USC petitioner living abroad

[PaulandHelen 0]

1. Country USC resides in: England.

2. Is there a USCIS field office in this country / Is DCF still possible? Yes.

3. When did you file the I-130: October 4th, 2011

4. How long had you been living abroad: Four months, at the time.

5. Do you reside in the country legally? Yes.

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

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

8. Did you send I-130 package from abroad? Yes.

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in the I-130 package? Yes, my spouse permit and joint bank statement.

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, very in-depth.

11. Has your case been "auto-expedited"? How long between NOA1 and NOA2? Yes, Mine was granted in two weeks.

Edited May 22, 2012 by PaulandHelen

[Serilei 0]

Nice thread, will be happy to add mine as well

1. Country USC resides in: Russia

2. Is there a USCIS field office in this country / Is DCF still possible? Yes/Yes but did not DCF

3. When did you file the I-130: Sent by mail May 2nd, 2012

4. How long had you been living abroad: 1.5 years

5. Do you reside in the country legally? By private visas

6. What is the reason for your residence: work permit/student/tourist/other - No residency

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, sent from the US by my Brothers wife

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in the I-130 package? Yes, pleeeeenty of evidence of everything.

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? Auto-expedited??? I suppose so 7 days I want to say (still havent recieved the thing in the mail yet, but the site gave me a date they mailed it out)

Edited May 24, 2012 by Serilei

[Stacia 0]

1. Country USC resides in: Paraguay

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

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

4. How long had you been living abroad: 6 years

5. Do you reside in the country legally? Yes

6. What is the reason for your residence: Teacher

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 (a friend took it to the US and mailed it for me)

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in the I-130 package? No.

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)? No

11. Has your case been "auto-expedited"? How long between NOA1 and NOA2? Yes, 6 days.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Stacia

[Nolaist 2]

1. Country USC resides in: Turkey

2. USCIS field office or DCF?: NO

3. When did you file I130: April 2012

4. How long has the USC been living abroad: 13 years

5. Do you reside in the country legally: Yes

6. What is the reason for your residence: dual citizenship through marriage

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

8. did you send the package from abroad? yes

9. did you include evidence of your residence abroad in your I130 package? YES, it was included in my relationship evidence (bank accounts with both of us listed, joint property here in turkey, etc)

10. did you mention that you reside abroad in your cover letter? yes included address in Istanbul at top of cover letter

11. Has your case been auto expedited? How long between NOA1 and NOA2? Yes 49 Days but we had an RFE

Edited May 30, 2012 by Nolaist

[Benpm 0]

Congrats to all for your successfull applications... on my side, I believe my wife and I are on for a long wait... we went through a lawyer and despite my wife(USC)and I (French) residing in France for over 6 months, the lawyer opted to mention her US address (although our French address is also in the file). NOA1 was around April 27th and no NOA2 at this stage... so the (long) wait is starting.

Would you know if it is possible to have USCIS consider our French address? At some point, we consider cancelling the petition to file another one but since then, my wife received an amazing job offer in the US and she took it after we thought the process would be faster...

Thanks for your input and once again, congratulations to all of you who made it! As for the others waiting, keep the faith

I wish I had read this earlier!

1. Country USC resides in:France

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

3. When did you file the I-130:April 23, 2012

4. How long had you been living abroad: 8 months

5. Do you reside in the country legally? yes

6. What is the reason for your residence: carte de séjour

7. Did you list your foreign address on all forms in I-130 package? the lawyer did not, only in G-325

8. Did you send I-130 package from abroad? no (sent from lawyer's office in NV)

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in the I-130 package? the lawyer did not request (only marriage certificate)

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)?No, I didn't know I should write a cover letter (but perhaps the lawyer did)

11. Has your case been "auto-expedited"? Unfortunately, it does not look like it...

How long between NOA1 and NOA2? Hopefully not that long...

[rosajo 1]

Our case is slightly different since my USC husband is working in the US as of 4 months, but because he still maintains his permanent address here (we're keeping our options open and want his residence card to still be valid here should he decide to come back; lives with friends in the US) we did use his Swedish address on the I-130. On the G-325A we put both his temporary US and permanent Swedish address so we'll see what address they'll go by.

1. Country USC resides in: Sweden

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

3. When did you file the I-130: May 22, 2012

4. How long had you been living abroad: 18 months

5. Do you reside in the country legally? yes

6. What is the reason for your residence: living with Swedish spouse and kids on permanent residence card

7. Did you list your foreign address on all forms in I-130 package? yes, listed Swedish permanent address on I-130 as well as on G-325A, but on the latter also listed temporary US address.

8. Did you send I-130 package from abroad? no

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in the I-130 package? yes, a copy of permanent Swedish residence card, as proof of on ongoing marital relationship

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)? No, did not include a cover letter.

11. Has your case been "auto-expedited"? Don't know yet! Sure hope it will. Received NOA1 email on May 25, petition was routed to California.

12. How long between NOA1 and NOA2? We shall see...

[DianeO 0]

1. Country USC resides in: Kuwait

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

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

4. How long had you been living abroad: 8 years

5. Do you reside in the country legally? Yes

6. What is the reason for your residence: Work

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, sent it to family member in NC who added the money order then FedEx'ed to Chicago lockbox.

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in the I-130 package? No.

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)? NO

11. Has your case been "auto-expedited"? How long between NOA1 and NOA2? Yes. 6 days between NOA1 and NOA2.

[ca_poppy 1]

It looks like all of the "not really expedited" expedited applications went through the California Service Center...Anyone had a quick turn-around time who went through Vermont? Our application was forwarded there last week. We filed from abroad and while I'm here legally (and have been for almost six months now) I'm not a permanent resident and my visa, which is in my passport and a copy of which was submitted with our application, shows an expiry date in Dec. 2012.

I guess I'll know soon enough if our application hasn't been expedited, until then there isn't much to do.

[pam_ellis 0]

It looks like all of the "not really expedited" expedited applications went through the California Service Center...Anyone had a quick turn-around time who went through Vermont? Our application was forwarded there last week. We filed from abroad and while I'm here legally (and have been for almost six months now) I'm not a permanent resident and my visa, which is in my passport and a copy of which was submitted with our application, shows an expiry date in Dec. 2012.

I guess I'll know soon enough if our application hasn't been expedited, until then there isn't much to do.

Well, my husband the USC was abroad in a temporary visa also, and we showed that sending his tourist visa photocopy in the package. We gonna live in Boston, and we thought that our petition would go to Vermont.

At the end, it was routed to California, and we got expedited, approved in 9 days.

I saw that only California center expedited cases like that, but not sure... I didnt see any case expedited in Vermont center yet.

Where did you go routed to?

[ca_poppy 1]

Vermont. I read through this thread, and while the majority of the posters who responded were routed through California, some didn't specify, so I was curious.

We intend to live in California, currently live a few hours' drive from Vermont. I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to why they route applications where they do. USCIS website says we've gone from the "Approval" stage to "Initial Review." NOA1 was May 31.

[bsd058 296]

1. Country USC resides in: Canada

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

3. When did you file the I-130: June 5, 2012

4. How long had you been living abroad: My whole life. I'm Canadian. My wife is the USC. She's been here for 3 years.

5. Do you reside in the country legally? My wife resides here as a permanent resident.

6. What is the reason for your residence: Married and living with spouse.

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

8. Did you send I-130 package from abroad? Yes.

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in the I-130 package? Yes. Utility Bills showing both of our names and a Canadian Bank Account Statement showing both of our names.

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? Unsure. Will let you know once I find out. I just sent the I-130 today via Purolator Courier to Chicago.

Edited June 5, 2012 by bsd058

[ntd0 0]

I can finally fill this out. I didn't receive an email, but I logged into the USCIS website today and it showed approval yesterday.

1. Country USC resides in: Brazil

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

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

4. How long had you been living abroad: 5+ years on and off

5. Do you reside in the country legally? Yes

6. What is the reason for your residence: Living with spouse

7. Did you list your foreign address on all forms in I-130 package? Yes. I-130 and G-325A.

8. Did you send I-130 package from abroad? Yes

9. Did you include evidence of your residence abroad in the I-130 package? Yes. Copies of utility bills, health insurance information, and copy of a protocol for my Brazilian permanent visa request.

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. Explained in cover letter and submitted as part of my evidence of bonafide marriage.

11. Has your case been "auto-expedited"? How long between NOA1 and NOA2? Yes. 10 days.

[lsp 0]

Interesting reading here - thank you all for sharing!

At the moment my husband and I live in Nicaragua (on tourist visas). We've been here for over a year now. We plan to finish up our work here in the next 5 - 7 months and are hoping to move to the States next.

Before reading this forum, we were thinking of sending the I-130 from here and waiting out the average 5 months from here, then going to South Africa (where my husband is a citizen) and completing the process from there.

I know there isn't any guarantee on our case being expedited (maybe even less since we're not legal residents) but if it did - is there a deadline on how quickly you have to complete the NVC part of things (get his police certificates, have a physical, attend the interview). I guess I'm specifically worried about how hard it would be to get his SA police certificate while in Nicaragua (they're unavailable here) and so we wouldn't be able to move very far along in the process.

Would we have to re-apply if we couldn't get the paperwork in quickly enough? Any indication about how long they give? Could it be 6 months before we send it in? (I know that goes against everyone else that would love to have there paperwork completed more quickly than they planned!)

I'm nervous that if we waited until we got to South Africa to apply, it would be even less likely for our case to be expedited since we would likely file within the first month of being there and then that would add an extra 5 months to the process (that we could have saved by applying while in Nicaragua). Any thoughts?

If it helps - we've been married for 4 years and spent all of that time (minus a two 3-month visits in Maryland) abroad (2.5 years together in SA and now Nica).

One more question - think it would be problematic for us to change our address from Nicaragua to South Africa? Should we just use our South African address?

Thanks a lot!

[JNEKG 4]

You have a lot of questions there lsp.

You are in control of how quickly or slowly the NVC process goes but not the USCiS process. As you can see from this forum there is a chance you will be auto expedited if you file from nica or SA.

You have 12 months to return documentation to NVC. So if your case gets to NVC and you get your case number and pay your AOS you have 12 months to lodge supporting documentation. Likewise for you DS230 package which is where you are required to submit the PCC.

I think you have to list your "current" address on the I130 so if you are filing from nica you will have to list that address. Others may be able to offer more advice here.

All the best and let us know how you go in terms of auto expedite.

Best wishes.

[Texxon 1]

I will submit two I-130s--one for my wife and a second for my 7-yr-old stepson--on Monday June 18th from the Czech Republic; I am a USC & legal resident of the Czech Republic.

1. Anyone happen to know whether or not I-130s filed for step-children are as likely to be auto-expedited as those filed for spouses? This would be a problem if my wife's casefile was auto-expedited but my stepson's wasn't.

2. On Monday June 25th--the following week--I will fly to Texas and establish residency there. From what I've read in this thread this won't be a problem: I need to be a resident abroad (and use only my foreign/Czech address on I-130 and G-325A forms) at the time I submit these forms, but can live in the USA afterward. Is this correct? (...or should I say, the "consensus" )