Our experience from DCF in Madrid

[Coco&Kitten 42]

Hi all,

I just want to share our great experience from filing our I-130 in Madrid embassy last week. I had asked many questions in this forum and some of them were solved, so I want to share the information I was able to get from this experience.

My husband (the USC) had called the embassy in advance and they told him to go ahead and file the I-130 in person. So, we made the trip (about 550 km from where we live) which was not a problem because we also took a small vacation at the same time taking advantage of the "Semana Santa" (Holy week) in Spain

We arrived there early in the morning and we were the second ones in the cue. The lady at the desk was really nice to us, apparently we brought all the documents (originals and copies) and she checked them all. I want to emphasize that in our case (and I had asked this question in the forum previously) we DID NOT need Apostilles or even a translation for spanish documents. This was a surprise, since I was going to send the marriage certificate and all the other spanish documents for translation to a certified translator, but apparently it is not necessary! That was good news! Then, she said the vice Consul was going to interview my husband and that lasted 5 minutes, typical questions where me met, what we do for work, etc. The interviews are in front of a glass window since all the employes are on the other side (that was a little bit ackward, I was not used to this, usually I imagine an interview taking place in an office and sitting on a chair... ). Anyway, the interview went well and the consul said it was moreless approved, they just needed to send the background check for my husband to the Rome USCIS, which should not take long and it is done through e-mail.

Afterwards, we went back to the lady we gave the documents and she gave us a package with the DS-230 form (part I) and all the other necessary documents that we have to collect and check out. Is this package 3? She told us to send them a form once we are ready and they wil schedule the interview. Wow, I guess we were not ready for this going so fast. We had planned to move to the US sometime in December or Jan 2008. Apparently it seems to be taking only 2 months the DCF in Madrid! I have to get some more documents yet, and fill out the affidavit of support, so I guess we can just take our time and not estress.

I hope our experience can be of some use to those of you who might file in Madrid or in a similar embassy. And I am sure I will have more questions to post as the process continues... I realize this is just the beginning...

Kitten

[j-manu 0]

Congratulations!

[soniabruin 0]

Hi,

I just wanted to thank you for putting down your experience. I am going to file in Madrid as well after we get married, hopefully in May. I´ve been looking into all the documents we need so there are no unnecessary delays, especially after the whole Adam Walsh thing. I´m so relieved to hear that the process is still about two months because I will leave in July and my boyfriend planned on leaving in October.

My problem is that I don´t have a visa here, but the embassy told me that just proving 6 months residency such as apartment contract and certificate of empadronamiento will do. Right now, I´m looking into the tax forms because I haven´t filed since maybe three years ago. I´ve lived here a little more than two years, and last year I didn´t make more than $8000 like it stipulates on the 1080 instructions. However, since I´ve been working "under the table" as a telemarketer and English teacher I´m not sure if that would mean I´m self-employed and would still have to file regardless. Obviously, my joint sponsor will be my parents, in particular my father. Does anyone have any words of wisdom as to how I should go about this?

I look forward to hearing how everything goes for you. Good luck!

Sonia

[meauxna 15]

Felicidades! Great report!!