What to do - filing locally vs in-progress I-130 petition in Chicago

[John1976 0]

Hi guys,

I'm in a bit of a quandary with this one. Long story short, my wife and I both live in Australia, I have a job I have signed for in the US, my wife is 4.5 months pregnant. I am a US citizen, she is an Australian citizen, we are applying for an IR1 visa for her.

As you are aware, DCF is no longer available in Australia, however they do allow it for exceptional circumstances. It turns out we do quality for local filing.

However, because they were taking so long to get back to us about this exceptional filing (it took about 2.5 weeks to get notice) we have already filed in the US. I haven't received NOA1 yet but the filing fee has been cashed.

I have spoken with the consulate and I can re-file here, but it will void my original application. I asked about getting my current application transferred back here and they ignored that question, I assume that means I can't do it.

So the question is - should I stick to the current I-130 filing in Chicago, and once it reaches the NVC apply for it to be expedited? Or should I file locally here? Does anyone have any experience on what the relative timeframes may be? We have about 3, 3.5 months from now to try and get a visa in time.

Thanks for your help.

John

[together4evr 360]

Your impatience will come to bite you.

Did you use the foreign address as your address on the I-130? Or did you use an american address?

If you used the foreign address and you wrote on the cover letter that dcf is no longer available in Austrlia then it would be a quick NOA2

Now you will lose the filing fee and there is no way to tell if they will approve your petition quickly

If you truly only used the foreign address then you should get a NOA2 within a month.

It is a RUMOR that many people filing abroad after living together for at least 6 months are getting their petitions automatically expeditied to get NOA2

Good Luck

[John1976 0]

I used my Australian address, as that is still where our home is.

Unfortunately I did not write anything about the extenuating circumstances on my cover letter.

I had read that people are being expedited in my situation (i.e. couple are both overseas) - and the petitions office told me I can request to have my current petition expedited once it reaches NVC.

The process is so slow here to organise anything - I emailed the address to organise an appointment locally, and there is a 5-7 working days lag in receiving a response!

So although it may be faster once you've filed here, the sheer delay in organising anything makes me think it may be faster overall to stick with the US filing and trying to be expedited. But I'm wondering if anyone else has experience in direct consular filing in Australia who can offer advice.

Note losing my filing fee is not a major concern, just getting a visa within the amount of time I have is the most pressing need.

Edited March 22, 2012 by John1976

[canadian_wife 1,823]

You can request an expedite at USCIS, didn't anyone tell you that?

Good luck

[John1976 0]

Wow, so while I'm still negotiating with Australia, I got my NOA1 today, dated 14 Mar - entered it in the system and the I-130 was approved on Mar 22nd!

Currently thinking it will be fastest to just stay on this process rather than restart now.

[together4evr 360]

Awesome news!!!

It should be quick.

Good luck