USC petitioner living abroad

[rosajo 1]

Izola--Congratulations! I also had mine approved in about a month. No RFEs. As I suggested in a previous post, I think the fact that having had a green card before slows things down a little (retrieving old files), yet using the foreign address has put us on the fast track. It didn't take 2 or 7 days, but I take one month over 6 any day:)!

Update - I130 approved yesterday, so totally 37 days on their behalf with RFE handling and what not. I'd say that's probably keeping it on the fast track. Since I assume it would have been approved at the time of the RFE if the papers hadnt been missing.

Thank you! I hope yours is coming soon too, don't give up hope:).

That's awesome! I was thinking of giving up looking, too; you've given me some hope!!

As you can tell by my ticker in my signature, I've been using the average approval date for VSC in the past 3 months. I hope I only have to wait another couple of weeks instead of 4 months!

Congrats either way, though!

[rosajo 1]

If you look at my recent update, you'll see that we put my husband's temporary US address on the G-325a, but his Swedish permanent address as the main address, and it seemed to have worked (it took us 1 month, but I think the slightly longer wait is due to having a had a green card before). He also has a current Swedish permanent residence card that we included as evidence of an ongoing marital relationship.

From what I can gather, you only get into this 'fast queue' if you list the petitioner's foreign address on everything. We only gave my parents address in the US for question 18 (address where we intend to live) but other than that I only listed my foreign address.

[teddy12 2]

wow just wow this fast processing makes me smile

[lsp 0]

First off, a huge thank you for this survey and everyone taking the time to answer it. If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have put my foreign address on my forms and wouldn't be celebrating an NOA2 approval less than two weeks after it was sent. Thank you!!

1. Country USC resides in: Nicaragua

2. Is there a USCIS field office in this country / Is DCF still possible? No

3. When did you file the I-130: June 2012

4. How long had you been living abroad: 15 months in Nicaragua, 2 1/2 years in South Africa

5. Do you reside in the country legally? not as official residents, but as tourists

6. What is the reason for your residence: work permit/student/tourist/other - tourist

7. Did you list your foreign address on all forms in I-130 package? Yes

8. Did you send I-130 package from abroad? No, I sent it to my mom in the US who added some paperwork and then sent it in. She wrote "filed from abroad" on the package.

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in the I-130 package? Yes, as proof of our bona fide marriage (proof of residency in both countries)

10. Did you mention the fact you reside abroad in the cover letter or write a letter describing your current situation and the evolution of your relationship with your spouse (mentioning your residence abroad)? Yes

11. Has your case been "auto-expedited"? How long between NOA1 and NOA2? Yes, 14 days.

[weliveyoung 0]

I know, I phoned the London embassy twice to see if I got a different answer to whether I could file DCF, but got the same answer both times. Both people I spoke to sounded like they were just reading from a book though. Hardly worth the £1.23/min phone call! But my husband and I decided just to send the I-130 to Chicago lockbox and hope we got into this 'auto expedite' queue. Hopefully it has worked for us, and perhaps it means that the fast queue is applicable to people from countries where DCF still exists. I'll let everyone know if and when the NOA2 hard copy arrives!

[weliveyoung 0]

I tried emailing them about whether or not I can DCF , they just copy pasted me a webpage....

I'm here on a "leave to remain spouse visa" good for two years (it expires in 4 months), I was about to send my I-130 away this weekend for DCF with London. Now I'm not so sure. Do you think I would be eligible for DCF or should I just go straight for filing in the US?

[hjones 1]

I tried emailing them about whether or not I can DCF , they just copy pasted me a webpage....

I'm here on a "leave to remain spouse visa" good for two years (it expires in 4 months), I was about to send my I-130 away this weekend for DCF with London. Now I'm not so sure. Do you think I would be eligible for DCF or should I just go straight for filing in the US?

I am not 100% certain if you are eligible for DCF (I find the embassy website to be a bit vague in this regard) but I think I have seen other people on here who had 'leave to remain' visas and successfully filed DCF in London. There is a UK DCF forum on here that you may want to check out.

I don't know much about DCF processes, but I have found our journey to be fairly quick with this 'auto-expedite' queue for USC living abroad. The only tricky bit has been proving my domicile in the US, but I had credit card statements which are still mailed to my parent's house, bank account statments from my account back home, state tax returns and voting records. That seemed to be enough for me. I don't know whether you have to go through a similar proceedure of proving intent to re-establish domicile when you file DCF.

Regardless, I don't think our process has taken any longer by filing in the US than it would have been had we filed DCF. Although, we intentionally slowed down the process a bit during the NVC stage because we aren't going to be ready to move until Oct/Nov anyway.

It's up to you how you want to file (ie DCF or Chicago Lockbox) but I would guess that you'll have a similar processing time either way. Good luck!

[Steffen 0]

First of all I want to say that this website is truely great. I'm enlisted on a few other websites regarding our emigration, but none have even half the information that can be found over here. I have speciffically made an account here, because this is the first info I have found regarding the IR1/CR1 filing from abroad. The procedure is relatively uncommon and new that nobody on the other forums could give me a single answer on timelines and how the process would go. So thanks again for this great topic

So here comes my timeline;

1. Country USC resides in: Netherlands

2. USCIS field office or DCF?: NO

3. When did you file I130: Send it via mail on May 9th, May 23th NOA1

4. How long has the USC been living abroad: 4 years

5. Do you reside in the country legally: YES

6. What is the reason for your residence: via a so called partner reunification visa

7.did you list your overseas address on I130? YES

8. did you send the package from abroad? NO, we sent it to my father in law who added a moneyorder and forwarded it on for us (which took 5 extra mailing days).

9. did you include evidence of your residence abroad in your I130 package? YES, since we recently got married we added proof of our relationship. We added 4 bankstatement from our shared account from each year we lived together (highlighted both our names and address on all four sheets)

10. did you mention that you reside abroad in your cover letter? NO, we forgot a cover letter

11. Has your case been auto expedited? How long between NOA1 and NOA2? YES, 8 business days! With 2 weekends in between them…

12. Where did we sent it to: We sent it to the Chicago Lockbox, and they have forwarded it to the CSC

What strikes me most is that mailing time takes a huge amount of time. We send it via regular mail to the us which took 10 days! We could do express mailing but the costs for that are 80,- euros! But back tracking the mailing time, I might pay the 80,- to express mail. Furthermore, mailing from CSC to NVC took also a huge amount of time. The NOA2 came on June 4th but NVC didn't receive it till June 25th!!

OMG is all I can say.

Currently we are waiting for the package from the NVC. We have called them on June 29th, which is when we found out they just received the package a few days earlier, and told us it took 10-20 days to process our case. We have called again on July 13th, and we were told that they were processing and should be getting an update/ information about our process soon.

So we keep waiting for now...

[izola 1]

Izola--Congratulations! I also had mine approved in about a month. No RFEs. As I suggested in a previous post, I think the fact that having had a green card before slows things down a little (retrieving old files), yet using the foreign address has put us on the fast track. It didn't take 2 or 7 days, but I take one month over 6 any day:)!

You might be right there Rosajo, I didn't really consider it in that aspect. Hopefully it wont slow down the rest of the process Still waiting for the papercopies and hoping it'll go quick to get the case number and what not.

[callsignapollo 1]

Wait what!?

Alright, I've been looking at the processing times for the I-130 and thinking *sigh*.

Though, somehow I completely missed this thread.

My wife is a USC, living in Australia with me (I am an Australian Citizen). We were married in Hawaii in January.

Our addresses on the I-130/G-325A was our Australian address. Am I to understand, we might have accidentally lined ourselves up for an expedited approval?

If so, nice!

[Darnell 8,478]

callsignapollo - yup - it certainly seems that way, for the nonce.

You'll know more within 30 days of filing the I-130.

[SOTY 0]

JAPAN?

Some questions in general as well:

-Is this situation only for Military personnel living abroad?

-Would one need to be married and reside for a minimum amount of time in Japan prior to applying? (how long?)

[leenkath 7]

This thread had me crossing my fingers and sitting on the edge of my seat for the last few weeks. I just saw today on USCIS that our petition was approved yesterday after waiting about 2.5 weeks. I was jumping up and down when I saw it. I got really used to seeing "Initial Review" on the Case Status page, so I had to blink a few times to make sure what I was seeing was real!

1. Country USC resides in: Ecuador

2. USCIS field office or DCF?: No, this is not an option in Ecuador.

3. When did you file I130: Sent it on June 29, received NOA1 on July 6.

4. How long has the USC been living abroad: 2 years

5. Do you reside in the country legally: Yes - I am here legally but I am not officially a "resident" of Ecuador

6. What is the reason for your residence: I'm on a cultural exchange visa.

7. Did you list your overseas address on I130? Yes, and the G-325A's.

8. Did you send the package from abroad? No, first I sent it to my parents so they could add some documents. Then they sent it to the Chicago Lockbox.

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in your I130 package? Yes - a copy of the lease for our apartment, copy of bank account info, and a copy of my "Movimiento Migratorio" from the Ecuadorian National Police, which is a register of all the time I have entered/exited Ecuador and proves that I have lived here for two years.

10. Did you mention that you reside abroad in your cover letter? Not explicitly, but I included my address below the signature.

11. Has your case been auto expedited? How long between NOA1 and NOA2? YES! 18 days (or 12 business days)

12. Where did we sent it to: We sent it to the Chicago Lockbox, and they forwarded it to the CSC.

[BoogyPup 1]

This thread had me crossing my fingers and sitting on the edge of my seat for the last few weeks. I just saw today on USCIS that our petition was approved yesterday after waiting about 2.5 weeks. I was jumping up and down when I saw it. I got really used to seeing "Initial Review" on the Case Status page, so I had to blink a few times to make sure what I was seeing was real!

1. Country USC resides in: Ecuador

2. USCIS field office or DCF?: No, this is not an option in Ecuador.

3. When did you file I130: Sent it on June 29, received NOA1 on July 6.

4. How long has the USC been living abroad: 2 years

5. Do you reside in the country legally: Yes - I am here legally but I am not officially a "resident" of Ecuador

6. What is the reason for your residence: I'm on a cultural exchange visa.

7. Did you list your overseas address on I130? Yes, and the G-325A's.

8. Did you send the package from abroad? No, first I sent it to my parents so they could add some documents. Then they sent it to the Chicago Lockbox.

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in your I130 package? Yes - a copy of the lease for our apartment, copy of bank account info, and a copy of my "Movimiento Migratorio" from the Ecuadorian National Police, which is a register of all the time I have entered/exited Ecuador and proves that I have lived here for two years.

10. Did you mention that you reside abroad in your cover letter? Not explicitly, but I included my address below the signature.

11. Has your case been auto expedited? How long between NOA1 and NOA2? YES! 18 days (or 12 business days)

12. Where did we sent it to: We sent it to the Chicago Lockbox, and they forwarded it to the CSC.

congratulations....

[furenchitoasto 0]

JAPAN?

Some questions in general as well:

-Is this situation only for Military personnel living abroad?

-Would one need to be married and reside for a minimum amount of time in Japan prior to applying? (how long?)

I'm not in the military and it was approved in just a week.

Not sure...but we have been married and living in Japan for about 2 years before we finally decided to apply for her visa.