colgirl,
Hi and welcome to our little bunch, glad you found your way here. In no time you'll sort your options out and find the right one for you and your husbands needs. Don't put too much worry into the process like I did, you'll see in the end that it wasn't that bad at all, quite simple once you get the hang of things really, so set your worries aside!
whattodo did a great job of explaining things, nice and simple unlike me....
First things first, do you have a permessio di sorrgiorno/Permit of Stay in Italy? You'll need that to be able to use the DCF option.
You mentioned "Well, it seems as though that fast track may not exist here in Rome."
If you are talking about DCF an option in Italy, Rome/Embassy just takes care of the first thing you will file, the I-130. I believe yes, Italy still offers DCF or have things changed that much since I filed? Here's the number I called quite often: 0646742190
You will send just the I-130 form and the documents they requested to the Embassy in Rome who will process just those papers. Looks like they take about a month to be approved. After approval, they will contact you stating that the I-130 Petition for Relative was approved and sent to the Consulate in Naples for further processing. In my opinion, all the staff at Rome couldn't have been more polite and helpful. I'm thankful I was able to call them for any concerns or questions.
Naples, will take care of the other forms and surprisingly was also wonderful to go through in my opinion. Yes, they were slow sending us papers, but in reality we didn't need to wait on their papers because you can download and print everything you need from the internet! We were assigned an interview date really quick too. There are easy as cake to contact for questions on Tues and Wed, and are SO laid back, they asked for those required documents at the interview, (birth certs, marriage certs, etc. ) and that was pretty much it! I'm sure every case is different, but if yours is straight forward, they will be staight forward also.
Our whole process took 3 and a half months! They estimate that it will take 4-6 months. That wouldn't happen in the U.S. as far as I know it's more like 6+ months!?! It would have been even faster for us if the Adam Walsh Act didn't confuse and put a hold on things at the Rome Embassy for us! You can look in the processing times or the immigration timelines tabs at the top of the page and get a better idea as to what the california service center looks like. I haven't done my research, but in my opinion DCF is generally alot faster!
You might need to consider the I-864/Affidavit of Support, it is a form stating that the spouse immigrating will not become a public charge in the U.S. (ask for food stamps/other help from the U.S. goverment) You will always be the main spronsor for your spouse and only U.S. income is counted. If you have no or not enough U.S. income (i think its some where in the 16,000$'s per year or xxx much cash) you'll need to get a joint sponsor who is a U.S. citizen and makes more than that to support your spouse.
If you just do not have anyone to be a joint sponsor THEN I would consider you going to the U.S. continuing to work for the I-864 purpose, keeping the 16,000+ amount in mind.
Read MargotDarko's post here :
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...p;#entry1047890 So my vote is DCF. I'm thankful we were able to do it! But then again I don't know so much about the U.S. route, can your husband be in the U.S. during the process over there? I thought no, but I'm not sure. All i know is that it seems to take longer. Sorry I'm not much help, you might try to post there too and see about others, or check peoples timelines.
Another thing i wanted to add. If your married for less than two years at the time of the visa approval, (called conditional) your husband will later adjust status in the U.S. if instead you are married for more than 2 yrs at time of visa (called unconditional) then he will not havve to adjust status later.
cr1=conditional=married less than 2 yrs and ir1=unconditional=married more that 2 yrs.
So, I would suggest the DCF Italy route to everyone! lol
Hope you've made some sense from my jibberish, sorry to not be much help! Let us know what your deciding!
Bree