DCF Residency Requirement from Third Country

[cjames 0]

Hi All,

I am a US Citizen married to a British Citizen. We are both legal residents of Gibraltar and would like to start the DCF process.

Does anyone know if it possible to do this in the London Embassy from a third country, Gibraltar? I have emailed the Embassy for advice but so far had no reply. (The US Embassy in Madrid is closer, however on the US State dept. site it says all queries except passports should be referrd to London).

Has anyone else gone through the DCF process from a different country than the US Embassy is in?

If it is possible then would we still need to meet the 6 month residency requirement in Gibraltar, I have currently been resident here for 4 months.

Thanks for any help,

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Good to see you are making progress.

I believe the 6 month requirement is pretty much universal; and in some cases they will require that you as a USC prove legal residence in Gibraltar/UK. Email them again... you will get used to many a day of non-responses

[payxibka 10,044]

Hi All,

I am a US Citizen married to a British Citizen. We are both legal residents of Gibraltar and would like to start the DCF process.

Does anyone know if it possible to do this in the London Embassy from a third country, Gibraltar? I have emailed the Embassy for advice but so far had no reply. (The US Embassy in Madrid is closer, however on the US State dept. site it says all queries except passports should be referrd to London).

Has anyone else gone through the DCF process from a different country than the US Embassy is in?

If it is possible then would we still need to meet the 6 month residency requirement in Gibraltar, I have currently been resident here for 4 months.

Thanks for any help,

You will be going through the consulate that has jurisdiction over your residence. It is not all that uncommon.... for example if you were resident in Belarus you would be using Warsaw, Poland as that is the consulate that has jurisdiction over residents in Belarus (Moldova uses Bucharest, etc...). In order to use Warsaw for DCF, a USC needs to maintain the minimum residency requirement in the country that the consulate has jurisdiction ie Belarus......

For you, the 6 mos. requirement in Gibraltar needs be met before London will accept an I-130 filing.

You might be best served asking London consulate specific questions in the UK forum as the London consulate is not known to answer general e-mails and those members may have valuable insight.

Edited July 21, 2009 by payxibka

[meauxna 15]

Hi All,

I am a US Citizen married to a British Citizen. We are both legal residents of Gibraltar and would like to start the DCF process.

Does anyone know if it possible to do this in the London Embassy from a third country, Gibraltar? I have emailed the Embassy for advice but so far had no reply. (The US Embassy in Madrid is closer, however on the US State dept. site it says all queries except passports should be referrd to London).

Has anyone else gone through the DCF process from a different country than the US Embassy is in?

If it is possible then would we still need to meet the 6 month residency requirement in Gibraltar, I have currently been resident here for 4 months.

Thanks for any help,

Hi,

Why are you asking about London? Or maybe I know, because when we were living in Greece, I thought: British spouse = US Consulate in UK. However, case processing is based on residency, so we went through Athens.

You're in Madrid's Consular District and the IV interview will take place in Madrid. You might be able to turn your I-130 in at the closest Consulate, but since you have to go off Gib to file anyway, may as well take it right to the source (Madrid).

Madrid has the 6-month residency guideline on their page and I haven't heard of anyone getting a case filed with less residency than that. Have you only been in-country 4 months, or you just got your residency status 4 months ago? If you've been there longer, but on a different status, they may still take your case now.

We weren't in a separate country from our Embassy/Consulate, but we were on an island so far away we may as well have been. I recommend extreme organization, making a separate copy of everything you submit, for your own records and starting early (now) to collect all documents. You may be able to get them to start a provisional file for you, considering the distance you have to travel to Madrid. We did this, and let them know we had everything for the visa application ready to submit at our first appointment.

It still took several trips to Athens to finish the case, but the whole thing only took a month once we started handing in papers.

[payxibka 10,044]

There is no U.S. consular representation in Gibraltar. Passport questions should be directed to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, located at Serrano 75, Madrid, Spain; telephone: 34-91-587-2200 and fax 34-91-587-2303. All other inquiries should be directed to the U.S. Embassy in London.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1052.html

[cjames 0]

There is no U.S. consular representation in Gibraltar. Passport questions should be directed to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, located at Serrano 75, Madrid, Spain; telephone: 34-91-587-2200 and fax 34-91-587-2303. All other inquiries should be directed to the U.S. Embassy in London.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1052.html

Thanks for the replies.

payxibka - I had found the same link, that is why I am assuming London will be the place to file. However I have still not received a reply from the embassy confirming that they will allow me to file DCF there. I had initially thought that Madrid would be the place to file, being closer to Gibraltar.

I have been in Gibraltar over 6 months, we got married in February and I got my residency in March.

[cjames 0]

There is no U.S. consular representation in Gibraltar. Passport questions should be directed to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, located at Serrano 75, Madrid, Spain; telephone: 34-91-587-2200 and fax 34-91-587-2303. All other inquiries should be directed to the U.S. Embassy in London.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1052.html

Thanks for the replies.

payxibka - I had found the same link, that is why I am assuming London will be the place to file. However I have still not received a reply from the embassy confirming that they will allow me to file DCF there. I had initially thought that Madrid would be the place to file, being closer to Gibraltar.

I have been in Gibraltar over 6 months, we got married in February and I got my residency in March.

So we received a reply from the Rome USCIS office today with the following link:

http://italy.usembassy.gov/dhs/uscis Family Petitions I-130.

Through that link it states: "The Rome District Office has direct jurisdiction for USCIS immigration matters in the following locations:

Italy, Algeria, Andorra, France, Gibraltar, Holy See, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Monaco, Morocco, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Tunisia, and Western Sahara."

Now we are more confused, we thought Madrid or London but now it could be Rome. Hopefully the London embassy will reply to my email with some useful information.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Email Rome. It seems to me that would be the place; but then again everyone knows I am out of my mind

[payxibka 10,044]

There is no U.S. consular representation in Gibraltar. Passport questions should be directed to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, located at Serrano 75, Madrid, Spain; telephone: 34-91-587-2200 and fax 34-91-587-2303. All other inquiries should be directed to the U.S. Embassy in London.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1052.html

Thanks for the replies.

payxibka - I had found the same link, that is why I am assuming London will be the place to file. However I have still not received a reply from the embassy confirming that they will allow me to file DCF there. I had initially thought that Madrid would be the place to file, being closer to Gibraltar.

I have been in Gibraltar over 6 months, we got married in February and I got my residency in March.

So we received a reply from the Rome USCIS office today with the following link:

http://italy.usembassy.gov/dhs/uscis Family Petitions I-130.

Through that link it states: "The Rome District Office has direct jurisdiction for USCIS immigration matters in the following locations:

Italy, Algeria, Andorra, France, Gibraltar, Holy See, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Monaco, Morocco, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Tunisia, and Western Sahara."

Now we are more confused, we thought Madrid or London but now it could be Rome. Hopefully the London embassy will reply to my email with some useful information.

USCIS jurisdiction is differernt that Department of State or consulate jurisdiction. Please keep in mind to keep separate the agency that you are dealing with. USCIS may have jurisdiction over the petition but the USCIS does not issue visas.

It appears the Rome USCIS field office has jurisdiction over the I-130 petition processing, but that does not automatically mean that the Rome consulate will issue the visa.... For Ukraine, it is the USCIS office in Moscow that has jurisdiction on USCIS matters, but the visa will be ultimately issued by the Kiev consulate.

Your primary concern is to find the consulate who has visa jurisdiction and see if they will intake the I-130. The consulate will then need to deal with the USCIS jurisdiction and send it on to the proper office for processing.

Edited July 22, 2009 by payxibka