USCIS Lima processing time to answer DCF petition

[diarbildua 0]

Hi all,

 

I'll try to explain my situation as best as possible. I'm a US citizen and I've been married to my wife since April 2013. I have lived my whole life in Chile (Latam). My current employer suddenly requested my reallocation to their NY office, I could comply with no problems due to my US citizenship, however my wife and three kids couldn't come with me because of the following:

 

• They are chilean citizens
• Since I didn't need a working Visa there was no way for them to join me under a work visa granted to me

 

According to my employer lawyers my situation qualifies as "exceptional circumstances due to short notice of reallocation", so I contacted the US embassy in Chile and they told me to submit a formal request to them in order for them to forward it to the USCIS office in Lima since that office is the one with jurisdiction over Latam. I send them the same day a formal request with my US passport, birth certificate of myself and my three kids, marriage certificate, etc. They told me this request was forwarder the same day to the Lima USCIS office.

 

The above step is needed since the Lima USCIS office must authorize the Chilean US embassy to adjudicate my request for DCF of my I-130

 

After a week of no news I followed up with the Chilean embassy and they told me that these requests take between two and four weeks to get an answer from Lima.

 

Right now I'm at the end of the fourth week and still with no news if the Chilean embassy will be able to adjudicate my case.

 

Does anyone here has any experience with these kind of requests to the USCIS office in Lima??

 

Thanks!!

 

[Villanelle 4,122]

Doubt you will be able to find someone on here that did DCF there but you never know... I cant think of any members off the top of my head. Plenty of people have done DCF and give you general tips however (read around this subforum)- Remember DCF for exceptional circumstances is not something that is a guarantee. Its up to their discretion. Have you contacted Lima office? They should have an email. 

[diarbildua 0]

Yes, I understand it is at their discretion, but I found a report with statistics on the different embassies in terms of how many DCF requests they received and how many were approved, denied or were pending.

 

From what I remember London was the one with more DCF requests. The Lima USCIS office as of 2Q2018 has received around 27 DCF requests, out of which 26 were approved and there was one pending.

 

The only problem with that report is that it didn't have details on how long they took to answer :(:(

[geowrian 22,337]

Keep in mind most DCF cases are not due to exceptional circumstances.

[diarbildua 0]

The thing driving me crazy is the not knowing.

 

The lawyers told me it would take two weeks to get a positive/negative answer. Then the Chilean embassy told me it would take between two and four weeks..... how long does other USCIS offices take to answer  these kind of requests??

 

 

[diarbildua 0]

Now I have 5 weeks behind me and still no news from the Lima USCIS office. This is very frustrating as all I'm waiting for is for a permission for the consulate in my country to adjudicate the case. I've read in this forum that in some countries this same answer was received in one week time, there is even a case of someone receiving the authorization on the same day.

 

Why can this be taking so long??

 

I think my case is very straightforward, I've been married for almost ten years, I have three kids and I'm a US citizen who received a very short notice of reallocation from my country to NY. I provided my US passport, US birth certificate, marriage certificate, my kids birth certificates... I even have a photo record as proof of my married life.

 

[Villanelle 4,122]

I re-read your postings and it seems you did a request at Chilean and Chilean forwarded it to Lima correct? If so have you contacted Chilean about this? Ask them to find out whats going on if you can, if you have and they dont know anything- contact Lima yourself. 

[diarbildua 0]

I have, I actually have been sending the Chilean US embassy one email each week, and the answer has been always the same, that they still don't have a resolution from USCIS Lima (they told me in my first email - week 1- that these requests take from 2 to 4 weeks to get an answer).

I did send an email to USCIS Lima last wednesday, and it is my understanding they aim to reply in 5 business days so I have my hopes up for today. 

Also, in the recorded message from the USCIS Lima phone number they say that the attend phone calls on wednesdays from 2pm to 4:30pm, so I'll be trying to call them today and hopefully get some kind of an answer, fingers crossed for today

[diarbildua 0]

A little update, I called the USCIS office in Lima and they told me that the phone line was only to schedule meetings :(, so after some crying to the lady who answered me I told her that I had sent an email the past week, so apparently she did a little asking around and told me back that my email was receivedn and was being looked into.

 

So, today I finally received an email from the embassy telling me that my DCF petition was approved!! :D:D:D

 

So now I have to travel to Chile to submit all documents and start the process there, fingers crossed for a fast processing.

 

Regards!

[diarbildua 0]

Ok, for the interest of knowledge here is an update.

 

I went to Chile on November 15 to present the locally filled I-130 and all supporting documents, I paid the fees and went back to NY.

 

A couple of days later we received the emails with the case numbers and they gave us a tentative interview date of December 5th, subject to having everything ready before that (medical exams, vaccines, etc).

 

So... what happened... we ran like hell to have everything ready, my wife got everything in place in record time.... the interview was tomorrow.... and this morning, December 4th, we received an email communicating that the embassy will be closed tomorrow due to the national mourning... the interview was obviously suspended until further notice......no new interview date was given....and we are now back to limbo waiting for any news from the embassy.....

 

How can I have such bad luck?? :(:(:(:(