Asui

Thank you so much for the clarification. I'm definitely feeling more solid on the online choice after this thread.

Definitely! I've needed to get an "affidavit of marriage status" authenticated to prove I wasn't already married as well as my US driver's license authenticated for reciprocal license here in Taiwan. Never takes long to do anything and everyone is usually really nice.

In our particular case, we both live overseas in the same country, so we figured it was worth just signing it since it could be done. Easy enough to scan and attach as PDF. Based on the comments I've received here, and my general understanding, online does seem the best way. Most resources I've found either have both people living in the US or one living in the US and the other in another country. I feel like sometimes I'm misunderstanding what is/isn't needed (like online vs. paper filing) just because we're both overseas.

That's good to hear, at least that they are generally quick with the interview. I looked it up and they are allowed to do DCF, but that runs me into the problem of reasoning. I'm not in any particularly exceptional circumstances, which are: U.S. military deployment (impending or current) Medical emergencies for the petitioner or beneficiary Threats to personal safety Imminent expiration of legal stay in a foreign country Adoption or child aging out Urgent humanitarian needs Urgent job re-location in a short timeframe Nothing there applies to me, so looks like I'm just doing the regular USCIS filing. You've still given me hope for a (relatively) speedy process, so that's something!

Unfortunately, no. I don't meet any of the 'exceptional circumstances' required for DCF, including job re-location at short notice. We also don't have an International Immigration Office, so no going around that issue. Thanks for the thought, though!

Thanks for your reply. Definitely does seem like the online one, glitches aside, may be the way to go since it's all digitized anyway. Sounds good to me! I was a little worried about address formatting, but I read somewhere you can send an explanation in your cover letter if something doesn't exactly fit. Appreciate your response!

Hello all, I've searched and searched for a definitive answer and I'm coming up with conflicting answers. Hopefully, someone who has done this process can clarify for me. We are beginning our I-130 application and filing from abroad; both of us live in Taiwan and will submit it from here. I created a USCIS account and began the application, but I've read conflicting information to not use the online form if you are filing from abroad. So: 1) Should I use the online application, print the PDFs and then somehow upload them, or just do the paper version? 2) Do I upload the I-130A as a PDF in the evidence portion at the end of my I-130? Or is there some other way it should be done? Apologies if this is the topic of discussion somewhere, but I just wasn't finding my exact answer anywhere online. Thank you.