Question: Filling I-130 but living abroad as a PhD student; please advise

[mnt96 22]

Thanks everyone for the topic.  Looks like its a good idea to wait rather than lie about my physical location in hopes of fastening the process.

[nastra30 2,284]

39 minutes ago, mnt96 said:

Thanks everyone for the topic.  Looks like its a good idea to wait rather than lie about my physical location in hopes of fastening the process.

Don't wait to apply. Submit the I-130 whenever you want (seems you want to now, so go ahead) and let it go through the USCIS adjudication process. Once it reaches the NVC stage, that's when you stall it by not paying the fees (but contact NVC once in a while with a simple message to keep it active). When you are ready to move back to the US then you'll go ahead and pay the relevant NVC fees to get it moving again. Good luck.

[nastra30 2,284]

47 minutes ago, mnt96 said:

Thanks everyone for the topic.  Looks like its a good idea to wait rather than lie about my physical location in hopes of fastening the process.

No need to lie about current physical location; you already have plans to return to the US after school so you won't have a domicile issue at NVC/embassy stage when you are ready to move forward with paying the fees at NVC.

However, make sure to use a US mailing address in your application.