D-R-J

It’s a possibility that this is a scam, but impossible for us here to know. I guess the question is it worth taking the risk considering you could be hurt badly? In my mind, I would make sure that you don’t rush into anything, often time will bring clarity. The more time you can spend in person, the better you’ll know her. This will be important whether to figure out if this is genuine or just if you are compatible.

I would let the embassy know your plans when you submit the I-130 petition. You might get a sympathetic ear. My impression from my process was that they timed it so that my wife and I could travel together. They asked my wife during her interview when I was scheduled to leave and told her that assuming no AP issues they would have her visa ready by then.

DCF is going to be the fastest by far. Most people’s exceptional circumstance is a job offer with little notice until start date. Im not sure how fast London processes these, but my wife had a visa in hand in about 5 months. You will need to get your taxes sorted and most likely get a joint sponsor set. Then you will need some evidence of re-establishing domicile in the US. Having a valid driver’s license and active US bank account are a good start. A lease would be great. You can look through London cases to see how strict they are with this step.

Oops, looks like this may only apply to IR categories.

Interview wait times have been a little over a year from DQ in Accra for most people I’ve seen recently, assuming your PD is current.

I think the backlog must be very small because people waiting from Ghana are willing to establish residency there just to get interview slots faster.

Looks like Ciudad Juarez (https://mx.usembassy.gov/visas/family-based-immigration/fb-apply-step1/) The U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez has limited authority from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to accept certain I-130, I-360, and I-600 petitions. This authority only extends to U.S. citizens filing petitions for Immediate Relatives and to self-petitioning widows. DHS is normally responsible for adjudicating these petitions and only permits the Consulate General to accept petitions in narrow circumstances. The applicant and petitioner must meet specific physical presence requirements in Mexico and have authority to remain in Mexico for the duration of consular processing. Petitioners must also show exceptional circumstances, which can include adoption, short notice of job relocation, U.S. military emergencies, or beneficiaries who are close to aging out of visa eligibility. Petitioners should be prepared to provide documentary evidence supporting the basis for local filing. USCIS has published guidance on circumstances that may qualify as exceptional and more information can be found in the Foreign Affairs Manual . Petitioners may not locally file at the Consulate General to circumvent DHS processing times. Individuals who believe they qualify to file a petition at the Consulate General may contact CDJFilePetition@state.gov to request more information.

Do you live in Brazil?

This is what it says in n the document reciprocity page for Indonesian: ”Available. A marriage certificate (Akte Perkawinan or Surat Nikah) is issued by the following offices for the following population groups: 1) Moslem - the Kantor Urusan Agama (KUA - Office of Religious Affairs); 2) all other religions - a solemnization certificate must first be recorded with the Civil Registry office (Dinas Kependudukan and Catatan Sipil). Please note that the marriage is considered legally valid from the date of recording, not the date of solemnization.” Do you have a Akte Perkawinan or Surat Nikah from the Kantor Urusan Agama (KUA - Office of Religious Affairs)?

They have the luggage carts there. Will she have a credit card or dollars on her?

No, income that won’t continue after you move doesn’t count. If you don’t move back ahead of time you will need a joint-sponsor. You can ask the embassy if they will except your case, but I would have a job offer. That is the most common exceptional circumstance that is often accepted.

If your husband got a job offer, you might qualify for DCF. It’s something to look into. The process is significantly faster than normal I-130 process. Does you husband have a valid residence permit in Italy?

Check out timelines for Ghana K1s here: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/filterlist.php Enter visa as K1, country as Ghana and set for detailed results. It looks like there are a few records of people who have received visas recently.

I saw someone on Facebook recently who said it took about 6 months for K1 interview. I don’t know if representative that is of the average wait.

Maybe this post will help: Seems like other people have had similar issues. Looks like sending the certificate of acceptance resolved the issue. Everything you’ve submitted is translated?

This is where you want to check: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Japan.html

What was the date you were documentarily qualified? Interview dates seem to be happening 1-2 years after that. Accra is really backed up from Covid.

From Facebook groups it seems like people are waiting 1-2 years after DQ for an interview.

Interesting, I (the petitioner) was the only one allowed in the embassy for the first step. I guess different things at different embassies.

What kind of work do you do? If it is something remote, I’d look into the digital nomad visa. That way you could wait out the visa processing time with your girlfriend in Spain. US immigration is not fast or convenient. If Spain based, you could also potentially try for direct consular filing, which is about as fast as US immigration gets. Anyways, another option to consider.

Yep, get a job offer in the US as your time is winding down in Qatar. Then contact the US embassy there to do DCF. You should have a back up plan in case they don’t accept. Would you be able to move back to the UK and establish residency? That embassy seems to accept a lot of petitions under that circumstance.

Yeah we got that “actively being reviewed” message soon after submitting an I-130 for my wife’s sister. That was over a year ago and frankly I hope they are not wasting resources on it, she’s not going to be immigrating for (15, 20, 25, 30?) years.

We qualified based on assets. But I also had my wife bring in I-864 and I864a from my parents just in case. Are you planning on regular I-130 filing or DCF?

What is your plan for addressing?

Since special circumstances have been required, short notice job relocation is the one that I’ve seen used successfully most often. I think you want them to accept your petition on the first try, otherwise they may think you are shopping for reasons to DCF. That’s why I would stick with short notice job relocation.