US Immigration from Chile

Hello!

Many thanks to all those who have shared tips/tidbits from their visa journey!

Question: does anyone have experience with the Santiago, Chile embassy for K1 interviews? My finance is Chilean and his interview will be coming up sometime this year (hopefully) and we want to be as prepared as possible. Specifically, we're interested in timing of scheduling the interview post NOA-2, scheduling of the medical exam, and the overall interview experience. Any commentary is greatly appreciated!

-Mary

I tried finding a recent thread with more complete information about options and procedures when both US citizen and their spouse live overseas (since the guide seems to be out-of-date), so I apologize if this has been discussed recently.

Our case: married 5 years, 2 kids (US Citizens), live in Chile, looking to move back to the US (wife actually had a green card before we moved to Chile)

From what I understand:

- DCF now is only available for certain circumstance (emergencies, military, job relocation?)

- If I apply with the I-130 I can't apply with DCF

- If we don't qualify for DCF we need to apply for a IR1 like normal (seems can be done online now), and is taking 18-24 months it seems like

- For the form I-864 affadavit of support, I won't have domicile, but I would be able to show intent (I have an active bank account in the US, drivers license, can show job applications, pontetially could register kids for school if needed), plus for the monetary side my parents to joint-sponsor without any issue. With all of that I assume it shouldn't be an issue.

Can anyone confirm or deny any of my assumptions above? Or if there is some other key I am missing.

Also my big question is if anyone has had sucess with the DCF with a job relocation exception? I could probably land a job in the US, with a start date and could try that route, and does seem like it would be faster. But I am nervous that the time it takes to be ready to move, get a job, process time of the DCF, etc. could be wasted if it doesn't work and then I lose all the wait time when I then have to apply for the I-130.

Thanks!

Hi everyone, I don't know any chilean person on my same situation, that's why I'm trying here.

I work for a company in Chile remotly, I get deducted health and retirement from my base salary. That retirement money goes to retire in Chile, I can't take it out.
I have my life here in USA now, I plan to live here and retire here, so I want to ask them to get transfered my base salary without deductions through a wire or something.

I want to know if someone has experience with this, related the wire transfer money being taxable?

Thank you

Hello!

What's the usual time for the answer from the CO after receiving the documents at the embassy? I know it may change from country to country, but it'd be nice to have an idea/estimate. For what I've heard, Chile isn't really a busy embassy.

Also if anyone from Chile can share would be awesome .

Thanks!!

Hello everybody!, I'm posting this because we're in search of words of wisdom.

I had my interview at the Chilean embassy for the CR-1 visa, and got RFE by the CO asking for more proof of domicile, since my wife (the USC) has been living here for 4 years already. I brought to the interview just a bank statement and quotation for shipping our goods to the US. Now I realize how little we brought, considering the time she's been abroad.

We had no issue in the whole process until now, NVC DQ'd us without any other observation. Anyway, now we are gathering these items to send by mail here so we can finally end this painful feeling of being rejected:

- Letter from the petitioner, listing all items and speaking about the missing documentation.

- Job offers and job applications from the petitioner.

- Signed agreement for lease at her parents house (they are our joint sponsor+HH member)

- Letter from the sponsors indicating full support and formalizing the lease.

- Voting registration status of the petitioner, the document has her address which we think it could help.

- Copy of the money transfer from her bank in Chile to her US bank account.

- Updated bank statement.

- Official resignation letter to her Chilean job.

- SSN card, which we didn't bring to the embassy.

- Amended tax return for 2020 (there was a mistake which the CO pointed out and got really mad about).

We're gathering the job offers, job applications and the receipt of the money transfer. We already have the rest of the documentation.

Our questions are:

- Do you think this is enough?.

- Does this mean the petitioner might have to travel before me to establish more evidence, if the prior list is not enough? is that travel allowed?

- The interview was december 19th and the CO didn't give any time to send our proof, except a paper saying that if we don't respond in a year our case is closed. What is the time limit we have to send our documents?.

Thank you very much for taking the time for reading this.

Best wishes and Merry Christmas!