DCF In Bangkok

[Yodrak 7]

As those who have Thai spouses know, DCF in Bangkok isn't. The USCIS District Office for Asia is in Bangkok, not located in the consulate or anywhere else within the embassy, so DCFers submit their I-130 petitions to the USCIS directly at the USCIS office in a commercial office building (located down the street from the consulate and across the street from the embassy).

Anyway, the USCIS District Office in Bangkok stopped accepting I-130 petitions from expats in Thailand effective 26 January. The reason? They have no mechanism to accept the fee payment. USCIS had used the consulate to collect the payment, and when the consulates stopped accepting I-130 for processing the consulate in Bangkok also stopped accepting the I-130 fee payment on behalf of USCIS. This exerpted from a notice available at the USCIS office in Bangkok:

""At this time, however, USCIS offices overseas does not have procedures in place to accept new filings of I-130 petitions for Alien relatives. The department of state will not accept fees for any I-130 petitions for alien relatives, and we do not have the ability to independantly receive fees in our overseas offices. As such, we cannot accept any I-130 petition for Alien relative filing at the Bangkok District office of USCIS or any other USCIS office overseas. Please check our website in the upcoming week for further guidance as to approved filing procedures: www.uscis.gov We expect guidance to be forthcoming shortly."

Note that the language used indicates that this applies to all consulates and USCIS overseas offices, not just Bangkok. Perhaps VJers attempting to submit I-130 to USCIS offices in other countries can confirm.

Also with regard to USCIS Bangkok, it will be interesting to see what it will do with I-130 petitions from the US consulate in Australia, if that is where those petitions are sent. USCIS Bangkok is notoriously strict about petitioners being bona fide expats.

Yodrak

Edited February 1, 2007 by Yodrak

[meauxna 15]

An interesting tangent, indeed.

Iinteresting quote about State not accepting payment on behalf of CIS either.. I'll try to think of a situation that disproves that because I'm ornery.

Surely DHS Bangkok collects money for something? hmmmm.

Something more to keep an eye on. thx for sharing!