Filing location question

[EldestElderSon 3]

Hello,

 

My wife and I currently live in Turkey.

 

Normally, I would file the I-130 at the Chicago lockbox, since we are overseas.

 

HOWEVER, I am sending our application to my mother first, who is in the USA. She is going to add two affidavits of support written by family and friends who live in the USA. It was a lot simpler and cheaper for us to send the application package to her, then she would add the affidavits, and then send it to the USCIS filing location.

 

My question is: do we still send the application to the Chicago lockbox - due to it being international? Or since she is sending the package from a US address, should it be filed at another one? 

 

My real question is that are the i-130 applications sorted by where they originate geographically, or whether they are sorted by where the applicant lives?

 

Thanks!

[Ryan H 3,812]

Let's dispatch with the semantics first, an I-130 is a petition form, not an application form (you're not applying for anything, you are petitioning the government to allow your spouse to apply for a spousal visa).

 

Second, don't bother with the affidavits, they carry little to zero weight in the overall evaluation of a file; evidence of time spent together in-person is the strongest evidence.

 

Lastly, your mother will send your package to the lockbox in Chicago; from there it will be sorted at random to a service center, current service center workload that processes I-130 petitions filed for spouses appears to be the determining factor as to where a package will end up.

[pushbrk 12,911]

1 hour ago, Ryan H said:

Let's dispatch with the semantics first, an I-130 is a petition form, not an application form (you're not applying for anything, you are petitioning the government to allow your spouse to apply for a spousal visa).

 

Second, don't bother with the affidavits, they carry little to zero weight in the overall evaluation of a file; evidence of time spent together in-person is the strongest evidence.

 

Lastly, your mother will send your package to the lockbox in Chicago; from there it will be sorted at random to a service center, current service center workload that processes I-130 petitions filed for spouses appears to be the determining factor as to where a package will end up.

Correct but to answer one of your questions directly, the petition filing location is determined by the petitioner's residence address, not by the location from which it was mailed.