DCF via exception - submit I-130 and DS-230 at the same time?

[GhQuestions 6]

Hi,

I (USC) and husband (non USC) have an appointment to submit I-130 in person next week (we were granted a DCF exception at the Embassy in Amsterdam).

They told us to bring:

• I-130,
• G325 for each of us
• original marriage certificate
• original divorce certificates
• passports (obviously)
• local residence permits
• one picture each

This seems like a sparse list.

1. Should we bring other evidence of a bona fide relationship, or is this not the stage for that?
2. Expanding on Question #1, are we allowed to submit the I-130 and DS-230 with evidence all at the same time to speed things up, or do we have to wait for something to happen after the I-130 is approved?

Thanks!

[Penguin_ie 5,995]

Normally, you'd put a little evidence of bonafide relationship (maybe a photo for each each of being together, a bill showing joint address), and then bring more to the interview. Similarly, with DCF you usually bring the I-864 to interview. However, your case is somewhat special as they granted an exception to the "No DCF if no USCIS office in-house" rule, so in order to speed things up as much as you can, I would suggest bringing both the I-864 and accompanying documents- they may not take them, but if they are, they can maybe tell you if everything is ok and thus speed things up.

[Marrienne 113]

Uhm, you can bring it with you, however our Embassy (Greece) didn't accept it up front. They wanted us to first get approval of I-130 and then gave us the links to everything else.
That said, approval of our I-130 would have been only 6 days IF we didn't get an RFE which set us back two months!!
If you are the only case, chances are they will work pretty fast on your case.

They did NOT ask for any evidence of bona fide marriage from us but we also have a child together (not sure if this is why).
We also submitted everything in person too

GOOD LUCK!! :)

[GhQuestions 6]

Uhm, you can bring it with you, however our Embassy (Greece) didn't accept it up front. They wanted us to first get approval of I-130 and then gave us the links to everything else.

That said, approval of our I-130 would have been only 6 days IF we didn't get an RFE which set us back two months!!

If you are the only case, chances are they will work pretty fast on your case.

They did NOT ask for any evidence of bona fide marriage from us but we also have a child together (not sure if this is why).

We also submitted everything in person too

GOOD LUCK!! :)

Thanks for your response! I guess I'll try and have everything ready just in case. Time is of the essence so I'd like to do everything I can to get this all done ASAP.

Will they tell us if our I-130 is approved on the spot, since they're asking us to come in person with the originals? Or do we still have to wait to be notified?

Also, do you mind mentioning what was missing with your application that set you back? Just want to make sure I don't make the same mistake

Thanks!

[Marrienne 113]

No, you have to wait while they do their little thing and verify all your papers.

My husband's divorce was missing the word "final" in the last paragraph. Yup...that was ALL that was missing. Problem was he got divorced in Germany so we had to wait a month for the divorce paper to come via snail mail and another 2 weeks for the translation (they want everything in English). Once they got that they approved the I-130 in a week or so.

[awaywego 28]

The I-130 instructions ask for evidence of bona fide marriage, so bring that with. They will also want a copy of the USC's passport or birth/naturalization certificate in order to show that you are a USC.

For a list of what you'll need for the process, you can look at the lists in the EZGuideSpouse (slightly more updated than the guides). For DCF, there's generally the I-130 step, then the rest together as a DS-260 step.