Applying H4 for my Wife in Philippines

HI,

I am on h1b visa since this october 2012. My wife is in philippines. I want to apply H4 for her. I have a full time job here in USA and good salary.

I consulted a lawyer and he told that we need to do petition for my wife from here by filling out some applications here. And since US consulate is dept of state, so it does not recognize non-immigrant visa such as H1b. It needs to be petitioned through USCIS and then once petition is done, my wife can go for interview.

  1. My question is that my lawyer says that it takes about 3 months or so to get H4 petition done. Is this true? Because as I know from online sources, H4 can be done immediately by taking interview date and going for interview with all applications filed which can be done alone by my wife.