Can I file DSP-122 and DS-230 from the US THEN go back to my country for Consular Processing?

[Yanikun 0]

Hello and thank you for reading,

My fiancee is from Japan and I'm from France. I'm the one who was selected. My case number is 2014EU00038xxx. We currently reside in the U.S., in Los Angeles, but not for long, as we're nearing the end of our F1 visas and are out of money, so staying here until late next year to do AOS would be impossible.

Before I was selected, we were thinking about getting married sometime this summer. After I was selected, obviously, we thought about it a lot more seriously. We met with an immigration attorney in a one-on-one free consultation who told us that we could file for AOS on July 1st (three months before the start of the 2014 fiscal year because they supposedly want to give people some time in advance) regardless of my case number! He said if we file for AOS on July 1st, we could then stay in the US for the duration of the process. He said his goal would be to get us our green cards by December, or January/February 2014 at the latest. We thought that was amazing!

In light of that information -- which we thought was accurate -- we decided to get married on June 14th, to be able to file for AOS on July 1st. But after talking to numerous people, each and every one of them telling us that we could not file for AOS until late next year around August or September because my number was fairly high, we thought it might be best to go to France and do Consular Processing.

The problem is, if we get married in the U.S., it will take four months for our marriage to be recognized in France, and an additional 15 days for my then-wife to receive her French spouse visa to be able to stay in France for the duration of the process. I had never heard of forms DSP-122 and DS-230 until I looked at the instructions for Consular Processing. I discovered the deadline to file those forms was the end of September at the very latest. We did the math, and getting married in the U.S. wouldn't work out, not in time for her to be able to file DS-230 as my spouse, and not even in time before the end of the 90-day tourist visa she would enter the country with anyway.

Then we thought we could get married in France, but the process would take roughly about as long since she's a foreigner, so that doesn't work either to file DS-230 by the deadline. We were starting to think it would be impossible for her to file DS-230 in time and thus benefit from my potential green card.

Then we thought about this: what if we do get married in the U.S. on June 14th and then file DSP-122 and DS-230 from here, in the U.S., since she would immediately be recognized as my wife in the eyes of the United States and thus would be able to file as my spouse. Then, later this summer, she would leave the U.S. to go back to Japan and I would leave to go back to France, and she would join me in France after a few months after obtaining her French spouse visa, which should be around November. We could then stay in France until next year for the remaining of the Consular Processing.

So my questions are:

1) Can we file DSP-122 and DS-230 as husband and wife in the U.S., then go to France after our marriage is recognized there and do Consular Processing?

2) When would she HAVE to be in France for Consular Processing? In other words, are there parts of the process that would require her to be in France and be recognized as my wife before November or December?

Bonus question:
3) What's up with that attorney guy? He was getting his information from a book called "Kurzban's Immigration Law Source Book."

Thank you very much for reading this lengthy post and for your help.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

Many lawyers are dangerous to those that consult or hire them. DV is a quota based system and you may not get a chance even to apply for a visa. With the strong rumor that this will be the last DV ever a lot of selectees will take the chance to come and the caps are going to be much lower than they have been. ( Last couple of years people have opted to not apply as the economy was bad leading to higher numbers getting a chance. ) There is no way that man could have gotten you a visa before your number sequence was available and if it never came up you would have earned yourselves rather long bans for overstay. Also with a DV visa you can only adjust if you have valid status in the US at the time of adjustment. What would your valid status have been ( VWP doesn't count )

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

Unless things have changed (ie: is there an official state.gov website that states a deadline?), there is no deadline to send in the forms (well, other than obviously in time before DV2014 runs out in September 2014). Ideally you want it done a couple of months before your interview date so you don't delay your interview, but with a higher case number as you have your interview would probably be quite late in the fiscal year anyway. I don't know if this changes your idea about your marriage plans. Your other option is to send in your forms and send your fiancée's along once she's your wife (if you do this it may be best to add an addendum to your forms - the instructions tell you how, make sure your case number is on it) stating that you are engaged and will be doing so. This could help pre-empt suspicion that you suddenly have a green card marriage, although expect to be quizzed at the interview as apparently they usually do for people who get married after selection.

It's best that she is with you for the consular processing, yes. You can do a follow-to-join but it's a lot more complicated, really much easier to both get the visas at the same time.

Good luck!

[CaroSL 68]

Hello,

It doesn't take 4 months to transfer a marriage from the US to France. Mine took maybe a month.

Call the consulate to know what you have to send. I needed:

copie intégrale de mon acte de naissance

copy (long form that states full name of both parents, and place of birth) of your wife (once she is your wife)

certified copy of marriage certificate (if you get married in the courthouse, you can get it there directly, so this is probably the best thing to do if you want to save time)

you will need a copy of your wife's visa to show she is here legally

You will need a copy of your own visa for the same reason

A copy of the ID information page in your wife passeport

A copy of your french ID card (I think your passport can work too, I am not sure)

A letter from you stating that you married your wife with full names, date and place of marriage, and that you want it transfered.

You can probably find this info on the consulate website, but I would advise to call as all info is not always up to date. The longest part is to gather the docs actually, not to get the transfer done.