Paying for I-130 Fees From Australia

[JamieEmm 2]

I would like to file the I-130 from within Australia and I am confused about how to pay the fees. The form says fees must be paid by check or money order drawn on a bank or other financial institution located in the US and must be paid in US currency.

However, the US embassy site here makes me think they can be paid in AUD http://canberra.usembassy.gov/iv-fees.html

On the site it says

The current schedule of fees is as follows:

Immigrant Visa (IV) Applicants I-130 Petition USD $420.00 per visa applicant AUD $588.00

Can anyone advise what they've done in this situation? All I can think of is if I can't pay from here, I will have to post my I-130 application to my dad, ask him to write a check and post it all together to the Chicago lockbox.

I can't get anyone to talk to me on the phone at the embassy. I spoke with a lawyer but didn't find it incredibly helpful with some of the questions I had.

I am so disappointed that direct consular filing has been taken away from US Citizens in Australia and everything seems so unnecessarily difficult. I just want to go home quickly like last time (3-4 months)

[Adil & Jeanne 296]

international money order is accepted as i sent one while out of the country

[kurte 0]

Hi JamieEmm

Have you figured out how to process the payment yet?

I am in NZ and would like to make the payment of $420 to UCIS for i-130 but unsure on what is the most effective way.

Thanks in advance.

[JamieEmm 2]

Yes, actually after a lot of screwing around and a lot of phone calls, I finally got someone in the States to tell me that I could send an international money order. Then I went to the bank and they said they don't do them. Not sure about other banks but at ANZ they said that it was called a bank cheque. I was nervous about this, as it's not exactly what they ask for, but my husband used to work at banks here and reassured me that it should be fine. At ANZ, the bank cheque is actually affiliated with Citibank in the USA, so I felt confident it would be accepted.

I did send my application in on Oct 2, got my NOA 1 on 23 October, and my NOA2 on Nov 13. That's just 21 days from NOA1 to NOA2 and under 6 weeks from when I posted it. I was shocked that it was approved so quickly because the official estimate was 5 months. However, my spouse has had a green card previously, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with how quickly it was approved.

I will ring later this week to see if our case has been received at the NVC.

Best of luck. Let me know if I can help in any other way.

[zephyrus17 0]

@ Jamie, thank you very much for the information! I was scratching my head about this weird and convoluted payment issue. A few questions:

When you made the bank check, to whom did you make the check addressed to? Did you just write it out to "USCIC"?

Did you get a physical cheque that you had to include with all the documents, or was it more like a bank transfer and you got a receipt?

[JamieEmm 2]

I wish it was as easy as an electronic transfer, but the US loves its paper checks. Yes, it was a physical cheque made out in US Dollars.

It was made out to U.S. Department of Homeland Security

[zephyrus17 0]

Thanks for the quick reply! And you just paid the US$420, and nothing else, right?

Edited November 24, 2015 by zephyrus17

[JamieEmm 2]

I also had to pay the bank a $35 AUD fee.

[zephyrus17 0]

Thank you, Jamie. We've sent out the documents a couple of weeks ago, and was informed on the 3rd of Dec that they were sent to the California USCIS. So it seems like everything up to now is going well.