DCF New Zealand

[markjo 0]

Hi all,

What a great resource! You are all great motivation that this process can actually be made easier than it is often said to be.

My fiance (she is a US citizen) and I got engaged just before Christmas 06 while I (an NZer) was over there visiting her. We have been together nearly three and a half years - I met her while I was over in the US doing a MS degree and we had been dating for about a year when I finished and had to leave the country. We really wanted to make a long distance relationship work as 'we felt right' and wanted to be together. So we then spent four months apart as I came back to work in NZ, she then came to NZ for a year on study abroad, we then spent another three months apart, then I went over there to visit for a week, then another two months apart, then she spent two and half months in NZ for her summer break, then another four months apart and now I am just back from three weeks over in the US visiting her and getting engaged! We have now got four months apart while she finishes off her degree. The plan is then that I will go over to the US for a month, and we will then go to the UK for 6-8 months working, spend a couple of months travelling Europe.

That is where our plans got to and we were looking at the fiance visa approach and then getting married in the US, but after hearing about DCF it sounds like a lot better option. We plan to get married in June or July 2008.

I just have a few questions that can someone please help me out on.

1. Would we have to get married in NZ to be eligable to take the DCF route? We were planning on getting married in the US, but this could be altered if need be.

2. Would I be eligable to work fairly soon after arriving in the US or would I need to apply for an Employment Authorization after entry? (Jo will be starting at grad school so it would be great if I could get into earning some $$$ fairly soon after settling in to the US).

3. What type of visa would I then have? What length of time is likely to be on it and would it allow me to travel at all?

Apologies of all this information is sticking out in here somewhere - I have just printed off a number of the posts and background reading and will read them tonight, but thought I would find out as much as I could from the get go.

There are likely to be more questions too.

Thanks!

Mark

[sophyie 0]

Hi,

if you do the DCF, you basically file for the IR/CR- visa, which is essentially the greencard. Or conditional greencard if you haven't been married for 2 years. The big difference is, that you don't send the petition to the US, but you file in the consulate of the other country directly (hence the name )

This means, you'll enter the US with a visa in your passport that allows you to start work from day one (well, work after getting your ssn). Other than K1 where you'll have to file AOS in order to get the greencard, and AP to be free to travel.

I don't know about your first question, but for filing DCF in Germany, they did not care which country we actually got married in (we got married in Denmark). From what I've read, the NZ consulate is very helpful and friendly, I guess they'd answer this

question by phone or email...

So to sum it up:

1. don't know but think they don't care

2. yes you can work. No, you don't have to file for anything else in order to be allowed to work.

3. IR/CR. According to your plans (getting married shortly before filing the petition) you'd have the CR (C for conditional) which will give you the conditional green card (valid for 2 years). Three months prior to those 2 years being over you can file for lifting the conditions to receive the 10 year card. You can travel from day 1.

Hope I could help,

Just wanted to add: our DCF procedure was extremely smooth and easy. I'd go for it .

Hi all,

What a great resource! You are all great motivation that this process can actually be made easier than it is often said to be.

My fiance (she is a US citizen) and I got engaged just before Christmas 06 while I (an NZer) was over there visiting her. We have been together nearly three and a half years - I met her while I was over in the US doing a MS degree and we had been dating for about a year when I finished and had to leave the country. We really wanted to make a long distance relationship work as 'we felt right' and wanted to be together. So we then spent four months apart as I came back to work in NZ, she then came to NZ for a year on study abroad, we then spent another three months apart, then I went over there to visit for a week, then another two months apart, then she spent two and half months in NZ for her summer break, then another four months apart and now I am just back from three weeks over in the US visiting her and getting engaged! We have now got four months apart while she finishes off her degree. The plan is then that I will go over to the US for a month, and we will then go to the UK for 6-8 months working, spend a couple of months travelling Europe.

That is where our plans got to and we were looking at the fiance visa approach and then getting married in the US, but after hearing about DCF it sounds like a lot better option. We plan to get married in June or July 2008.

I just have a few questions that can someone please help me out on.

1. Would we have to get married in NZ to be eligable to take the DCF route? We were planning on getting married in the US, but this could be altered if need be.

2. Would I be eligable to work fairly soon after arriving in the US or would I need to apply for an Employment Authorization after entry? (Jo will be starting at grad school so it would be great if I could get into earning some $$$ fairly soon after settling in to the US).

3. What type of visa would I then have? What length of time is likely to be on it and would it allow me to travel at all?

Apologies of all this information is sticking out in here somewhere - I have just printed off a number of the posts and background reading and will read them tonight, but thought I would find out as much as I could from the get go.

There are likely to be more questions too.

Thanks!

Mark

Edited January 16, 2007 by sophyie

[evets&netsrik 0]

Hi Mark,

We completed DCF in Auckland in November 2006 and I can certainly recommend it as the best and easiest process - we started with a K-1 visa in the UK but changing to DCF in Auckland was much better. The Consulate in Auckland are great and very helpful.

To answer your questions -

1. no you don't have to get married in NZ - we got married in Chicago.

2. you can work once you have recieved your social security number - mine arrived in about 2 weeks.

3. you get an immigrant visa category CR-1 conditional resident - if you have been married less than 2 years. This visa says on it that it serves as temporary I-551 evidencing permanent residency for 1 year.

Once you enter the US the process starts for the Service Centre to send you your green card, I entered the US in San Francisco and my green card arrived in about 3-4 weeks - unfortunately it was wrong! but that's another story.

It might be helpful to seek out the other entries about DCF in Auckland in this forum and read the Consulate reviews as well. Good Luck!

[markjo 0]

Hi,

if you do the DCF, you basically file for the IR/CR- visa, which is essentially the greencard. Or conditional greencard if you haven't been married for 2 years. The big difference is, that you don't send the petition to the US, but you file in the consulate of the other country directly (hence the name )

This means, you'll enter the US with a visa in your passport that allows you to start work from day one (well, work after getting your ssn). Other than K1 where you'll have to file AOS in order to get the greencard, and AP to be free to travel.

I don't know about your first question, but for filing DCF in Germany, they did not care which country we actually got married in (we got married in Denmark). From what I've read, the NZ consulate is very helpful and friendly, I guess they'd answer this

question by phone or email...

So to sum it up:

1. don't know but think they don't care

2. yes you can work. No, you don't have to file for anything else in order to be allowed to work.

3. IR/CR. According to your plans (getting married shortly before filing the petition) you'd have the CR (C for conditional) which will give you the conditional green card (valid for 2 years). Three months prior to those 2 years being over you can file for lifting the conditions to receive the 10 year card. You can travel from day 1.

Hope I could help,

Just wanted to add: our DCF procedure was extremely smooth and easy. I'd go for it .

Hi all,

What a great resource! You are all great motivation that this process can actually be made easier than it is often said to be.

My fiance (she is a US citizen) and I got engaged just before Christmas 06 while I (an NZer) was over there visiting her. We have been together nearly three and a half years - I met her while I was over in the US doing a MS degree and we had been dating for about a year when I finished and had to leave the country. We really wanted to make a long distance relationship work as 'we felt right' and wanted to be together. So we then spent four months apart as I came back to work in NZ, she then came to NZ for a year on study abroad, we then spent another three months apart, then I went over there to visit for a week, then another two months apart, then she spent two and half months in NZ for her summer break, then another four months apart and now I am just back from three weeks over in the US visiting her and getting engaged! We have now got four months apart while she finishes off her degree. The plan is then that I will go over to the US for a month, and we will then go to the UK for 6-8 months working, spend a couple of months travelling Europe.

That is where our plans got to and we were looking at the fiance visa approach and then getting married in the US, but after hearing about DCF it sounds like a lot better option. We plan to get married in June or July 2008.

I just have a few questions that can someone please help me out on.

1. Would we have to get married in NZ to be eligable to take the DCF route? We were planning on getting married in the US, but this could be altered if need be.

2. Would I be eligable to work fairly soon after arriving in the US or would I need to apply for an Employment Authorization after entry? (Jo will be starting at grad school so it would be great if I could get into earning some $$$ fairly soon after settling in to the US).

3. What type of visa would I then have? What length of time is likely to be on it and would it allow me to travel at all?

Apologies of all this information is sticking out in here somewhere - I have just printed off a number of the posts and background reading and will read them tonight, but thought I would find out as much as I could from the get go.

There are likely to be more questions too.

Thanks!

Mark

Thanks for your help - very useful!

[markjo 0]

Hi Mark,

We completed DCF in Auckland in November 2006 and I can certainly recommend it as the best and easiest process - we started with a K-1 visa in the UK but changing to DCF in Auckland was much better. The Consulate in Auckland are great and very helpful.

To answer your questions -

1. no you don't have to get married in NZ - we got married in Chicago.

2. you can work once you have recieved your social security number - mine arrived in about 2 weeks.

3. you get an immigrant visa category CR-1 conditional resident - if you have been married less than 2 years. This visa says on it that it serves as temporary I-551 evidencing permanent residency for 1 year.

Once you enter the US the process starts for the Service Centre to send you your green card, I entered the US in San Francisco and my green card arrived in about 3-4 weeks - unfortunately it was wrong! but that's another story.

It might be helpful to seek out the other entries about DCF in Auckland in this forum and read the Consulate reviews as well. Good Luck!

Hi Mark,

We completed DCF in Auckland in November 2006 and I can certainly recommend it as the best and easiest process - we started with a K-1 visa in the UK but changing to DCF in Auckland was much better. The Consulate in Auckland are great and very helpful.

To answer your questions -

1. no you don't have to get married in NZ - we got married in Chicago.

2. you can work once you have recieved your social security number - mine arrived in about 2 weeks.

3. you get an immigrant visa category CR-1 conditional resident - if you have been married less than 2 years. This visa says on it that it serves as temporary I-551 evidencing permanent residency for 1 year.

Once you enter the US the process starts for the Service Centre to send you your green card, I entered the US in San Francisco and my green card arrived in about 3-4 weeks - unfortunately it was wrong! but that's another story.

It might be helpful to seek out the other entries about DCF in Auckland in this forum and read the Consulate reviews as well. Good Luck!

[markjo 0]

Thanks for your help - will be very useful!