Timeline DCF Frankfurt 2022

[Iva7 35]

I guess it's great news for almost everyone. Hopefully you get the notification to set up an interview soon. 

 

I had my interview on October 4th and picked up my passport yesterday! So the whole process took a bit over 2 months for us, as well. DCF is definitely a lot faster than the regular application. 

[Andrew+MM 7]

We just received an approval to apply directly to the US Consulate in Frankfurt. My wife (US citizen petitioner) is filing for me (UK citizen beneficiary) due to having to move back soon to take care of sick mother.

 

We are preparing our I-130 paperwork and hope to file that next week. 

 

One question - Does the consulate accept bone fide paperwork in German? I'm thinking rental lease, health insurance certificate, letters from the local Stadt addressed to both of us. The checklist document was a bit ambiguous so anyone with recent experience would be helpful. We have also emailed the consulate but no response yet.

 

We will create a timeline and post here on progress in case its helpful for others.

 

Andrew+MM

[Inx 4]

5 hours ago, Andrew+MM said:

We just received an approval to apply directly to the US Consulate in Frankfurt. My wife (US citizen petitioner) is filing for me (UK citizen beneficiary) due to having to move back soon to take care of sick mother.

 

We are preparing our I-130 paperwork and hope to file that next week. 

 

One question - Does the consulate accept bone fide paperwork in German? I'm thinking rental lease, health insurance certificate, letters from the local Stadt addressed to both of us. The checklist document was a bit ambiguous so anyone with recent experience would be helpful. We have also emailed the consulate but no response yet.

 

We will create a timeline and post here on progress in case its helpful for others.

 

Andrew+MM

yes, you can use german documents for filing DCF in Germany.

 

They seem to be jammed at the moment, so don't worry if they don't get back to you soon. 

[Andrew+MM 7]

I just received an email from the Consulate in Frankfurt stating that documents for the I-130 application must be translated from any foreign language including German into English. They pointed out that this was in the checklist and we just missed it I guess.

 

Translations do not need to be certified, however. Nonetheless, this creates a little bit of a delay as we get a few things translated.

[Inx 4]

53 minutes ago, Andrew+MM said:

I just received an email from the Consulate in Frankfurt stating that documents for the I-130 application must be translated from any foreign language including German into English. They pointed out that this was in the checklist and we just missed it I guess.

 

Translations do not need to be certified, however. Nonetheless, this creates a little bit of a delay as we get a few things translated.

"We accept documents in English or German. All documents not in English or German must be accompanied by an English translation. Translations must be certified by a competent and registered translator"

 

Well sorry for my false information 😔 

This is what I had in mind  and what we received. 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by Inx

[cphilipp 12]

16 minutes ago, Inx said:

"We accept documents in English or German. All documents not in English or German must be accompanied by an English translation. Translations must be certified by a competent and registered translator"

 

Well sorry for my false information 😔 

This is what I had in mind  and what we received. 

 

 

For package 3 they definitely accept all documents in German. 

For the I-130 I also received instructions that said that all documents have to be translated into English.

 

It doesn't really make sense that they have different requirements for different packages. 

[Iva7 35]

1 hour ago, Andrew+MM said:

I just received an email from the Consulate in Frankfurt stating that documents for the I-130 application must be translated from any foreign language including German into English. They pointed out that this was in the checklist and we just missed it I guess.

 

Translations do not need to be certified, however. Nonetheless, this creates a little bit of a delay as we get a few things translated.

We sent our registration paperwork from the municipality in German and they didn’t say anything about it. But I think all other documents were already in English, so maybe that was enough to prove our relationship. 

[glenn0 10]

Does anyone know how long from interview to receiving the passport takes currently in Frankfurt?  Our appt. is Nov 18 and we need to go to US ASAP.

[cphilipp 12]

4 minutes ago, glenn0 said:

Does anyone know how long from interview to receiving the passport takes currently in Frankfurt?  Our appt. is Nov 18 and we need to go to US ASAP.

I selected pick-up and was able to pick it up 3 days after the interview. 

[Inx 4]

On 10/6/2022 at 3:57 PM, Alexkr said:

Congrats! Lucky you. Our Packet 3 is at the consulate since Sept 27 and to my reminder they replied "Due to the large amount of mail, we currently cannot go through the mail to check if your document(s) have arrived"  

Any news ? 

[Alexkr 4]

On 10/13/2022 at 4:46 AM, Inx said:

Any news ? 

We asked again and the response was - We can confirm the receipt of your mailed in documents and they will be processed shortly. 

So some partial progress but no interview appointment yet.

[Inx 4]

20 hours ago, Alexkr said:

We asked again and the response was - We can confirm the receipt of your mailed in documents and they will be processed shortly. 

So some partial progress but no interview appointment yet.

That's so weird! I'm sorry to hear that!

[Black Unicorn 22]

We were approved for DCF at the Frankfurt office today! YAYYYY! Due to my job requiring me to work stateside. I'm an American applying for my Ghanaian husband. We both hold type D German visas.

 

I got a response from the consulate within 30 minutes of submitting the request to file the I-130 in person. 

 

I was asked if we filed online with USCIS and I replied NO. Shortly thereafter we got the good news! I'm now reading through the required checklist and I see that only the petitioner (me) needs to provide - Proof of petitioner’s German residency such as Residence Permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis) or Registration (Anmeldebestätigung), U.S. Military Orders (if stationed in Germany), or other verifiable evidence of German residency.

 

Which I saw was a question that folks had on one of the forums. I can't remember which one. I just wanted to share because we were just going to file online and hope for the best then I started to read all the great content in this community and we took a chance and asked the consulate😀 

[glenn0 10]

29 minutes ago, Black Unicorn said:

We were approved for DCF at the Frankfurt office today! YAYYYY! Due to my job requiring me to work stateside. I'm an American applying for my Ghanaian husband. We both hold type D German visas.

 

I got a response from the consulate within 30 minutes of submitting the request to file the I-130 in person. 

 

I was asked if we filed online with USCIS and I replied NO. Shortly thereafter we got the good news! I'm now reading through the required checklist and I see that only the petitioner (me) needs to provide - Proof of petitioner’s German residency such as Residence Permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis) or Registration (Anmeldebestätigung), U.S. Military Orders (if stationed in Germany), or other verifiable evidence of German residency.

 

Which I saw was a question that folks had on one of the forums. I can't remember which one. I just wanted to share because we were just going to file online and hope for the best then I started to read all the great content in this community and we took a chance and asked the consulate😀 

Wow!  I wish I knew of this, but it might not have helped.  You just saved at least a year I think.

[Alexkr 4]

On 10/15/2022 at 5:22 AM, Inx said:

That's so weird! I'm sorry to hear that!

Finally, got the permission and requested the interview!