Pat2014

Hello everyone, bad news again for us unfortunately. My congressional representative got a reply from the Consulate and they doubled down on not supporting our request. The Frankfurt Consulate provided the Congress person a more detailed answer on why they denied our I-130 request. They even went a step further and told my Congressional representative that we do not fall under any of the criteria for a local filing. That seems excessive, but I'm sure they weren't happy getting contacted by a Congress person so they wanted to be clear. These are the reasons they provided my Congress rep: 1.) Relocation for any reason except work is not "entirely" covered by the regulation and therefore they do not support them. This supports my theory that they view the listed examples as restrictive. 2.) I have not lived in Germany long enough. The 4 years stationed in Germany with in the US Military do not count towards residency, and since my residency card did not officially come until November, they claim the 6 months I have officially had residency in Germany is not enough to use this service. The 2nd reason seems a little fabricated to me, because I could not find a minimum time limit in any regulation. The only stipulation is "established residency," which I did. I even sent them copies of the residency paperwork as evidence. I'm going to reply with this in mind to the Congresssional Rep, but given the hard stance the Consulate has consistently taken on the first point, I am confident saying that the Frankfurt Consulate does not consider educational opportunities as exceptional circumstances. Hopefully our situation can serve as a warning for future German DCF hopefuls: get a job offer instead of going back to school if you want to use DCF in Germany. That, or maybe we just got unlucky and had the wrong person handling our case.

@Boiler thanks for your feedback. I agree on the situation - it definitely seemed cut and dry (especially because I saw so many posts here regarding similar situations) so we were pretty shocked it got denied both via email and after we had sent in a completed packet with payment via the post. My Congressional Representative said they were reaching out to the Frankfurt Consulate to try and understand why exactly they said no - if they get an answer, I'll post it here for everyone's situational awareness. We will wait until the Congressional office gives us a response, or July 11th, whichever happens first, before submitting via USCIS. When that happens, I'll for sure request an expedite to the process and maybe my Congress person can help.

@Boiler I am moving back on July 12th to begin Graduate School on August 12th. I was notified of a pending admission on March 21st and had to decide by April 24th, but did not hear back from Frankfurt by then. My wife and I discussed and I accepted. My school is being paid for due to my military service via the US Post 9/11 GI Bill, and I will receive a small stipend to pay for housing/incidentals while at school. I will also be required to hold a paid internship during the summer of 2025, and the University places over 90% of it's graduates in jobs within 3 months of graduation. I had to quit my job to attend this opportunity, however I believe the consulate does not consider Graduate School an Exceptional Circumstance as it is not explicitly listed in Chapter 3. While they do have discretion to define an Exceptional Circumstance as whatever they want, I believe they are erring on the side of caution and only using the examples explicitly provided by USCIS Chapter 3.

@D-R-J I have been in Germany for five years. Four with the Army, one as a private citizen. I have been legally in Germany the entire time (4 years under the US-German Status of Forces Agreement, 1 year with a German work visa/residency). I have a required summer internship as part of my studies (Summer 2025) and the tuition is paid for by the GI Bill, which also provides a small living stipend, so I tried to explain those as employment opportunities. I do not believe the Embassy considers Graduate School as an Exceptional Circumstance or employment opportunity, which is interesting because I did see a blog post where a woman got her DCF approved for a PhD program (which likely involved some teaching in addition to studying) last year. Perhaps they weight the level of programs differently? If this is anything like the Army, I imagine these decisions are entirely up to whoever is running the IV department at the time. There is a catch-all phrase at the end of Chapter 3 that leaves the definition of "exceptional circumstances" up to the IV chief of that embassy. My guess is that the German embassy IV Chief probably sees the examples for "Exceptional Circumstances" listed in Chapter 3 of the USCIS policy as restrictive.

@Boiler I am a US Citizen living in Germany on a German work visa and I have legally established residency in Augsburg with the German authorities. Is that what you mean by status?

Hey everyone, just wanted to post that my DCF request was denied. My situation: US Veteran living abroad in Munich area after leaving Army. Accepted in March to a US Grad School that starts in August. Requested DCF via email April 10th, did not see reply, so mailed a completed packet and cover letter with payment to Frankfurt Consulate around May 20th. The Frankfurt Consulate mailed it back with a cover letter telling me my situation did not qualify and referenced an email sent on May 10th, which had been sent to my Spam folder. This email was 1 line and said our situation "did not meet the criteria for exceptional circumstances" and provided no other explanation. This outcome genuinely surprised, to say nothing of frustrated, me as I've seen countless anecdotal evidence that similar situations did warrant DCF in Germany as recently as last year, and DCF seems to more lenient in many other countries than Germany. Outside of pleading with the Consulate or contacting my Congressional representatives, I don't know what else I can do. I have to attend school on August 12th and fly back before that. I have only seen people posting positive outcomes on their DCF requests and wanted to post mine as a cautionary tale - my wife and I had our hopes dashed pretty hard.

@megaladon and @Andrew+MM, unfortunately my packet was denied and no explanation was given, only that our situation "does not meet exceptional circumstances." It turns out they had replied via email, exactly 1 month after my initial email, but it was sent to my spam folder. Sounds cliche, but anyone reading this in a similar situation - maybe check there? The consulate referenced this email in their written reply, which included the entire packet, check (not easy to acquire in Germany!), and supporting documentation we had sent two weeks prior. Again, the letter did not give me any reason why, just that our situation did not qualify and referred us to the email sent, which also did not provide a reason why. This outcome genuinely surprised, to say nothing of frustrated, me as I've seen countless anecdotal evidence that similar situations did warrant DCF in Germany as recently as last year, and DCF seems to more lenient in many other countries than Germany. Outside of pleading with the Consulate or contacting my Congressional representatives, I don't know what else I can do. I have to attend school on August 12th and fly back before that.

@Andrew+MM thanks for the reply! I still haven't heard back from that email address personally. I plan on submitting my I-130 via DHL as a friend of mine recommended mailing it to them if bringing it in personally was not feasible. I'll let everyone knows how that goes!

Thanks @megaladon! I'll keep bouncing around the Frankfurt departments to see if I find anything and I'll let you know. I did some research on the FrnUSCISinquiries@state.gov email address, and it kept showing up in all sorts of documents for expedited Visas in Germany, so I do think it is monitored and active. However, most mentioned that due to the War in Ukraine, replies could take up to two weeks. I'm right at my two week mark since last sending an email, so I sent another one just to be safe. I'll keep you updated!

@megaladon, did you end up finding the correct Point of Contact for DCF in Frankfurt? We're also really struggling finding out who to contact. I've tried calling the Munich consulate, who referred me to file via USCIS for Visa requests (the woman on the phone didn't even let me explain I wanted DCF or hear my case, just immediately told me to use the website). So then we called the Frankfurt consulate but found it impossible to get a human being, being sent instead to a pre-recorded message telling us to file via USCIS every time, like with Munich. After that, I then emailed Frankfurt directly via FrankfurtIV@state.gov and was also told via auto-reply to use their website Navigator. After sending a message via the Navigator to frankfurtvisainquiries@state.gov, I was sent a strangely formatted reply email about military exceptions, reiterating the USCIS office at Frankfurt closed in 2020. The closest thing I've gotten was a new email address (FrnUSCISInquiries@state.gov) from that reply, but I haven't heard a reply yet (it was sent a week ago). I've seen multiple posts of couples requesting and getting DCF through Frankfurt since 2020, so I know there has to be someone to contact there. Traveling to Frankfurt would be inconvenient but we will do it if that is the only way to go about DCF. Am I missing something in the wiki, and/or do you have a Point of Contact I could refer to about my request? We know that once we start the I-130, it's really hard/impossible to switch to DCF, so we don't want to do that unless we absolutely have to. Thank you!

Hi, thank you for posting this thread! I have a very basic/general question that I'm struggling to answer: who exactly do I contact at the Frankfurt Consulate when asking for a DCF? My wife and I live in the Munich area and wish to file for a CR-1/IR-1 visa via DCF, since I am a US Citizen and have established residency in Germany. I have a job offer in the US that expires in August, so I am trying to move us back there. I've tried calling the Munich consulate, who referred me to file via USCIS without even offering the option for a DCF. To be clear: they didn't tell me that our situation didn't qualify for DCF, rather that the DCF option didn't exist in Germany at all. I called the Frankfurt consulate but found it impossible to get a human being, being sent instead to a pre-recorded message telling me to file via USCIS every time. So, I then emailed Frankfurt directly and was told via auto-reply to use their website. After sending a message via their website, I was again referred to USCIS and told the USCIS department at the consulate closed in 2020. I've seen multiple posts of couples requesting and getting DCF through Frankfurt since 2020, so I know there has to be someone to contact there. The closest thing I've gotten was an email address (FrnUSCISInquiries@state.gov) to forward my request to, but I haven't heard back from them in over a week. Am I missing something in the wiki, and/or do you have a Point of Contact I could refer to about my request? We know that once we start the I-130, it's really hard/impossible to switch to DCF, so we don't want to do that unless we absolutely have to. Thank you!