DCF in London - January 2020

[os306 103]

53 minutes ago, Morgan5698 said:

We just received our I-130 approval today. Was filed on 10th Feb, so clearly they are still working on them. I honestly thought it would be delayed with the present situation. Just for info as I've seen it spoken about a bit in this topic, We didn't submit an awful lot for the evidence of bonafide marriage. We included

• Marriage certificate 
• 2 Council tax forms with both names
• 2 Credit Card statements with my wife as named card holder
• Copy of my rental lease showing my wife as a permitted occupier
• Letter from my pension company showing my wife as a beneficiary. 

Congratulations and thank you for sharing your experience. My wife and I are pretty anxious given what's going on right now with the Covid-19 pandemic, so you have no idea how reassuring it is to see other people reporting that their petitions are still being processed. We sent out forms off on Monday (16th March) so are expecting that the process may take longer than usual.

[The4Sands 67]

1 hour ago, Morgan5698 said:

We just received our I-130 approval today. Was filed on 10th Feb, so clearly they are still working on them. I honestly thought it would be delayed with the present situation. Just for info as I've seen it spoken about a bit in this topic, We didn't submit an awful lot for the evidence of bonafide marriage. We included

• Marriage certificate 
• 2 Council tax forms with both names
• 2 Credit Card statements with my wife as named card holder
• Copy of my rental lease showing my wife as a permitted occupier
• Letter from my pension company showing my wife as a beneficiary. 

Oh, I'm so pleased for you! Congratulations!!

 

But I am rather disappointed for myself as we filed the day after you and now I'm sure getting this RFE will knock us right out of the queue.  Still, best of luck to you and do keep us updated as you work through your DS-260 and I-864!

 

Anybody have any experience with how long London take to get back to you after you send in your RFE docs?

Edited March 19, 2020 by The4Sands

[Morgan5698 58]

If I could hand our I-130 approval to you guys I would! We will be pausing the process for a while as we are not looking to move until next year, we just wanted to get the I-130 done before the end of March shutdown. So you will both likely overtake us at some point. I hope you both get your approvals in good time (and anyone else out there anxiously waiting). 

[The4Sands 67]

2 hours ago, Morgan5698 said:

If I could hand our I-130 approval to you guys I would! We will be pausing the process for a while as we are not looking to move until next year, we just wanted to get the I-130 done before the end of March shutdown. So you will both likely overtake us at some point. I hope you both get your approvals in good time (and anyone else out there anxiously waiting). 

Oh, that’s very sweet of you thanks. Well, it’s gone in the post, next day delivery, which is probably over the top. It’s not even so much that I’m in a hurry to get there but that I’d like to be able to stop stressing about it!

[os306 103]

52 minutes ago, The4Sands said:

Oh, that’s very sweet of you thanks. Well, it’s gone in the post, next day delivery, which is probably over the top. It’s not even so much that I’m in a hurry to get there but that I’d like to be able to stop stressing about it!

Good luck to you! From what I've been reading around the forums, RFE responses at the London USCIS are processed pretty quickly (2-3 weeks). Keeping our fingers crossed for you.

[AlanD26 14]

HI again everyone,

 

We got our I-130 approval also come through on Thursday which is great news (submitted Feb 5th). The4Sands, really sorry to hear about the drama your having, I really hope it gets sorted soon.

 

We now have to wait 5 weeks for our number and then begin the process of filing out even more form. There seems to be a few of us in a similar timeline situation in here so will be really helpful and interesting to bounce any questions off each other when filing out the rest of the forms.

 

For our I-130 we just submitted the bare basics of what they asked for, marriage certificate, mortgage deeds, council tax letters. I feel like that was the easy part, now I need to get all the police records sorted and fill out the "proper" form. I suspect there will be quite a delay with the COVID19 crisis but will see. Like many, we are also not in a rush and don't plan to relocate till next year (expecting our first child in a few weeks).

 

[os306 103]

3 hours ago, AlanD26 said:

HI again everyone,

 

We got our I-130 approval also come through on Thursday which is great news (submitted Feb 5th). The4Sands, really sorry to hear about the drama your having, I really hope it gets sorted soon.

 

We now have to wait 5 weeks for our number and then begin the process of filing out even more form. There seems to be a few of us in a similar timeline situation in here so will be really helpful and interesting to bounce any questions off each other when filing out the rest of the forms.

 

For our I-130 we just submitted the bare basics of what they asked for, marriage certificate, mortgage deeds, council tax letters. I feel like that was the easy part, now I need to get all the police records sorted and fill out the "proper" form. I suspect there will be quite a delay with the COVID19 crisis but will see. Like many, we are also not in a rush and don't plan to relocate till next year (expecting our first child in a few weeks).

 

Congratulations and good luck with the next step and with the new addition to your family! It's good to hear other people are going through the same process. 

 

Out of interest, do you remember how many days it took for your credit card to be charged after you mailed off your documents? Ours were received by the embassy on Tuesday, so I was curious how many days it'll take before I notice my card has been charged (and when I should start getting worried that there might be an issue/delay).

 

 

 

[Robyn-n-Kris 72]

On 3/18/2020 at 11:03 PM, Morgan5698 said:

Good luck it just crashed to an all time low! 
we sent off the i-130 which was filed Feb-10th but noticed the adjudication time has been increasing lately. Likewise we are also not in a rush as we’re planning next summer also. Are you going to drag out the time between I-130 and the next stage then? 

We plan to delay the second part until the first part of next year. We are 'hoping' to be in a position to move back by early summer next year.  

[The4Sands 67]

On 3/21/2020 at 9:57 AM, AlanD26 said:

 

We got our I-130 approval also come through on Thursday which is great news (submitted Feb 5th). The4Sands, really sorry to hear about the drama your having, I really hope it gets sorted soon.

Congratulations!!  And thanks, I'm just happy to know that they really are still working on everybody's applications even with everything being as crazy as it is.

 

On 3/21/2020 at 9:57 AM, AlanD26 said:

We now have to wait 5 weeks for our number and then begin the process of filing out even more form. There seems to be a few of us in a similar timeline situation in here so will be really helpful and interesting to bounce any questions off each other when filing out the rest of the forms.

Def keep us updated, will be good to have someone a few steps ahead of us to ask all our form questions!! I didn't realise it takes 5 weeks to get your number! Although I guess it gives you a nice window of time to get all your ducks in a row. I just looked into the police certificate today and didn't realise you had to have someone endorse you.  We haven't told anyone here that we're moving (other than family, who can't endorse you anyway) so will have to think carefully about who to tell and ask to do that.  Wishing you all the best as you start the next steps!

 

Hopefully by the time you get your number things will have settled down and you can crack on with everything.

[AlanD26 14]

On 3/21/2020 at 1:35 PM, os306 said:

Congratulations and good luck with the next step and with the new addition to your family! It's good to hear other people are going through the same process. 

 

Out of interest, do you remember how many days it took for your credit card to be charged after you mailed off your documents? Ours were received by the embassy on Tuesday, so I was curious how many days it'll take before I notice my card has been charged (and when I should start getting worried that there might be an issue/delay).

 

 

 

Thanks.

 

So I sent mine off on 5th Feb and my card was billed on 10th Feb. 

[os306 103]

Hope everyone is staying safe and not going too crazy at home.

 

We sent off our application on the 16th of March and it was signed for at the embassy the following day. Our credit card has still not been charged almost 2 weeks later, and the processing times on the most recent processing time on the London USCIS website haven't changed since the previous update. So we're guessing that things are going to be moving at a snail's pace while this pandemic continues. On top of all of this, DCF will cease to be an option from tomorrow. I'm curious to hear if anyone else mailed over their petitions this month. Good luck everyone.

[FA081 9]

Hey guys!

 

I hope everyone is keeping safe and I’m good health!

 

We mailed our petition on Feb 21st and our filing date was March 3rd. The website says they will endeavour to adjudicate petitions in 90 days so I’m hoping there’s no delays due to the current situation. 
 

I am very confused and overwhelmed by the tax filing process - I’ve lived my whole adult life in the UK so never filed before and only worked in the UK and so I am completely lost what to do in prep for the next step. 
 

If anyone knows where to look for easily digestible information or how to go about this process I’d love to hear more. 

[Robyn-n-Kris 72]

5 hours ago, os306 said:

Hope everyone is staying safe and not going too crazy at home.

 

We sent off our application on the 16th of March and it was signed for at the embassy the following day. Our credit card has still not been charged almost 2 weeks later, and the processing times on the most recent processing time on the London USCIS website haven't changed since the previous update. So we're guessing that things are going to be moving at a snail's pace while this pandemic continues. On top of all of this, DCF will cease to be an option from tomorrow. I'm curious to hear if anyone else mailed over their petitions this month. Good luck everyone.

We mailed ours the 16th and it was signed for by the London office on the 18th. No charge to our credit card yet but I did email their office and they said they are delayed due to short staff.

[os306 103]

1 hour ago, Robyn-n-Kris said:

We mailed ours the 16th and it was signed for by the London office on the 18th. No charge to our credit card yet but I did email their office and they said they are delayed due to short staff.

Ah thank you so so much. I have been pretty anxious and wondering whether there was a problem with my credit card or whether our package was misplaced. The fact that you mailed yours off on the same day and are at exactly the same stage in the process that we are is reassuring. This forum is one of the few things keeping me sane during this process (!) and it would be good to keep in touch to see how we're all getting on!

Edited March 30, 2020 by os306

[os306 103]

4 hours ago, FA081 said:

Hey guys!

 

I hope everyone is keeping safe and I’m good health!

 

We mailed our petition on Feb 21st and our filing date was March 3rd. The website says they will endeavour to adjudicate petitions in 90 days so I’m hoping there’s no delays due to the current situation. 
 

I am very confused and overwhelmed by the tax filing process - I’ve lived my whole adult life in the UK so never filed before and only worked in the UK and so I am completely lost what to do in prep for the next step. 
 

If anyone knows where to look for easily digestible information or how to go about this process I’d love to hear more. 

The US tax filing process can be migraine-inducing and you will have to become familiar with terms such as "Foreign Earned Income Exclusion" and " FBAR". A common misconception among US citizens living abroad is that they aren't required to file taxes if all of their income is earned abroad (our US-based accountant even told us this) but this is wrong. I don't know what the process specifically entails if you have never ever filed US taxes; however, take a look here: https://brighttax.com/blog/im-an-expat-and-ive-never-filed-taxes-what-should-i-do/ 

 

It sounds like you can go via the Streamlined Filing program (which requires you to retrospectively file 3 years of tax returns and the past 6 years of FBARs) and this will get you caught up with the IRS. It might be worth asking an accountant who is experienced in US expat tax filing to help out. We have an accountant based in the US who has very little experience with expat filing and the entire process was an ordeal as a result. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds like a lot of people find themselves in this position and there is a pathway to get it resolved. Good luck!

Edited March 30, 2020 by os306