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Hello there, I'm having some trouble with finding answers anywhere online about the subject of Direct Consular Filing, pertaining to my specific circumstances. Here is my situation: I am a US citizen, currently living in Scotland on a spouse visa that expires in October 2025 (my husband is a Scottish citizen). We are wanting to apply for the IR-1 or CR-1 visa for him in order to get him his green card so that we can move back to the states together. I know this process can take a very long time, but I was wondering if we would need to have it completed by the time my spouse visa expires over here? I'm not sure what the rules are about that, but we definitely don't want to go through the trouble and the expenses of extending my spouse visa while we are waiting for a decision on his green card. That being said, I know that DCF can potentially save a lot of time, but it seems that you're only able to do it if you have some sort of "special circumstances." Would my situation qualify as a special circumstance? The other thing is, since we are residents in Scotland, I know we would probably have to do everything through the US consulate in Edinburgh. However, wouldn't you know it, that consulate appears to be closed until April 2024 for some unknown reason. We do not want to wait that long to get this process going. Would we be able to go to the US consulate in London in order to get this done? I know these are very specific questions, and we may end up just reaching out to a lawyer who is well versed in this specific type of thing if we can't get an answer here. It's a shot in the dark, but we would really appreciate it if anyone has any insight. Thanks a lot! - Ashley

Hi all, I just wanted to start a new thread to ask if anyone has any experience or stories with regards to DCF at the embassy in Dublin. A search of the forum yields a few results, some recent ones saying this embassy does not provide DCF, some older ones saying it does, but not a huge amount of information, and nothing from the past three years or so. Some USCs in Ireland seem to have tried the London embassy instead, with mixed results. Has anyone heard anything more recently? Best Lenny

Hi all, I'm currently in the process of DCF i-130 with exceptional circumstances in Taiwan. Thanks for all those who are generous about sharing the experiences so that I can feel more comfortable in the process and know what's gonna happen next. I've never seen anyone sharing DCF experience in Taiwan so I think I'll contribute here and help those who also qualify for DCF. Exceptional circumstance: Short notice of position relocation My husband (then boyfriend) got a job offer in early July, and the position will start from Jan. 1, 2023. Prior to this, he's been in Taiwan for work for almost 5 years. We want to shorten the time of being apart as much as possible so we first consulted a lawyer about what options we have. After realizing we are highly possible to qualify for one of the exceptional circumstances, we decided to try DCF by ourselves since our situation is quite straightforward. Here is the timeline so far: Aug. 26, 2022 Lawyer consultation. Aug. 29, 2022 Emailed AIT(American Institute in Taiwan) if they accept DCF. Aug. 29, 2022 AIT replied an hour later to ask for the explanation of the exceptional circumstance in detail and submit it along with copies of our passports, his Taiwan ARC, I-130, I-130A, proof of his exceptional circumstance, divorce decree (if any), and marriage certificate. Sep. 14, 2022 Got married. Sep. 22, 2022 Emailed AIT the proof of exceptional circumstances and the documents. Sep. 22, 2022 AIT emailed back an hour later and scheduled an interview for filing I-130 at the embassy a week later. Oct. 03, 2022 Interview at AIT and submit the documents. The interviewer said that our documents look good and we shall receive the notice for the next step a week later. Oct. 11, 2022 AIT emailed us to provide the case no. and the next step. AIT told us to email them as soon as DS-260 filled online and the required documents (I-864, birth certificate and police record) are ready to schedule an interview. Oct. 12, 2022 Emailed AIT to notify them the completion of DS-260 and the required documents are ready. Oct. 13, 2022 AIT emailed back and scheduled the next interview on Nov. 8. This is the timeline so far. I'll update it as the progress moves forward. So far everything is going fast and smoothly. AIT is very responsive and on time. The best thing about submitting documents in person is that they check if you miss anything required. The interviewer is nice and friendly. He asked me if I'll stay in Taiwan for the next 6 to 10 weeks. Then when we ask how long the whole process is going to take, he said around 4 to 6 weeks. I'm excited to know if this process is really going to go through before 10 weeks mark. But of course we need to have everything ready for the next interview to avoid getting RFE. Feel free to ask me any questions. Hopefully this post can be helpful.

We are currently waiting to hear back from our I-30 petition, and want to be ready to submit our DS-260 & I-864. My questions are regarding the I-864 Affidavit of Support. Situation: The sponsor has moved to the U.S. after filing the I-130 petition. Their current income in the U.S. is over 125% of the 2022 federal poverty guidelines. Sponsor was working in the UK from January 2022 - May 2022 Sponsor is currently working in the US from May 2022 - Current Sponsor's tax returns in 2019,2020,2021 do not show an income, as they were unemployed Questions: 1. How to calculate current income? (given that they have both worked in UK & US during this year) From my research, current income means how much the sponsor has earned from January 1st - December 31st, and not just their annual salary, which is why I am somewhat confused. So to calculate my sponsor’s current salary, we use the amount of income they have earned to date in 2022, and then extrapolate until the end of the calendar year. However, given that my sponsor has worked in the UK for the first half of the year, does this previous foreign income count towards this calculation? For example, if their foreign income is not included in the total annual income, and they have only started worked in the U.S. in May 2022 earning $30,000 annually; that means their earnings from May 2022 - December 2022 would only be $17,500 for the entire year, which is below the Federal Poverty Guideline. Does this mean we have to use this figure as my sponsor's "current individual annual income" instead of what's stated on their work contract? If so, it would mean we would need an additional sponsor. 2. What supporting documents do we need to provide? (Both Domicile & Financial) Since my sponsor doesn't have a regular income shown on their tax returns for the previous years; and that the 2022 tax returns are not due yet; should we still include my sponsor's tax returns? And what else do we need to include given our situation? Our current evidence list: Copy of U.S. Citizenship Document Copy of foreign paychecks from January 2022 - May (UK) Copy of U.S. Paychecks from May - Current Copy of U.S. Bank statements Employment Verification Letter from the sponsor's current job in the U.S. Anything else? 3. Given all the information above, should we get an additional sponsor? We are in a position where we can get an additional sponsor if it is beneficial to our application. But considering the above, are we ok or should we get an additional sponsor to be on the safe side? 4. Since we are going through the DCF route, do I print the I-864 and take it with me to my interview at the U.S. Embassy in London? Thank you for any help.

Hello all, I was wondering if anyone could help us understand what the next steps are after filing the petition through the consular? The I-130 was approved on the spot after the interview and I was told to wait 12 weeks. We just don’t know what to do next. What paper work should we be getting together? Is my husband able to do the medical exam now or do we have to wait until we are contacted? Also, can he start getting his police report now as well?

Hello! I am a USC, my wife and I came to Dubai back in February to search for employment. We were living off of savings for about 1.5-2 months until I got my current job in April and I applied for my wife to get a spouse visa so that we could stay together whilst she continues job hunting. We have been here for about 3 months now and I just recently got a great job offer back in the states with a nice salary that would start in August. The only problem is that if I take this job my wife would lose her visa here and would have to go back to her home country so after doing a bit of research I found out about direct consular filing under exceptional circumstances as a way to bring her back to the states with me since I have a job offer with a short notice. However, I learned that at least 6 months of residency is a requirement for the consulate to accept an application for DCF. Is 3 months considered “short notice”? Also, since my wife and I were in Dubai for a few months prior to us getting residency and my job doesn’t start for another 3 months I would technically have over 6 months of residency before having to leave the country would that be acceptable? Do we qualify for DCF? thanks!

Hi everyone. I’m filling out the affidavit of support and I have 3 questions regarding Part 6. 1. I was just currently employed, but I have not been paid yet as my start date is in a couple of weeks. Where it ask about my income and position do I input what is on my offer letter and contract even though I haven’t received any money yet? 2. it says “income you are using from any other person who was counted in your household size” would I add my partners income when he is the beneficiary? Technically he is a part of my household, but I’m not sure if I leave his income out or not. 3. Will they be going based off of what I'm earning in the future? Or what I have earned in the past? I didn't work for a couple of years due to having a baby so I didn't have to file taxes, I'm not sure if this will mess things up or not? I'm using a joint sponsor, but I just wanted to ask for caution. TIA!

Hello, I am new here. I'm thankful I've found this site as the amount of information here is very helpful. I am a domiciled American citizen living here in the Philippines with my Filipina wife. I am employed by an American company and have been assigned here for work for several years. Due to a staffing shortage, my employer is now urgently requesting for me to return to the United States. After research it seems we may qualify as an exceptional circumstance to directly file here in Manila. Has anyone had any recent experience with filing directly with the US Embassy in Manila, mainly after field offices were closed I believe in 2019? Other notable information to our case is that I hold dual citizenship (reason I am able to stay here) and we are recently married.

Hi everyone, I am a Dutch national and spouse of a US citizen and we both live in the Netherlands since July 2021. My partner is actively applying to jobs in the US. We would like to move to the US and apply for a CR1 visa for me, we want to submit our I-130 and get the process started. However, we don't know whether it is best to file the I-130 directly with USCIS and wait about 1,5 years or wait until my partner actually has a job offer and then file as DCF. If we do it the regular way and file through USCIS it is not much use for my partner to continue applying for US-based jobs since we would have to be apart for too long; we are also trying to start a family in this time-frame. In that case it would just be best to wait for 1,5 years until my CR1 visa is approved. My wife has a good career and I think her chances are pretty high to land a job in the short term, it would also be best for her career if she got a job in the US. However, the US consulate in Amsterdam doesn't seem to process DCF requests: they are unresponsive by email due to severe understaffing, they have no phone number, on their website they only mention sending the I-130 to the US lockbox for US nationals resident in the Netherlands, and on the internet I could find no one who has done DCF through the consulate in Amsterdam. However, the US consulate in Frankfurt seems to be handling many DCF requests, and I also read the following on their website: "Individuals who were previously assisted by the USCIS Frankfurt Field Office (which includes individuals residing in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein) must follow these filing instructions." I was wondering if there are people here who are not resident in Germany but were assisted by the Frankfurt consulate with their DCF request? We really are in a dilemma right now whether to do regular USCIS filing and just wait; or take a chance, my wife applying for US jobs, and then see whether we can file for DCF in Frankfurt instead.

Hello all, I am confused on getting the DCF started. I have been living in Colombia for three years and have been married to a Colombian for two years. According to the DCF article on Visa Journeys, I need to file the DCF here in Colombia at the US Embassy. However the Colombian US Embassy site has no information on filing a DCF or form I-130. Most of the links on the site about immigration send you back to USCIS. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Hello everyone, I am planning to submit a DCF application to sponsor my spouse. I am a US citizen living in London and have UK permanent residence. My current job has offered to relocate me to the US, and I will have a new employment contract stating my new location. Does job relocation count as 'exceptional circumstances'? As I am not starting an entirely new job, I won't have a job offer letter, but a new employment contract. Does anyone know if the employment contract would suffice as demonstrating the need for relocation? If necessary I could ask HR at my company to provide a formal job offer letter. Thank you!

Read a post recently about the importance of detail when filling out the DCF London contact form and am now worried about my submission. (I haven't received a reply yet but it was submitted very recently.) A couple questions... 1. My main worry is that I asked about filing CR1 for my UK spouse through DCF in the contact form and now I worry I should have asked for I-130. The reason I did not say I-130 in the form is because I know this is the first step to filing CR1 anyway. Other than that I was as detailed as possible. Should I be worried about this / could this be a potential slip up that affects me? And if so... 2. If needed, can further detail to your enquiry be added later? There was no email confirmation of submitted enquiry that followed up my enquiry, so I don't know if this is an option. I may just be letting worry get to me too quickly, but if this is something I have slipped up on I'd rather know now!

Hi all, I am a U.S. citizen living in London with my husband who is British. We were looking into moving to America as we have no family, and I miss my family. Is it possible to use dcf job related exceptional circumstances instead of the standard 2-year process? I have a family member who owns their own business and is willing to hire me and give me a letter of employment to start work in March 2023. Would the embassy accept my circumstances and letter of employment for dcf if they know it's family hiring me?

Hello, Looking over the I-130 and hoped someone could clarify what they experienced using DCF with Exceptional Circumstances; specifically for the sections Mailing Address, Physical Address, Intended Address. Do you just use the current foreign address the petitioner and beneficiary both live? Or do you need to have a place already in the US? Any help is appreciated on how to approach the I-130 in general. A bit confusing considering the DCF-EC is for a new US job offer on short notice yet that seems to conflict with the overall US domicile requirement? As for the I-864, also curious how the tax/income affect the overall visa approval at the interview. If the USC petitioner has no income for previous tax year, and currently not employed until returning to US, would that matter at all if the petitioner is also submitting a second I-864 from a Joint Sponsor? Any other insight to the forms etc is greatly appreciated. Thank You

I have received a date for the first step interview at DCF in London! Right now I'm preparing everything asked for on the I-130 checklist and getting as prepared as I can for my spouse's interview in the future (should all go well!) Question: On the I-130 checklist it says: ❑ Passports: Current and previous passports for U.S. citizen petitioner and beneficiary Does this mean we need to submit all of our expired passports as well as our current? Like all the way from childhood? May be interpreting this wrong but wanted to ask in case. Question 2: Is it the printable I-130 and I-130A document from the USCIS website that I need to bring? Is there another source for I-130? Or do I need to complete it digitally and then print it. Question 3: It is not included on the checklist, but we will be using a second sponsor due to my US income not reaching the £60k min. Do we submit this at this stage or the next stage when my spouse is interviewed? Thank you!

Hi, My husband and I live in Singapore. I recently lost my high paying job and my husband's company is likely relocating him to the US in Jan/Feb 2023. I need to go back to the US to get employment. With these two circumstances, and the fact we have lived overseas in Singapore for approx 5+ years, I would like apply via DCF. Does this sound right to meet the criteria? Has anyone else done this in Singapore and how long does it take, roughly? It would be great to see timelines as we pull all of our docs together. TIA!

Just finished DCF in Italy. The info on this form of DCF in Italy is very little, so I decide to share my experience for people looking for the same process outside of the popular countries (Germany and UK) on this forum. - My situation: My husband is USC, and I am a Chinese Citizen, both have been living and working in Italy for 6 years. We were married in the US before moving to Italy. I was studying then working in the US at that time. - Qualification for DCF: my husband has a job offer from US requiring us moving back. - Timeline (2022): - May 30th: emailed US Consulate in Naples, asking for DCF due to USC job offer in USA expring on Dec 31st. - June 1st: Consulate replied, approving DCF and offered an appointment for my husband to submit I-130 on July 8th. In their email they attached a list of docs my husband needed to bring (I-130 + bona fide marriage proof, and passport photos etc.). - July 8th: My husband went to the appointment in Naples, submitted the docs. - July 22nd: Consulate emailed to inform the I-130 is approved, and gave us the case number for filling DS-260 form and schedule the interview, with a list of docs to bring. - Oct 17th: Medical exam in the appointed clinic in Naples. It is automatically booked with the visa interview. - Oct 18th: My interview in US Consulate Naples. They only took the I-864 form, my husband's last 3 IRS transcript, my police certificates and birth certificate. The officer asked 2 questions ("When did you get married?" and "How did you meet?"), then said "Ok, you visa is approved." - Oct 25th: received my passpor with IR1 visa and the seled immigration envolope to hand in at the border. A few thoughts on the process: - US Consulate Naples is actually very responsive. We did not have much hope going into this as there is so little info online and the only thing I saw was that they do not reply to emails. My personal experience is very pleasant with them. - The whole process from the initial enquiry email to having my visa in hand took less than 5 months. The longest was for me to shcedule my interview, which is my delay because I had a baby at the end of July, so waited for Oct to attend the interview. I believe the whole process could be completed well within 3 months if needed. - We prepared extensive materials for the final interview, including a lot of bona fide marriage docs, and financial proof. In the end they did not look at or even ask for anything. No request for my husband's financial proof that his salary is going to continue in the US (we prepared a letter from his employer stating that but they did not ask to look at it at all). We also prepared the proof of our assets, but also they did not ask or look at it. Only thing they took was the IRS transcript showing our last 3 years' tax (income from Italy). - The interview took only 2 min. It makes me feel they have already made the decision (to give me the visa) before seeing me. Now we're just waiting to go home before Christmas. Tickets bookd! I'm happy to answer any questions if needed. Wish everyone good luck!

Hi everyone, I am new to this site and researching the possibility of filing DCF. I am a US citizen based in London and planning to move to the US with my spouse who is a UK citizen. Does anyone know if the embassy in London still accepts DCF? I am planning to submit DCF for a CR1 visa, on the basis of having a job offer in the US which requires me to relocate short notice. Thank you!

Hello, I was wondering if Direct Consular Filing is available in Morocco? I am a US citizen, newly wedded with my Moroccan husband residing in Casablanca, currently undergoing the process of obtaining carte sejour. I intend to live in Morocco with my husband until a green card is issued. How do I go about the process for filing a DCF? How do I go about filing petitions outside of the US? Thank you for your time, Salima