I have been told that I can drop my I 130 off at my local St Petersburg Consulate and they will send it for processing in Moscow to decide if I qualify for DCF. What happens if they decide I do not fit the profile for meeting the "residency requirements" for DCF?
Will they just return the package and tell me to send it to the USA? Do I have to pay the fee again if they do? The St Petersburg consulate can't tell me for sure if I can do DCF or not.

My girlfriend just talked to the Moscow embassy 2 weeks ago and they said she could file for DCF after six months of stay in Moscow (she's there now). She and her Russian husband have been married almost a year and will be in Moscow (student visa) until next summer. So they will file in January 2009. Last year when I checked into it the consulate website said they would not do DCF unless the American was a permanent resident (which entails several years of painful Russian paperwork) of Russia. Don't know why they changed or if it is for real. But be sure to find out what they consider proof of residency and if it only works for certain types of visas.

When did you get married? Did you get an Apostile on the certificate? Moscow US Consulate told us to be sure and get the Apostile before we applied for immigration. We did it about 2 weeks after the marriage.