That's it! No more DCF via Frankfurt

[Germerican 42]

Well, I guess USCIS Frankfurt is finishing up the last few I-130 petitions in time for their closing date on the 31st. We received our I-130 approval in the mail today.

Priority date was Oct 31, 2019 and approval date Jan 15, 2020.

Glad this has come through. Our projected move date is early April. Hopefully we'll be done by then.

[SorrowL 138]

19 minutes ago, Germerican said:

Well, I guess USCIS Frankfurt is finishing up the last few I-130 petitions in time for their closing date on the 31st. We received our I-130 approval in the mail today.

Priority date was Oct 31, 2019 and approval date Jan 15, 2020.

Glad this has come through. Our projected move date is early April. Hopefully we'll be done by then.

My current personal estimates from NOA2 to interview for DCF Frankfurt is around 45~ ish days, but I will say I have no idea how many I interview openings there are, all I can work off is NIV estimates on the state department.

 

congrats again! I’ll keep my timeline and this thread up to date regarding any dates or estimates I get from the consulate.

Edited January 21, 2020 by SorrowL

[Germerican 42]

1 hour ago, SorrowL said:

My current personal estimates from NOA2 to interview for DCF Frankfurt is around 45~ ish days, but I will say I have no idea how many I interview openings there are, all I can work off is NIV estimates on the state department.

 

congrats again! I’ll keep my timeline and this thread up to date regarding any dates or estimates I get from the consulate.

Thanks!

We have around 76 days, so I won't get too worried yet. Absolute worst case and I'd either go a bit later, or go on VWP and come back for the interview.

Thanks for keeping us all updated. Helps make the wait a bit easier.

[SorrowL 138]

Got my packet 3 yesterday via email, approved today to make an appointment so I got an appointment for January 30th. Also had my medical today. So far going smoothly! 
 

 

[perser 4]

My wife had her interview today and got approved 😁. 
 

The interview itself took maybe 3 min and the rest was waiting time outside. 

She was asked standard questions about our relationship and plans in the USA. 
 

Since our flight is leaving next week, we asked if they can try to prepare the Passport fast. The officer confirmed that pick up in Frankfurt at least is faster than premium delivery and he will try to process it by end of today. 
 

The interview really is just a formality if you have filed everything correctly. 

[SorrowL 138]

My interview in Frankfurt went well too. My petitioner wife accompanied me and it wasn’t an issue. I was able take in my medium sized binder containing all files I’ve had so far without issue. 

 

I was given a 221g because my medical exam has not reached the consulate yet (I did the exam a week before my interview), but reassured by the consular Officer that my visa will be issued immediately once the medical arrives and has no issues as stated in 9 FAM 504.7-2 Section (c) paragraph (2) 

 

While yes I know it’s legally a denial, it’s also a quasi-approval. So I’ll take it as an approval. the doctor should finalize the examination results very soon and I believe the consulate will receive it during the first week of February. My medical was done in Munich.

 

Very few Immigrant visa applicants were present in the consulate. I’d say I was there with about 3-4 other people.

 

waited about 45 minutes outside. Once we left the line was way longer, probably a wait time of 1+ hour.

 

Checked in at 8:31 (appointment was at 9), Entered the consular atrium at 9:20, left at 11:30. 

Edited February 1, 2020 by SorrowL

[SorrowL 138]

After 8 days in Administrative processing today my CEAC status became “issued”. It went pretty smoothly all things considered! 

[Inita 44]

Hi all, 

I just stumbled upon this thread last night and am very hopeful now for our case... my husband (USC) found out last November (a week after DCF in Frankfurt was being shut down) that his work status (SOFA) was going to be terminated due to an error made by the German  authorities. He is working as a civilian contractor for the DOD. Luckily his company wants to keep him onboard and offered to transfer him within the company to the US. Start day is march 2nd. We have been living in Germany together for 5 years, married in 2017. Last year he legally adopted my biological son. Right after he got the job offer for the US, we contacted 2 different immigration lawyers who both told us that there was no other way than to file through the USCIS in the US (online filing) for green cards (IR1/IR2) .

We did this on November 22nd and put in two requests for expedite processing. My i130 got approved yesterday but the i130 for our son is still not being worked on. Reading through all those posts here I now learned about the exceptional circumstances option, which I believe our cases might fall under. I checked the Frankfurt USCIS page and saw that there was a new policy put out on January 31st which says that USCIS would transfer responsibility for i130/ GC to the DOS in Frankfurt as of now. 

Do you guys think that we might have a chance to get our cases transferred to FRA? What would be our best bet? To send them an email explaining our situation? 

Any ideas and thoughts are very much appreciated!

Thanks all in advance and you all have a great sunday!!

[Just Paul 4,595]

5 minutes ago, Inita said:

Do you guys think that we might have a chance to get our cases transferred to FRA?

Once a case is filed it cannot be changed to DCF.   You can ask to have the petitions expedited at the NVC and consulate.

[Inita 44]

3 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

Once a case is filed it cannot be changed to DCF.   You can ask to have the petitions expedited at the NVC and consulate.

Do you have an official statement in regards to that?

[Just Paul 4,595]

2 minutes ago, Inita said:

Do you have an official statement in regards to that?

I'd ask those two lawyers! 

 

If you want(ed) DCF you file it at the USCIS field office.   Since FRA USCIS is closed contact the consulate and have the USC ask them based on the exceptional circumstances.

 

[Inita 44]

5 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

I'd ask those two lawyers! 

 

If you want(ed) DCF you file it at the USCIS field office.   Since FRA USCIS is closed contact the consulate and have the USC ask them based on the exceptional circumstances.

 

Yeah those two lawyers were absolutely useless!! My husband is going to email FRA today to see what our options are. We will end up broke if he must finance two households in two different very expensive locations over a long period  of time (Hawaii and Stuttgart) ... well, not broke but it will put an unnecessary financial hardship on our family!!

[Germerican 42]

Quick question to anyone who filed via FRA and already submitted packet 3.

We sent in our packet 3 via priority mail on Jan 28. The next day the tracking status changed to

Quote

The item was redirected on 29.01.2020 at the request of the recipient.

Die Sendung wurde am 29.01.2020 auf Wunsch des Empfängers nachgesandt beziehungsweise an eine abweichende Anschrift weitergeleitet.

and has remained like this ever since.

Now, I assume this simply means that our packet was forwarded to a Consulate post office box and hopefully was received and is being worked on. Unfortunately, I don't know for sure and the Consulate's response was that we shouldn't contact them before it's been at least 30 days.

My concern is that our packet is lost somewhere and I won't know for another 2 weeks. If that were the case, it would throw a serious wrench in our in our relocation timeline.

I did already raise a trace request with Deutsche Post but no response so far.

Has anyone run into something like this before?

[Inita 44]

On 2/9/2020 at 6:51 AM, Paul & Mary said:

Once a case is filed it cannot be changed to DCF.   You can ask to have the petitions expedited at the NVC and consulate.

You were right (unfortunately I have to admit) FRANKFURT consulate told us they couldn't help but to expedite with NVC ...

[Just Paul 4,595]

15 hours ago, Inita said:

You were right (unfortunately I have to admit) FRANKFURT consulate told us they couldn't help but to expedite with NVC ...

Yeah I wish I was wrong on changing to DCF! 

 

For your son, you might have your husband reach out to the US congressman or Senators from Hawaii and ask for their help getting things moved along.  Once your petition gets to the NVC you can get working on the financial info, etc.   Stress the financial burden and the DOD angle.