I am the UKC and my wife is USC and has just got the 2 year UK residency visa. We go to the UK in a few weeks..

If she doesnt like it in the UK, then can we file DCF in London to return to the US ? I am in the US on visa waiver just now.

I thought we might file in London anyway as insurance-so if we need to return to the US say in six months, we can do so right away..My questions are:

I thought she had to be more than 2 years in the uk before we could file DCF there - is that correct ? If so what is the procedure if she is resident in the UK but less than 2 years - is it different to the quicky DCF they do in australia for instance - a friend of mine USC-went to australia, got married and did dcf really quickly

When we finally get immigration approval on the I-130, how long is it valid before I MUST immigrate ? as it is an insurance policy it would be good if we could get my immigrant visa and just sit on it for a while..

Am I correct in thinking its just an I-130 we need and not a k3 ?

many thanks if you can advise

1. You must have ILR (indefintie Leave to Remain) in the UK to DCF at London, if your wife has only the two year residency (LLR) It is unlikely she will be able to do this. There have been some cases where people with LLR have managed to DCF but normally your peition will be returned and you will be asked to file at the USCIS office that looks after your state/area in the US.

2. When people are unable to DCF she will need to petition the USCIS office that looks after the state or area that she lives in in the US. Therefore inorder to do this you will need to have the use of a US residence.

3. Once your I-130 is approved (see timelines of I-130 approval for your service centre) your peition is sent to the NVC (National Visa Centre) where you will be required to file more paper work. You will need to think about how your wife will meet the income requirement if she is not in the US.

4. The entire process can take around 8 months+ and is dependant on interview dates. Once your visa is issued it must be used within 6 months of the date it was issued.

Goodluck to you both !!

Hum - yes thats a problem as she will not have an address in the US.... there must be a way ex pat americans can return home with their spouses if they dont have a US address ?

My income is pension in payment plus ok wad - so will they accept that as evidence that we can support ourselves without recourse to public funds ?


I thought I had seen somewhere that <2 year residents in the uk cannot dcf their spouses so thanks for confirming that ..but how we file without a US address is a worry - must be a way !

thank you

You should read the instructions to the I-130 and the requirements. You will need a US address to use if filing at a US service centre, or you will need to DCF. Heres the scenarios..

1. If You DCF in london, if returned you will be asked to file at a service centre in the US as you have been in the UK for less than 2 years.
2. If You file at a service center in the US you need to put a US address on the I-130 otherwise it will be returned and you will be asked to file in the UK...

As for income, there are 3 main ways to meet this requirement:

1. The USC has a US income that meets or exceeds 125% of the poverty line.
2. The USC and UKC has assets that meet the required level (see instructions for I-864)
3. You find a US resident that meets 125% of the poverty requirement that is willing to joint sponsor.

Note: Povery requirement is only 100% and not 125% if in the military.

You should read through other posts on this site, as many people have been in your situation.

yes so far so good - i reckon we are ok for the income thing as i have a pension- only problem seems to be when we file in london and they return it and tell us to file in USA. At that point we will be foxed as we will have no address in the USA - surely they dont mean that it will be impossible to file unless the USC returns to the US alone and sets up house and then files ? that sounds pretty harsh and somewhat impractical...

I must be missing something on that score...hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

If you spend some time reading the board.. you will see that this is the case for many people, as many people have been seperated for months,

The other option I see is to establish a residence in the US, file the I-130 and then file the K3 as I belive you can reside in the US while your visa is pending..

I could be wrong.,. maybe somebody else can shed light on this ?

Also.. check out the guides sections as they will descibe the available paths..

Yes, you are. Have you read the DCF Guide which explainis the process yet?

Your wife should plan on keeping some sort of US address, among other things. You can review the instructions for the I-864 for other things she should do in order to be eligible to bring you over.

It might sound harsh to you, but coming over independently is exactly what a USC who has cut all ties must do, before they can bring their spouse.
I maintained those ties, and didn'thave that issue.

To qualify to file in London, your wife must be genuinely resident there, usually for about 2 years.

jeepers !

When we got her UK 'green card' at the British Consulate in Chicago there was no blood tests,no pants down, no police check - nothing - it took her 20 minutes to get her 2 year UK residency with right to work and free health care...

Having done K1 to the USA, I knew this was going to be tough but I didnt realise she would have to return to the US alone and get an address alone to even start the process..

anyway folks, thanks for warning me... worst comes to the worst we would have to wait until her 2 years are up in the UK and then we can do DCF

I see DCF is immediate in Poland with no length of residency requred - I have the right to reside there as an EEC national - perhaps we should go to warsaw and do it from there ! its a joke - it cant be that easy.

Yeah, yeah, I kjnow. The UK is much better than the US at this, yeah yeah yeah. Unfortunately, you can't go to the UK consuate to get a US visa. The downside to the quick UK immigration deal is that you have to live IN the UK.

You're not reading carefully. I did not say that she MUST return to the US to even start the process. You have much research to do on that.

If you want to go live in Poland, they will likely entertain your case, but you must be genuinely resident there.

Why wait for the 2 years? DCF does not relieve the need for a US domicile, and waiting two years will make it all the harder --- Please read the two docs I indicated before and stay flexible. Living abroad merely requires some advance planning.

yes the poland thing was a joke - I think !

Seems like we should buy a condo in the US where the processing times are shortest- then file there ? That would give my wife a domicile there

I HAVE FOUND THIS ON THE EMBASSY SITE ....

How can a petitioner establish a domicile?

When a sponsor has clearly not maintained a domicile in the United States, he/she will need to re-establish a U.S. domicile in order for him/her to be a sponsor. The sponsor may make a number of steps to show that he/she considers the United States his/her principal place of residence. Examples of things he/she can do are given below:

Find a job in the United States
Locate a place to live in the United States
Register children in U.S. schools
Make arrangements to give up (relinquish) residence abroad
Other evidence of a U.S. residence
If the sponsor establishes U.S. domicile, it is not necessary for the sponsor to go to the United States before the sponsored family members. However, the sponsored immigrant may not enter the United States before the sponsor returns to the United States to live. The sponsored immigrant must travel with the sponsor or after the sponsor has entered the United States.

>>>>>>>OK but if we are actually living in the uk, will the service center send notices to the US address or England -seems we only need to have obtained a domicile and not actually be living there as the above says we can travel to the US together...i guess this is where an immigration attorney would be handy as notices get copied to them ? dont know if i am understanding or digging in deeper !

Nope, looks like you're starting to get the idea. Doesn't your wife have any trusted family or friends in the US?

Mailing addresses can be different that residence addresses.

hehe.. about Poland, Greece is a lot more fun!

Greece ummm ! nope its hard enough in english !
Can the mailing address be outside the US ? I am worried that we get a place in the US to establish domicile but then all the notices and stuff pile up in the mailbox at the empty house ...That stuff on the embassy site says we can file from outside the US if she has domicile for the financial support form - and then travel to the US together - but if it isnt DCF then I guess we are filing at a service center and I am not sure if they would correspond to a foreign address ? cost of stamps you know ! plus which they have 'no-redirects' and stuff which wouldnt work abroad so not sure they would do it......lots of folks must have done this where the USC has a US domicile but is living abroad with their spouse and they want to come to the US together ?how do we get the correspondence in the yookay ?

Breathe.


bold= you might be getting off track again.

I can't give you any specific answers--just ideas. Everyone's deal is different. But, there are ways to work this out, and if you give the community a little time (and do some reading back) I'm sure you'll come up with some ideas.
It's not going to be solved today, IOW.

We're going to be filing I-130 from the UK once i'm there, but I'm going to be using my Dad's address as my domicile. He'll be able to forward all the USCIS stuff to me. Does your wife have any family that would be willing to stick the stuff that comes in a big envelope and send it overseas to you? If not family, maybe a trusted friend? There's got to be a way you can do this thing.

Good luck!

Yes thanks folks - there is always a difference between theory and practice so yes i will just hang around in the forums and see how people handle it... I have the main idea now - yes my wife's sister in Milwaukee could be the mailing address if we filed in the US, but I dont know if her address would be acceptable as 'domicile' - i would guess not..
However, there is an outpost field office of the USCIS attached to the London Embassy and it looks like we can file there- it isnt DCF as it isn't the consulate - I have emailed them to check that is the case...if so, then that means the notices etc can come to our UK address - then there is just the domicile thing to fix.. In theory we would rent an apartment in the US and pay rent for x months while it stood empty waiting for us - in practice, I bet folks rent a place for the minimum time, have a holiday, bring the rent agreement back to the UK, and file the I-130 quoting the rental place as available for a domicile (which it would be at the time of filing), but a different mailing address for the notices (uk address in our case if we file at USCIS London), light the blue touch paper, stand back and let it all happen -

Sounds somewhat contrived but just legal

Would that work ?

Did you read the Guide? London "DCF" is not at the Consulate, you are correct. The rules discussed are for filing the I-130 with DHS (USCIS Field Office) in London. It's all the same thing.

I applied for and was approved for DCF after being a resident of the UK for 11 months. I don't know what is the shortest amount of time they will approve, I am just thankful that they took mine.

The one thing that really stands out to me in your original post is that you are already anxious to know the procedure for returning to the U.S. It's as though the move is being made with negative expectations already in place. Has your wife spent any appreciable time in the UK before?

If there are huge questions as to whether or not she will like the UK, perhaps it may be wise to take an extended trip there before pulling up stakes and making the move. Just a thought

Good Luck

She won't have to move back alone; I'm a USC living in the UK and we did a DCF. If you don't meet the 2 year residency requirement you still may be able to do it but you will have to look at the US Embassy in London's website to see precisely what their requirements are.

As I understand it they will usually not allow US residents in the UK on limited visas (like your wife's) to make a DCF. When I immigrated to the UK I was eligible to apply for a permanent resident visa after only one year, not two. My permanent resident visa was issued in 2002; perhaps they've changed the rules since then.

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/dhs/uscis/i130filing.html




I completely agree with this.

In my opinion moving to the UK was one of the worst decisions I have ever made. I'm very unhappy here and I can't wait to leave. I came here with the best of intentions but after a couple of years of trying but failing to make friends and have even a marginally acceptable career (I'm a database programmer) I gave up and suggested to my husband that we move back to America. Last year he agreed, and we started the process.

It can be extremely difficult to be an American in the UK right now; personally I am fed up of having to answer for Bush, having to absorb constant anti-American rhetoric in the press and at work, and just hearing nothing but negative things about my country and its people. I get sick to death of British people accusing us of being nothing but 'fat, stupid, obnoxious slobs.' Way to make me feel welcome!

That is not to say that all Americans living in the UK are miserable. They're not. A childhood friend of mine lives in London and is an investment banker. She adores living in London, but she's a workaholic and makes over £1 million a year, so the obscene cost of living here isn't an issue for her. She also doesn't have to put up with the dingy, dirty, creaking NHS. She's also married to an American, so there are no visa issues if they decide to return to the United States. Some Americans (regardless of income) absolutely adore living in Britain, and some others absolutely despise it. It's all a matter of personal preference, but moving to the UK is for most people a permanent step and is NOT to be taken lightly.

If there is any doubt, I think you should strongly consider staying put in the United States.