I am originally from San Jose, CA and on a tip from another poster, I called up the office of Zoe Lofgren, Chair of the Sub-Committee for Immigration. Well, either everything I read on this page is a lie, or her representative has no clue. And this wasn't just the person who answered the phone, this was someone who talked to me for 30 minutes about what is really true.
I told her that until 20 days ago I was hoping to go the DCF route in Madrid and have my husband's visa in no time. However, now Madrid is telling me to file in Rome, which is our USCIS head office for the region. I called Rome today and though the person on the phone was skeptical that Madrid no longer accepts visa petitions, she finally realized I was correct and said I could file in Rome.

I tell all of this to the representative and she says that usually the DCF process takes much longer than the normal I 130 process or finace visa process. And not to mention the DCF process is for military stationed abroad, not for people like me. She said in all of her years working there, she has only heard of one man successfully bringing his Russian wife to the states via DCF. She was very suspicious that the Madrid embassy had told me to go to Rome. She said, usually you should do what the embassy says, but I think your petition may be initially approved in Rome, sent to the US and get stuck there.

She said "you need to just come back home and file the I 130 with fiance visa here and just wait". I said, ok, well if I go that route, will my husband be allowed to visit me while we wait? She said absolutely not. When I said, there is no possibility that he could MAYBE convince the consulate to allow him to attend our wedding in August and then return back to Spain and wait to finish his visa, she said well maybe. How do we go from absolutely not to maybe?

She also said my best bet would be to call the USCIS number. I said I have called multiple times and every time I receive contradictory information. And no one seems to know anything. After this she again offered another suggestion to just get an immigration lawyer in Spain. HUH?

After reading all the posts about the DCF possibly returning, I asked if she knew anything about changes to any laws. She went on a rant about how since the Democrats finally kicked the Repubs out, some better immigration laws will finally be put into place, but "nothing happens over night".

Why does it seem that no one in the USA knows anything about what is going on and the people on this board who are actually living it day to day talking to the embassy know more than the people we pay to support us! Sorry needed to vent.

Some of these employees have serious attitude problems.

My husband and I called USCIS a couple of weeks ago to ask about some things (questions that were very easily answered) and the woman was horrible. She made us feel stupid for even asking. On top of that, English wasn't her first language so communicating was difficult.
If I recall, someone else had some issues with a representative office in Texas.

I'm not entirely sure, but I have a feeling that U.S Embassy's and Consulates around the world (whom all of this drama is in direct relation to) would hear of news before grumpy representatives in offices.

So far, our case has been pre-processed here in New Zealand.
We started in October and requested our interview for February 7th (a few days after our wedding) and while our interview has been canceled, the process definitely hasn't taken longer than it would in the U.S. They gave us our interview date about 2 weeks after I wrote in to request it and begin our pre-processing.
I filled out a couple of forms, sent them back. Compiled a few things (birth certificate, etc), had my medical exams done and that was it. We were all ready for our interview.
I think many others here who have successfully or -almost- successfully obtained a visa via DCF can back that up. It may change from country to country, but I'm pretty sure it'd never take as long as it would doing it through the U.S.

The person you spoke with seems to be very negative. Anyone me, or my husband has spoken to (namely those at the U.S Consulate here in NZ) has been very positive and encouraging and they're the ones receiving regular emails about the situation. Id prefer to put my faith in that and Id expect representatives in such offices to be far more helpful and sympathetic.

Maybe the person you spoke with has very stern views on immigration?

Also, with regards to visiting while a visa is in process, theres an entire thread on that too and its not impossible, from what i can tell. So long as your husband takes some proof of his needing to return home (lease for house, note from employer, etc) to produce if asked, there shouldn't be a problem.

I'm beginning to get extremely frustrated.
Do these people think we -enjoy- being apart from our spouses and families?
I happened to fall in love with someone on the other side of the world and while thats not as ideal as marrying the person next door, Ill make no apologies or feel like I'm in the wrong and deserve this crap. None of us should.
The law changed on us and so far all we get is little bits of information and speculation here and there about decisions being made and recent news.
It was poorly handled and were all suffering in one way or another because of this.
Now we have the pleasure of waiting week upon week for what feels like impending doom.

I'll remain hopeful. So far, all news points in a positive direction, but my temper is getting short with all of this.
We received this news ONE WEEK before our wedding. My then-fiance was in the air on his way to me when I got that shitty letter in the mail. We have been apart for years, going back and forth and we had finally found the light at the end of the tunnel, only to have the rug torn out from under us.
I have no job and no apartment. I'm stuck living with my parents as I was expecting to be in the U.S right now, starting my life with my husband. Money doesn't stay around long when you're not making any.
I miss my husband and life is just a chore without him.

All of that aside, I couldn't be angrier or more disappointed in all of this. A number of us have been totally shafted by this and that is apparently of no consequence to those making these life-changing decisions for us.

Well, apparently...I needed to vent. Can only be super-optimistic so many hours in a day, it seems.
Le sigh.

i've been in almost weekly contact with Senator Hutchinson's(R-TX) office. although they have helped get status updates on my wife's visa process, they have had a serious attitude. some of the comments i've had directed to me:

"hmm, soo....couldn't find a real american women that would have you eh?"
"you could have saved yourself all this trouble and expense by finding a good american woman..."
"if you want to marry a foreigner, you should move there"

my contact at Senator Hutchinson's office has been ill informed and at best confontational about my choice to marry a non-us citizen.

in addition, the local media has been reporting on a family of ILLEGAL immigrants that had be arrested by ICE. i've called every television station in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area trying to talk to someone about the fact that they are HELPING ILLEGALS and ignoring the nightmare of US citizens who have foreign born spouses. Hollywood has continued to propogate the myth that if you marry a US citizen you automatically get a green card.

as a group, those of us who have lived this nightmare of a legal process have got to find a way to get both the main stream media and the legislative body to understand the minefield that they have created for us. i urge everyone to contact your local press and demand that they simply do some research and help expose these lies.

girlafraid7: your frustration is understandable and i can relate 100% , untill the general public is aware of this nightmare, nothing will change, the media is associating all immigration with illegal immigration and not addressing the fact that legal immigration is real punishment. i know the darkness of your despare when you speak to someone who is "suppose to know about immigration procedures" and they appear to know very little.

"In Order For Evil To Triumph, Good People Do Nothing"

everyone here is trying to do "the right thing" to bring their loved one to the US. it is the foremost item on our agenda. but we also have a duty to try and make it better for those who follow. we have to get people to listen and demand change.

Well, as you know, DCF is up in the air at the moment, consulates are confused, and where your petition will get sent is really anyone's guess at this time. Madrid might send it to Rome USCIS, and then Rome might send it to the USA, who might mail it back... check out Saywhat's insane experience. If you can hold onto your petition a little longer, DOS may finally send clear instructions to the consulates which could, in the end, save you time.

As to this staff person: clearly, tons of people have done DCF in the past and it really seems to depend on the consulate for how quickly it went. So when this person told you DCF is only for military personnel and that she had only ever heard of one DCF passing successfully, either she has NO IDEA what's going on, or she misunderstood what you were talking about. My past experience with US offices on this matter strongly suggests the former.

Good grief, Hutchinson's office sounds absolutely awful.

Wait... I see you want to give it directly to the Rome USCIS office. So I guess it wouldn't really be DCF, just filing with USCIS overseas? Has anyone been able to do that who doesn't actually reside in the country of that USCIS overseas office?

That sounds so terrible from Hutchinson's office! The representative from California wasn't rude, just very sure of incorrect information. It was more of an attitude of giving me all possible alternative places to look so her office wouldn't have to deal with me. I'm sure she felt that she had really helped me out by the end of it all. I am just going to try the Rome office option, let's see if it works. And if it takes 4-6 months like they claim, we'll just have to beg and plead for a tourist visa so he can come to our wedding in the states. Really sucks, we told all out of town friends and family not to buy plane tickets in case he can't attend the wedding and we need to move it out. GRRR.
Speaking of the illegal immigrant situation, at times we think it would just be easier if he ran across the border.
thanks for the support

I live in Ireland. The nearest USCIS office we have here is in London, England.

I wish the Department of State would decide one of two things ALREADY:

1. Bring back DCF to each embassy/consulate with instructions that when I-130 applications are taken in, the embassy will hold on to the applications, the embassy will then send in via a very secure e-mail all the petitioners' Social Security numbers at the end of the working week to the main USCIS headquarters, run the numbers through an FBI/police database and if nothing criminal comes up against each number, the headquarters will then notify the respective embassies via the same secure e-mail that each applicant's record is clean and to go ahead and proceed to the next step of the DCF. At the most, this will add an extra 7 days to the process.

I mean, this is the MOST LOGICAL thing to do. I cannot understand why this is so hard in an age of tremendous mind-boggling technology. I've a very basic understanding of e-mails and the internet, but even I can see that this would be the easiest way to handle this mess.

2. Instead of filing DCF at the local embassy or back to the USCIS center of the petitioner's USA home state (as it stands now), the DOS would publish on their website and on each embassy's website the very same announcement with very specific instructions and locations:

Applicants living abroad would be instructed to mail their I-130 applications to the nearest USCIS office of the foreign country.

In my case, it would be London. I could send in my petition directly to London with all the required evidence plus a bank draft in US dollars in the amount of $190 payable from a US-based bank.

USCIS London will run a background check on me. Nothing will come up (I'm sure of this ). USCIS London then mails my petition directly back to my local embassy in Dublin, Ireland with an all-clear. The US embassy in Dublin will then send me a written appointment to come up for an interview where we can then proceed with the parts of the DCF that are/were unchanged.

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At the very most, the Department of State should have had something like 1 of 2 of the above in place before dropping the bombshell last January instead of the unpreparedness and scrambling we are witnessing now. I appreciate that DCF is a privilege, but at the same time, we are entitled to the right answers instead of the jumbled conflicting ones a lot of people are getting from their embassies.

I'm originally from Texas, and have long not been able to stand Kay Bailey Hutchinson! I'm not surprised that her office is full of jerks. But not all Texans are like that!!

The staff in my congressional rep's office (Tammy Baldwin) have been pretty unhelpful and not especially polite; the caseworker in Sen. Feingold's office didn't really seem to understand the situation or. But both offices sent communication to the consulate -- who knows if that helped or not? I'm pretty sure that neither Baldwin's nor Feingold's staff communicated the situation to them. I'm pretty disgusted -- I didn't jusk ask them to help me by contacting the consulate for me, I asked for a solution to the problem, for everyone.

Zoe Lofgren's office may be so used to thinking in terms of illegal immigration that they don't know a thing about legal routes. Still, it seems like she should be one of the people responsible for at least hearing about this mess. (Of course, she wasn't chair until recently, but I'm sure she was on the committee...)