anyone reapplied through DCF with an approved I-130

[Mohgli 0]

Folks,

has anyone applied at USCIS at a foreign US embassy or US Embassy for DCF inspite of having a pending/approved I-130 and I-129F at one of the US based USCIS service centers? Can you please post your experiences and guidance?

thanks

M

[payxibka 10,045]

Folks,

has anyone applied at USCIS at a foreign US embassy or US Embassy for DCF inspite of having a pending/approved I-130 and I-129F at one of the US based USCIS service centers? Can you please post your experiences and guidance?

thanks

M

I doubt a consulate would ultimately accept such filing if this situation existed... If you have a approved I-130 it is (or shouldn't be) still at the USCIS but navigated to NVC....

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Why would you want to do that? India has a 6 month residency requirement last I saw.

[payxibka 10,045]

Why would you want to do that? India has a 6 month residency requirement last I saw.

Not just India......

[Mohgli 0]

Why would you want to do that? India has a 6 month residency requirement last I saw.

last time was when?

India has a USCIS field office within the US embassy so has a different process similar to DCF. It has some days stay and registration requirement in india.

I have personal reasons to apply out of india due to delays in USA.

[Dr. Obvious 49]

That is how DCF works period. Your I-130 is approved by a USCIS field office usually at the embassy in the country you are living in.

The thing is that if your I-130 is already approved, there probably is no point at this point in doing DCF. You would have to cancel your I-130 in the US and refile it in India. There is no guarantee that that is going to be faster at this point because you have set the clock back to zero, basically.

If you have already filed an I-130 petition for this Alien Relative in the US, the US citizen petitioner must provide us with proof that that specific petition has been withdrawn or that processing on that petition has been terminated. We will accept a Notice of Action (form I-797) from US CIS offices to such effect. We will also accept a photocopy of a certified and/or registered letter to the US CIS office processing that petition in which you request termination and/or withdrawal of that petition. Such receipts or letters must note the complete receipt number of the petition filed in the US.

Their residency requirements are such:

Proof of such residency will include a U.S. passport with an appropriate long-term, valid Indian visa and a Registration Report and Residential Permit issued by the Foreigner’s Regional Registration Office (FRRO) of the Government of India. Additional evidence should include, but is not limited to, on-going employment in India, taxes paid in India, rent/property receipts, and utility receipts in India.

So, apparently, not only do you have to have the proper permit, but also a lot of evidence in addition to it that you are actually living there. I don't know how long it takes to get the Indian permit to stay. It doesn't say six months, but it may well take it to get all of that evidence together.

[Mohgli 0]

That is how DCF works period. Your I-130 is approved by a USCIS field office usually at the embassy in the country you are living in.

The thing is that if your I-130 is already approved, there probably is no point at this point in doing DCF. You would have to cancel your I-130 in the US and refile it in India. There is no guarantee that that is going to be faster at this point because you have set the clock back to zero, basically.

If you have already filed an I-130 petition for this Alien Relative in the US, the US citizen petitioner must provide us with proof that that specific petition has been withdrawn or that processing on that petition has been terminated. We will accept a Notice of Action (form I-797) from US CIS offices to such effect. We will also accept a photocopy of a certified and/or registered letter to the US CIS office processing that petition in which you request termination and/or withdrawal of that petition. Such receipts or letters must note the complete receipt number of the petition filed in the US.

Their residency requirements are such:

Proof of such residency will include a U.S. passport with an appropriate long-term, valid Indian visa and a Registration Report and Residential Permit issued by the Foreigner’s Regional Registration Office (FRRO) of the Government of India. Additional evidence should include, but is not limited to, on-going employment in India, taxes paid in India, rent/property receipts, and utility receipts in India.

So, apparently, not only do you have to have the proper permit, but also a lot of evidence in addition to it that you are actually living there. I don't know how long it takes to get the Indian permit to stay. It doesn't say six months, but it may well take it to get all of that evidence together.

well at present my I-130 is pending and god knows if at all it would be approved within the timeframe i can goto to the delhi consulate. I have dual citizenship for India and am presently working in India. my wife is also working in India and i'm piling on at my inlaws and plus have my parents home, so thats not the issue. the issue at hand is finding out experiences associated with withdrawl of pending I-130 before applying in person at the consulate.

i dont require FRRO as i am dual citizen of India.

at present my goal is to take my wife back with me, I have the necessary W2 and tax filing from last year and this year to get past the income specifications. if my I-130 and I29f-k3 go through then she enters on K3 else I pursue the consular option - DCF.

so if anyone has any experience with DCF with pending I-130 please post your experience and suggestions.

cheers

M

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Should have mentioned all of that before. Residency is an important issue and you put for a pending or approved petiton. It is best sometimes to give too much information than too little.

Anyway, people have done this before no problem. I would ask the embassy in New Dehli what they would consider as proof of withdrawal and ask them directly about refiling fees. Most people have to pay them again. It is best to hear from the horse's mouth sometimes. Good luck.

[Mrs. G 0]

Hi Mohgli,

We reapplied through DCF at the US consulate in Vancouver when the previous I-130 was still pendng technically. We filed I-130 to USCIS California, but due to the slow progress we decieded to cancel our case and refile at the consulate.

Before refiling in Vancouver, we sent a letter to USCIS requesting the withdrawal of our case. We were worried that we hadn't got the notice back from USCIS about the withdrawal and that we might need it when we refile the I-130 at the consulate. But the cousulte told us that it was okay to refile even if we didn't have it.

After all, our refiled I-130 was approved. We've just recieved email from USCIS last week saying that our case was cancelled officially and that we should be recieving the notice of withdrawal anytime soon.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

-Mrs. G

[Mohgli 0]

Hi Mohgli,

We reapplied through DCF at the US consulate in Vancouver when the previous I-130 was still pendng technically. We filed I-130 to USCIS California, but due to the slow progress we decieded to cancel our case and refile at the consulate.

Before refiling in Vancouver, we sent a letter to USCIS requesting the withdrawal of our case. We were worried that we hadn't got the notice back from USCIS about the withdrawal and that we might need it when we refile the I-130 at the consulate. But the cousulte told us that it was okay to refile even if we didn't have it.

After all, our refiled I-130 was approved. We've just recieved email from USCIS last week saying that our case was cancelled officially and that we should be recieving the notice of withdrawal anytime soon.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

-Mrs. G

thanks for the response,

can you please provide your experience? i.e. the time taken for the consulate to decide on your DCF due to pending I-130 being requested for cancellation? Did you send in your cancellation request before filing or did you file for cancellation at the consulate itself?

did u get approved right away or you had to wait a few days?

please if you can post your experience, it would be invaluable.

thanks

Mahesh

[CarolynRitesh 0]

Hi Moghli,

Sorry I am only noticing this post just now! I have no idea about cancelling the original I-130 and starting again in Delhi, but our experience was pretty straightforward:

Filed on Feb. 6th, it was approved and sent to Chennai on Feb. 13th. I don't know if we just got lucky, but it was only a week! To speed up the process, you could complete the DS 230 Parts I and II, and the DS 2001 and have it ready to mail fast. Keep in email touch with Chennai (send an email about a week after you file I-130) and they can email your case number faster than the mail takes (which is about 10 days from Chennai to B-lore) and you can submit the Packet 3 docs. right away. (Packet 3 are just the DS docs mentioned previously.)

Give the Chennai consulate another week, and then email asking for the Interview date, keeping in mind that the faster you get Packet 3 back, the earlier the interview. (Or so I am guessing.) (We got our interview date on March 5th via email, it was another week to 12 days to get the website posting and the actual interview letter.)

Soooo... The only problems that could arise are the amount of time you have been here in India. Check the Delhi website for more details, it MIGHT be helpful to try and call or email them, but I am not sure how responsive they are! Search this site (maybe in South Asia forum as well as DCF) for people who are of Indian origin and how they worked the residency issues - I vaguely remember people doing this who had not quite been here for the regular time frame, just be careful as the postings may be old and USCIS has changed the time requirements fairly recently. (Within the last year or so!)

http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/uscisi130pet.html

In the meantime, make sure you have all the docs ready for an Immigrant Visa - a little bit different than the K3 visa. The benefit of doing this is that the CR1/IR1 allows your wife to work immediately, AOS is not required, and getting a DL for your state is generally MUCH easier!

Good luck, keep us posted on what you decide and how things go!

[Mrs. G 0]

When we re-filed the I-130 at the consulate, they did not mention anything about our cancellation even though we did not have the official letter of cancellation. We sent a letter to cancel our case to USCIS BEFORE refiling.

Also, I'm not sure if the consulate accepting documents means that we got approval for I-130 rght away because they had to send them to Montreal consulate. However, about 4 weeks later we recieved the Packet 3 from the Montreal consulate. So far we haven't had any problems with refiling I-130 and everything has been going great.

If you need to know more, you can contact me anytime!

Mrs. G