Completed DCF in Mexico / Added wiki guide

[Jorge V 195]

Hey all. Thanks to this forum I was recently able to complete the DCF process for my wife's IR-1/CR-1. Overall the process went smoothly, taking 49 days total. We're really happy with the result. In the hopes of helping others accomplish the same, I recently added a new entry to the VJ wiki detailing the process, http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php?title=DCF_Mexico.

 

I hope this answers some of the questions that filers may have as the process can be confusing and leads to smoother DCF filing, at least in Mexico. Let me know what you guys think.

 

 

[RamirezUSA 2]

Hi Jorge: I am just starting out on this journey. My husband and I both reside in CDMX and I'll be petitioning for him soon. We are looking at the DCF option since it seems the most fitting for us. I came across this thread and just want to thank you for the Wiki guide. It looks extremely helpful - great to come across when looking at this daunting process. 

 

I've noticed it's possible to contact USCIS in Mexico City about your specific case in order to see which documents are necessary. Would you recommend calling them for general questions and advice? - or better once your ready to start the process? Do you happen to know any other good resources to call for specific questions (beside VisaJourney of course) - like legal aid, etc.?

 

Also, I was curious about pictures for proof of "bonafide marriage". Did you time stamp photos? This seems impossible to do with camera phones. Thanks.

 

Thanks again. Saludos

[Jorge V 195]

52 minutes ago, RamirezUSA said:

Hi Jorge: I am just starting out on this journey. My husband and I both reside in CDMX and I'll be petitioning for him soon. We are looking at the DCF option since it seems the most fitting for us. I came across this thread and just want to thank you for the Wiki guide. It looks extremely helpful - great to come across when looking at this daunting process. 

 

I've noticed it's possible to contact USCIS in Mexico City about your specific case in order to see which documents are necessary. Would you recommend calling them for general questions and advice? - or better once your ready to start the process? Do you happen to know any other good resources to call for specific questions (beside VisaJourney of course) - like legal aid, etc.?

 

Also, I was curious about pictures for proof of "bonafide marriage". Did you time stamp photos? This seems impossible to do with camera phones. Thanks.

 

Thanks again. Saludos

You're welcome for the guide. To be honest a good portion of it are things that I learned on VJ, but I figured it would help others if all that information could be found in a single guide. 

 

It is possible to contact the USCIS offices. Before I knew that we had to file at the office in CDMX (due to being residents of Jalisco), I called the office in Juarez. Someone picked up right away and answered my questions well. I have read warnings that the person answering the phone in Juarez is a low level employee and you might get incorrect information, so keep that in mind. The phone number for the Juarez office can be found on their contact page: https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/international-offices/contact-us-uscis-ciudad-juarez-field-office .

 

The office in CDMX is a little different as they do not want you to call them, instead they request that you email them. They have a phone listed on their contact page (https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/international-offices/contact-us-uscis-mexico-city-field-office) but you end up getting an automated message telling you to send an email instead. I emailed them (mexico.uscis@uscis.dhs.gov) asking about payment options and got a reply 2 or 3 days later.

 

If you do contact USCIS I recommend emailing the CDMX office. Try to compile all of your questions in a single email to avoid a long back-and-forth. I would avoid asking them generic questions (such as "what constitutes a bona fide marriage?") as they'll just direct you to the USCIS website. The employees are nice but you can tell that they have lots of work and would rather not answer simple questions.

 

As far as legal aid, my only resource was VJ but I have seen others use services like rapid visa (https://rapidvisa.com/). It basically falls somewhere between doing it yourself and getting a lawyer. They'll charge you a few hundred dollars to look over your application, catch errors, and make suggestions, but you still have to do all of the work. I personally don't have experience with them so I can't tell you if it's worth it. I would also look for less expensive competitors. Honestly though, nearly all of my questions were previously answered by others on VJ.

 

I didn't timestamp photos, per se. What I did was print out facebook posts, including the photo and information/description that facebook adds. So you basically end up with a photo along with a facebook description that says "Jorge added a photo with <wife> on March 1st, 2013. Not sure if this helped but at the very least it didn't hurt. I also hand wrote details about each photo on the back, including dates, description (ex: Wife and I at sister's birthday party), and the names of everyone in the photo as some photos were from our cell phones.

 

I hope that helps! I'm happy to answer any questions you might have and please keep us updated on your process! Also, feel free to update the wiki if you discover any new info!

 

 

Edited September 8, 2017 by Jorge Valdivia

[RamirezUSA 2]

Hi Jorge: Thanks again for your useful information. This is great. I am reading through the Wiki guide again and I was curious about some of the requirements. 

 

It seems there was more emphasis on proving Mexican residency than proving intent to reestablish in the US. I assume you had to prove intent to establish domicile in the US, correct?

 

This is the one aspect that is having me question whether to file through DCF or another route. 

[Jorge V 195]

9 minutes ago, RamirezUSA said:

Hi Jorge: Thanks again for your useful information. This is great. I am reading through the Wiki guide again and I was curious about some of the requirements. 

 

It seems there was more emphasis on proving Mexican residency than proving intent to reestablish in the US. I assume you had to prove intent to establish domicile in the US, correct?

 

This is the one aspect that is having me question whether to file through DCF or another route. 

I didn't focus too much on establishing intent of US domicile as it didn't come up much in my case. I did collect evidence in support of my intent (bank account, current US driver's license, quote from a moving company) but we were never asked for any of it.

 

Keep in mind that the requirement of intent to establish US domicile is the same for DCF and non DCF. USCIS requires that the US citizen spouse establish their US domicile before or at the same time as the immigrant in all cases. This is also a requirement for any sponsors on the I-864. I strongly suggest you do DCF is possible as it only takes 2-3 months where as non DCF takes 14+ months.

 

The only requirement that is different for DCF filers vs non DCF filers is that the US citizen must be a resident of a country where DCF is available. All other requirements are the same.

Edited September 14, 2017 by Jorge Valdivia

[mexicoAmigo 3]

Hey Ramirez, 

 

I did the same as Jorge (US citizen residing in Mexico) and I have a photocopy of the sheet USCIS gave me when I went in to the office of the requirements you'll need for DCF.

 

It's attached here-

 

Also, since you live here, you can just make a walk in appointment to the embassy on Reforma and ask them all your questions. They are super nice and helpful. I wish I had done it at the very very beginning because I wasted a lot of time trying to read the minds of what they might want from me.

 

And Jorge's guide is awesome!

I130 Mex Required Docs.pdf

[mexicoAmigo 3]

Also we used a lawyer and for proof of our relationship they asked us to include about 20 photos of just us and another 15-20 with friends in the photos. I printed screenshots directly from facebook so the timestamp and comments were visible. I also included a couple pieces of mail having joint domicile and my wife's bank statement showing we have the same address but I didn't have too much in that area. We only married in May so that part was a little lacking but it didn't seem to be an issue,

 

Agree with Jorge - although I'm re-domiciling, it was much more about proving residency in Mexico. Actually I had a conversation with the USCIS officer in CDMX and he told me the same thing. I saw people getting rejected for that very reason here in mexico city.

[RamirezUSA 2]

Dear mexicoAmigo:

 

So grateful for your posts and additional information. The PDF is helpful. I didn't think about translating my resident card, but will get on that!

 

Wonderful about the appointment. How do you schedule an appointment at the embassy? Also, I understand that for DCF the petitioner must get approval from the head of the USCIS branch - did you do this?

 

Another question for both of you, what about postage? For the initial documents submission, I will drop the documents off at the USCIS office. Afterwards, I am worried about receiving the answer by mail, since here in Mexico mail is sometimes unreliable and could get lost. Do you know if it is possible to open some type of P.O. Box? Or, how did you do it? 

[Jorge V 195]

25 minutes ago, RamirezUSA said:

Dear mexicoAmigo:

 

So grateful for your posts and additional information. The PDF is helpful. I didn't think about translating my resident card, but will get on that!

 

Wonderful about the appointment. How do you schedule an appointment at the embassy? Also, I understand that for DCF the petitioner must get approval from the head of the USCIS branch - did you do this?

 

Another question for both of you, what about postage? For the initial documents submission, I will drop the documents off at the USCIS office. Afterwards, I am worried about receiving the answer by mail, since here in Mexico mail is sometimes unreliable and could get lost. Do you know if it is possible to open some type of P.O. Box? Or, how did you do it? 

Hey @RamirezUSA I'm not sure about getting approval from the head of USCIS. I assume that he has final say on applications but I didn't have to explicitly request approval from him. My approval letter is signed by the office field director, so maybe that's it?

 

As far as postage, USCIS will mail you NOA1/NOA2 by default. If you fill out G-1145 and include it with your application you'll receive an email notification as well, so this is your best bet. I actually never received an official NOA1 until a month after my case was approved (via snail mail). I did receive NOA2 by email the day after it was approved. That was ok with me as my I-130 was approved within 1.5 weeks of me mailing it. I've read that this is a common occurrence in Mexico, it seems like they don't really send out NOA1s on time.

[RamirezUSA 2]

Yes, Office Field Director! That's what I meant 

 

OK, so going with the e-mail notifications will help. Great. Thanks!

[Jorge V 195]

48 minutes ago, RamirezUSA said:

Yes, Office Field Director! That's what I meant 

 

OK, so going with the e-mail notifications will help. Great. Thanks!

Cool! Just to reiterate, I didn't have to explicitly seek out approval from the field office director. I simply submitted my package to the Mexico City office and the approval notice was signed by him. Not sure if your case has any complications that would require this, but a straightforward case like mine did not.

[mexicoAmigo 3]

Just reiterating what Jorge said on both accounts - there's no explicit permission you need to seek, just submitting the I130 is enough.

 

Definitely go with the email. Like Jorge my approval took about a month to come by regular mail but it was approved same day at the embassy and I received the email one day later. Same goes with receiving a case number - that letter also comes by mail but I got it about a month after the case number was actually assigned. Actually, thanks to Jorge's advice, I started calling to pester every other day just to see if the number was available. I also sent an email using the online form on the website and that's how I got notification that the case number was ready.

 

Here's the link to make an appointment at the embassy:

https://my.uscis.gov/appointment

 

"General Information" has appointments as early as Thursday. I130 submission has availability the 17th.

 

Be really grateful you qualify for DCF!!!  We are lucky.

[jolson 0]

On 10/9/2017 at 5:12 PM, mexicoAmigo said:

Just reiterating what Jorge said on both accounts - there's no explicit permission you need to seek, just submitting the I130 is enough.

 

Definitely go with the email. Like Jorge my approval took about a month to come by regular mail but it was approved same day at the embassy and I received the email one day later. Same goes with receiving a case number - that letter also comes by mail but I got it about a month after the case number was actually assigned. Actually, thanks to Jorge's advice, I started calling to pester every other day just to see if the number was available. I also sent an email using the online form on the website and that's how I got notification that the case number was ready.

 

Here's the link to make an appointment at the embassy:

https://my.uscis.gov/appointment

 

"General Information" has appointments as early as Thursday. I130 submission has availability the 17th.

 

Be really grateful you qualify for DCF!!!  We are lucky.

Hi. My wife's I-130 was approved 3 weeks ago but still have not heard anything from the US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez. You mentioned that you, "sent an email using the online form on the website and that's how [you] got notification that the case number was ready." By chance, do you recall where that form is located? I've been looking on their website but I can't find any link to it (I'm probably missing something obvious). Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

[Jorge V 195]

18 hours ago, jolson said:

Hi. My wife's I-130 was approved 3 weeks ago but still have not heard anything from the US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez. You mentioned that you, "sent an email using the online form on the website and that's how [you] got notification that the case number was ready." By chance, do you recall where that form is located? I've been looking on their website but I can't find any link to it (I'm probably missing something obvious). Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

So you have received NOA2 but not packet 3, right? If so, then 3 weeks isn't out of the ordinary The person you quoted had to wait over a month to receive it if I remember correctly. Another thing, did you use a lawyer to file? If so, the letter is probably going to be sent to them. I've read a few cases where the lawyer's office receives the letter but doesn't realize or notify the applicant for several weeks. It may be a good idea to call them if that's your case.

[jolson 0]

On 3/3/2018 at 12:09 PM, Jorge V said:

So you have received NOA2 but not packet 3, right? If so, then 3 weeks isn't out of the ordinary The person you quoted had to wait over a month to receive it if I remember correctly. Another thing, did you use a lawyer to file? If so, the letter is probably going to be sent to them. I've read a few cases where the lawyer's office receives the letter but doesn't realize or notify the applicant for several weeks. It may be a good idea to call them if that's your case.

Correct, we have NOA2 but not packet 3. Didn't use a lawyer. I sent an email using the form that mexicoAmigo mentioned to hopefully get a status update. Hopefully we'll hear something this week or next. Thank you for your reply.