How is it fair that some countries get DCF and others do not?

[brett and alma 12]

Quite honestly I feel like those getting expedited through DCF are cheating everyone ELSE out.

In my mind, how does it make sense to expedite a visa for a couple living TOGETHER abroad?

It seems a lot more fair to have a quicker visa process for those that have to live apart for 7 8 9 10+ months

I'm not going to pretend to understand the logistics of it all, but that's how it makes me feel.

*FYI I am not either one of those scenarios so my opinion is unbiased.

I am filing in the US but I see my husband all of the time because I can drive to canada and work from the computer.

My personal opinion is that those that have already passed the conditional visa requirement should be expedited.

Because what are the chances of fraud if you've already been married 2+ years? Probably a whole lot less.

I AM part of that scenario

AMEN..........

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

there is always a down side to everything... for DFC u have to be living abroad with ur spouse for atleast 6 months before u can apply!

How is that a down side? Why wouldn't I want to live with my spouse?

[G0ds1ay3r 30]

2005 I filed DFC in New Zealand and it took only a couple of months with no RFE's, no caseworkers with my files sitting on their desks for over a month and it was easy to get a hold of them when I needed to.

This time round I am filing through the NVC because New Zealand is now no longer a DFC country; filing through the NVC is a complete and utter shambles; the people who work in the NVC either A. Need to be trained better, B. Need more case workers to process more visas.

I cant wait till this is all over.

[Moomin 292]

How is that a down side? Why wouldn't I want to live with my spouse?

Not everybody has that opportunity to up and leave and establish residency in a foreign country.

You probably know how strict the rules are in Denmark; Examples are that the petitioner must not have had any financial aid from the government up to 3 years prior to the petition, and the petitioner has to have around 10000 dollars available to the government to cover any financial aid that the foreign spouse might take advantage of. That, and ofcourse a minimum size of apartment/house, makes it hard to qualify as a petitioner, besides the minimum age, too. Now, imagine DCF was available in Denmark. It would take longer for my husband to gain residency and then go the DCF route until approved than it would just submitting i-130 and start singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall. However, it only takes 3 months to adjudicate the petition with DK immigration service, add 6 months to it to fulfill the residency requirement if the case is straight forward, and then another couple of months if continuing on with DCF right after.

For those who have the opportunity to live together outside US prior to immigrating - go for it.

Edited November 16, 2012 by moomin

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Not everybody has that opportunity to up and leave and establish residency in a foreign country.

You probably know how strict the rules are in Denmark; Examples are that the petitioner must not have had any financial aid from the government up to 3 years prior to the petition, and the petitioner has to have around 10000 dollars available to the government to cover any financial aid that the foreign spouse might take advantage of. That, and ofcourse a minimum size of apartment/house, makes it hard to qualify as a petitioner, besides the minimum age, too. Now, imagine DCF was available in Denmark. It would take longer for my husband to gain residency and then go the DCF route until approved than it would just submitting i-130 and start singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall. However, it only takes 3 months to adjudicate the petition with DK immigration service, add 6 months to it to fulfill the residency requirement if the case is straight forward, and then another couple of months if continuing on with DCF right after.

For those who have the opportunity to live together outside US prior to immigrating - go for it.

It is difficult, I'll give you that - but I think it is one of the hardest countries in the developed world for spouses to come via family reunification. We didn't qualify because my husband got cash help a year and a half ago for a few months. His business failed and he couldn't pay his rent. I'm here under my EU rights. I think we all know that there is a Sweden/Norway option for those that do not qualify under Danish laws. However, DCF is not for people to just go and establish residency to file immigration paperwork, so in essence it doesn't take longer. We didn't decide until the end of October that we wanted to move back to America, and had we been in the UK (which I am a citizen of) we could have just filed a DCF application and we'd be back to America in no time. I think for me, and others who have genuine residence abroad, we did give up faster routes by moving. For us, we gave up our I-129F application, which is now approved. Had we not thought we were staying in Denmark, we would have waited to get married and we'd be back 3 months from now. So for me, I don't feel like it is line jumping or displacing anybody else. We filed our first immigration paperwork back in May!

It is what it is.

[ndu26 114]

I think I'm dealing with it just fine, but I am rather curious as to why some countries are getting DCF and others are not.

[pushbrk 12,914]

It is difficult, I'll give you that - but I think it is one of the hardest countries in the developed world for spouses to come via family reunification. We didn't qualify because my husband got cash help a year and a half ago for a few months. His business failed and he couldn't pay his rent. I'm here under my EU rights. I think we all know that there is a Sweden/Norway option for those that do not qualify under Danish laws. However, DCF is not for people to just go and establish residency to file immigration paperwork, so in essence it doesn't take longer. We didn't decide until the end of October that we wanted to move back to America, and had we been in the UK (which I am a citizen of) we could have just filed a DCF application and we'd be back to America in no time. I think for me, and others who have genuine residence abroad, we did give up faster routes by moving. For us, we gave up our I-129F application, which is now approved. Had we not thought we were staying in Denmark, we would have waited to get married and we'd be back 3 months from now. So for me, I don't feel like it is line jumping or displacing anybody else. We filed our first immigration paperwork back in May!

It is what it is.

DCF is a process for use by US Citizens ALREADY living abroad with their spouses. It doesn't speed anything up for others.

We have a lot of silly discussions about which process will be faster. The silliest is when a US citizen returns from meeting their fiance abroad and starts a discussion about whether it will be faster to take the fiancee path or spouse path. They don't have a spouse yet, so of course the fiance process will be faster by at least the amount of time from that moment until they could manage to get married. The second silliest is this kind of DCF discussion. If you''re not already living abroad for six months in a country that has DCF, it is simply irrelevant.