Crossposted from Ukraine Subforum / Eurasia:

I'm a US citizen residing in Ukraine (Odessa, no visa, 1.5 months). I moved here in February in order to be with my bride-to-be / girlfriend, and now we're looking for the quickest route to get her back to the States. I'm wondering if any of you have had a similar experience. Thanks!

You will need proof or residency in the counselor district of 6 months or more. So may need a visa that allows residency.

SEE: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/mar/82030.htm

Partially correct. You indicate she is your girlfriend, not your wife - hence you are not eligible for DCF. DCF is only available for married couples living abroad. If you get married and then fulfill the legal residency requirements posted by YuandDan, you're good to go.

Otherwise, your option is to file for a K-1 fiancee visa that gets processed in the US (with your fiancee in Ukraine), and then get to the US, marry and adjust status.

Good luck, L.

After having read some posts dated sometime back in '07, we were thinking that it may be faster for us to marry here ASAP and file for DCF, as some before us had been able to work around the 6 mo. residency requirement. Do you think the marriage-->(residency?)-->DCF route would be quicker than the K1 process?

If the consulate is receptive of a short residency, DCF is always preferable to the K-Visas.

DCF results in a CR-1 GREEN-CARD visa, this results in a green-card upon entry to the USA, NO Adjustment of Status like a K-Visa has to do. Adjustment of status costs $1010.

DCF is much less expensive.

DCF for the most part is the quickest route to a visa.

A Few warnings though.

The CR-1 visa requires the US Citizen petitioner to provide I-864. The I-864 REQUIRES the US citizen to have maintained US Domicile, and filing IRS returns every year.

More about I-864: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/I-864GenInfo-FAQ-Final.pdf

Thanks. This is what I'd read elsewhere, but I was worried the posts might have been outdated and invalidated. I guess the best thing for me to do is to contact the US Embassy in Kyiv tomorrow to see if they are "receptive of short-term residencies" and from that information begin to hash out a plan. If anyone knows from experience what I can expect from the US Embassy in Ukraine, please chime in.

Edit: I'm good on my tax returns and I do still have a permanent address in the US.

I did DCF in Kyiv summer 2007. They did ask me to prove
i had lived there six months. The problem is that in Ukraine it's so hard to register with OVIR to prove that you are a resident and not a tourist, it's very hard for the embassy to require a formal registration like in many countries. The consular did, though, look through my passports at all the stamps, border crossings stamps, etc. to see that I had lived in Ukraine a while. When you submit the first set of papers, they have a little checklist they methodically go through. I guess you can just call and ask, but it's highly unlikely you will get any kind of definitive answer. You will never get any kind of guarantee. I think it will just be the call of the consular that you get at that moment. But since you won't have been married long, I guess they will look on that with a little suspicion. I know that Ukraine used to be a haven for these quick marriages and doing DCF. When the rules changed last year, I just haven't heard if this stopped because of the residence requirement. That's all I know.

Hi L,

I'm beginning to think that DCF is the way to go for me after having read some posts and doing some investigating (I was leaning toward going for an IR-1 by way of filing an I-130).

I've been married to my Mexican bride now for 2 years and 3 months, and I lived with her and worked in Guadalajara, Mexico on an FM-3 Visa for the same amount of time. We also have a boy together of 2 years who is an American citizen (He has dual citizenship).

Since you filed for DCF in Mexico could you a little bit about how it works? Like initial steps and what all I need to file (if anything) etc... Did you have to go through Juarez or were you able to go through your local consulate there in Mexico? Do you think we would be qualified given our situation? It certainly sounds like we would be.

The only thing that would make me nervous is back taxes. I didn't file for '07 or '06 because I was Exempt according to the IRS (in Mexico I was earning less than $15K, which is the minimum amount you need to make if Married). I more than meet the financial requirements now in my current job, but I only just began working here. I could very easily get a letter from the company president and of the like.