I posted a while ago on here my timeline with getting the I-130 approved for DCF with exceptional circumstances (short notice job relocation, also pregnant). Also now can add the rest of the dates. Most of the delay was from our end getting certain annoying documents in preparation for the interview. One of them took us nearly 6 weeks to obtain, and we had to deal with 3 different countries for all of them. Everything was nearly immediate with dealing with the two consulates here in Scandinavia.
December 11 - submitted request to file DCF with US embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark
December 14 - received notice to come to the embassy on December 18 to file the I-130
December 18 - filed I-130 at the embassy
January 2 - notified by Stockholm (they only process non-immigrant visas in Copenhagen; Stockholm does immigrant for the entire region) immigrant visa unit that they received our approved I-130 and they sent a checklist to complete before an interview could be scheduled
(this part here is all our delay due to difficulty getting documents! ARGH!)
February 1 - sent completed checklist (included having already gotten the medical exam, we had no problem scheduling it in Copenhagen)
February 2 - resent completed checklist plus forgotten DS-260 completion confirmation, which we forgot the day before
February 5 - received interview appointment notice from Stockholm, for a specific time on February 13. It was really bad for my husband because he's teaching a course, but when we asked about rescheduling, they couldn't until March 1st. So we figured out how to deal with Feb 13.
February 13 - my husband had the visa interview in Stockholm (long trip, we spent 2 nights there). They wouldn't even let me, the US citizen petitioner, into the embassy! Because I wasn't on their "list" (this was contrary to attorney's advice...very helpful).
The interview was quite fast and my husband was out in about 30 minutes. We were mega-prepared with all the documents. Interesting "surprise" was what they required for the I-864 sponsorship. It wasn't good enough that despite my job discontinuing here when I move to the US of course, that I have a job offer for a very good salary starting in March in the US. I included the job offer letter and a one-way ticket to the US with the I-864 as proof of my intent to reestablish domicile and also of US-based future income. I've seen other cases on here where this was deemed good enough at the interview. But nope, they also wanted to see the $60k+ in assets because the job offer wasn't enough. Very fortunately, I also had this. They flipped through the statements until they found one from the US (they didn't even care about the assets I have in Denmark, which is most of it!!) that happened to be my IRA worth over $100k. Our attorney had also advised us to not "confuse" the consular officer and to prepare the I-864 without assets so that we could just qualify on the income, yet to take proof of them in case we needed them. More bad advice - ended up using the original form I prepared with the assets. We took both versions.
Regardless, my husband's visa was approved and he should get everything in the mail in a week. I'm just a little shocked what a US citizen expat needs to go through, including with exceptional circumstances including a pregnancy, to be able to sponsor their spouse when returning to the US. We might have been in a sticky situation without the assets without months of pay stubs proving income from my new job in the US, and by that time I would have had to give birth alone.
