Should we have filed with DCF?!

[Ryan H 3,798]

***Hijack post along with reply to said post removed.***

[Jorge V 195]

There was a DCF user a few months back whose lawyer filed his petition in the US instead of to the London field office. Pretty sure he was able to withdraw his original I130 and resubmit via DCF. Might be worth asking him for advice. Here's the thread 

 

Also, how long ago did you submit? I think it is definitely worth it to resubmit as long as you submitted less than 3-6 months ago. According to the timelines on here, DCF in London is taking about 4 months from NOA1 to interview. If you remain at the Texas Service Center you're looking at 12-14 months total, so if you recently submitted you could end up saving 8-10 months.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Jorge Valdivia

[NikLR 13,220]

I would file dcf with london asap.  Yes you can have 2 files going at the same time. Ask @N-o-l-a about it.  Your spouse does not have to stay in the UK for the entire filing, just needed to be able to file (living in UK legally for last 6 months).  

After you refile with DCF so you're not wasting time, start suing rapidvisa for being utter morons. 

[elmcitymaven 9,711]

Ugh! How terrible for you. This is one of those times that you need to throw money at a problem to make it go away. I'm a London DCFer from back in the day, and the whole process is very straightforward and fast. It's been averaging 4-5 months from filing to visa for the past 10 years I've been on VJ, and you should take advantage of that in your situation. 

 

Please, PLEASE do not give up on pursuing compensation for the mess-up caused by Rapidvisa. It is their fault you need to pay the filing fee twice -- you specifically asked if you should file through the consulate and they gave you staggeringly wrong advice, wasting your money, time and aggravation. I worry that by counselling you to file Stateside and for your wife to change her address back to the US, Rapidvisa may have veered into "unauthorized practice of law" land. You may wish to keep this in mind when telling them that they need to refund your money. Some useful reading on this topic as it relates to immigration consultants is available here: https://cliniclegal.org/upil 

[superjim 10]

Thank you everyone for your advice, its nice to hear from people who understand what we are talking about (its like reading hieroglyphics trying to decipher the US government forms, UK isnt much better though!).

 

An update:  I emailed the USCIS office in London late last night and they responded first thing this morning (really impressed).  They advised me that YES, we SHOULD have filed the petition with them.  Secondly, they advised that we CAN file our petition with them before cancelling the one in Texas,  they actually recommended this as it can take a while for the cancellation to be processed.

 

They also, very helpfully, sent across the processing times and some helpful checklists with the actual forms we need to submit.

 

So, we are now in the position of having to re-file.  Pulling together the  stuff tonight and tomorrow to post out tomorrow.  Will write to Texas to cancel the current petition.

 

I also emailed a complaint to RapidVisa.  I explained that their staff had been made aware (on several occasions) that we both resided in the UK, and that I had asked the specific question about direct consular filing and had not been giving the correct advice or option to file directly.  I await their response.  Hoping to get at least the fee we paid them for their services back, if not the filing fee itself.  Will need to look at courses of action if they chose to be difficult.

Further note: There is a little bit about cancelling and refiling petitions on the US gov website, it infers that cancelling and re-filing could be seen as (but is not evidence of) something untoward.  I asked the question to the London office but they didnt answer that (I guess they perhaps cant offer advice on the likelihood of petitions succeeding).   Should we file the petition in London and maybe wait a while before we cancel the Texas one? Its hard to know what will show as worse, two petitions or a cancelled petition...

[Jorge V 195]

2 hours ago, superjim said:

I also emailed a complaint to RapidVisa.  I explained that their staff had been made aware (on several occasions) that we both resided in the UK

When I was first starting our process I got pricing quotes from several law firms around Dallas. I based my choices around Google reviews, which also means that I was talking to some of the priciest options.

 

When talking to these lawyers I would make sure to tell them our situation, including that we lived in Mexico, and always asked for the shortest possible process. I was quoted $4,500+ by three firms and none of them mentioned DCF. I was almost ready to bite the bullet until I found VJ's DCF forum and decided to just do it myself. I know this doesn't help you but I did want to share my experience. It was frustrating to realize that someone who should know more than I do was willing to charge me money for incorrect or incomplete advice.

[superjim 10]

1 hour ago, Jorge Valdivia said:

When I was first starting our process I got pricing quotes from several law firms around Dallas. I based my choices around Google reviews, which also means that I was talking to some of the priciest options.

 

When talking to these lawyers I would make sure to tell them our situation, including that we lived in Mexico, and always asked for the shortest possible process. I was quoted $4,500+ by three firms and none of them mentioned DCF. I was almost ready to bite the bullet until I found VJ's DCF forum and decided to just do it myself. I know this doesn't help you but I did want to share my experience. It was frustrating to realize that someone who should know more than I do was willing to charge me money for incorrect or incomplete advice.

Hi Jorge,

 

That makes me feel a little bit less of an idiot.  I felt really stupid when I realised I'd paid this company to basically cause us lots of unnecessary grief and extend the visa process unnecessarily.

UPDATE:  RapidVisa responded to my email.  Very predictable "Nothing to do with us, we're not lawyers and cant offer legal advice".  They also tried to tell me that there would be no difference in processing time between keeping the petition going in Texas and switching to Direct Consular Filing.  They were not aware that I had spoken to the London USCIS office who had confirmed everything.

I have responded with a pretty strongly worded email outlining exactly why their claims are nonsense (if they cant offer advice then why did they tell us to change the postal address from the UK to the US? etc).  I have also told them their claim about processing times was bordering on an outright lie given widely available processing time information (and information provided to me by the London USCIS office).   I will let you know what they come back with (not holding my breath, seems like they are a bunch of cowboys and just want that fee). 

[NikLR 13,220]

Well this thread will certainly come up the next time someone says "any thoughts about rapidvisa?"

Bad press and all that jazz.  I believe you have some sort of contract with them perhaps a satisfaction guarantee? 

[NikLR 13,220]

And i would not worry about the cancelling.  If asked at interview  (which I doubt) the answer is quite obvious.  We used rapidvisa and they were morons.  

[superjim 10]

1 minute ago, NikLR said:

And i would not worry about the cancelling.  If asked at interview  (which I doubt) the answer is quite obvious.  We used rapidvisa and they were morons.  

Yeah,  the fact that the London field office told me to go ahead and cancel leads me to think it wont be seen as too big a deal.  And, as you say, we have a pretty good explanation.  

The "Guarantee" only covers you if you get denied.  We paid for the full premium review service so I really hope they are reasonable and can see that they should refund us.  I'm not hopeful though, their initial blank denial of any blame makes me think they just want to keep our money and give us the finger.  

I'll await the outcome before going nuclear on review sites/their facebook page/their twitter feed/visa journey...  

[NikLR 13,220]

Sometimes a threat of explosion gets you what you want too.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease.  Lol

 

Because of this "it's not our fault" thing, when clearly they should have absolutely pushed you toward DCF I'm not inclined to be kind.  But maybe I've lived in the USA too long.  Lol 

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

11 hours ago, NikLR said:

I would file dcf with london asap.  Yes you can have 2 files going at the same time. Ask @N-o-l-a about it.  Your spouse does not have to stay in the UK for the entire filing, just needed to be able to file (living in UK legally for last 6 months).  

After you refile with DCF so you're not wasting time, start suing rapidvisa for being utter morons. 

Yes, you can have two approved I-130s, one stateside and one through the London Field Office.  Been there, done that, and got the t-shirt.  Actually both of mine had the same case number, how is that for bizarre?

 

4 hours ago, superjim said:

Further note: There is a little bit about cancelling and refiling petitions on the US gov website, it infers that cancelling and re-filing could be seen as (but is not evidence of) something untoward.  I asked the question to the London office but they didnt answer that (I guess they perhaps cant offer advice on the likelihood of petitions succeeding).   Should we file the petition in London and maybe wait a while before we cancel the Texas one? Its hard to know what will show as worse, two petitions or a cancelled petition...

 

You can wait until you are already happily living in the US to cancel, or just not bother at all as I found out seems to be possible.  Better not to burn the first bridge until you are ready.

Edited November 27, 2017 by N-o-l-a

[acidrain 325]

1 hour ago, superjim said:

Yeah,  the fact that the London field office told me to go ahead and cancel leads me to think it wont be seen as too big a deal.  And, as you say, we have a pretty good explanation.  

The "Guarantee" only covers you if you get denied.  We paid for the full premium review service so I really hope they are reasonable and can see that they should refund us.  I'm not hopeful though, their initial blank denial of any blame makes me think they just want to keep our money and give us the finger.  

I'll await the outcome before going nuclear on review sites/their facebook page/their twitter feed/visa journey...  

I am so sorry you have to go through this ordeal. Their explanation that DCF is completed in the same time frame as a Visa abroad is absurd. DCF in London takes 4-6 months while a Visa abroad is 12-14 months. That's 1/2 to 1/3 total processing time depending on how your application unfolds.

 

I would encourage you if you had paid Rapid Visa with your credit card to open a dispute claim with your credit card company to recover your fee. You have a very strong case in that they did not provide the service they promised they would do. In fact they gave you bad advice and will cost more time and effort.

[Boiler 43,859]

If you paid by Credit Card time to file a dispute.

[Hypnos 6,576]

If you paid RapidVisa using a credit card, attempt to do a chargeback.