I am one of (I'm sure) thousands of people who not only applied DCF for I130 before July 27, 2006, but were also approved before July 27th.

The US embassy in albania has sent me to emails telling me our case will NOT be affected by this law (in response to my emails to them).

I did, however, call and email the US embasssy in Vienna (the one that will supposedly get Albania's I130s) and they are telling me Albania is wrong!

I am very confused. My husband and I were told in the beginning of this process that it will take 6-12 months. We were shocked at that number!

We told each other that since we chose this route (originally filed for fiance visa, decided to marry in his country with his family.... we got lucky and were able to land an appt, at the embassy to file (DCF) one week after we were married), we would give it a full year. BUT after one year, I would go wait it out with him in his country!

People told us this would be THE FASTEST ROUTE (no longer than 6 months). We are currently at the 7 month (from time of filing) mark.

I don't know if or how we will be affected (being that we were approved before July 27, 2006). BUT if it's going to take us much further than the one year mark (this July), I really want to stay with him!

I will be there for the summer (I am a teacher, I have the summer off). My concern is the affidavit of support (which we already filed and showed that I am (currently) working and my other concern is domicile in the US (I think that won't be too big of a deal though).

I know I don't have to make any decisions now, but it is always good to try to plan ahead.

I guess, in retrospect, we should have just stayed with the fiance visa, huh?

Thanks for listening,

Amy

Amy,

It sounds like the consulate is on your side. I would keep communicating with them and not ask Vienna for advice--let the consulate do that if they feel they have to. E-mail the consulate and ask when you can have a visa appointment and go as far as they will let you go. I would guess that this works out in your favor in the end.

If someone gives you the answer you want--go for it.

Amy,
I read the posts every morning and everynight before I goto bed. I also read many government websites looking for info. We are in the same shoes as yourself, my wifes was at her January 23rd appointment when they gave the terrible news. You of course had a longer ride than us and my heart goes to you. But I want to offer a little advice, take a deep breath, and lets see what happens in the next week. There just is no info out there as of yet, they are still sorting this out themselves and were all caught by surprise. But I feel we will here what is going to happen in the next week. There is no doubt that we are going to have a longer wait and there is nothing we can do about it, except express our disappointment with the government, and I agree we should do this.

But for your sanity, I would suggest to let this go for a week and lets see what happens so you do not get bad information and more disappointments. I wish the best, you will be with your husband soon, patience and perservance makes relationships strongest, and you definately had your share of that.

Some good news. I know of one person so far whose interview was canceled this week because of the DCF snafu. They were re-scheduled an interview today and the visa was issued today. They had filed DCF in Algiers and I-130 approved before the July 27 date.

That's us. Careful drawing any big conclusions from it, though.

We had had to file a waiver and so our file had just been seen and our waiver adjudicated by USCIS in Rome. So, I do not know if it was allowed to go ahead because of this or because of the pre-July approved I-130.

I do know that Algiers was very helpful in that they were willing to look at our case as a specific case, e-mail Rome about our case specifically and figure out how to handle it rather than just lump all cases together and send them back.

I would encourage everyone to inform their consulates of the details of their case and ask that you get a specific answer rather than the general "all files go back" one. Because DCF is fast, there are probably not alot of pending cases with pre-July I-130s so you may be an anomoly and need to press that case.

I want to thank you for the encouraging words... I will keep in contact with the embassy in ALbania, I just don't want to ANNOY them or upset them. I really need them on my side (you know what I mean?)....

We are keeping our hopes up (which is difficult) and we are praying.

I miss my husband in a way that words cannot express,

Amy

EXCELLENT advice.

Do you know yet why you were allowed to go ahead with DCF I-130 and got the interview and visa? Was it because of the July 27th date?

Amy,

Sorry I did not respond to this earlier. I somehow missed that the question was directed at me.

I do not know the answer and may, in fact, never know the answer. I only know that Algiers contacted Rome and they both gave us the go ahead. I would guess, though, that it is partly because our file had just come from Rome. Again, if they do things right (I said "if") these are going to go on a case by case basis and your case clearly falls in an unknown zone so you will have to wait and see how they call it. I am in no position to guess the outcome, but I am at least encouraged that they applied some logic to our case and I hope they will to yours as well.

My wife had her interview today in Montreal - we DCF'ed back in June. She was approved and had no problems due to the new law

Hope this all gets sorted out very quickly for those who DCF'ed after July 27.

Did she get the visa??????