So... we tried calling Frankfurt again today (Monday between 2 and 4pm) under 069 7535-0 as it says on their website

after one time being forwarded into a black whole of eternal ringing, we called again and got transfered to an autmated message that gave us several options depending on what letter our last name starts with

for K-M
we're supposed to call Monday or Wednesday from 12 - 2 pm
or Tuesday or Friday from 2 - 4 pm
at 069 7535-8200

interesting...
maddening...

so... hope that helps somebody
sorry we didn't check for other last names

WHEN YOU CALL ASK FOR THE IMMIGRATION VISA SECTION !!!!

God help us all

What's the number to? USCIS, or the Consulate visa section? The USCIS number I have is 069 7535 2233. Mind you, you've already had a lot more luck with the number you called than I have. I have yet to get a human on the phone, and usually am simply just ejected after a minute or so.

I've heard calling between 2-3 pm may be good...

Walter

Walter

If you want to call Visa Section use 0697558200 and the extension according your last name.
But if you want to call USCIS Frankfurt (they have your I-130) call 06975352233. You have more luck finding somebody between 1.30 -3.00 pm.

Good luck for all of you I hope we all gonna finish soon with this process cause it is a nightmare.

Thanks for the heads up. I haven't even bothered trying to contact them yet. I wanted to wait around 8 weeks to do that just looking at other people's timelines. I didn't/don't particularly expect any results before then.

Next week will be 8 weeks, so I will try to get a hold of them before I go to work in the morning on M-Th.

Phone luck for all of you!

MaydayDas

are you a resident of Germany or Romania?

and congrats on the positive response!!!!!!

does that mean your case was forwarded to Rome?

and are you know continuing through Frankfurt or Romania or Rome?

so, we're calling right now (tuesday between 2 and 4) and the voice message is a new one that lists the same times except for tuesday
so I guess we'll try again tomorrow... between 12 and 2

also tried maydays number twice which each time gave us a voice message that hung up on us

I am originally from Romania but I am a German resident. I started and I will finish DCF in Frankfurt. No, my case was not forwarded to Rome, we discovered that in Rome is the District Office of Homeland Security in Europe , so Frankfurt is a Sub-Office of the District Office Rome (you can read about on https://egov.immigration.gov/crisgwi/go?act...r.statecode=arm
Because our case had over 110 days since we filed the petition and USCIS Frankfurt didn't cooperate with us to tell us what is wrong with our case we started a complain to the Rome District to check about our case at the Frankfurt Office. Rome replied to us very prompt that our petition was approved.
If you have any other questions I will gladly answer you.
All the best,
Adriana

Once again, Calling the Consulate you can find out only that they are still waiting for I-130 from USCIS. If you want to find out about your petition (I-130), call USCIS Frankfurt. I gave you the numbers and they are the only numbers. From my experience, do not give up calling once or twice and you don't get somebody on the phone.....call over and over again, somebody will get pissed off and will answer you

so we tried calling (both uscis and embassy) again today with same results as before...

MayDay - how did you go about complaining at Rome? Did you email or call or write? And what did you say?
I wonder if there's any way to make our case go faster especially since we found out today that my wife is pregnant...

Happy about the pregnany... not happy about our lack of future-planning-power
<sigh>

Congratulations for you and your wife....the most beautiful wonderful thing is to have a baby
But this fact will not help you to speed up the visa process.
My husband (the petitioner) sent an email to USCIS Rome explaining them our case and all the emails and phone calls between us and USCIS Frankfurt, especially the contradiction between Frankfurt answer that it takes between 60-90 days for the petition to be approved and the fact that we had like 113 days in that moment and no reason why it takes so long. USCIS Rome was very prompt, we sent an email last Wednesday and we received an email Monday morning that says: "Please be informed that USCIS Frankfurt confirmed that the I-130 was approved on May 5, 2007 and forwarded to the Department of State for the issuance of the visa." The weird thing is that may 5 was a Saturday......
I called today the Consulate and like never before they answered me at the first ring, but they haven't receive my petition yet...I hope by the end of the week I have news.
Be aware that you have to be over the 90 days in order to start complains......
All the best,
Adriana

Congrats on the pregnancy, Mephibosheth!

I wished kids made things go faster, but they don't. It won't be until July at the soonest that my daughter will see her father again. :/

Keep trying. Du musst echt hartnäckig bleiben, dann klappt es auch. Viel Glück.

the embassy website was updated

www.usembassy.de

thank you Mephibosheth.....i think they just changed it cause yesterday was the old info there.

Thanks, Mephibosheth. I was just googling for the Frankfurt checklist the other day, now it is finally posted. There is a lot more info there than was before.

I emailed the USCIS yesterday:

Dear Sir/Madam

my wife filed an I-130 petition by mail with you and it was sent of on April 4th. My name is ... and my wife's name is .... I was wondering if you can tell us wether the petition has been approved or how old the petitions are that you are currently working on.

Thank you in advance
...


USCIS answered today already :

Hello,

The processing time takes between 60 to 90 days.
Our office has received your petition on 04/24/2007
Sincerely

USCIS FRANKFURT



...seems sending in the normal mail took extra long
I guess the embassy received it before the 24th?
according to this info I have another 1 to 2 months waiting plus maybe 1 month with the embassy
:-/

Sorry to hear that. Hope you'll have soon good news.

That sucks, Mephibosheth.

Just out of curiousity, have you all considered having the baby in Germany than immigrating? It could be a real pain in terms of health insurance otherwise in the US. I was really satisfied with the care I got in Germany when I had my daughter and never had to pay anything outside the praxisgebuehr.

I don't know your situation, just throwing that out there.

If the timing is right, that baby might be among the distinct few immigrants that would qualify to be admitted for permanent residence in the U.S. without a visa or other advance processing under the "born subsequent to the issuance of such visa of the accompanying parent" provision of 211(a). Each year, there are just a handful (5-10 babies) that get permanent residence that way.

But the mother is a US citizen. The kid will not need a visa provided the mother can prove the child's claim to US citizenship.

Although if either parent is a U.S. citizen, the baby is a born a citizen outside the U.S. and not an immigrant at all, and therefore needs a U.S. passport to enter the U.S. for the first time. Also probably would still be considered a natural born citizen eligible to become president despite being born outside the U.S.

Correct, I missed that. Child's claim to U.S. citizenship is also much easier to prove if the mother was the U.S. citizen than if it was the father (i.e. mother's U.S. passport and child's foreign birth certificate alone should be adequate).

There's a number of reasons why we would like to go to the US as soon as possible...
1) ever since we got married (January) we've been living in temporariness, we've moved all our stuff around in suitcases and we don't really feel at home.
2) We've started the process now and paid the 190 $... the prices are going to increase and I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the future the process would suddenly get more complicated again... the Baby will probably be due in January, so if we get the visa in July, it will not be valid anymore afterwards.
3) We're set on returning to Washington State and be part of the community that my wife was part of before, where we have friends that care about us and meaningful job opportunities (a year around camp for all generations) I've been sort of a vagabond for the last 7 years, moving at least every two years, and we both would really like to settle somewhere longterm and we feel WA is the place... my wife also has family there... staying here longer might sever the ties to the community somewhat, which we surely want to avoid.

yeah... and there's more....
plus I've had difficulty finding a job (still don't have one) and really wouldn't know what we'd be doing here

so....

I understand the health care question, but we're planning on having more babies in the states anyways
My wife also still has her old name, which she has been wanting to switch to mine, but we didn't do it before coming to Europe because we didn't have the time and wanted to avoid complications

K - I'll stop now

nice long weekend to everyone
and blessings
M

Mwhaha, that is what it boiled down to for us too. As soon as my husband finally finishes his BSc in September or October, he would be 93% SOL for a job in Germany. We were playing with the idea of going to other EU countries also, but just finally decided on going back to the US where at least I could work and his chances of finding work would be much improved.

I returned to the US early in the visa process because I just didn't think 'perpetually unemployed' on the I-864 was the best thing to slap down, even with a co-sponsor. Not required, blah, blah, blah, but I just feel better saying I am doing something than that I am not. We also decided that both of us would have to be making money to really afford the whole process (Not just the visa. Immigrating in general and starting your life all over again is not the cheapest thing to do.) and that just wasn't going to happen in Germany.

I had to come back to Indiana because of my family, but it is not really where I want to be my whole life and I am terrified of getting stuck here. We are giving very serious thought to moving to maybe Rochester, NY or Ithaca, NY sometime next Spring. I don't have any family there so we will have to bring enough clams to get started there on our own. It was another deciding factor in me coming back early.

It sucks now to be apart, but time is ticking away quite nicely. Besides, it really is different to be apart now compared as it was at the beginning of our relationship to be apart, easier. Hard to explain. Anyway, we're hoping to get some confirmation from the IV section soon that they have our I-130 soon so we can fax off the checklist. I am hoping to have that and the visa application out by June 1st and have the medical and interview sometime in mid to late July. He is still staying until he finishes everything for school though, so probably until early September at the earliest. We just wanted to have all of this visa crap out of the way before he graduates so he could get here as soon as he graduates.

Our tentative plan is for me to pull our daughter out of daycare when he gets here and he spends about two months getting reaquainted with her and getting used to how life here in the US works. It's hard to move to another place away from everything you took for granted. He's been here before, but vacation is not the same as actually living here day in and day out. After that, he'll start looking for work, etc.

My husband said his last name was too common and he didn't want to create more of them, so neither I or my daughter have it. He is actually playing with the idea of taking my name and occasionally does for non-official things.

Well anyway, I apologize for being nosy.

Your story is welcome here.
I wish you guys to succeed in the new life in US. I will be in the same situation like your husband, I will move to US and I have to get used with the life over there. It is a little scary but I have my husband next to me so I have faith everything will be alright.
I hope you and me to hear soon from Frankfurt.

Hopefully the adjustment won't be too hard for all of us DCFers. I am just going to take it easy on my husband for the two or three months. It will be hard to accomplish much anyway the rest of this year. I have to figure, if my husband is coming in September or October, it will be mid November-December when the two month adjustment period has ended. The little details are taken care of like valid state driver's license, a car for him, a ssn, etc, we want to flesh them all out during that time. By mid November or December, it will be the holidays and probably not much can be accomplished. We'll see about getting him a few temporary or contracting jobs though. Like I said, we are planning to move in the late Winter-early Spring, so not looking for anything too permanent, just some more money to move with.

Did you say what part of the country you were moving to MaydayDas? I want to say you said, but I honestly can't remember for the life of me. Do you know what you plan on doing in the US for work?

I am from Romania but in the last 4 years and a half I lived in Germany, close to Heidelberg (beautiful country, I am gonna miss it). We already know where we gonna live: Elkton, Maryland. We already purchased a house there, all the house goods and the cars arrived from Germany.....my husband even adopted a dog lol....only me is missing there. I am a little scared about finding a job, even if my husband encourages me all the time that everything will be alright, I have already experienced working with the americans and for americans, here in Germany. But I am still scared lol.
First I will try to get a job in the same place my husband works ..i have a degree in Economics and I have experience working like a bookkeeper but, honestly, I am open for any kind of work, just to bring a paycheck .

Oh so your husband already went back?

I lived around the Heidelberg area a few years back when I did an internship in Mannheim. It is a really pretty place!

I wasn't sure where Elkton was, so I found this for it: http://www.city-data.com/city/Elkton-Maryland.html . Looks OK, on the bay. I am glad you all have a house and everything all set up. Must make you even more impatient. Would make me, anyway!

I hope you are able to get a job with your husband's company. That would be sweet. I wish you luck either way though.

Yup, that's the place, it is close to Delaware State so more options for getting a job, shopping etc. The house is a beauty, it has a gorgeous pool what to say, it is so hard to see everything on pictures or web cam and not to be able to be there...of course i'm impatient but i have to have faith i finish soon and i go to my husband...i didn't see him since february when he had to go to the new duty station (he works for DOD )...it is sooooooooooo hard.

so you have a baby girl ? you already in the States with the baby or you waiting to go all of you in at once?
Hope things will go easy on you and you both will find good jobs.....you guys need it for the baby .

I am sorry you have been away from your husband for so long, MaydayDas. That must make the visa process suck a lot more for you. I hope next week you get something positive in your mailbox from IV section.

Your house has a pool? That will be so cool to come home to. I am jealous.

I have a nearly 14 month old daughter. She came with me in March. Unfortunately, we couldn't work out another arrangement. My husband misses her a lot and she will be a lot different when he finally sees her again in the Fall. She more than likely won't know who he is. However, at this point in time, we just can't see doing it any other way than this. So, there it is.

I have a job, I just need a good one. Hahaha! It is good enough for the moment anyway. My husband has several different options available to him when he comes, so I am not really worried about him finding a job either too much. The baby was basically the kicking point for coming back. We didn't want to be a bad example of a parent to her, sitting around collecting Hartz IV all day being useless. That was about what we were looking at in Germany. We sucked there. But I am already doing better for myself here in the US and I have no doubt he will be fine here too.

I am jealous you have a baby ...we hope to be blessed with one soon.....It must be hard for you too and harder for your husband cause he has to miss 2 .
It sucks to be away from the love ones......
You know, today is a german holiday and they do not work at the Consulate in Frankfurt, and monday an american holiday....
I really hope to get soon news , but when I get news your husband will get too cause our petition was approved in the same time .

Well, the Monday after next. Do you know when Pfingsten is this year?

Sunday , May 27 ...i think

and yea, you right, monday after next...right now i see too many holidays and i am a little mad, it means they do not work at our visas

Hehe, May sucks.

I forgot all about today being a holiday until my husband said something about it.

ja ja ja May is full with holidays.......

yeah... my wife not knowing German and not being as familiar with German culture as I am with American culture is another point.. I've lived in the States for 3 and a half years in all and have no problem with English and American culture. My wife is taking German classes these days, which is great, but also hard for her.

Denmark actually has lots of job openings, and I probably could have gotten my old job back without a problem, but then my wife didn't know any danish at all and the requirements for getting residency for her not clear cut... and at the time it was still not decided where and how Americans residing in Denmark could file an I-130... and then London came with the 6 month residency requirement (which officially, Frankfurt has not mentioned at any point, though there's rumors that they have it too... so we're hoping)

yeah....

happy holidays

Denmark is a beautiful country, we got married there . I know how it is not to speak/know German, I really understand your wife's situation. After 4 years in Germany I do not speak German, shame on me.

I do speak German, but it I make quirky mistakes then and again which immediately point me out as a non-native speaker.

Oh, my husband said he got Packet 3 today anyway.

hey, we're all online

the fast interview date for maydaydas makes me hopeful again
thanks for the updates

yes, be ready on time with all the docs
oh gosh i am soooo happy