DCF with exceptional circumstances

[Bullitt 3]

Up to you, but I would not as it's not relevant to the question they need to answer.  There are thousands of people who are being separated from their family every month as a result of the ridiculously long wait times at the lock boxes; FS officers know this, but its not in their power to change it.

[pyridine 12]

On 2/14/2020 at 2:35 AM, familybasedvisa12 said:

 

 

 

Hey everyone,

 

Firstly, thank you for the prompt responses. What a great forum! 

 

I do not reside in London, but I do reside in one of the countries that they have jurisdiction over. Per their website (see screenshot) I should be able to file based on 'exception circumstances' at the discretion of the London office director - my understanding from the previous comment is that I can't contact the director directly, rather I need to inform my local embassy and they will make the contact. It is still unclear to me whether or not I can go to the embassy physically for this, wouldn't that be quicker than sending an email? Or are they quick to respond?

 

 

Also, given that I meet two exceptions, 1 - job relocation on short notice and 2 - medical emergency (expecting in August and can't travel after June), would they have a basis to deny the request?

 

 

 

Thanks again to everyone!

 

 

Ok then yes, you only go through the embassy. I remember posting something detailed before about exactly what I had to submit to the embassy, but anyway it all started with an email to them explaining things and then they sent me a list of what to send them. You might just be able to shortcut that if you find my list. I recall it being a copy of my residence card (the US citizen petitioner's), passport, a letter explaining the exceptional circumstances, and a copy of the job offer letter. There's a bigger list for the I-130 filing (which will be scheduled at the embassy soon after they approve your request to file at the embassy with exceptional circumstances) and a still bigger list for the interview, which may not even be at the most local embassy depending on the country.

Edited February 16, 2020 by pyridine

[familybasedvisa12 23]

4 hours ago, pyridine said:

Ok then yes, you only go through the embassy. I remember posting something detailed before about exactly what I had to submit to the embassy, but anyway it all started with an email to them explaining things and then they sent me a list of what to send them. You might just be able to shortcut that if you find my list. I recall it being a copy of my residence card (the US citizen petitioner's), passport, a letter explaining the exceptional circumstances, and a copy of the job offer letter. There's a bigger list for the I-130 filing (which will be scheduled at the embassy soon after they approve your request to file at the embassy with exceptional circumstances) and a still bigger list for the interview, which may not even be at the most local embassy depending on the country.

Great, thanks for that. 

 

I will attach those to my initial email. I just hope the embassy here will be as easy to work with as yours was. 

 

[April M 28]

On 2/14/2018 at 5:27 AM, pyridine said:

I posted a while ago on here my timeline with getting the I-130 approved for DCF with exceptional circumstances (short notice job relocation, also pregnant). Also now can add the rest of the dates. Most of the delay was from our end getting certain annoying documents in preparation for the interview. One of them took us nearly 6 weeks to obtain, and we had to deal with 3 different countries for all of them. Everything was nearly immediate with dealing with the two consulates here in Scandinavia.

December 11 - submitted request to file DCF with US embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark

December 14 - received notice to come to the embassy on December 18 to file the I-130

December 18 - filed I-130 at the embassy

January 2 - notified by Stockholm (they only process non-immigrant visas in Copenhagen; Stockholm does immigrant for the entire region) immigrant visa unit that they received our approved I-130 and they sent a checklist to complete before an interview could be scheduled

(this part here is all our delay due to difficulty getting documents! ARGH!)

February 1 - sent completed checklist (included having already gotten the medical exam, we had no problem scheduling it in Copenhagen)

February 2 - resent completed checklist plus forgotten DS-260 completion confirmation, which we forgot the day before

February 5 - received interview appointment notice from Stockholm, for a specific time on February 13. It was really bad for my husband because he's teaching a course, but when we asked about rescheduling, they couldn't until March 1st. So we figured out how to deal with Feb 13.

February 13 - my husband had the visa interview in Stockholm (long trip, we spent 2 nights there). They wouldn't even let me, the US citizen petitioner, into the embassy! Because I wasn't on their "list" (this was contrary to attorney's advice...very helpful).

 

The interview was quite fast and my husband was out in about 30 minutes. We were mega-prepared with all the documents. Interesting "surprise" was what they required for the I-864 sponsorship. It wasn't good enough that despite my job discontinuing here when I move to the US of course, that I have a job offer for a very good salary starting in March in the US. I included the job offer letter and a one-way ticket to the US with the I-864 as proof of my intent to reestablish domicile and also of US-based future income. I've seen other cases on here where this was deemed good enough at the interview. But nope, they also wanted to see the $60k+ in assets because the job offer wasn't enough. Very fortunately, I also had this. They flipped through the statements until they found one from the US (they didn't even care about the assets I have in Denmark, which is most of it!!) that happened to be my IRA worth over $100k.  Our attorney had also advised us to not "confuse" the consular officer and to prepare the I-864 without assets so that we could just qualify on the income, yet to take proof of them in case we needed them. More bad advice - ended up using the original form I prepared with the assets. We took both versions.

 

Regardless, my husband's visa was approved and he should get everything in the mail in a week. I'm just a little shocked what a US citizen expat needs to go through, including with exceptional circumstances including a pregnancy, to be able to sponsor their spouse when returning to the US. We might have been in a sticky situation without the assets without months of pay stubs proving income from my new job in the US, and by that time I would have had to give birth alone. 

 

I so understand, I had to come back for follow-up, surgery's, medical care and I don't have my husband with me. We are still waiting for them to do administrative processing. I have medical documents to support everything and adequate income and even put him on Medical insurance. Sometimes I think their job is to keep people from coming instead of getting us the visa available to spouse's that we applied for. Life doesn't wait for paper work. 

[jennyle0306 1]

On 2/15/2020 at 2:53 AM, Bullitt said:

When I did it, it was brief.  It included the basis on which I was claiming Exceptional Circumstances (by the way, I don't think they consider pregnancy a medical emergency, but it won't matter as I was able to do it on the basis of my job offer alone), my dates of travel and proof that I was a resident of, in my case, Japan.

Thank you for your infomation, so along with the job offer, you also booked flight ticket to go back as an additional proof? 

[SalishSea 17,970]

3 hours ago, jennyle0306 said:

Thank you for your infomation, so along with the job offer, you also booked flight ticket to go back as an additional proof? 

Do NOT book a flight ticket, unless it is refundable or you can change the dates.  A booked ticket is not grounds for an expedite, and if you poke around the VJ forum enough, you will see plenty of people who lost thousands of dollars by doing this.

[jennyle0306 1]

Just now, Jorgedig said:

Do NOT book a flight ticket, unless it is refundable or you can change the dates.  A booked ticket is not grounds for an expedite, and if you poke around the VJ forum enough, you will see plenty of people who lost thousands of dollars by doing this.

So the job offer letter in the email is good enough right? 

[SalishSea 17,970]

35 minutes ago, jennyle0306 said:

So the job offer letter in the email is good enough right? 

There is no way anyone here can predict that.  I'm just saying that it is never smart to book flight tickets before you have a visa in your passport.

[Bullitt 3]

5 hours ago, jennyle0306 said:

So the job offer letter in the email is good enough right? 

In my case it was; I did not have a flight booked at the time I sent the letter.  I think my letter mentioned when my expected start date would be and that was enough do get the process started (together with the other points, e.g. proof of residency in the jurisdiction where you are seeking the embassy/consulate to get involved, mentioned in my previous posts).

[jennyle0306 1]

7 hours ago, Bullitt said:

In my case it was; I did not have a flight booked at the time I sent the letter.  I think my letter mentioned when my expected start date would be and that was enough do get the process started (together with the other points, e.g. proof of residency in the jurisdiction where you are seeking the embassy/consulate to get involved, mentioned in my previous posts).

Thank you, that helps, I'll update my case on here later 

[AmeriCanadian91 3]

On 6/23/2021 at 5:26 PM, Jorgedig said:

There is no way anyone here can predict that.  I'm just saying that it is never smart to book flight tickets before you have a visa in your passport.

I just emailed the Montreal Consulate requesting approval for DCF, as my spouse and I live in Canada and I got a job offer in California, starting next month. I've seen a couple comments about Canada not doing DCF - EC though, only for the "extremely" rare cases. Do you know anything about this? If I'm able to prove that I meet the exceptional circumstances listed in USCIS's Policy Manual, are they obligated to process my husband's application? Or is it totally up to them how strict they want to be with choosing applications to process?

[SalishSea 17,970]

1 minute ago, AmeriCanadian91 said:

I just emailed the Montreal Consulate requesting approval for DCF, as my spouse and I live in Canada and I got a job offer in California, starting next month. I've seen a couple comments about Canada not doing DCF - EC though, only for the "extremely" rare cases. Do you know anything about this? If I'm able to prove that I meet the exceptional circumstances listed in USCIS's Policy Manual, are they obligated to process my husband's application? Or is it totally up to them how strict they want to be with choosing applications to process?

I really have no idea.   I know Montreal is said to be quite strict about domicile.

 

I have never heard that any consulate is “obligated” to accept a DCF petition now that the USCIS international offices are closed.

 

Maybe some Canadians can help with this one…..   @Lemonslice, @Ontarkie,.
 

You may want to create your own entirely new thread about the topic.

[Bullitt 3]

50 minutes ago, AmeriCanadian91 said:

I just emailed the Montreal Consulate requesting approval for DCF, as my spouse and I live in Canada and I got a job offer in California, starting next month. I've seen a couple comments about Canada not doing DCF - EC though, only for the "extremely" rare cases. Do you know anything about this? If I'm able to prove that I meet the exceptional circumstances listed in USCIS's Policy Manual, are they obligated to process my husband's application? Or is it totally up to them how strict they want to be with choosing applications to process?

When I went though the DCF process, it was not really up to the State Dept; they had to ask USCIS for permission to process an application via DCF.  In my case, once I got to the right section at the embassy, they asked USCIS and got the OK to proceed the same day.  This won't be an option for you if USCIS has a presence in Canada (I know there is some customs presence in Vancouver, so this might be an issue for you); DCF is only available where USCIS has no office that serves the jurisdiction that you live in.

 

This thread, and the other one that pyridine did had all the information that I used to get though the process.  I'm glad it is still helping people.

 

B

[AmeriCanadian91 3]

55 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

I really have no idea.   I know Montreal is said to be quite strict about domicile.

 

I have never heard that any consulate is “obligated” to accept a DCF petition now that the USCIS international offices are closed.

 

Maybe some Canadians can help with this one…..   @Lemonslice, @Ontarkie,.
 

You may want to create your own entirely new thread about the topic.

If it's strictly regarding domicile, that shouldn't be an issue. I'm planning on signing a lease for a place in California this week (since I'll be starting work so soon), so I can use that as proof for establishing residency. I also have family living in California, and of course my job offer.

 

The Montreal Consulate responded to my initial email requesting DCF, asking for some basic info and an explanation of why I should be approved, but haven't asked for anything else. I just attached my job offer and marriage certificate, but am now wondering if I should send my Canadian residency card and/or my home rental lease as well? I responded to their questions a couple days ago and am now just waiting to hear back...

[SalishSea 17,970]

11 minutes ago, Bullitt said:

When I went though the DCF process, it was not really up to the State Dept; they had to ask USCIS for permission to process an application via DCF.  In my case, once I got to the right section at the embassy, they asked USCIS and got the OK to proceed the same day.  This won't be an option for you if USCIS has a presence in Canada (I know there is some customs presence in Vancouver, so this might be an issue for you); DCF is only available where USCIS has no office that serves the jurisdiction that you live in.

 

This thread, and the other one that pyridine did had all the information that I used to get though the process.  I'm glad it is still helping people.

 

B

Immigrant visas are not processed in Vancouver.   USCIS offices are now closed world-wide, so it is entirely up to the consulate whether they accept the case or not.