I lived in the US for three years working as a teacher, I met and married my husband and we now have a 1 year old son who was born in Charlotte, NC. We otained Canadian permanent residency for my husband in July and moved back to Canada in August. We have been here for a year and would like to move back to the US. We are Filing I-130 DCF on the 22nd of June. I have 2 questions for now......

1) We already filed form I-130 and fee with Vermont service center in February but have not heard anything. We were told this was a better way to go, do we have to do something to cancel the other filing in the US before we proceed?

2) My Husband is presently employed here in Canada. In order to file an Affadavit of support will he need US income? He has had several job offers back in the US should he accept one and go prior to my Visa approval? If so, he will need to be present for the interview, YES?

Thanks for any advice...in advance. This site is very helpful!!

hi there,
How long ago did you file to Vermont? Why the rush to file now in Canada? WHY do you think it is a better way to go?

Your husband will need a US based income for the affidavit of support. If he can get one before your interview, splendid. He may have to go to the US ahead of you, but it's for the short term.

The USC does not need to be present for the visa interview.

Part of the reason I asked you the first questions is this. Montreal is taking 3-4 months (?double check this) to schedule interviews currently.
Vermont is a very fast Service Center.
Usually, the benefit to filing at the Consulate, vs the Service Center, is the I-130 processing time. Since Vermont is normally so fast, I'm not sure youd gain much by filing in Canada. Once the I-130 is approved, you are in the same line for an interview as the other, Stateside filers.

You *do* save the NVC time, but you might be splitting very fine hairs. Are there other considerations in your decision?

We filed at the end of February with Vermont and they received the forms and filing fee March 3rd (according to UPS tracking). We have not even received a receipt yet from Vermont. When my husband spoke with the consulate, the individual who took care of booking the appointment told him the US system is so backlogged that this is the best way to do it.

Any advice? Would hate to have to spend another $190 but we would like to get there faster.

This is something for you to investigate. I'll try to give you some starting points to look at. The difference may be a case of a couple/few weeks, so you will have to decide if that quantity of time is worth $190.

Look for other Vermont I-130 filers in the same timeframe as you. They'll be posting in the CR/IR forum.

Study the NVC process and see how long MTL applicants are spending there and what the steps are. Avoiding the NVC would be worth $190 *to me* (I've never been thru there, but it sounds like a lot of hassle to me! ).


That's a couple of places to start.. this is one of those things with no obvious answer. It really all depends on you & your spouse, how much you understand the process and how you feel about that $190. I'm a big fan of DCF---it *is* a straight shot---- boy, it's a hard call to make! Good luck?

Thanks so much "meauxna" your advice has been very helpful and greatly appreciated. It looks like even Vermont (as fast as it may be) is backlogged. I found an individual (US/Canadian) who had filed I-130 around the same time as we did and they too, are still waiting to hear. The timelines for Vermont and I-130 according to the USCIS website...they are now processing December 17, 2005! So, regardless of money I think it's probably best to File DCF. Montreal wait times may be similar....but isn't all a waiting game.

We waited to get permanent residency for Canada in the US and paid a lot of money for it....now we're waiting for Residency for US in Canada...bizarre. You'd think with the cost of it all we'd have made up our minds about the best place to settle!!

That being said, do we now have to cancel our filing with Vermont? Can we do so via phone
Thanks again!

Nothing can be done by phone.. everything must be done in writing...

However, I wouldn't cancel the I-130 until I got Packet 3 from Montreal.

zyggy pretty much said it..
Don't do anything by phone. Always by trackable mail and retain a copy for yourself. Print/save any delivery confirmation you get.
Re-filing will get you 'ahead' in line for an interview.
Waiting until you have your P3 from MTL keeps all your cards in play without penalty.

If there's any way for the USC to get Canadian citizenship application going, that will save you in the long run for going back/forth. Same goes for the Canadian to apply for US citz ASAP (plus/minus three years).

My mom's people are from Halifax & having spent a winter there, I can't see what the dilema is.. too cold for me!