Here we go, what are we letting ourselves in for?!

[Yvie_and_Brett 0]

I’m a UK citizen and I made the silly mistake of falling in love with an American. We met on MySpace while he was living and working in the UK for the US government and 3 weeks+ later he talked me into meeting him for our first date. I’m 5’6” but he’s 6’4” and I remember looking up at the tallest man I’d ever met in real life and thinking “this is never going to work, which is a shame cuz he’s really fit!” Two years on, we got married in Jamaica on the anniversary of that first date and we’re planning to move to the US on October 1st this year.

Nine weeks later we’ve finally received our marriage certificate (no getting out of it now, I suppose!) and tomorrow we’ll be sending off our petition via the Embassy in London.

I’ve done a lot of reading and I think I ‘get’ the process. I’ve already received my police certificate and Brett’s looking for work in the US ready for the I-864, we’ve also been busily collecting all sorts of other bits and pieces ready for anything else that could crop up – this forum has been a goldmine for discovering what to expect! I’m taking the lead on this one as my hubby has an important/busy job over here and will have enough stress of his own looking for employment in the US while keeping up with things here.

My excitement is starting to bubble but so are my nerves, so I’m on here looking for likeminded people who are going/have been through this before and who can help keep me sane!

Are there any other April London DCF filers out there? Has anyone been through these hoops recently who could offer some support? I can't talk about this stuff with my real life friends because they have no idea how it feels, so I'm hoping to make some friends here instead

[Nik+Heather 121]

I can't answer a lot of your DCF questions, but completely understand about how no one who isn't doing this visa thing seems to understand. The guides haven't guided me wrong yet, so you're probably OK there - seem to be one of the rare few who reads everything! It will be helpful.

We're here for all the ups and all the downs!! Good luck, and welcome to VJ!!

[Chica Yeyé 41]

London is pretty efficient in processing DCF, so that is cool.

Make sure Bret has ways of proving domicile in the US; and that you line up a cosponsor (more info on the guides). Best of luck!

[JerrysGirlAnne 2]

We filed DCF London in April. We sent ours off on the 8th of April and it was received and the money was taken from my card on the 16th of April. We have gotten police certificates, assett and income information, tax records, bank information and all of the forms ready for when they tell us we are approved. Where is your husband from in the US? I hope everything goes soothly for you.

[Gemmie 142]

Good luck!

[Yvie_and_Brett 0]

The guides haven't guided me wrong yet, so you're probably OK there - seem to be one of the rare few who reads everything! It will be helpful.

We're here for all the ups and all the downs!! Good luck, and welcome to VJ!!

Oh believe me, I'd read those things backwards and forwards before we even got married! haha! I've had our I-130 and G-325As completed since the wedding, with just the dates left blank for when the certificate got here. We dated those last night, so I have to make a trip to the Post Office during lunch and then it's all go!

Make sure Bret has ways of proving domicile in the US; and that you line up a cosponsor (more info on the guides). Best of luck!

Brett works for a US company and was over here on a contract with them, so he never actually left the US and he can get an offer of transfer to show ongoing employment if forms need to be sent in before he secures a new job. His house was sold (co-owned with a friend), but he has maintained his bank accounts, taxes, savings, investments, etc and his wonderful parents have sent us a letter saying that we can stay with them indefinitely until we find a place of our own and that they're willing to act as co-sponsor if we need them, so hopefully we're covered on that one. Seriously, the guides and experiences I've read on this site have been a Godsend and I'm incredible grateful to everyone for putting it all together!

We filed DCF London in April. We sent ours off on the 8th of April and it was received and the money was taken from my card on the 16th of April. We have gotten police certificates, assett and income information, tax records, bank information and all of the forms ready for when they tell us we are approved. Where is your husband from in the US? I hope everything goes soothly for you.

You sound very organised! We've pretty much done the same, we've even completed dummy forms so we can just copy them over and won't have to panic to find information and figures when the time comes. The Police certificate arrived on Saturday and I've had Brett digging out financials too. I've also preprepared a document with photos from our vacations, wedding, etc in case they need that. I have probably prepared loads of stuff that we'll never need, but I'd rather be overprepared than under!

Brett's from Wyoming/Colorado (born in one and lived in the other) but thanks to his military history he's lived in Hawaii too. He came to England to use it as a jumping off point to visit Europe and put a few notches on his bedpost, but he accidentally found his future wife and didn't get around to it, lol.

Aww, you guys are really welcoming

[Laura+Tom 2]

I've got a friend (USC) who is going to be DCFing in the next few months and will try and persuade her to join this site.

Good luck!

[Welshcookie 17]

Hello and welcome to VJ! We DCF'ed from London last year, it is a simple and quick process, I doubt very much that you will need a co sponsor...good luck! .

The only "hitch" we had was an RFE asking us to submit 3 notarized (or witnessed by a solicitor) letters from family/friends affirming that we had a bona fide marriage...although we had already been married 2 years and shared the same address for 6

Not everyone gets these requests but it's always good to be prepared.

[Rob&Dawn 1]

Good luck

[Yvie_and_Brett 0]

I've got a friend (USC) who is going to be DCFing in the next few months and will try and persuade her to join this site.

Please do, we can panic through it together! haha!

Hello and welcome to VJ! We DCF'ed from London last year, it is a simple and quick process, I doubt very much that you will need a co sponsor...good luck! .

The only "hitch" we had was an RFE asking us to submit 3 notarized (or witnessed by a solicitor) letters from family/friends affirming that we had a bona fide marriage...although we had already been married 2 years and shared the same address for 6

Not everyone gets these requests but it's always good to be prepared.

Ooh, nice tip. Not including how long it took to collect the letters, how long did that hold up your case?

I think one of my mum's friends is a solicitor, or at least she knows plenty from work so I might be able to pull that off quite easily (and more importantly, cheaply!) if need be. I'll be honest though, we're hoping that his exemplary military record will show Brett to be an upstanding American and reduce our chances of a dreaded RFE It's just a shame he's no longer serving or we could have taken advantage of that route instead!

[Welshcookie 17]

Ooh, nice tip. Not including how long it took to collect the letters, how long did that hold up your case?

I think one of my mum's friends is a solicitor, or at least she knows plenty from work so I might be able to pull that off quite easily (and more importantly, cheaply!) if need be. I'll be honest though, we're hoping that his exemplary military record will show Brett to be an upstanding American and reduce our chances of a dreaded RFE It's just a shame he's no longer serving or we could have taken advantage of that route instead!

It only held up our case by days, for some reason London went through a stage of issuing RFE for this kind of thing....at the time there were 3 of us going through DCF at the time, 2 of us got the request for letters, and funnily enough both husbands were in the military. I don't know if it just a random thing, I guess so. I used solicitors for my letters, cost 5 pounds each letter, a notary would have charged 45!

[Welshcookie 17]

Wanted just to add...if they do request letters there are some good sample letters here from the wiki page http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/Affidavit

[elmcitymaven 9,711]

Yeah, it seems like London has eased off on the affidavit thing as of late. I got an RFE for three as well, and I appear to have been the first one on VJ to get hassled for these (lucky me) back in April 2007. I turned them around in a day, using my company's in-house solicitor to attest to the signatures (I believe I paid her in the form of mojitos later in the week ). I got my NOA2 a week later.

Good luck! And there are quite a few London DCF graduates on here to help guide the way.

[Yvie_and_Brett 0]

It only held up our case by days, for some reason London went through a stage of issuing RFE for this kind of thing....at the time there were 3 of us going through DCF at the time, 2 of us got the request for letters, and funnily enough both husbands were in the military. I don't know if it just a random thing, I guess so. I used solicitors for my letters, cost 5 pounds each letter, a notary would have charged 45!

I'll bear that in mind if it comes up - thanks for the link to the template letters too, it's an excellent addition to my Immigration bookmarks

I went to the Post Office at lunch and posted off our petition, so it's just a waiting game now...

[Yvie_and_Brett 0]

So I posted the petition on Thursday 7th and earlier this week Brett received this in his email:

Notice of Receipt

I'm assuming that this is NOT the NOA1. Am I correct?