are looking at 6-12 months (if there are no complications) to get the visa.  How in the world is it possible that you can get a UK spouse visa processed in 48 hours...but the same visa to the US is 12 months?  I realize they are different countries and different laws and all that...I'm not THAT stupid...I just find it absolutely crazy!  There is no way to expedite the visa process...at least UK offers ways to speed up the process...US visa is just "sit around and wait for your number to be called." (I say that sarcastically, as it is obviously more technical than that).  I guess it's just really frustrating for my friend who sees me get my visa in 10 days and he could be waiting in excessive of 10 months.  My hubby really helped the situation by telling him that a friend of his moved from the UK to Tennessee to be with his wife...his application processing time = 14 months.  Anybody here had recent approvals?  And who long was the wait?  I'm trying to find some uplifting info for my friends...they are horribly discouraged at the moment!

You'd probably be better off posting that on the 'Repatriation' part of the forum.  Most people reading these threads aren't going to the US, but to the UK, and probably wouldn't know...I can only go on what I've heard in the past, and that is more like 6 months, but i don't know all the factors of the situations I've heard of, nor your friend's...but, yes, I understand there are more hoops to jump through, since there is an in-person interview involved and a medical exam, etc...

I have read elsewhere, in the past, that a US fiancé(e) visa takes a lot less time to process than a US spouse one. Two questions ..... is that true? And if it is ..... why? It does not make sense!

Yup, US visas take forever and the process is much more tedious.  I understand that some people may find the UK system frustrating but really people are very lucky to only have to wait a few weeks.

I have read elsewhere, in the past, that a US fiancé(e) visa takes a lot less time to process than a US spouse one. Two questions ..... is that true? And if it is ..... why? It does not make sense!

Currently they're running neck and neck, more or less. It is very long-winded though in comparison to getting a UK spousal visa.

One reasons it takes so much longer is the complex criminal background checks done by US on both applicant and sponsor. There are at least two checks on the applicant...those have gotten even tighter since 9/11 of course. But when we were in the middle of it all, they changed the rules on us and added criminal checks on US citizen sponsors/spouses as well. The reasoning was to stop domestic violence and pedophiles from bringing women and their kids into the country, because the whole US process leaves the non-American spouse pretty vulnerable. But it made the whole mess so much longer than we planned that we finally gave up and moved us to the UK with him.

Yeah, but it is a lot cheaper, or was a year ago when my DH got his green card. He was able to get an unconditional visa (not dependent on me anymore to keep it) as we had been married for longer than 2 years. At the time we were shelling out £900 for my ILR so the $700 didn't seem like much for the same thing!