US & UK living in London and need help

[umazum00 0]

I've just started looking into this and am already overwhelmed.

I'm a US citizen who married my wife (UK citizen) in London in May. We are both currently living in London and I have a limited leave to remain visa in the UK as a spouse. We would like to move back to the US within the next 6 months. I've read that we won't be able to apply through DCF as I've only been living in the UK for 6 months, and only had my spousal visa for a month now. What do we have to do now? Do we need to apply through the US? Which office do we apply to if neither one of us are currently living in the US?

[Rebster 0]

Firstly, do not be overwhelmed - just take baby steps!

I was in the same boat - we couldn't DCF either. You will now have to file the I-130 at a USCIS. You will need a US address to receive the NOA's, so you will need to see if you can use a friend or relative's address. (I used my old US address & had my ex roommate email me my NOA's. You cannot have a forwarding order on the address you use though, as the Gov't will not allow their mail to be forwarded. I had to cancel my forwarding order from the USPS.) Anyway...after you get your first receipt notice (NOA1) then you will also have the option of filing for the K-3 spousal visa. However, you may want to wait and see how those are going - ours went through fairly quickly but there seems to be a bit of a backlog now so it may not be so quick.

The best thing you can do is check on other people's timelines listed on this forum. I found a few people that had filed their I-130 and I-129f a few weeks before us and watched their timelines closely. The timelines are an invaluable tool!

You should get the I-130 off as quickly as possible. Then once you have received that NOA1 you can figure out your next move. Good luck, and remember that there are tons of us going through this too - you're not alone!

[umazum00 0]

Firstly, do not be overwhelmed - just take baby steps!

I was in the same boat - we couldn't DCF either. You will now have to file the I-130 at a USCIS. You will need a US address to receive the NOA's, so you will need to see if you can use a friend or relative's address. (I used my old US address & had my ex roommate email me my NOA's. You cannot have a forwarding order on the address you use though, as the Gov't will not allow their mail to be forwarded. I had to cancel my forwarding order from the USPS.) Anyway...after you get your first receipt notice (NOA1) then you will also have the option of filing for the K-3 spousal visa. However, you may want to wait and see how those are going - ours went through fairly quickly but there seems to be a bit of a backlog now so it may not be so quick.

The best thing you can do is check on other people's timelines listed on this forum. I found a few people that had filed their I-130 and I-129f a few weeks before us and watched their timelines closely. The timelines are an invaluable tool!

You should get the I-130 off as quickly as possible. Then once you have received that NOA1 you can figure out your next move. Good luck, and remember that there are tons of us going through this too - you're not alone!

Thanks.

I've got a US address I can use. When filling out question B2, regarding address, on the I-130 form do I put this US address or my current UK address? Also, on the form G-325A, regarding residence, for present residence do I put this US address or the UK one?

[luvaLimey 0]

6 months might be a little short. From what I've seen for a k3/cr-1 through London (and that's just reading the timeline data on this site) it's a 9-14 month process.

Good luck.

[Rebster 0]

Well my K3 has been about 5 months, which has been the average of all the K3's going through London lately. Our CR1 (I-130) is probably going to end up taking around 10 months total. Of course ALL K3's seem to be slowing down at the USCIS side, so who knows how long it would take if you filed now.

Regarding the I-130, you can put either your US or UK address on B2. The Embassy in London had forwarded my original I-130 to TX and it had my UK address on B2. They told me that they will send correspondence to the US address listed on C18 if you put a foreign address on B2. When that I-130 was rejected, they send the reply to the US address listed on C18, not my B2 UK address. When I resubmitted the I-130 I put the US address on B2. Basically, just make sure a US address is on C18 and you'll be fine.

On the G325A I put my present address in the UK first and then listed all prior residences after.