Olive14

Hi! I also recently went through DCF at the London Embassy earlier this year and this was our timeline: 13 Jan – Contacted immigration lawyer 16 Jan – Lawyer submitted the DCF request to the Embassy 17 Jan – Embassy replied, offered an appointment 29 Jan – US citizen spouse went to the Embassy to file the I-130 7 Feb – Received I-130 approval letter and case number 12 Feb – Booked interview for 25 March 13 Feb – Submitted DS-260 11 Mar – Medical exam in the morning, then document check at the Embassy (the document check is a new step that started in Feb 2025) 25 Mar – Visa interview – approved! To answer your other questions - our I-130 approval came as a physical letter in the post. We did use a lawyer, but this was mostly for reassurance, I wouldn’t say it was necessary. We had a very tight timeline for moving so didn’t want to leave anything up to chance. I think the thing the lawyer helped with the most was writing the initial DCF request. All the subsequent steps of the process came with clear instructions from the Embassy so I don't think the lawyer made made too much of a material difference after that - although it was nice that they put together all the supporting evidence and paperwork!

Yep, can confirm as have recently been through the DCF process. The US citizen spouse is free to relocate to the US once the I-130 petition has been filed at the US Embassy.

Thank you for this helpful review! I am going to the Embassy next week for my CR1 interview so your detailed post is very insightful 🙂