DCF in Madrid

[symphony 0]

hi there!

looking to speak to anyone else that has done DCF in Madrid. we are just about to start the process and would love any advice or tips on how to make the process run more smoothly.

thanks in advance!

xx

[Beantown_Madrilen 0]

We'll be starting the process tomorrow in Madrid. Any suggestions? How long is it taking people nowadays?

[symphony 0]

hi there!

we are also starting the process tomorrow...probably see you down the embassy! hehehehe. we have spent the last week getting all our documents together, so i am hoping it will run smoothly.

so far i have not heard from anyone that has done it recently, although older posts show that its not too bad timewise in Madrid, but of course we will see how it goes.

when are you hoping to move to America? where are you planning on settling?

best of luck and hope to hear from you...its nice to be able to compare notes with someone....

xx

[RBSoul 0]

HI, I’m just going to go ahead and throw my experience out there as this forum did help me out lot when I was filing. I’m American and wife Spanish. I filed with my wife back in January 2007. You can check out my timeline and see how fast I did it. My wife got her CR-1 in less than 60 days. Would have been under 30 but some new law had gone into effect after the filing and delayed it 4 weeks.

From this site, it helped find and complete all the forms needed for the whole process. In December I gather all the forms (I-130, packet 3, and packet 4) and filled them out. Using samples from this site, I was in Houston at the time with my wife in Jerez. We have already been married over 18 months so we already had a good base to start from. I used my 3 years of tax returns for income and a bit of proof. Her name is on account since we have been married. I believe she brought some photos to her interview but I think it was unneeded plus I was in the military with her. I was out already at the time of filing.

Now with all this and the research that I found, DCF was the most inexpensive and quickest route. Not including the plane tickets as I had plans to visit for vacation, it was so much cheaper. Before I left, Wednesday mornings was walk-in day and a schedule around that date. Called the doctors listed on the embassy site and tried to schedule an appointment. One place was a clinic for the x-rays and the other was the doctor. Couldn’t get an appointment for the clinic as I believe it was walk-in thing or had to be referred by the doctor. I was able to get an appointment for the doctor since I told him I was coming from the States. Normally, what is needed is the doctor form from the embassy in packet 3 but I told I should have it when we come. So the medical portion setup for Thursday morning. I couldn’t really get to much information about the Police report before I left I assumed it wouldn’t be that hard.

I fly out in January for my Vacation. My wife and I flew out from Jerez, Tuesday night, arriving in Madrid. I found a hotel in the middle of all the places we needed to go. We walked-in Wednesday to the embassy in the morning. We waited about 30 minutes till we got serviced. I gave the agent the 1-130, said it looked good and then gave me an interview about our marriage. Real simple stuff and I also paid the free (380??). I show him the receipt and the 1-130 was approved. He then handed me some papers about the packet 3 that needs to be done and mailed in to get an interview date. I then surprised him by pulling out all the required documents but told him that we have the medical appointment on Thursday and we’re going to the police station after the embassy. He reviewed the documents, sees that it’s all in order, and tells me usually don’t do this but I’m going to approve your packet 3. What joy that was as I was hoping he’d do that for us. Especially since everything was done. He gave us back the papers, tells us to save them for the final interview and that the date will be mailed to us.

Left the embassy and went over to the police station. There were a lot of people going in and out of there. I believe we spent a half hour there till we got served. My wife had to file out a form there and give it to them for the criminal record. Check her DNI what not. Told us to come back Thursday morning or Friday morning I don’t remember. The rest of the day was ours.

Thursday morning went off to the doctors. I was a street up from the embassy I believe. The doctor interviewed her (oh, we also brought her medical from the military) and said that she was young (22) and looks healthy. He just checked her off good. She had some of those test done less than a year ago. Told her she had to go over to the clinic to get her chest x-rays done. After that, go back to the doctor’s office Friday morning for the results/embassy form. We were done with the Visa process at this point. We grabbed the police report and doctor form Friday morning. Then enjoyed the rest of the time in Madrid till Saturday afternoon when we flew back. Took us 4 days to complete that whole process. We received the interview date a week later for a date 2 weeks after that. It was cancelled and pushed back 4 weeks for some new law. She would have had the visa in 30 days. 60 days is good though.

There you have it. A very smooth process.

Hit the POE 2 days before the expiration of the CR-1 in Philadelphia and was hassle free and polite experience.