DCF after filling i130 petition with USCIS?

[JulienR 92]

Hi everyone,

 

I am new here and your community looks like a valuable source of information and return on experience. I am a French citizen, married to an American citizen with two kids. We live in France, I work and my wife looks after the kids. We have been in France for almsot three years (after living in Australia, where we met) and would like to move to the USA. We got married in France.

 

My wife is currently looking for a job in the USA and I understand that, if she gets an offer, we could apply for DCF at the Paris embassy and the process should be fairly quick. However, we fear that, applying from France, her application will not be given the same consideration as if she were applying from the US (employer might be concerned about the time it would take to move). So, not knowing if and when she would get a job, we would also like to start the process by filling an i130 petition with the USCIS given that this process takes about a year. This way, if she doesn't get a job offer, we can move to the US anyway and we can apply for jobs once there (she has family in the USA that can welcome us and we have significant savings to support ourselves for some time).

 

My concern is what happens if she gets a job offer after we have filed the i130 petition in the US but it has not yet been approved? I understand that USCIS can expedite i130 processing under some circumstances but only very exceptional ones, and this case does not seem to qualify according to information available on the website. Can we then file another i130 petition with the Paris embassy? Or can they intervene on our behalf with USCIS to speed-up the process?

 

Thank you for your help.

[payxibka 10,047]

I wasn't aware Paris did dcf because the uscis office covering France is located in Rome 

[Khallaf 650]

37 minutes ago, JulienR said:

Hi everyone,

 

I am new here and your community looks like a valuable source of information and return on experience. I am a French citizen, married to an American citizen with two kids. We live in France, I work and my wife looks after the kids. We have been in France for almsot three years (after living in Australia, where we met) and would like to move to the USA. We got married in France.

 

My wife is currently looking for a job in the USA and I understand that, if she gets an offer, we could apply for DCF at the Paris embassy and the process should be fairly quick. However, we fear that, applying from France, her application will not be given the same consideration as if she were applying from the US (employer might be concerned about the time it would take to move). So, not knowing if and when she would get a job, we would also like to start the process by filling an i130 petition with the USCIS given that this process takes about a year. This way, if she doesn't get a job offer, we can move to the US anyway and we can apply for jobs once there (she has family in the USA that can welcome us and we have significant savings to support ourselves for some time).

 

My concern is what happens if she gets a job offer after we have filed the i130 petition in the US but it has not yet been approved? I understand that USCIS can expedite i130 processing under some circumstances but only very exceptional ones, and this case does not seem to qualify according to information available on the website. Can we then file another i130 petition with the Paris embassy? Or can they intervene on our behalf with USCIS to speed-up the process?

 

Thank you for your help.

payxibka is correct DCF can only be done in Rome.

[Jorge V 195]

9 hours ago, JulienR said:

Hi everyone,

 

I am new here and your community looks like a valuable source of information and return on experience. I am a French citizen, married to an American citizen with two kids. We live in France, I work and my wife looks after the kids. We have been in France for almsot three years (after living in Australia, where we met) and would like to move to the USA. We got married in France.

 

My wife is currently looking for a job in the USA and I understand that, if she gets an offer, we could apply for DCF at the Paris embassy and the process should be fairly quick. However, we fear that, applying from France, her application will not be given the same consideration as if she were applying from the US (employer might be concerned about the time it would take to move). So, not knowing if and when she would get a job, we would also like to start the process by filling an i130 petition with the USCIS given that this process takes about a year. This way, if she doesn't get a job offer, we can move to the US anyway and we can apply for jobs once there (she has family in the USA that can welcome us and we have significant savings to support ourselves for some time).

  

My concern is what happens if she gets a job offer after we have filed the i130 petition in the US but it has not yet been approved? I understand that USCIS can expedite i130 processing under some circumstances but only very exceptional ones, and this case does not seem to qualify according to information available on the website. Can we then file another i130 petition with the Paris embassy? Or can they intervene on our behalf with USCIS to speed-up the process?

 

Thank you for your help.

So there are two things at play here (which I think you understand but want to make sure):

• Applying for DCF from a non DCF country. Since you live in France DCF is not generally available. If, however, you meet one of the exceptional circumstances outlined by USCIS, then you may still qualify. Otherwise no DCF for you. This is likely to be granted if you meet the criteria.
• Expediting an I130 that is being processed in the US. As you mentioned, these are extremely difficult to get. You basically have to prove a life or death situation or severe financial hardship. Very unlikely to be granted.

Now that that's out of the way, yes, you can have two I130s pending at the same time. Your plan of filing an I130 via the Chicago lockbox now and only trying for DCF if your wife receives a job offer is viable. You wouldn't be expediting the original I130, you'd simply be filing a second one. Then they'd simply move forward with whichever one is accepted first. The main downside to this is that you have to pay the fee twice ($535).

 

Also note that your wife doesn't need to remain in France for the entire DCF process. She only needs to be there for the initial submission. So she could potentially receive a job offer, file for DCF in France, and move to the US all within a 2 week period.

 

Use the search on here to find others who have applied for DCF in France. I know there was at least one successful attempt within the last year.

 

[JulienR 92]

Thank you very much for your reply Jorge V, you understood my situation correctly and this is very good news. Can you tell me where you found this information as I could not find this anywhere on official or non-official immigration websites?

 

This post relates a succesful DCF in Paris in that situation: https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/641481-direct-consular-filing-of-i-130-petition-in-paris/

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2019 by JulienR