Filing for DCF at Frankfurt Consulate as a Dutch citizen/resident

[Stanley1234 7]

Hi everyone,

 

I am a Dutch national and spouse of a US citizen and we both live in the Netherlands since July 2021. My partner is actively applying to jobs in the US. We would like to move to the US and apply for a CR1 visa for me, we want to submit our I-130 and get the process started. However, we don't know whether it is best to file the I-130 directly with USCIS and wait about 1,5 years or wait until my partner actually has a job offer and then file as DCF. If we do it the regular way and file through USCIS it is not much use for my partner to continue applying for US-based jobs since we would have to be apart for too long; we are also trying to start a family in this time-frame. In that case it would just be best to wait for 1,5 years until my CR1 visa is approved. My wife has a good career and I think her chances are pretty high to land a job in the short term, it would also be best for her career if she got a job in the US. However, the US consulate in Amsterdam doesn't seem to process DCF requests: they are unresponsive by email due to severe understaffing, they have no phone number, on their website they only mention sending the I-130 to the US lockbox for US nationals resident in the Netherlands, and on the internet I could find no one who has done DCF through the consulate in Amsterdam. However, the US consulate in Frankfurt seems to be handling many DCF requests, and I also read the following on their website: "Individuals who were previously assisted by the USCIS Frankfurt Field Office (which includes individuals residing in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein) must follow these filing instructions." I was wondering if there are people here who are not resident in Germany but were assisted by the Frankfurt consulate with their DCF request? We really are in a dilemma right now whether to do regular USCIS filing and just wait; or take a chance, my wife applying for US jobs, and then see whether we can file for DCF in Frankfurt instead.

[jan22 3,056]

There is never a guarantee that you will be approved for filing the I-130 petition with a Consulate, even with a new job offer.  It is at the discretion of the Consulate as to whether your case a) meets the criteria of an "exceptional circumstance", and b) work load levels and staffing allow the Consulate to accept the case without a serious impact on their workflow.  A decision on whether a case will be accepted cannot be made until all the information is available, i.e., the job offer has been received and accepted with a specific starting date.  So, if you follow this path, you won't know if your case will be accepted for sure consular filing for a while.

 

Amsterdam has the same authority to accept I-130s as Frankfurt.  They might not have the staff or time to do so right now, but who knows what might happen in the upcoming months?  They will not, however, respond and tell you they will accept your case for I-130 filing until you actually have a case (a job offer in your case) and can give them all the details. IMO -- and, it is only my opinion -- with their own cases plus all the other special cases and nationalities being routed through Frankfurt now, it is unlikey they would accept an I-130 from the Netherlands that has no connection to Germany.  But, I've been wrong before!

[Boiler 45,733]

You do not have a case so nothing currently to discuss.