That's it! No more DCF via Frankfurt

[Germerican 42]

Hi!

Today, October 31st, 2019, is the last day that the USCIS Field Office in Frankfurt will accept I-130 petitions. As of tomorrow, all I-130's (with some limited exceptions) will have to be filed with the USCIS Lockbox in Dallas.
https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/international-offices/germany-frankfurt-field-office

I suppose with DCF no longer being an option in most cases, the relevance of this sub-forum will largely fade, however, I wanted to see if there were any others that have recently gone through or are currently going through the DCF process via Frankfurt and would be willing to share their experience.

My wife and I previously applied for and received a K-1 about 15 years ago and I got my 10-year GC in 2007. We moved back to Germany in 2011 due to work but didn't initially intend on staying for too long, so I applied for travel documents twice. When it became apparent that we would be staying longer,  I filed I-407 in 2016 and returned my GC, knowing that we could always use DCF when our plans changed .
Well, and now here we are with today being the last day that DCF is an option for us.

Unfortunately, we only found out that the Frankfurt office is affected by the closures, a short time ago, so we rushed to finalize the petition, including all required evidence, and sent it off on October 25th. It was received and signed for on the 28th and now we are desperately waiting for an email or SMS (G-1145) to let us know that it will still be processed in Frankfurt.

Does anyone know how long on average the process currently is from I-130 submission to visa in hand for DCF via Frankfurt? I've seen anything from 90 days to 14 months, so really not sure what to expect.

In anticipation of what is to come, I've already ordered a police certificate and we'll request IRS transcripts ASAP. How many years would suffice?
Anything else I'm currently not thinking of that we can prepare in advance?

Thanks so much for any help you guys can give!


 

[millefleur 5,047]

Thanks for keeping us updated!

 

We will still keep the DCF forum up as there are some straggler offices still open, until August 2020 at least according to USCIS. We've pinned the "DCF Offices Closing" thread so anyone who wanders over here will be aware that offices are in the process of being phased out.

[valaben 5]

  On 10/31/2019 at 8:54 AM, Germerican said:

Does anyone know how long on average the process currently is from I-130 submission to visa in hand for DCF via Frankfurt? I've seen anything from 90 days to 14 months, so really not sure what to expect.

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We filed in July (you can check my timeline) and still haven't heard anything back I think the whole process is slowing down. They say 90 days is the expected processing time, but clearly it's gone beyond that. Most DCF cases on here look like they're anywhere from 100-120 days right now.

[nkk0 3]

Filed in July, I recently emailed them to ask for a status update. They messaged back that they are short on staff so processing times are 120-150 days (for I-130).

Edited October 31, 2019 by nkk0

[Germerican 42]

  On 10/31/2019 at 5:15 PM, valaben said:

We filed in July (you can check my timeline) and still haven't heard anything back I think the whole process is slowing down. They say 90 days is the expected processing time, but clearly it's gone beyond that. Most DCF cases on here look like they're anywhere from 100-120 days right now.

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  On 10/31/2019 at 9:26 PM, nkk0 said:

Filed in July, I recently emailed them to ask for a status update. They messaged back that they are short on staff so processing times are 120-150 days (for I-130).

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Oh boy, I did figure they might be slowing down but seeing both of your timelines confirms it. I emailed them yesterday afternoon to inquire whether they'd still process our petition, even if it isn't physically handled until after 10/31. Since today is a holiday, I don't expect to hear back until next week.

Did you guys submit G-1145 with your paperwork? How long did it take to hear back with a text message or email?

[nkk0 3]

  On 11/1/2019 at 9:02 AM, Germerican said:

 

Oh boy, I did figure they might be slowing down but seeing both of your timelines confirms it. I emailed them yesterday afternoon to inquire whether they'd still process our petition, even if it isn't physically handled until after 10/31. Since today is a holiday, I don't expect to hear back until next week.

Did you guys submit G-1145 with your paperwork? How long did it take to hear back with a text message or email?

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Did not submit G-1145 but I got a letter in the mail (NOA1) with the payment receipt and acknowledgement 6 days after I mailed in the petition.

[valaben 5]

  On 10/31/2019 at 9:26 PM, nkk0 said:

Filed in July, I recently emailed them to ask for a status update. They messaged back that they are short on staff so processing times are 120-150 days (for I-130).

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I'm glad they emailed you back and you posted here. I emailed them a few weeks ago and didn't get any response so I appreciate you sharing!

[rangers90 9]

Germeeican, I’m happy to hear you snuck it in time! You probably just saved yourself a year+. 

 

We just completed the DCF in Frankfurt. 
They received it on 15 Apr 19 and we picked up the visa on 16 October 19. It took us 177 days. Take a look at our timeline for more details.

 

Im no expert but I would fully expect to add a few weeks to our timeline to get an idea of when it will be done for you guys. I’m sure they will eventually start scaling things back and the process will take longer. It was longer than we expected by 30-45 days compared to others who had done it about a year ago according to this forum. I think that trend will continue.

 

Also, Frankfurt does not do the G-1145 or electronic tracking. You should receive the first Notification (NOA1) via mail stating that they received your petition. It will be sent to the address you put on the I-130. It took us 9 days to get that from when it was delivered to Frankfurt. Don’t panic yet if you haven’t gotten it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got it by the end of this next work week.

 

Also, for the love of god do not book any airfare until you have the visa in hand. I don’t care how enticing a deal or fare may be, do not do it! I Made that mistake and had to pay change fees and being stressed constantly about it. It’s not worth it. 
 

 

[Germerican 42]

  On 11/4/2019 at 2:54 AM, rangers90 said:

Germeeican, I’m happy to hear you snuck it in time! You probably just saved yourself a year+. 

 

We just completed the DCF in Frankfurt. 
They received it on 15 Apr 19 and we picked up the visa on 16 October 19. It took us 177 days. Take a look at our timeline for more details.

 

Im no expert but I would fully expect to add a few weeks to our timeline to get an idea of when it will be done for you guys. I’m sure they will eventually start scaling things back and the process will take longer. It was longer than we expected by 30-45 days compared to others who had done it about a year ago according to this forum. I think that trend will continue.

 

Also, Frankfurt does not do the G-1145 or electronic tracking. You should receive the first Notification (NOA1) via mail stating that they received your petition. It will be sent to the address you put on the I-130. It took us 9 days to get that from when it was delivered to Frankfurt. Don’t panic yet if you haven’t gotten it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got it by the end of this next work week.

 

Also, for the love of god do not book any airfare until you have the visa in hand. I don’t care how enticing a deal or fare may be, do not do it! I Made that mistake and had to pay change fees and being stressed constantly about it. It’s not worth it. 
 

 

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Thanks for your input! Great to read about some recent experiences.

I did reach out to USCIS last week and surprisingly enough they got back to me last Friday to confirm that they will process any I-130 that is postmarked by the 31st, so we are good. They also confirmed that they'd send out NOA1 within 10 business days.

I did look into the options available to us before I returned my GC 3 years ago, so I was a little surprised that processing via Frankfurt is taking quite a bit longer now. Also, I'm glad I checked on the status of DCF a little while ago, otherwise we would have missed the deadline.
You are probably right with your estimation of it taking a bit longer now than 6 months ago. I'll keep my timeline here up to date.

Oh, and in regards to airfare, you are absolutely right, I've dealt with USCIS enough in the past 15 years to know better than book flights before having anything in hand. :) 
 

[Germerican 42]

  On 11/1/2019 at 9:13 AM, nkk0 said:

Did not submit G-1145 but I got a letter in the mail (NOA1) with the payment receipt and acknowledgement 6 days after I mailed in the petition.

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We did get a letter with our payment receipt today. Also 6 days after they received it. I assume that is our NOA1, right?
I guess that kicks off the waiting game. Right about now I really wish I had filed my N-400 paper work when I had the chance. 🙄

[nkk0 3]

  On 11/6/2019 at 7:15 PM, Germerican said:

We did get a letter with our payment receipt today. Also 6 days after they received it. I assume that is our NOA1, right?
I guess that kicks off the waiting game. Right about now I really wish I had filed my N-400 paper work when I had the chance. 🙄

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Yep, that's the NOA1. I would assume it won't be 150 days for you, since the amount of petitions they are working on will only go down from here on out. Good luck!

[Germerican 42]

  On 11/7/2019 at 7:54 AM, nkk0 said:

Yep, that's the NOA1. I would assume it won't be 150 days for you, since the amount of petitions they are working on will only go down from here on out. Good luck!

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Yeah, you're probably right. According to the Frankfurt Field Office's website they will permanently close on 1/31/20, so I would assume that they will attempt to have it done by then. We'll see. 

[nkk0 3]

  On 11/7/2019 at 8:35 AM, Germerican said:

Yeah, you're probably right. According to the Frankfurt Field Office's website they will permanently close on 1/31/20, so I would assume that they will attempt to have it done by then. We'll see. 

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Just got my approval in the mail 30 minutes ago

[Germerican 42]

  On 11/7/2019 at 10:52 AM, nkk0 said:

Just got my approval in the mail 30 minutes ago

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Awesome! Congrats! 

[valaben 5]

  On 11/7/2019 at 10:52 AM, nkk0 said:

Just got my approval in the mail 30 minutes ago

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Congrats to you guys!