DCF from Gibraltar - Update

[cjames 0]

Hi All,

I wanted to provide an update to all who helped answer my questions over the past few months.

Firstly, background on our previous posts and situation:

1 - I am USC Wife, Husband is UKC.

2 - We have both been legally resident in Gibraltar for 12+ months.

3 - Applying for CR1 via DCF.

As there is no US Embassy/Consulate in Gibraltar we would be filing DCF in a third country. The first question we had was where would we file?

Madrid, Spain, as it is a 6 hour drive from here.

London, UK as it is a 2.5 hour flight from here and Gibraltar is 'part UK'.

We finally thought it would be Rome, Italy, as the USCIS office there has direct jurisdiction over Gibraltar. We eventually had confirmation this would be the correct place to file. However, only a few days before we mailed our I-130 to Rome we received another email from them asking us to hold off on sending the I-130 whilst they reconfirmed where the correct place for us to file would be. 2 days later they said the correct place would be the US Consulate in Casablanca, Morocco!

We confirmed with Casablanca if this would be correct and what the procedure would be. They said yes, the US Consulate in Casablanca is the correct place and that we would both have to file the I-130 in person at the consulate. This was not the best news as it immediately added at least $1500+ to the cost of our entire process due to the travel costs, as this consulate accepts nothing by mail. It also takes at least 10 hours to get to the US Consulate in Casablanca and requires 2 nights in a hotel for each trip.

10 days after finding this information we headed off to Casablanca. Trip details:

Firstly, you may only file the I-130 between 2pm - 3pm every Thursday! Yes, only 1 hour per week can you file.

We left Gibraltar on Wednesday, 21 October and after travelling for nearly half the day checked in to a semi-nice hotel. The following day, Thursday 22 October we arrived at 2pm at the US Consulate to file our I-130. At the first window outside the building we explained why we were there. The Officer asked us if we lived in Morocco, we told him no, Gibraltar. He then had to call inside the Consulate for confirmation that we would be allowed in as he was not sure that we could file here. Once he got the Ok, we were allowed inside and passed quickly through the security.

There was no waiting inside. We met a nice Consular Officer and filed the I-130 with him, the whole process/interview lasted 20 minutes and we were approved. We had brought a whole bunch of documentation to prove our relationship, photos, bank statements, rental contracts and more, but these were not needed. He asked if we had any questions, my Husband said "do you need the G-325a?" to which he replied "no". We could not think of any other questions as we were surprised at how quickly it had all gone. He said we would here within 2 weeks when our interview date would be, possibly 2-3 months, and that was it!

We spent another night in Casablanca, had a nice meal and headed back to Gibraltar.

One week later on Thursday, 29 October we received our interview date of Monday, 14 December. We were both happily surprised at how soon this would be, only 53 days between filing the I-130 and the interview date!

My Husband will be going back to Casablanca next week for his medical.

Thanks to all on this great site, it has been such a comfort to read so many experiences over the past months since we started to prepare to file.

An addition to the above would be my Husbands Police Certificate experiences. After searching on this site there were not too many posts we found which matched what we were looking for, so we would like to add the below for future searches by others:

My Husband has been travelling for many years, and as such need 5 Police Certificates:

1 - Gibraltar - Easy to get from the main police station in person for a cost of 5 pounds. It took 2 days to receive.

2 - UK - Apply through the website http://www.acpo.police.uk/ for 35 pounds and received in 3 weeks. Unfortunately there was a drink driving conviction on here which was not my Husbands. He called ACPO who then contacted the Gibraltar police to schedule an appointment for them to take his fingerprints to be able to eliminate this conviction from his record. 3 days later his prints were taken. The following day ACPO called saying they had received these and eliminated the conviction and were sending a new Police Certificate. This arrived 1 week later.

3 - Hungary - Got the form and instructions via email from the Hungarian Embassy in London, UK. Mailed the application off to this Embassy and received the Police Certificate 7 weeks later, with translation. Cost was 50 pounds with the translation.

4 - Israel - To apply for this you first need your case number as this is sent directly to the US Consulate/Embassy where your interview will be.

5 - Dutch (Netherlands) - The US Consulate/Embassy applies for this on your behalf, remember to remind them to apply for it though as it can take a few weeks.

Fingers crossed, we might be in the US by Christmas