DCF South Africa

[Dewald & Brittney 46]

Hello everyone,

 

Does anyone have any information about DCF in South Africa? My fiance and I are getting married in a few months and would like to stay together as much as possible throughout the process. We are currently in Thailand, but will be moving there for the wedding shortly. 

 

Kind regards,

Dewald & Brittney.

[payxibka 10,044]

6 hours ago, Dewald & Brittney said:

Hello everyone,

 

Does anyone have any information about DCF in South Africa? My fiance and I are getting married in a few months and would like to stay together as much as possible throughout the process. We are currently in Thailand, but will be moving there for the wedding shortly. 

 

Kind regards,

Dewald & Brittney.

Do you have extenuating circumstances?  Otherwise DCF is not an option.

[Just Paul 4,591]

Exceptional circumstances and you both need to be legal residents under the consulates jurisdiction.

[Dewald & Brittney 46]

Thanks for the information everyone. 

[Disfan01 9]

I don’t know that DCF will be an option for you. To do so you need to be legitimately living in SA. My husband and I married in SA 04/2017 and it took 10 months to get our official marriage certificate from home affairs for us to apply for me to get a spousal visa. In that time I had to continue flying back to the US every three months. We got the spousal visa approved and continued living in SA until we decided in 2019 to move to the states. DCF was quite efficient once we filed. From initial filing to final interview was 5 months.  Unfortunately no matter which path you choose, it takes what feels like forever to get documents from Home Affairs. Plan on lots of traveling to stay together. To my knowledge, You can still file to a US lockbox while living in SA, but you will need that printed marriage certificate. 

[Dewald & Brittney 46]

11 hours ago, Disfan01 said:

I don’t know that DCF will be an option for you. To do so you need to be legitimately living in SA. My husband and I married in SA 04/2017 and it took 10 months to get our official marriage certificate from home affairs for us to apply for me to get a spousal visa. In that time I had to continue flying back to the US every three months. We got the spousal visa approved and continued living in SA until we decided in 2019 to move to the states. DCF was quite efficient once we filed. From initial filing to final interview was 5 months.  Unfortunately no matter which path you choose, it takes what feels like forever to get documents from Home Affairs. Plan on lots of traveling to stay together. To my knowledge, You can still file to a US lockbox while living in SA, but you will need that printed marriage certificate. 

 

Thanks a lot for your reply. We have come to the conclusion that DCF won't be an option. I was browsing around on the USCIS website yesterday and it seems like processing times are getting better (contrasting to what is shown on the timeline page here, but I'm an optimist). Thanks again for your insight.

[Disfan01 9]

Processing times have gotten much better, depending on the luck of which processing Center your application gets sent to. We are in the process of bringing our son to live with us as well and I sent our I-130 in at the end of December and it was approved by the end of April. We went through the Nebraska processing center.  There have been a few apparent glitches with NVC but that’s where we are now. 
 

I think waiting for your marriage certificate will be the longest part unfortunately. I don’t know if the handwritten copy from Home Affairs will be sufficient.  It would be something to look into. I found it ironic that the handwritten document was enough for me to get my drivers license and social security card changed on this side, but the SA government wouldn’t accept their own document to get my spousal visa. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Edited July 2, 2021 by Disfan01

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

3 hours ago, Disfan01 said:

I think waiting for your marriage certificate will be the longest part unfortunately. I don’t know if the handwritten copy from Home Affairs will be sufficient.  It would be something to look into. I found it ironic that the handwritten document was enough for me to get my drivers license and social security card changed on this side, but the SA government wouldn’t accept their own document to get my spousal visa.

Just as a FYI, we had to get a computer generated marriage certificate for our US immigrant visas, back in 2013 already. 

[Suze1 366]

On 6/10/2021 at 11:58 PM, Dewald & Brittney said:

We are currently in Thailand, but will be moving there for the wedding shortly. 

Don't know if you are still considering DCF, but, given that:

1) You do not seem to even reside in the US currently - "currently in Thailand".

2) Are "moving" to another country (not the US)

 

... definitely be prepared for questions regarding domicile, and questions about qualifying for DCF, if it is even possible in SA for you, and how long it would take for you to qualify for DCF in SA.

Edited July 2, 2021 by Suze1

[Suze1 366]

BTW - Be prepared for domicile questions whether DCF or not!

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

16 minutes ago, Suze1 said:

BTW - Be prepared for domicile questions whether DCF or not!

Generally not a big issue for those from SA but yes they should be prepared 

[Disfan01 9]

4 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

Just as a FYI, we had to get a computer generated marriage certificate for our US immigrant visas, back in 2013 already. 

Good info to know. We already had our computer generated certificate when we applied for his US visa, so of course we used that. I was hoping it might be an option to save someone else from at least that part of the long wait.