DCF CR-1 London I-130 to email/letter of approval + case number?

[saksnoot 31]

On 6/21/2021 at 5:18 AM, valmed said:

We've just tried emailing the embassy about 10 weeks after filing and they've said we'll hear back after 12 weeks

Have you had any luck at the 12 week mark? We’re approaching that point, and I’m trying to see what the best course of action is

[valmed 4]

We actually got an email around the 13 week mark with our case number. My wife has her medical exam next week. Unfortunately, we will be travelling abroad in August but will hopefully book an interview in September time. It seems that after the 12 week wait, things can move quite quickly!

Edited July 14, 2021 by valmed
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[Esylvia 2]

Hello!

 

I am sorry I have not updated in a long time!

 

My husband attended his medical exam on June 24th which was about 14 weeks from when we submitted the petition in London. He said the medical went pretty smoothly and it really only took I think 1.5 hours or something like that, so not too long. He did book his visa interview prior to the medical and was able to get one for July 8th at 9:30 am (he went down the night before), which we were pretty happy about. He attended his interview on July 8th and was approved on the spot! He said the interview went smoothly. He said they focused a lot on finances as at first they saw that I did not quite make enough to sponsor him, but thankfully we had a second sponsor.  Funny enough one of the questions they asked him was "why did you guys not get married sooner?" which he was not expecting haha. We brought a ton of paperwork and supporting documents to the interview, but he said only about 10% of it was even looked at and collected (better to be over prepared than under!). Overall, he was in and out within an hour not counting the time he spent waiting in line to get into the embassy. Just a tip, get there at least 45 minutes early as he said the line took quite awhile as I think they are doing a lot of interviews now that things have opened up more. He was late for his appointment due to this but thankfully it ended up being fine. 

 

My husband will now be arriving in the US on July 31st so I am very thankful that this process is coming to an end (that is until we need to reapply haha). Thanks everyone for all the help and wish you guys all the luck going forward!

 

 

[saksnoot 31]

Update: I emailed the day after 12 weeks. Within 1 hour, I had an email with a case number and further instructions. Booked the medical. Working on DS-260 so we can book interview

[saksnoot 31]

My wife and I are trying to work through the process of the medical, DS-260, and interview now. We've booked the medical for next week and the DS-260 is complete. When I try to book an interview, it says our case number isn't ready for an appointment. Can we only book an interview once the medical is complete? Or is there something else?

[AmeriCanadian91 3]

Can someone help with a general question? This seems to be the main thread for 2021 DCF but please let me know if I should ask elsewhere. I’m wondering if my husband and I would qualify for DCF in London. He’s a UK Citizen, I’m the US Citizen but we both live in Canada. I’ve contacted the consulate here, but I’m still waiting to hear back and reading that Canada doesn’t do DCF unless it’s an extreme medical emergency, whereas I’m trying to apply under the circumstance that I have short notice for a job relocation in California. I’m worried that we won’t be approved to apply through DCF and will have to be apart for another year (we already had to be apart through most of 2020 due to covid).

 

If we don’t qualify, my husband will have to move in with his parents in England until this is all sorted out (we can’t afford to pay for 2 homes, 1 in US and 1 in Canada). That made me think of us applying for DCF through London. I’ve read that some countries are more lenient and don’t require the sponsor to live abroad. Is this the case for England? (He is also a Citizen of Australia and can move in with family there to complete the DCF, if possible). Any advice?

[saksnoot 31]

On 8/7/2021 at 6:23 AM, AmeriCanadian91 said:

Can someone help with a general question? This seems to be the main thread for 2021 DCF but please let me know if I should ask elsewhere. I’m wondering if my husband and I would qualify for DCF in London. He’s a UK Citizen, I’m the US Citizen but we both live in Canada. I’ve contacted the consulate here, but I’m still waiting to hear back and reading that Canada doesn’t do DCF unless it’s an extreme medical emergency, whereas I’m trying to apply under the circumstance that I have short notice for a job relocation in California. I’m worried that we won’t be approved to apply through DCF and will have to be apart for another year (we already had to be apart through most of 2020 due to covid).

 

If we don’t qualify, my husband will have to move in with his parents in England until this is all sorted out (we can’t afford to pay for 2 homes, 1 in US and 1 in Canada). That made me think of us applying for DCF through London. I’ve read that some countries are more lenient and don’t require the sponsor to live abroad. Is this the case for England? (He is also a Citizen of Australia and can move in with family there to complete the DCF, if possible). Any advice?

It seems like you have the worst of both worlds. Any other combination of UK/Canada residency/citizenship would allow him to live in the US more easily in this case. If living in the UK, then you’d have a case for DCF in London. If he was a citizen of Canada, he could just secure a job in the US and get a TN1 visa at the border, and you could just adjust status later if desired.

 

In the current situation, your only DCF route seems to be Montreal, if they take you up. London does ask for proof of UK residence of the petitioner when filing. Also, filing must be in person.

 

It might still be worth asking London though. You could mention in your request that you’re based in Canada and your British spouse wants to have his visa processed in London because he’ll have to leave Canada soon as you move and start your job. A longshot, but it’s just an online form with 1000 characters to make your case, so might be worth trying.

 

The other option is file with USCIS and request an expedite. The case for this is financial hardship to a US citizen (you). Your partner will need to leave his job when you start your new one because of the housing cost and all. Consequently, you’re having to deal with losing approx 50% of your family income because visa processing is so delayed. Definite financial burden. You can use this as a basis for an NVC expedite as well.

 

With some luck, that could mean a visa in under 6 months. We got DCF in London and took almost 5 months to go from requesting DCF to visa inhand, so it’s not too different. 

[saksnoot 31]

On 8/7/2021 at 6:23 AM, AmeriCanadian91 said:

Can someone help with a general question? This seems to be the main thread for 2021 DCF but please let me know if I should ask elsewhere. I’m wondering if my husband and I would qualify for DCF in London. He’s a UK Citizen, I’m the US Citizen but we both live in Canada. I’ve contacted the consulate here, but I’m still waiting to hear back and reading that Canada doesn’t do DCF unless it’s an extreme medical emergency, whereas I’m trying to apply under the circumstance that I have short notice for a job relocation in California. I’m worried that we won’t be approved to apply through DCF and will have to be apart for another year (we already had to be apart through most of 2020 due to covid).

 

If we don’t qualify, my husband will have to move in with his parents in England until this is all sorted out (we can’t afford to pay for 2 homes, 1 in US and 1 in Canada). That made me think of us applying for DCF through London. I’ve read that some countries are more lenient and don’t require the sponsor to live abroad. Is this the case for England? (He is also a Citizen of Australia and can move in with family there to complete the DCF, if possible). Any advice?

In my last post I mentioned that a Canadian citizen could get a job and a TN1 at the border to live and work in the US. There is actually a similar visa for Australian citizens, the E3 visa. Unlike the TN1 you have to apply abroad, but fortunately there are multiple offices in Canada (and UK) that can handle this, and processing tends to be faster than USCIS is for an I-130 and so on.

 

Both TN1 and E3 require the applicant to have a job offer in a skilled field (requiring at least a bachelor's and  technical knowledge), but with the job offer you can apply. For the E3, you need to have a job offer, and then get your employer to file for a prevailing wage determination with the department of labor and then file an LCA. Once that's done, you can go to your visa interview with the LCA and it should be quick if it's approved. My guess is a few months.

 

Big key here is that the E3 does not allow for immigrant intent. That means when you apply for the visa and when you enter on it, you can't be planning to make the US your permanent home. If you and your partner are simply moving to the US for now due to a job opportunity for one of you and the other is finding a job and getting a visa so you two can stay together, then that's fine as long as you're not planning to stay in the US permanently. If you later decide to make the US your permanent home, that's fine and you can adjust status. But USCIS will want evidence that you applied for and entered on your E3 without intention to do that.

 

In any case, if your partner works in a field that qualifies currently, it might be worth applying to jobs in the US to see if this is an option, assuming the US isn't where you want to end up permanently. 

[AmeriCanadian91 3]

17 hours ago, saksnoot said:

It seems like you have the worst of both worlds. Any other combination of UK/Canada residency/citizenship would allow him to live in the US more easily in this case. If living in the UK, then you’d have a case for DCF in London. If he was a citizen of Canada, he could just secure a job in the US and get a TN1 visa at the border, and you could just adjust status later if desired.

 

In the current situation, your only DCF route seems to be Montreal, if they take you up. London does ask for proof of UK residence of the petitioner when filing. Also, filing must be in person.

 

It might still be worth asking London though. You could mention in your request that you’re based in Canada and your British spouse wants to have his visa processed in London because he’ll have to leave Canada soon as you move and start your job. A longshot, but it’s just an online form with 1000 characters to make your case, so might be worth trying.

 

The other option is file with USCIS and request an expedite. The case for this is financial hardship to a US citizen (you). Your partner will need to leave his job when you start your new one because of the housing cost and all. Consequently, you’re having to deal with losing approx 50% of your family income because visa processing is so delayed. Definite financial burden. You can use this as a basis for an NVC expedite as well.

 

With some luck, that could mean a visa in under 6 months. We got DCF in London and took almost 5 months to go from requesting DCF to visa inhand, so it’s not too different. 

Thank you, I will try each of these options. Any time we can cut off being apart will be worth it.

[AmeriCanadian91 3]

1 hour ago, saksnoot said:

In my last post I mentioned that a Canadian citizen could get a job and a TN1 at the border to live and work in the US. There is actually a similar visa for Australian citizens, the E3 visa. Unlike the TN1 you have to apply abroad, but fortunately there are multiple offices in Canada (and UK) that can handle this, and processing tends to be faster than USCIS is for an I-130 and so on.

 

Both TN1 and E3 require the applicant to have a job offer in a skilled field (requiring at least a bachelor's and  technical knowledge), but with the job offer you can apply. For the E3, you need to have a job offer, and then get your employer to file for a prevailing wage determination with the department of labor and then file an LCA. Once that's done, you can go to your visa interview with the LCA and it should be quick if it's approved. My guess is a few months.

 

Big key here is that the E3 does not allow for immigrant intent. That means when you apply for the visa and when you enter on it, you can't be planning to make the US your permanent home. If you and your partner are simply moving to the US for now due to a job opportunity for one of you and the other is finding a job and getting a visa so you two can stay together, then that's fine as long as you're not planning to stay in the US permanently. If you later decide to make the US your permanent home, that's fine and you can adjust status. But USCIS will want evidence that you applied for and entered on your E3 without intention to do that.

 

In any case, if your partner works in a field that qualifies currently, it might be worth applying to jobs in the US to see if this is an option, assuming the US isn't where you want to end up permanently. 

We can’t go this route, unfortunately, as my partner wants to become a PR and join the military, but it’s good to see there are other options out there.

[Kso1234 0]

I filed my husband's i-130 on June 2021 to USCIS online and is being processed by the Nebraska Service Center. I recently got a job offer that will require me to move the US urgently. I emailed the US Embassy in London to see if I can have my existing I-130 adjudicated for DCF in London. They told me to contact USCIS to ask to expedite my existing i-130 to London. My issue is that Nebraska Service Center is processing applications submitted on February. This means my existing i-130 will be reviewed in January 2022. 

 

According to this thread, it looks like I-130 applications for DCF in the London Embassy are being reviewed 12-13 weeks time. This is the same amount of time that my application would be reviewed in Nebraska Service Center.

 

My question is if anyone thinks it's worth trying to reach USCIS to ask to expedite to London Embassy for DCF at this point based on similar processing approval time for the i-130 itself? I wasn't sure if it was speedier process with NVC & interview with DCF once you get your petition approved by the consulate. 

 

Any help and advice is appreciated. THANK YOU!

Edited September 13, 2021 by Kso1234

[saksnoot 31]

23 minutes ago, Kso1234 said:

I filed my husband's i-130 on June 2021 to USCIS online and is being processed by the Nebraska Service Center. I recently got a job offer that will require me to move the US urgently. I emailed the US Embassy in London to see if I can have my existing I-130 adjudicated for DCF in London. They told me to contact USCIS to ask to expedite my existing i-130 to London. My issue is that Nebraska Service Center is processing applications submitted on February. This means my existing i-130 will be reviewed in January 2022. 

 

According to this thread, it looks like I-130 applications for DCF in the London Embassy are being reviewed 12-13 weeks time. This is the same amount of time that my application would be reviewed in Nebraska Service Center.

 

My question is if anyone thinks it's worth trying to reach USCIS to ask to expedite to London Embassy for DCF at this point based on similar processing approval time for the i-130 itself? I wasn't sure if it was speedier process with NVC & interview with DCF once you get your petition approved by the consulate. 

 

Any help and advice is appreciated. THANK YOU!

Not sure what the embassy staff member meant in terms of expediting the i-130 to London. I think he means that once your I-130 is given to the State Dept. at NVC, you can request an expedite to London. This basically stops NVC from collecting your documents, checking them, and then putting you in line to be scheduled for an interview. Instead the file is sent immediately to London and you schedule your own interview with the embassy and bring all docs to the interview itself. Note that this expedite request is entirely with the State Dept as NVC and London embassy are both part of that department. 
 

There is a second type of expedite that I know of is asking USCIS to process your I-130 as a priority. This, if successful, will get the I-130 to NVC more quickly. 
 

The way I see it, you have two ways to speed up your case. There may be an addition channel through which you can ask USCIS to send the I-130 to London directly for adjudication there because the embassy has agreed to take local filing. I’m not sure how that would happen or if it’s even possible. 

 

1) Ask embassy if you can withdraw your I-130 filed in the US with USCIS and instead file locally. Then you go through the DCF process in London. So file I-130 in person, wait 3 months for a case number, and follow online instructions for cases not processed by NVC.
 

Time to interview: 4-5 months + amount of time required to receive acknowledgment from USCIS that your I-130 filed stateside was successfully withdrawn (be sure to state your reason is that you need to withdraw to filed locally in London or else it might be assumed that you don’t wish to sponsor this beneficiary anymore period).

 

I’m not sure how quickly you’ll be able to attain proof that you’ve withdrawn the I-130 as I suspect the embassy won’t let you file with them until you can prove that USCIS has stopped processing your file. 

 

2) Ask USCIS for an expedite on the I-130 you have already filed based on significant financial loss to a US citizen or business so it gets to NVC faster. 

 

The argument to make should go like this:

 

There are two outcomes without the expedite. Either you cannot take up your new job in the US, in which case you will face a significant financial loss in that you would lose out on whatever amount extra you would make in this new job compared to your current one. Also, your US employer would lose out on an employee that they need (would be great if your employer could give you a letter detailing how you would aid their operations and bottom line for this).

The other outcome without the expedite is that you take up your job in the US and are separated. In this case, you (the US citizen) still face undue financial hardship due to having to maintain 2 households for an extended period of time. Not to mention needing to finance moving house 3 time. Once for you coming to the US, once for the beneficiary, and once again for you since you’ll need to move within the US to housing big enough for an extra person when you are reunited.

 

So without expedite, whether you take up your job in the US now or stay behind and wait for the greencard to process, there’s significant financial loss.

 

Once your case hits NVC, request an expedite from NVC on the basis of financial harship. The argument is fairly similar to the one in the request to USCIS but with a greater focus on the personal hardship rather than just losing money or foregoing significant financial gain. It should focus on how thin it would stretch you financially and how uneasy such a situation is.

 

I would also reach out directly to the London Embassy at this point (replying to the email they sent you regarding your situation) telling them your case is at NVC now and that you’ve requested an expedite based on the financial hardship due to the job situation. Ask if they can contact NVC and request the file be sent over as a matter of urgency.

 

Time to interview: 4-5 months as well, but there is uncertainty over whether one or both of the expedite requests will be approved and how long it takes USCIS/NVC to review/approve them.

 

Neither of the options is perfect, but I hope it helps. Remember, I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t official legal advice. 
 

If you really do need to get your case done faster, I’d recommend using an immigration attorney to decide the plan of action and make your case expedite requests. We used Davies Legal Immigration (in London and Atlanta) since they had good knowledge of the London Embassy and local filing since our reason for local filing was a bit complex.

 

I’ve seen good things about Hacking Immigration Law on VJ. Not sure how knowledgeable or successful they are in terms of speeding up cases.

 

The last firm I know of is the Law Offices of Jacob Sapochnik. They seem to be quite focussed on helping people get their cases approved faster given the current unacceptable backlog. I have no clue as to how people who’ve used them have reacted to their experiences. 

[LHR2SFO 2]

Just wanted to share that finding this thread was like a needle in a haystack but was well worth the search. I went through the exact same process. I filed the I-130 on behalf of my spouse via DCF in London through an in-person on June 9th 2021.  I was eligible because I had a job offer in San Francisco starting in August.  Exactly 12 weeks to the day (September 1) I sent the London embassy an email to see if I coudl get an update on the ase (I replied to original email I received which confirmed my June 9 appointment). I didn't receive a response but then exactly 1 week later my spouse received a package at the house in London confirming that petition had been approved and that he can start on next steps.  Here's hoping the rest of the process goes smoothly.

 

Many thanks to everyone here for sharing their story!

[Just Paul 4,591]

On 9/13/2021 at 3:17 AM, Kso1234 said:

I emailed the US Embassy in London to see if I can have my existing I-130 adjudicated for DCF in London.

Once USCIS has the petition it is processed stateside.   There is no path to change to consular processing. You can run the chance of withdrawing your petition and asking London for a DCF.

[shibbles 1]

Submitted I-130 today in London - have been told to expect a 12 week/3 month wait before any next steps