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File I-130 now at lockbox or wait 6 months and DCF at London?

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Hi All

Looking for your opinions.

I am a UK citizen residing in the UK and my wife a US citizen residing in the US. Looking at our options for filing the I-130 and related documents for a CR1 visa.

We could file at the lockbox now with approx 6 months to NOA2 then a further 2 months to interview. So an interview date around Dec/Jan?

Or as my wife will be arriving on her UK spouse visa at the start of May. We could DCF when she has been here 6 months. So we would be applying around mid-november. Ive seen that DCF processing can be much faster, is this just the NOA1 to NOA2 stage? Ive seen figures of 1-3 months flying round, would this be to NOA2 or interview?

Let me know if any of my timelines are way off.

Thanks guys

2012-02-27 We get married while living together in Australia
2012-03-25 She moves back to US, He moves back to UK
2012-03-26 She applies for UK visa
2012-04-06 UK Visa approved (10 days!)
2012-05-10 She moves to UK

2012-05-10 Sent I-130
2012-05-16 NOA1
2013-01-16 NOA2

2013-01-21 NVC Case received
2013-02-12 NVC number & IIN received
2013-02-13 AOS Invoiced & DS-3032 sent
2013-02-25 DS-3032 accepted
2013-02-26 IV invoiced - AOS & IV Paid
2013-02-29 IV & AOS packages sent
2013-03-01 IV & AOS packages arrived
2013-04-02 Case somplete/Interview Scheduled


2013-04-04 Medical
2013-05-28 Interview - Accepted!

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Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: England
Timeline

Well, I don't have experience with DCF through london but according to timelines here it cuts processing time in half. But adding the 6 month wait for your wife, it still brings you to about an 10-11 month wait altogether. You can potentially do it in less time having your wife file in the US. It really depends on your personal situation what makes more sense. There are factors to consider when doing DCF...if your wife leaves her job here in the US, who will be your sponsor for Affidavit of Support? How much will she be giving up to move there? Is there any chance you will need a waiver of inadmissibility where living abroad with her spouse would make it difficult to prove extreme hardship? Just examples of things to look into. If none of this applies to you both and you have a USC/LPR sponsor for the I864, then the bonus of DCF is being able to live together while you wait.

Married Sept.3,2010

02/11/2011: I130 Sent

02/21/2011: NOA1

06/22/2011: NOA2

06/30/2011: NVC

07/05/2011: DS-3032 email received

07/05/2011: DS-3032 emailed

07/06/2011: AOS Bill received

07/06/2011: AOS Fee Paid

07/09/2011: I864 Sent

07/11/2011: IV Fee Bill received

08/30/2011: IV Fee Paid

09/30/2011: IV Pkg Sent

10/24/2011: RFE (we dragged our feet from here on)

(forget all this for now, let's go on holiday!)

03/13/2012: NVC CASE COMPLETE!!

04/05/2012: Received interview appt email

06/22/2012: Medical @ Knightsbridge

06/29/2012: Interview 8am-Result: Pending

??/??/????: I601 Filed at Lock-Box

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Like trojam227 said, I hope you have the sponsorship aspect figured out!

It would almost certainly be faster to apply today rather than wait till you can use DCF, as DCF is not 6+ months slower than SCF. Current cases I know of using DCF though London have taken about 6 months from I-130 till interview. Of course there is always variation so you could be approved super fast using SCF or be unlucky and be in a slow group for DCF. However if you apply in the US and then your wife moves to the UK you may potentially have issues receiving mail related to the petition, which could slow you down slightly.

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Filed: Lift. Cond. (apr) Country: China
Timeline

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to UK regional forum.

Our journey:

Spoiler

September 2007: Met online via social networking site (MySpace); began exchanging messages.
March 26, 2009: We become a couple!
September 10, 2009: Arrived for first meeting in-person!
June 17, 2010: Arrived for second in-person meeting and start of travel together to other areas of China!
June 21, 2010: Engaged!!!
September 1, 2010: Switched course from K1 to CR-1
December 8, 2010: Wedding date set; it will be on February 18, 2011!
February 9, 2011: Depart for China
February 11, 2011: Registered for marriage in Wuhan, officially married!!!
February 18, 2011: Wedding ceremony in Shiyan!!!
April 22, 2011: Mailed I-130 to Chicago
April 28, 2011: Received NOA1 via text/email, file routed to CSC (priority date April 25th)
April 29, 2011: Updated
May 3, 2011: Received NOA1 hardcopy in mail
July 26, 2011: Received NOA2 via text/email!!!
July 30, 2011: Received NOA2 hardcopy in mail
August 8, 2011: NVC received file
September 1, 2011: NVC case number assigned
September 2, 2011: AOS invoice received, OPTIN email for EP sent
September 7, 2011: Paid AOS bill (payment portal showed PAID on September 9, 2011)
September 8, 2011: OPTIN email accepted, GZO number assigned
September 10, 2011: Emailed AOS package
September 12, 2011: IV bill invoiced
September 13, 2011: Paid IV bill (payment portal showed PAID on September 14, 2011)
September 14, 2011: Emailed IV package
October 3, 2011: Emailed checklist response (checklist generated due to typo on Form DS-230)
October 6, 2011: Case complete at NVC
November 10, 2011: Interview - APPROVED!!!
December 7, 2011: POE - Sea-Tac Airport

September 17, 2013: Mailed I-751 to CSC

September 23, 2013: Received NOA1 in mail (receipt date September 19th)

October 16, 2013: Biometrics Appointment

January 28, 2014: Production of new Green Card ordered

February 3, 2014: New Green Card received; done with USCIS until fall of 2023*

December 18, 2023:  Filed I-90 to renew Green Card

December 21, 2023:  Production of new Green Card ordered - will be seeing USCIS again every 10 years for renewal

 

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Well my wifes current address is her parents address so if any mail gets sent there they could forward it to us. Also once we have a receipt number, I believe we can change the address related to the application online? (www.uscis.gov/addresschange)

Yes we are fortunate enough to have the AOS taken care of through a co-sponsor and our savings.

Thanks guys.

2012-02-27 We get married while living together in Australia
2012-03-25 She moves back to US, He moves back to UK
2012-03-26 She applies for UK visa
2012-04-06 UK Visa approved (10 days!)
2012-05-10 She moves to UK

2012-05-10 Sent I-130
2012-05-16 NOA1
2013-01-16 NOA2

2013-01-21 NVC Case received
2013-02-12 NVC number & IIN received
2013-02-13 AOS Invoiced & DS-3032 sent
2013-02-25 DS-3032 accepted
2013-02-26 IV invoiced - AOS & IV Paid
2013-02-29 IV & AOS packages sent
2013-03-01 IV & AOS packages arrived
2013-04-02 Case somplete/Interview Scheduled


2013-04-04 Medical
2013-05-28 Interview - Accepted!

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Filed: Timeline

Well my wifes current address is her parents address so if any mail gets sent there they could forward it to us. Also once we have a receipt number, I believe we can change the address related to the application online? (www.uscis.gov/addresschange)

Yes we are fortunate enough to have the AOS taken care of through a co-sponsor and our savings.

Thanks guys.

Actually, probably the fastest you could go is wait for her to move to the UK, then file using the Chicago lockbox. The reason is that USCIS sometimes processes petitions from USCs living abroad faster, although it's not clear what circumstances this applies in or if they will not do this because you could otherwise DCF in London. In any case, even under non-expedited processing they are predicting 6 months or so time from the Chicago lockbox, so that's probably better than waiting 6 months and doing DCF.

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I had seen that some people were getting expedited without requesting it at the chicago lockbox. I thought this would just be for people in the countries where DCF is no longer an option. Does anyone know of any UK filers who have been expedited under this process?

2012-02-27 We get married while living together in Australia
2012-03-25 She moves back to US, He moves back to UK
2012-03-26 She applies for UK visa
2012-04-06 UK Visa approved (10 days!)
2012-05-10 She moves to UK

2012-05-10 Sent I-130
2012-05-16 NOA1
2013-01-16 NOA2

2013-01-21 NVC Case received
2013-02-12 NVC number & IIN received
2013-02-13 AOS Invoiced & DS-3032 sent
2013-02-25 DS-3032 accepted
2013-02-26 IV invoiced - AOS & IV Paid
2013-02-29 IV & AOS packages sent
2013-03-01 IV & AOS packages arrived
2013-04-02 Case somplete/Interview Scheduled


2013-04-04 Medical
2013-05-28 Interview - Accepted!

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Filed: Timeline

I had seen that some people were getting expedited without requesting it at the chicago lockbox. I thought this would just be for people in the countries where DCF is no longer an option. Does anyone know of any UK filers who have been expedited under this process?

Yeah, I looked through the thread on auto-expedite and couldn't find any UK filers. In any case, chicago lockbox is still going to be faster than waiting six months to be able to DCF anyway.

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Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: Scotland
Timeline

I had seen that some people were getting expedited without requesting it at the chicago lockbox. I thought this would just be for people in the countries where DCF is no longer an option. Does anyone know of any UK filers who have been expedited under this process?

We sent our petition to the Chicago lockbox and got approved in 10 days. I am living in the UK under a Tier 2 work visa (ie not indefinite leave to remain) so the embassy told me that I wasn't eligible for DCF. That might not have been accurate info from them, but regardless it seems our petition was 'auto-expedited' anyway. It's up to you, but in my opinion you might be fastest to apply through the lockbox once your wife lives in the UK but make sure she lists her UK address on everything. That's the only way you'll be put into the auto-expedite queue. Good luck!

09/17/11: Wedding in Vermont

03/14/12: Sent I-130 application from Scotland

USCIS:

03/23/12: Recieved NOA1 email

04/02/12: Received NOA2!! (USC living abroad)

NVC:

04/20/12: NVC received case

05/03/12: Received case number

05/08/12: Emailed DS-3032

05/09/12: AOS invoice paid

05/15/12: IV invoice paid

06/07/12: AOS & IV packages sent to NVC

06/18/12: Received checklist! Boo...

06/20/12: Sent checklist response to NVC (they received it on 06/22)

07/02/12: CASE COMPLETE! Yee haw!

07/12/12: Received interview date

09/24/12: Interview (We changed the orginal date due to scheduling conflict)

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Thanks hjones. I think that is the way we are going to go. If we do not get auto-expedited we have lost 2 weeks, if we do we have gained a few months so it seems worth the chance.

Also my wife has sent our original marriage certificate in for her UK visa without taking a copy for the I-130 packet so we're waiting for that to come back anyway.

2012-02-27 We get married while living together in Australia
2012-03-25 She moves back to US, He moves back to UK
2012-03-26 She applies for UK visa
2012-04-06 UK Visa approved (10 days!)
2012-05-10 She moves to UK

2012-05-10 Sent I-130
2012-05-16 NOA1
2013-01-16 NOA2

2013-01-21 NVC Case received
2013-02-12 NVC number & IIN received
2013-02-13 AOS Invoiced & DS-3032 sent
2013-02-25 DS-3032 accepted
2013-02-26 IV invoiced - AOS & IV Paid
2013-02-29 IV & AOS packages sent
2013-03-01 IV & AOS packages arrived
2013-04-02 Case somplete/Interview Scheduled


2013-04-04 Medical
2013-05-28 Interview - Accepted!

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Filed: Timeline

Thanks hjones. I think that is the way we are going to go. If we do not get auto-expedited we have lost 2 weeks, if we do we have gained a few months so it seems worth the chance.

Also my wife has sent our original marriage certificate in for her UK visa without taking a copy for the I-130 packet so we're waiting for that to come back anyway.

If it takes too long, you can get a certified copy of the certificate from the local government to send with the I-130.

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