DCF London I-130 Mailed 7 April

Whimplet · April 19, 2016

Hi All,

Spent quite alot of time reading the site and grateful for all the really useful information available here, especially Lost at Sea's guilde.

Thought I could describe my situation here and keep this updated as we go through the process.

I'm a USC living in London (domiciled to the UK) for the last 8 years. Married my wife (Malaysian citizen, UK ILR) in early 2008, and have 2 young children as a result!

We own a home in London, and I have gained my UK citizenship while living here, but now my employer wants me to move back to the USA for work.

Our move date is dictated by the successful greencard outcome, although she does have a B2 visa which I guess we could travel on for a visit if we need to.

We submitted the I-130 on 7 April 2016, with receipt confirmation via Royal Mail tracking on 8 April 2016, but have yet to hear anything from the London USCIS.

In a perfect world we'd be done by July/August, but accept this process is a leap into the unknown.

We have worked out potential timelimes based on others dates, but didn't realize how difficult it would be after we submitted the paperwork to essentially be in the dark, playing the waiting game.

I haven't quite worked out how to identify other UK/London filers - so anyone else in London going through the process please say hello.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Whimplet

A'n'L · April 19, 2016

Good luck on your journey! You have a great attitude :-)

There's a UK regional forum here, I'm sure you'll find some fellow DCF applicants there :-)

Whimplet · April 20, 2016

Just received rejected application today due to credit card payment failure.

No idea what that means, the card is active, used all over the world.

Was an Amex card...

So just resubmitted application with visa card, included photo of front and back of card as well.

Not an auspicious start to the process

Whimplet · April 20, 2016

btw thanks A'n'L - I hadn't seen the UK forum - checking it out now

Whimplet · April 26, 2016

Update from the April 2016 I-130 thread:

Quick update on our timeline - received NOA1 confirmation via email today - what a relief!

No idea why American Express card was rejected or didn't work for the Embassy, but the VISA we sent in the second time did work.

Means we lost about 2 weeks in our timeline :ranting:

Pleasantly surprised about the Malaysian Police Certificate process and speed at which this was done compared to some older posts I've read on here.

We're now preparing to submit UK ACRO Police Cert request and I've printed out the DS-260 form to start to prepare that as well

05-Apr-2016 Submitted Online Malaysia Police Certificate Request

07-Apr-2016 I-130 Alien Spouse Sponsorship application sent to London Embassy Royal Mail tracked

08-Apr-2016 signed for delivery at London Embassy – Delivered

14-Apr-2016 Notification that Malaysian Police Certificate is ready to collect at Malaysian London Embassy

20-Apr-2016 Received returned application due to Credit Card payment rejected (AMEX)

20-Apr-2016 Updated to FD VISA and re-sent I-130 to USCIS London via Royal Mail tracked

21-Apr-2016 signed for delivery at London Embassy – Delivered

26-Apr-2016 I-130 received, processed, and payment taken confirmed by email (NOA1 dated 25 April 2016)

28-Apr-2016 Appointment to collect Malaysian Police Certificate from London Malaysian Embassy

Mollusk · May 5, 2016

Hi Whimplet

It may not be the same for you, but it was exactly two months from NOA1 to NOA2 for me, via the London embassy.

Whimplet · May 6, 2016

Thanks for that

I've calculated a timeline that puts us roughly in mid-August for completion if we don't have any RFEs.

We've just applied for the UK police certificate, and the rest is just waiting...

My employer wants to move me as of 1 July, so I am preparing a request for expedite based on financial hardship and will see if that can help us move things along as I've had feedback that this has a 'chance' at being successful

I think we have all other evidence/documentation available and will submit at the appropriate time as speedily as possible!

Mollusk · May 6, 2016

Also, my NOA2 says we will receive instructions on the next steps in 5-8 weeks...

Sand1818 · May 7, 2016

Hi Whimplet

It may not be the same for you, but it was exactly two months from NOA1 to NOA2 for me, via the London embassy.

Hi Whimplet - Mollusk and I have the exactly same timeline thus far, it was also exactly two months (61 days) for us, same date of NOA1.

I think it is worth noting that while we were waiting there were two weeks where the embassy only moved forward the processing time by two days, but the most recent weekly update moved from March 3 to March 21st, so possibly a good sign for you!

Whimplet · May 7, 2016

I saw that jump for the March dates too! I Hope that means they're catching up

Also hope the new interview scheduling process works in everyone's favour...

Whimplet · May 13, 2016

Perhaps sad but was anxiously awaiting (refreshing webpage) the embassy processing time update today. (https://uk.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/government-agencies/dhs/uscis/i130filing-html/)

Processing date 'only' moved 8 days, and is now 29 March.

That could mean they would process our priority date by the first Friday in June which is slightly earlier than the timeline I've mapped out.

I guess it's also possible that some weeks won't jump by 8 days or other weeks jump more, so trying not to get hopes up or read into this too much (although that's easier said than done!)

Whimplet · May 23, 2016

Quick update for our journey.

I-130 processing at the London embassy only moved from 29 March to 4 April as of 20 May, was hoping for another 2 week jump!

Received the UK ACRO Police Certificate on Friday 20 May, waiting to get GP vaccine MMR, otherwise running out of things to do in preparation for receiving NOA2/submitting DS-206...

Our timeline: