Just to confirm:

The mailing address/permanent address that you used on the application, it IS your address in your foreign country, right?

As in when you receive the NOA, it will be posted to your foreign address?

I ask because one poster said the advice by the US embassy in Stockholm is to put a US address as the permanent one, to make it appear as if the applicant is living and filing from the States. I thought this was the wrong info.

I thought the whole point was that the I-130 will be processed back in the States and that if/when nothing comes up with the background check, USCIS will then mail the approved application back to the applicant's local embassy and the embassy will take it from there.

Am I misinformed?

I only want to make sure because I will be mailing my application back to the USCIS in California if nothing solid comes up by March 2nd regarding DCF.

Thanks.

That was me who posted that and I still stand by what I said. I also think it sounds crazy but that is what I was told. I posted it on an American forum here in Sweden and one person posted back that she was told to mail it to a family member and have them re-mail it with an American stamp. Stating that she was told by Stockholm they wouldn't accept it if it came from outside America. Yes, you are correct in that after the I-130 is processed, everything will "resume as normal" with the foreign consulate.

I am very weary about following these instructions- I read here on this forum that one person sent it to London who sent it to America, who sent it back to London..........I can see why America thinks London should process it-- they say to file at the district where the American citizen is a permanent resident, in my case that is London. However, I can't understand why/how London is rejecting us.

I called Rome (the office responsible for London) and she said she will email me back today. She said it would be okay to send it to America (with my Swedish address). I want to avoid that if at all possible. Hopefully she'll send me an email telling me to send it to Rome!

I would also like to hear if anyone has successfully sent an application to the US with their foreign address.

I just received 2 emails from London- here they are.....

Please stay in contact with the Embassy in Stockholm for further updates on
>this
>situation.
>
>The London Suboffice only accepts I-130s from US citizens who reside in the
>UK.
>If you are unwilling to wait for the additional guidance on filing overseas
>then
>we suggest that you file the I-130 with a USCIS Service Center in the United
>States, please be sure to include a US address on the front of the
>application
>form and follow the instructions for payment of the fee.
>
>USCIS - London
>.............................................................................
................................................................................
.........
Recently, the Department of State has ceased accepting Petitions for Alien
Relatives
(Form I-130) at all Consular posts. Therfore, all I-130 petitions must now
be
filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). No formal
decision has yet been made concerning where petitioners who would have filed
at
a Consular post should now file their petition(s). Once a decision is
made, we
will publish further guidance via
http://london.usembassy.gov/dhs/uscis/i130filing.html.

Pending a formal decision the London Sub Office of USCIS cannot accept I-130
petitions from those affected. Therefore, if you do not wish to wait for a
decision in this matter, you may elect to file your I-130 petition with a
USCIS
Service Center in the United States (http://www.uscis.gov). If you use this
option, please ensure that the address of the petitioner (Item B.2 of the
I-130)
reflects a U.S. address.

Thank you for your understanding.

USCIS - London

Okay, third email today from London- a bit snippy, but that is to be expected- it was in response to a snippy letter sent by me

However, this email gives me a little bit of hope to hold on before sending my I-130 to the US.

................................................................................
.....................................

Sweden is under our jurisdiction for specific USCIS related matters. Please
see
our website at www.uscis.gov or www.usembassy.org.uk for additional
information
about our office.

We have recommended that you await additional guidance as a new announcement
is
anticipated that may make this process simpler for you. If you are
unwilling to
wait, then you must file in the United States as previously instructed.

USCIS - London

Thanks for sharing those emails! Always nice to hear some reinforcement of the "DCF to return" rumor! If/when it does come back, I think there will be an international party on this website! Thanks again for posting.

I have to say, based on past stories, you might want to find a US mailing address that you can reliably use and arrange to have your mail forwarded.

At one point, Service Centers did receive specific instruction to NOT bounce foreign address I-130s, but the normal course of events is that they will return the petition packet to you if you use your overseas address.

Of course, no one knows what they are going to do yet about USCs who are genuinely resident abroad. If you can't wait for those instructions, and choose to file in the US, you are a US petitioner as far as CIS is concerned, and will go through the normal IV process. This includes adjudication at the Service Center, and forwarding to the NVC for a couplefew months of pre-processing before the case is forwarded to the Embassy. You then wait for a visa interview to be scheduled, at the schedule of the local folks.

The major advantage of filing overseas is that the above two steps are compressed into less than a week instead of 6-9 months.

When I was living abroad, and filed through a USCIS (then INS) Field Office, I was instructed to use my US address on the I-130, but I was able to my provide local mailing address for correspondance. Our case was a sortof DCF--we had the Field Office in the Embassy building, they approve and hand it over to the Dept of State people and visa processing. Therefore, using a US address for a US petition makes sense to me.