Direct Consular Filing Questions for Mexico City

[crfmexico 0]

Hi, I am brand new to this forum and have looked through many pages but still have a few questions. I am a U.S. citizen living in Mexico City since January 2007 and am planning to marry a Mexican citizen here in Mexico. Our goal is to eventually move to the U.S. and I believe DCF is the best route for us to take to file the I-130. However, I do not have paperwork yet (still waiting for my FM-3 visa) to prove my residency status here in Mexico. How long must I wait after receiving my FM-3 and marriage certificate before making an appointment for DCF? Also, as a follow-up question on the I-864 affidavit of support, if I do not have U.S. income or a job before I return home, can I rely solely on assets to prove financial responsibility? According to the poverty guidelines, 125% for a 2-person household would be $16,500. Do I need to multiply this by 3 years, 5 years, or some other number? I plan to stay here until all our paperwork is completed, no matter how long it takes, but is there anything I'm missing - anything to think about before we've gotten married? Any help and advice would be appreciated.

[payxibka 10,045]

Does Mexico City even do immigrant visas? I thought it might only be done at the Ciudad Juarez consulate

[YuAndDan 153]

You need to be a resident of the consular district for 6 months before they will accept the I-130 at the local US consulate.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/mar/82030.htm

[MargotDarko 0]

Hi, I am brand new to this forum and have looked through many pages but still have a few questions. I am a U.S. citizen living in Mexico City since January 2007 and am planning to marry a Mexican citizen here in Mexico. Our goal is to eventually move to the U.S. and I believe DCF is the best route for us to take to file the I-130. However, I do not have paperwork yet (still waiting for my FM-3 visa) to prove my residency status here in Mexico. How long must I wait after receiving my FM-3 and marriage certificate before making an appointment for DCF? Also, as a follow-up question on the I-864 affidavit of support, if I do not have U.S. income or a job before I return home, can I rely solely on assets to prove financial responsibility? According to the poverty guidelines, 125% for a 2-person household would be $16,500. Do I need to multiply this by 3 years, 5 years, or some other number? I plan to stay here until all our paperwork is completed, no matter how long it takes, but is there anything I'm missing - anything to think about before we've gotten married? Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Hello, and welcome to VJ

Unfortunately, DCF is not possible in Mexico. You may be able to file the I-130 with embassy, but you will still have at least the usual 12 month wait for an interview. Here's a thread with some helpful info -

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/lofivers...php/t72439.html

EDIT - Oh, and about assets, you should be allowed to show just three times the required income in assets for it your I-864 to be considered sufficient. I don't know if there's any other complications, such as domicile, when dealing with the embassy in Mexico. I'm sure other can comment on that though.

$13,690 is the poverty guideline for a household of 2, so you need to show three times $17,113 in assets. If a joint sponsor used assets only, they would need to show 5 times 125% of their household poverty guideline.

Edited August 20, 2007 by MargotDarko

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Does Mexico City even do immigrant visas? I thought it might only be done at the Ciudad Juarez consulate

I thought so too fwaguy... maybe folks in the Mexico subforum may be able to help the OP.

Good luck, L.

[YuAndDan 153]

Does Mexico City even do immigrant visas? I thought it might only be done at the Ciudad Juarez consulate

Any consulate or embassy can accept the I-130 petition, but they will send the case to the consulate that handles immigrant cases.

[payxibka 10,045]

Does Mexico City even do immigrant visas? I thought it might only be done at the Ciudad Juarez consulate

Any consulate or embassy can accept the I-130 petition, but they will send the case to the consulate that handles immigrant cases.

Might be a slight difference between can and do... but the more important information is DCF is not done in Mexico.

[MargotDarko 0]

Hi, I am brand new to this forum and have looked through many pages but still have a few questions. I am a U.S. citizen living in Mexico City since January 2007 and am planning to marry a Mexican citizen here in Mexico. Our goal is to eventually move to the U.S. and I believe DCF is the best route for us to take to file the I-130. However, I do not have paperwork yet (still waiting for my FM-3 visa) to prove my residency status here in Mexico. How long must I wait after receiving my FM-3 and marriage certificate before making an appointment for DCF? Also, as a follow-up question on the I-864 affidavit of support, if I do not have U.S. income or a job before I return home, can I rely solely on assets to prove financial responsibility? According to the poverty guidelines, 125% for a 2-person household would be $16,500. Do I need to multiply this by 3 years, 5 years, or some other number? I plan to stay here until all our paperwork is completed, no matter how long it takes, but is there anything I'm missing - anything to think about before we've gotten married? Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Hello, and welcome to VJ

Unfortunately, DCF is not possible in Mexico. You may be able to file the I-130 with embassy, but you will still have at least the usual 12 month wait for an interview. Here's a thread with some helpful info -

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/lofivers...php/t72439.html

EDIT - Oh, and about assets, you should be allowed to show just three times the required income in assets for it your I-864 to be considered sufficient. I don't know if there's any other complications, such as domicile, when dealing with the embassy in Mexico. I'm sure other can comment on that though.

$13,690 is the poverty guideline for a household of 2, so you need to show three times $17,113 in assets. If a joint sponsor used assets only, they would need to show 5 times 125% of their household poverty guideline.

I should have said "when dealing with the consulate" instead of embassy

[kitkat1 5]

Mexico City apparently won't do anything more than accept the I-130 and send it to the US. Would make more sense to just send it to the service center in your your address region. No matter how you do it, it's going to end up in Ciudad Juarez and will take 4-6 months for a K3 interview and 12-14 months for a CR1/IR1.

[beccaYdaniel 0]

I hope I can help since my husband and I have already gone through what you are about to go through. We filed our I-130 petition in Mexico City the day after I received my FM-3 visa. I hadn't even been in Mexico for 6 months and they accepted our petition and approved it a week later. I was really thankful they didn't send it to the U.S. because that saved us about 6 months of waiting time. (Keep in mind that all this took place 8 months ago.)

Also, you do know that you need to file for permission to marry a Mexican national at the same place you are getting your FM-3 right? It is kind of expensive but it doesn't take very long to get. You also need to have your birth certificate apostilled through the Secretary of State in the U.S in order to get married. They asked for it and kept it at the Registro Civil.

We have a joint sponsor for the I-864. It just makes life easier when you are living outside the U.S., because it is harder to get necessary paperwork from Mexico, mainly due to the mail system.

[crfmexico 0]

I hope I can help since my husband and I have already gone through what you are about to go through. We filed our I-130 petition in Mexico City the day after I received my FM-3 visa. I hadn't even been in Mexico for 6 months and they accepted our petition and approved it a week later. I was really thankful they didn't send it to the U.S. because that saved us about 6 months of waiting time. (Keep in mind that all this took place 8 months ago.)

Also, you do know that you need to file for permission to marry a Mexican national at the same place you are getting your FM-3 right? It is kind of expensive but it doesn't take very long to get. You also need to have your birth certificate apostilled through the Secretary of State in the U.S in order to get married. They asked for it and kept it at the Registro Civil.

We have a joint sponsor for the I-864. It just makes life easier when you are living outside the U.S., because it is harder to get necessary paperwork from Mexico, mainly due to the mail system.

[crfmexico 0]

I hope I can help since my husband and I have already gone through what you are about to go through. We filed our I-130 petition in Mexico City the day after I received my FM-3 visa. I hadn't even been in Mexico for 6 months and they accepted our petition and approved it a week later. I was really thankful they didn't send it to the U.S. because that saved us about 6 months of waiting time. (Keep in mind that all this took place 8 months ago.)

Also, you do know that you need to file for permission to marry a Mexican national at the same place you are getting your FM-3 right? It is kind of expensive but it doesn't take very long to get. You also need to have your birth certificate apostilled through the Secretary of State in the U.S in order to get married. They asked for it and kept it at the Registro Civil.

We have a joint sponsor for the I-864. It just makes life easier when you are living outside the U.S., because it is harder to get necessary paperwork from Mexico, mainly due to the mail system.

Thank you, Becca, for the information. I am relieved to read this and hope they still provide the same service. How long did you have to wait between calling to make an appointment and actually filing the petition? I assume we need to be put on the appointment waiting list first. As for the birth certificate apostiling, I have a notarized copy of my birth certificate here with me and my mom has the original back in the States. Does she need to send it to the Secretary of State for a verification letter to be sent to the embassy here, or can I bring in what I have?

[kitkat1 5]

I hope I can help since my husband and I have already gone through what you are about to go through. We filed our I-130 petition in Mexico City the day after I received my FM-3 visa. I hadn't even been in Mexico for 6 months and they accepted our petition and approved it a week later. I was really thankful they didn't send it to the U.S. because that saved us about 6 months of waiting time. (Keep in mind that all this took place 8 months ago.)

Also, you do know that you need to file for permission to marry a Mexican national at the same place you are getting your FM-3 right? It is kind of expensive but it doesn't take very long to get. You also need to have your birth certificate apostilled through the Secretary of State in the U.S in order to get married. They asked for it and kept it at the Registro Civil.

We have a joint sponsor for the I-864. It just makes life easier when you are living outside the U.S., because it is harder to get necessary paperwork from Mexico, mainly due to the mail system.

Becca can you post the dates that you did this? I have NEVER heard of Mexico City processing an I-130 - everything we've seen here in the past couple of years indicates they send it to the US for processing and then foward to CDJ since they are the only consulate in Mexico that handles interviews.

[beccaYdaniel 0]

I didn't think it was a secret that the embassy in Mexico has processed a few, select USCIS forms ( I think they process five or so forms). I found out after many, many hours of research on the internet. I wish I could provide a link, but it has been over two years and I can't remember where I read the information. I looked on the embassy's site, and it says that you can file the form there, but doesn't mention anything about processing.

My husband is from Mexico City and we went several times to the embassy to request information on how to file the I-130. That was when we found out that I had to have the FM-3 in my posession before we could file. We turned in the I-130 on December 19, 2006, with NO prior appointment in the immigration branch of the Department of Homeland Security office. The whole process was easy. They attend you from 9am to 1pm. I paid the fee and was given a receipt. Then we received a letter in January that the petition had been approved on December 26, 2006 and had been forwarded to the consulate in Ciudad Juarez. One of those letters where there are many boxes with one checked that applies to your case. I wouldn't think Juarez would have accepted our case if the petition hadn't been legitimately approved. We also received the packet from Juarez soon after that. I hope they still do this, but I haven't been back after we filed to ask.

About the apostille, I had to go and get a recent copy of my birth certificate because the Secretary of State wouldn't accept one older than 3 months. Here's a link to the requirements for the State of Texas: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/authinfo.shtml If you aren't from Texas just go to your state's Secretary of State website. I even called their offices, and I think that is when I found out that I had to go ask for a new copy of my birth certificate. It could vary from state to state. I also had to get my birth certificate information translated with an approved translator of INAMI (migración). I never tried seeing if they would take my notarized English copy of my birth certificate. You never know. If your mom is willing to help, I think it would be worth it since the issue comes up with Migración and Registro Civil.

[kitkat1 5]

Well it's worth investigating, but I have the impression they don't do this often at all -- maybe you got very lucky?