Iva7

8 minutes ago, Andrew+MM said:

I am trying to figure out what the requirement is for translations. Here is what the Frankfurt checklist states:

Ok, certified is not required but what does "the translator must verify that he or she is competent to translate..." mean? Is there some kind of competence certification that must be supplied?

Thanks for any help! I'm working with my wife (petitioner) and its driving her crazy

The translator needs to write a statement underneath the translation that they are certified as one basically. I’m guessing translators already know the verbiage needed because I didn’t need to ask mine for anything specific. 

22 minutes ago, Inx said:

One question: when you request the interview appointment, will they just give you an appointment or how does it work?

They have the approve your request, which takes maybe a couple of hours if it’s earlier in the day. We requested it around 4PM and got the approval very early the next morning. After that you log back in and can see the calendar with dates and times to officially make the appointment. 

4 hours ago, Inx said:

Mine too! Huge relieve though: the consulate answered my email and said that they received the documents!

So DHL "just" forgot to scan it or whatever. I called DHL several times and asked them what happend but no one could tell me what happend!

 

Anyways... they received the documents and that's all that counts

What a nightmare! We had the same but with our first package and we were so worried that all that personal information was just out there. Thankfully it turned out the DHL just sucks and they didn’t update the tracking information or whatever it was. But they was so unhelpful when we tried to find out what happened. Glad your package was received by the consulate! 

1 hour ago, Andrew+MM said:

I just received an email from the Consulate in Frankfurt stating that documents for the I-130 application must be translated from any foreign language including German into English. They pointed out that this was in the checklist and we just missed it I guess.

 

Translations do not need to be certified, however. Nonetheless, this creates a little bit of a delay as we get a few things translated.

We sent our registration paperwork from the municipality in German and they didn’t say anything about it. But I think all other documents were already in English, so maybe that was enough to prove our relationship. 

I guess it's great news for almost everyone. Hopefully you get the notification to set up an interview soon. 

I had my interview on October 4th and picked up my passport yesterday! So the whole process took a bit over 2 months for us, as well. DCF is definitely a lot faster than the regular application. 

1 minute ago, Alexkr said:

Did you email to FrnUSCISInquiries@state.gov or to frankfurtvisainquiries@state.gov?

 

USCIS Inquiries

1 minute ago, cphilipp said:

They told me to submit a request to schedule an interview first. This request was approved within a couple of hours. Then I selected an interview date. 

Great, thank you! I figured it was how it should be but just wanted to double check with someone who’s already done it. I didn’t have to request anything when I applied for my tourist visa a few years ago but it is a very different visa and it wasn’t in Germany, so my mind was questioning things, haha. 

Just now, Alexkr said:

Do you mean you asked to schedule an interview right away _instead of_ waiting for them to receive and approve packet 3 and contact you back after that?

We would be definitely interested in this to speed up the remaining steps!

No, not really. Packet 3 was delivered to the consulate on 15th September and we hadn’t heard anything from them, so we emailed them today asking if all is good and if we can go ahead and schedule the interview, to which they officially replied and said we can go ahead with scheduling the interview. 
 

My suggestion is just not to wait too long for them to contact you, but maybe if it’s been over 7-8 days since packet 3 was delivered to them, you can email them and ask. If they replied within 6 minutes to our email, that

means they had already gone through our documents and there were no issues but they simply hadn’t emailed us about it yet.

Hopefully the next step is faster for you as well! I would recommend emailing the consulate though, because we asked if we can schedule an interview and we received the “okay” in literally 6 minutes. No need for that if you’re not in a rush, but just a suggestion if you’re worried about not hearing back.

Question for people who have already made an interview appointment: Did you get a calendar to choose a date or did you have to wait to get your request “approved” when you tried to make the appointment on ustraveldocs.com? I always feel like I’m doing things wrong, so I just want to make sure that’s not the case, haha. Thanks!

Just now, Inx said:

sorry to bother you again: where did you get the check for the first package? We somehow missed that when we prepared for the process.. 

Do you have a German bank account? If yes, I believe you can get it from your bank. We only have N26 accounts, so we couldn’t do that. We got ours from the post office at a military base close to us, because my husband has access to it. 

4 minutes ago, Inx said:

I'm so happy for you! Good luck at your medical tomorrow

 

Our request for DCF was already approved! We might be able to send the first package in tomorrow! I'm so excited!

Thank you!! Good luck with the process to you, hopefully it won’t take too long to get the I-130 approval! 

12 hours ago, cphilipp said:

Great that you got the approval. 

 

1. If I remember correctly, they only require proof of delivery address which is the registration at your current address in Germany. 

2. The earliest date was in 4 weeks. 

Thank you for answering all my questions! We just sent out the package 3 documents and hopefully things go quickly from here. 

Thank you, both! We sent them another email this morning, inquiring about the status of the petition and a few ours later we received the approval! I didn't want to bother them again but I guess sometimes it's needed.

Two more questions, if I may:

1. If we want the visa to be delivered to a home address, I need to register at https://www.ustraveldocs.com/de/de-iv-documentdelivery.asp and send the confirmation with the documents correct? The explanation in their email confused me a bit and I just want to double check.

2. Also, you said your interview appointment is on October 2nd. Was that the earliest available date or was it just a convenient date for you? I am asking, so we can have a better idea of the possible timeline onwards.

Thank you! 

Sadly, we are almost at 6 weeks since the I-130 was received and we haven’t received our approval. I have my medical scheduled for Thursday but may have to cancel if we don’t hear back from the consulate by then. But I am glad that the rest went quickly for you! I am guessing it’s just a busy period for the consulate right now and that’s why it’s taking extra time for the approvals. 

On 8/31/2022 at 11:24 AM, Alexkr said:

Yes, same situation here. Documents received by the consulate August 3rd, no result yet. They say they don’t know how long it might take.

 

Hi, have you received your approval email yet? It’s 5 weeks today since they received our documents and still nothing. 

1 minute ago, cphilipp said:

 

Just have everything ready for the next package. I filled out the DS-260 on the day when I got the I-130 approval and mailed my documents the next day. 

Yes, we’ve got things ready. The documents required are police certificates, affidavit of support and birth certificate of beneficiary, correct? Just making sure we are not missing anything. 

17 minutes ago, cphilipp said:

I regulary checked the appointments on doctolib. Whenever someone cancels their appointment, it becomes available and suddenly you see appointments popping up in the next couple of days. I guess you need a bit of luck. There is also a waiting list that you can sign up for on doctolib, but I found that they do not inform you quickly enough to get the appointment that becomes available. So just keep checking doctolib for the Frankfurt and Berlin appointments (I would focus on Frankfurt). They seem to have more appointments available and they were rellay nice and fast - I was finished in 1 hour and 20 minutes. 

 

You can do the DS-260 as soon as your I-130 is approved and you have a case number. Then you mail all required documents (birth certificate, police reports, I-864, etc.) to the consulate. 

 

Hope that helps!

 

Huge help! Thank you so much!! The lease on our apartment ends mid October and we have been stressing that we won’t be able to get everything done in time but this gives me a bit of hope we might make it. 

We are still waiting for the I-130 approval. It was received by the consulate on August 4th, so it’s taken quite a bit of time. 
 

I have some questions about the medical exam. It seems like there are no available appointments till late October / early November. How were you able to get one in September? Also, did you need the case number and DS-260 confirmation when making the appointment or for the appointment itself? Also, don’t you need to wait for the second package to be approved (the one with police certificates, etc.) to be able to do the DS-260? Sorry for all the questions! We are trying to do everything as efficiently as possible, especially with medical appointments being so full. Thank you! 

On 8/10/2022 at 4:29 PM, cphilipp said:

I'm really impressed with the timelines here for DCF at the Frankfurt consulate! They received our I-130 on July 29, so I'm hoping that I hear back from them soon. 

Have you heard back yet? Ours was picked up from the PO Box on August 4th and we’re still waiting. 

Just now, Chancy said:

 

Not a problem even if he is assigned abroad.  As long as he meets the criteria (including having W2s), using I-864EZ is fine.

 

Perfect, thank you!! 

22 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

If you are going through DCF, I assume the USC petitioner is working abroad?  Does the USC have US-based income and W2 forms from their employer?  Qualifying income documented in W2 forms is a requirement for using I-864EZ.

 

Thank you for your answer! He is working abroad but his company is American, so he has W2 forms. We should still qualify for I-864EZ in this case, right? Otherwise, we can just do the I-864 form. 

Hello everyone, my husband and I are filling out form I-864EZ for the affidavit of support. In the instructions it says only the most recent tax transcript is needed, but then questions 6a, 6b and 6c are asking for the total income from most recent, 2nd most recent and 3rd most recent year.

Do we need to provide the income for all 3 years or only the most recent one, as that is the only transcript we are providing? Just want to make sure we don't make a mistake. 

Thank you! 

Hello everyone,

Do you know whether police certificates need to be translated to English? I think German is also accepted but I have police certificates from other countries as well. Thank you!

15 hours ago, cyndallita said:

i-130 is for the petitioner

i-130A is for beneficiary

Thank you!

Hi, 

Thank you so much for your timeline and the list of documents. Could you explain what the I-130A form is? I thought we only needed the I-130. We are applying for DCF in Frankfurt soon and want to prepare all the documents as early as possible. 

Thank you,

Iva