I 130 expedited if living abroad with spouse??

[cassy1001 0]

Hello, all! I'm new here and have a question. I read on a post (can't seem to find it now) that stated that if I (US citizen) am living abroad with spouse (in Brazil) then there is the possibility that the I 130 processing time could be expedited due to the fact that we live together abroad. Is this true? If so, how do I indicate that we are currently living together? By simply putting the same current address for both?

[Karmalious 50]

I have not yet heard of that....

Here are a couple reasons that a case could be expedited...

1. If the USC is in active military

2. Undue hardship to the USCitizen

USCIS webpage for Expedite criteria:

http://www.uscis.gov/forms/expedite-criteria

[Penguin_ie 5,986]

Yes-ish, but it is not an expedite you request, the way you would with military deployment or an emergent humanitarian situation.

1. The fastest way to get a spousal visa is DCF (filing directly with the embassy), but that is only available in a select few countries that have USCIS offices within the embassy, and Brazil is not one of them.

2. There is some evidence that spousal visa cases where the petitioner lives abroad get fast tracked even when sent to the Chicago lockbox, going by the experience of VJers. However, this does not always happen (there are periods of months where it seems to happen to almost all cases, then not for a few months and so on), so you can hope, but not plan for it.

[cassy1001 0]

Thank you both for your information! I didn't quite understand when I read the initial post how/why this was happening for these individuals. Now, I get it! I plan to start the process in the upcoming weeks! Fingers crossed I fall into the month/bunch that gets their I-130s processed more quickly!

[Ryan H 3,790]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Progress Reports to USCIS Service Centers forum; topic is about service center operations.