Filed I-130, presently at Cali, moving to Korea

[SteveandAilyn 0]

We filed our I-130 in November, its still at USCIS, last touch 18 February. I a civilian and work for the Department of Defense and am being moved to Korea on military orders the first week of June. At the pace they are moving on I-130's I highly doubt we will have our interview by then. My wife can accompany me to Korea with or without a US Visa, just needs a Korean Visa. I am hearing nearly fantastical stories of the speed of approval for DCF filings in Korea. So my question is do I withdraw my petition and refile DCF when I get to Korea? Or can it be transferred. I kinda doubt it because I think the process is different. Anyone been through this before?

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

How long will you be stationed in Korea?

You could also enquire about an expedite of your current petition based on being posted abroad, but as it is not a combat zone and you are not military, I am not sure it would be granted. Still, worth a try as it would mean not loosing the money for the current filing.

[SteveandAilyn 0]

I will be there a minimum of 2 years

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

I think I would call the USCIS and discuss this with them. It sounds to me like starting over with a DCF in Seoul would be much faster for you, as K3s are averaging around a year, I believe, and DCFs can happen within a couple of weeks in Korea (at least for us military it can, not sure about DOD-C's). But one thing to consider is that you (MAY) have to reside in Korea for 6 months before you can use DCF. Had I been able to stay in Korea a while longer last year, that is what we would have done, but I was forced to move back to the US, so we went the K1/I-129F route.

I wouldn't recommend doing a DCF unless the USCIS confirms cancellation of your K3; simultaneous submissions would likely cause you problems, I think.

DCF Info: DCF info

And as for the comment about expediting the process for military members... lol!! I called to do that last Sep, and was told I needed orders stating I was being deployed. I waited until I had orders (early Jan), called back, and after a long phone call, was told that I didn't need orders, and that I was being submitted for expedition. About 10 days later, I received an email informing me that our case was being looked into for expediting, and I could expect an answer in about 45 days. As it turned out, we received NOA2 on 1 Feb, stating it went from USCIS to NVC on 24 Jan. So much for expediting, eh?

Edited March 20, 2011 by DavenRoxy