RABBITDANCE

I cannot submit the forms to the German government. I have to go through a firewall of people who do not even now the rules or necessarily care. So I need to convince the firewall that this form will be accepted by the German government, which, I know for a fact it sometime is. So I need to build a case to prove that. The I-130 ONLINE application is very new so I did not know they used the same form as they did 10 years ago, but in any case, the Army's SOFA office checklist is probably twice as old as that, and what it says on the form does not necessarily correspond with the regulations of the Army or of the German government on restricted country passports. Someone may have just written the form not knowing the underlying rules (this happens often). I know someone else who got another part of the form changed by correcting the staff recently.

That's how it appears, but I'm not convinced because these forms have changed over time and the Army's checklist is likely base on the way things used to be done and might not match the actual German or US Army regulations. I also know it can be accepted by the German government and has been, so the issue is about proving it to the Army staff who are not necessarily knowledgeable.

When we applied online for the I-130 we immediately received a document called "receipt notice". In order to keep my wife living with me in Germany, due to her passport being from a country on a restrict country list, she is required by the German government to provide a document that will qualify her to stay in Germany under SOFA status as a dependent. I have not yet found the exact German regulation for this restriction, but the US Army Passport/SOFA card office has a form that says what is required is "COPY OF FORM I-171H (Notice of Approval, I-797C (Must be an Approval Action) OR I-130 (Approval of Action)". I have not found the regulations this form is based on and have not gotten good information from the staff who may not even know the origin of this phrase on their forms or know the facts that well about what counts as valid. But what I am trying to determine is if I can make a legal case that "receipt notice" meets "I-130 (Approval of Action)" requirement. Has anyone been in a similar situation or understand the USCIS forms well enough to help me make a case that we can stay together in Germany since we have the "receipt notice"? Or is there anyone with an understanding of the history of UCSIS forms to verify that what is described on the US Army SOFA checklist form is really legally the same as the receipt notice, which might be a newer USCIS document that replaced the document indicated on the SOFA checklist for restricted country passports? Thank you for your helping to keep us together while we wait endlessly for our I-130 approval.

She has been living in Germany well over 6 months. However, she returned to her home country for a visit of about 1 month (though we consider this to be a trip not a move back). Would that disqualify her from the 6 month rule, or does continuous physical presence not matter? And secondly, she is not an ordinary resident of Germany, but lives in Germany under SOFA status which is not technically a resident but perhaps has something like a defacto resident, who does not register at her address in Germany with the police as is normal for SOFA status dependents. Would that disqualify her?

After our I-130 is approved we are going to transfer the case to Germany as she has moved in with me in Germany from her home country since the time we applied. It's my understanding that she may need to provide police reports as part of the process of collecting documents needed for the next phase. As she has been living in Germany, does that mean she would need to provide only a German police report, or will they want her home country one, or both? (To possibly complicate this question further, she is in Germany on SOFA status, i.e. as a dependent to a me, a contractor, and as such is not an ordinary resident of Germany but lives here as a legally vague defacto resident status under SOFA rules, and as such is not registered at our apartment in Germany. We suppose that there may be a way to obtain a police clearance without registration but are unsure how. Her home county could provide a police report but it's been our understanding from previous discussions that it's not considered by USCIS to be a valid document anyway due to corruption in that country, so it might not be required to submit one )

Thanks for the info. When I posted my question our estimated timeframe had been changed from unknown to 4 months, then it changed to 3 months, and today I logged in and it has changed to 12 months! This is after we have already been waiting 10 months. We're now facing a situation where she will be expelled from Germany due to the German government's opinion that no real progress is being made in her getting a green card, and we'll become separated for years and our home will be broken. So in light of this dramatic change in timeframe, what would you advise? Is it worth requesting to expedite through USCIS or will that not likely change anything? Should I contact a congressional representative? Should I sue them?

Waiting it out could take an additional year as they will likely extend it beyond the promised 4 more months, and they there could be months further delay in having the case changed to Germany. When you say DCF, you probably mean applying by paper directly to the consulate, but that is not what I'm asking about. I talking about expediting consular routing in the normal online I-130 process.

History: I have filed an online I-130 and have been waiting 10 months so far. The expected time frame online was recently updated to an additional 4 months, which could mean 4 months or possibly much longer. My wife has, since we applied, moved in with me in Germany where I live for work purposes (though I maintain domicile in the USA). We have not updated the address for her on the I-130, however, because we were advised in this forum to not do that. I'm now considering ways to expedite the I-130 by a request to the US Consulate in Germany. Question 1: If I have to obtain a job offer in the United States, instead of Germany, this would put my family at risk of being separated. This is because my wife is only allowed to live with me in Germany due to our SOFA status, but if am forced to take a job in the United States, our home would be broken and she would have to go back to her home country and I would have to go to the USA to work. This is a likely scenario as my current contract is ending in about a year. If this job offer happens, and I email the US Embassy in Germany to request they take over our case from the online system based on the job offer in the USA, would that likely be accepted by them and expedite the processing of the online I-130 and allow my wife to interview in Germany as she is already here? And if they accept the case, what happens if, AFTER they take on the case I decide to not accept the job offer in the USA, and instead continue with my current position in Germany to the contract end, hoping it lasts beyond the current contract? This is the nature of contracting work, where I may have to get job offers and then decline them, so it's a very legitimate and common scenario I'm describing. Question 2: As another approach to expedite the I-130, if I don't have a job lined up in the USA yet, could I simply email the US Embassy in Germany and request them to take over the case and expedite the I-130 approval based on some other basis, such as the political instability problems in her home country (a tough sell but the case could be made by attaching some news articles), or something else they would consider a valid extenuating circumstance? We also explored other ideas to expedite the I-130 such as filing an I129f but decided the paperwork was too time consuming relative to the low chance it would help. However, any other suggestions would be appreciated. We'd like to get this I-130 approval before possible political changes might ban my wife from immigrating to the US due to her home country's "Islamic" status, as Islamic county ban may come into effect before our I-130 is approved. Thank you for your kind assistance.

I'm applying concurrently for K3 and i130. I've submitted i130 in January of 2024 and it's already August 2024 and it's still in progress. Therefore I plan to apply concurrently for a K3 using form I129f to hopefully expedite. I'm completing the form now, and one question came up. On page 4 of the i129f form, questions 50a and 50b have an instruction to "Provide all U.S. states and foreign countries in which you have resided since your 18th birthday. Firstly, what is the definition of "resided"? 1. if I lived and worked abroad, such as in Mexico, and claimed FEIE status, but still filed taxes in the US with my domicile state, do I list Mexico or the domicile state? 2. Is the same true if I worked under military command as a contractor in Afghanistan or Germany? 3. Right now I have a domicile address in the USA, which is also my parent's house. I live in Germany. But do I "reside" in Germany or in the USA? Secondly, how do I properly fill out these form answers? 4. It has a drop down menu for state. If I lived abroad to I indicate the state or leave it blank?