DCF in London - Timescale Experience?

[LauraDP 10]

Hi everyone

A bit of context first. I am Laura, a UK citizen, married to Chris, a dual US/UK national. We have been married for 16 years and have four sons aged 3-9 all of whom are UK citizens and who cannot qualify for USC status through my husband. We live in Scotland but hope to relocate to the Washington DC commuter belt (where my husband grew up)this time next year at the earliest.

We plan to pursue the DCF route using the London Embassy. The plan is for Chris to file the I-130s in October as first of all we need to sort out our paperwork (especially the fact that my husband has not filed US tax returns for his entire working life - which has always been in the UK incidentally). We are trying, therefore, to get to grips with the timescales for the I-130 / I-864 (the kids and I are being co-sponsored by a close friend who lives in the US as well as by my husband)/ DS230 I / Interiew / Visa process.

We cannot afford to fund living apart as a family for more than two months maximum. At the point at which Chris relocated, myself and the kids would be homeless as we would have to have sold our house. For so many reasons, we can only cope with living with my in-laws for up to two months. Truthfully it is mainly to do with financial strain though the kids being separated from their father is also going to be challenging. It is imperative, therefore, for us to get the timings pretty spot on (obviously with a bit of wiggle room expected). My husband thought he might start applying for jobs as soon as the New Year hits but it is difficult to determine if that is too soon or too late given that we are unclear about the timescales for the immigration process. We have read that it can take up to ten months from start to finish but I have also read that sometimes it is under 6 months. When we phoned the London Embassy the man we spoke to thought it would be between 7 and 10 months.

Can anyone in a similar situation - more than one application and through the London Embassy - share their experience with me, please?

I would be grateful for any and all responses.

With thanks in advance.

Laura

[JoannaV 174]

The most recent cases I know of have had 6-8 months between sending off the I-130 to interview. But it varies month by month.

Remember that filing the I-130 does not mean you have to then do everything else as quickly as possible. The I-864 is submitted at the interview, and you can delay the interview if needed. Once the visa is issued you have 6 months to use it.

Is your main concern having your husband find work in a timeframe that allows him to have a job when the whole family moves over? Or are you thinking he needs some income to show on his I-864? In the former case you have plenty of wriggle room.

[Holly2234 66]

For me, i got NOA2 in 69 days so very fast. Still waiting on my case number to get things moving. But i expect it will be around 5-6 months from start to finish in my case. You can always send back forms a few weeks later and delay the interview. It will make things slow down a bit if they go too fast.

What you have to remember though is that the visa is valid for 6 months from the MEDICAL. This is because the chest X-Ray is only valid for 6 months.

This is of course only my opinion and nothing more than that. I would start the process around October/November with an aim to move in July/August.

[LauraDP 10]

Thank you for your incredibly helpful replies.

Yes, our chief concern is that we need the timescale for Chris to obtain a job before we move out as a family without having a situation whereby he has to move out a long time ahead of us in order to take up that job since we cannot fund two households. We think for the I-864 Chris will have to document our assets in terms of our bank holdings and property value (net, since we have a mortgage) as evidence of his ability to fund us. We are also being co-sponsored by a friend who is resident in the area we will be moving to so as to cover any shortfall there might be because Chris will technically be between jobs at the point that we file paperwork (He will still be employed in the UK but obviously that won't count).

When we phoned the London Embassy yesterday we were told the timescale for the I-130 was pretty quick but that the rest of the process took quite some time. This seems to correspond with your experiences, which is reassuring since it means their estimates are fact-based.

Thanks for pointing out that the visa is valid for 6 months from the medical. I had assumed it was valid for 6 months from point of being issued. I think we would probably be trying to get the X-Rays done as close to the interview time as we can manage because we will have to travel to London for that purpose. Is that workable or do they need the medical information in advance of the interview? I thought I had read that it gets handed over at the interview but I am prepared to be proved wrong.

This whole process feels like it stretches on forever with so many hurdles to get past. Did it feel like that for you too when you were at the very beginning? I am finding it quite stressful even thinking about embarking on all of this.

Thanks again for replying to my query. I truly appreciate it.

Cheers

Laura

[cathy2904 97]

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/unitedkingdom/164203/cons-visa/iv018a_medical.pdf

In most cases the results of the medical examination will be couriered to the Embassy

four working days after the appointment date. If, during the course of the examination, it

is found necessary to refer you to a specialist for a further diagnosis, the panel physicians

will assist you in locating one. In such cases it will not be possible to issue the medical

results in four workdays.

[JoannaV 174]

Thanks for pointing out that the visa is valid for 6 months from the medical. I had assumed it was valid for 6 months from point of being issued.

The visa is valid for 6 months from point of being issued. The exception is if the police certificate or medical are older than 6 months, in which case it would it would expire when they became a year old.

[Holly2234 66]

The medical expires in 6 months because of the X-ray. Not 1 year.

How long will I have to travel to the U.S. once the immigrant visa is issued?

Immigrant and fiancé visas are normally issued for the validity period of the medical examination, the maximum validity of which, is six mnths. K3 & K4 visa holders are issued a visa valid for travel for two years. Please refer to the individual sections for further information.

http://london.usembassy.gov/faq-imm-proc.html#iv062 Found there, third from bottom.

[cathy2904 97]

The medical expires in 6 months because of the X-ray. Not 1 year.

http://london.usembassy.gov/faq-imm-proc.html#iv062 Found there, third from bottom.

I have just seen that on the instructions for the medical but I think it must be new so some people may not be aware of it. When I did mine there was no mention of six months and in fact, when they first discussed my issue over my x-ray, they said that the likely outcome would be that my results would only be valid for six months, as opposed to a year. I have just checked the information sheet that I downloaded last year and it does indeed say that the results are valid for 12 months:

Why I am being asked to schedule the medical examination when the Embassy has not yet scheduled the visa interview? The medical results will be valid for 12 months and it will help to speed up the final processing of your application if we have received them before the visa interview, however, it is not compulsory.

They have snuck that change in but it could be quite significant for some people, especially if they plan to do the medical as soon as they can.

Edited August 8, 2012 by cathy2904

[XBrother 0]

The visa is valid for 6 months from point of being issued. The exception is if the police certificate or medical are older than 6 months, in which case it would it would expire when they became a year old.

I was under the impression that was the way it used to be; now it's 6 months from the date of the medical - due to 6 months being the expiration of the chest x-ray.

[Keeto 12]

Last week at my interview BOTH CO's I dealt with made it very clear that your visa is only valid for as long as your X-Ray is valid, i.e 6 months. Both CO's made sure that I completely understood that the last day I can travel on my spouse visa is the 21st December 2012.

Edited August 11, 2012 by Keeto

[LauraDP 10]

Last week at my interview BOTH CO's I dealt with made it very clear that your visa is only valid for as long as your X-Ray is valid, i.e 6 months. Both CO's made sure that I completely understood that the last day I can travel on my spouse visa is the 21st December 2012.

Thanks for confirming that. Hopefully we won't even need the 6 months but, as we live in a rural location, it may take a bit longer to sell our house so we need to factor in me having to stay a little longer in the UK in order to sign all of the documentation relating to the house sale.