The IR-1 and CR-1 are the same visa, an Immigrant Visa. It is the length of time married at entry to the US that determines your immigration status. If you have been married less than two years you will have conditions on your Permanent Resident Status and will be granted a two year green card. You must then apply to have this condition removed within 90 days of the two year anniversary of your entry to the US. If you have been married two years or more on entry you will be granted Permanent Resident status with a 10 year green card.
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DCF/Direct Consular Filing is a slang term for petitioning your non-US citizen immediate family member through the foreign Consulate instead of through a US Service Center. Typical use includes the visa application that your foreign relative makes immediately afterward.
There are several advantages to filing I-130 overseas, speedier processing time being the main one. Additionally, overseas filers skip the National Visa Center pre-processing, saving several months and many headaches.
Once the petition is approved, your spouse (Immediate Relative) may apply for an Immigrant Visa to move permanently to the US.
If you are not yet familiar with Immigrant Visas, please read about them here, first: What is an Immigrant Visa
“DCF” and “Direct Consular Filing” are not official terms, and you will not find it listed on official websites by that name. You should not use that term when inquiring with Embassy and Consulate personnel so that you can get the most accurate information.
“Petition my foreign spouse” and “apply for an Immigrant Visa” are the two activities you will describe.
In a nutshell, a US citizen petitions their Immediate Relative (spouse, minor child, parent) so the relative may apply for an Immigrant Visa. For the purpose of this guide, the non-USC relative example will be a spouse.
Immigrants who enter the US with an Immigrant Visa become Legal Permanent Residents (LPR) of the US immediately and enjoy the rights and responsibilities that go with that status: Now That You Are A Permanent Resident
US citizens who live outside the US are instructed to file the petition I-130 to their nearest US Embassy or Consulate (other than Quebec City Canada) OR the USCIS Field Office serving their residence. You can find this information on the Immigrant Visa page of your Embassy’s website: Websites of U.S. Embassies, Consulates, and Diplomatic Missions
The Department of State has issued the following instruction regarding accepting I-130s from their resident US citizens:
Quote:
Washington DC
March 21, 2007
Consular Offices Abroad Resume Accepting I-130 Immigrant Visa Petitions
Effective immediately, consular posts abroad will accept petitions for immediate relative immigrant classification from American citizens who are resident in their consular districts, including members of the armed forces, as well as true emergency cases, such as life and death or health and safety, and others determined to be in the national interest.
To demonstrate residency in a consular district, American Citizen petitioners must be able to show that they have permission to reside in the consular district and that they have been doing so continuously for at least six months before filing the petition. Individuals who are in the country on a temporary status, such as student or tourist, would not be considered to meet the residency standard.
Examples of family emergency include minor children who would be unexpectedly left without a caretaker. Examples of national interest include facilitating the travel of United States military and other USG direct hire employees assigned overseas who are pending transfer on orders and need to petition for immigrant classification of their spouse and minor children at posts overseas.
All lawful permanent residents, and American Citizens resident in the United States or with a permanent address in the United States, must file I-130 petitions at the USCIS Service Center having jurisdiction over their place of residence (as indicated on the USCIS website: I-130 Form).
The Field Adjudicator's Manual entry on the topic can be accessed online. Read it carefully to make sure you understand whether or not you can file a petition I-130 at an overseas office: 9 FAM APPENDIX N, 200 VISA PETITIONS
You may be required to file your petition in person with your foreign spouse attending, by courier or by mail. Please follow local filing instruction.
If you do not find enough information on the Consular website to satisfy you, you can also see if a USCIS Field Office serves your area. Their webpage may have more information about local filing procedure: USCIS Service and Office Locator
Click through to your city and scroll to Local Processing Procedures -à Immediate Relative Immigrant Petitions (Form I-130) for local specifics.
There are limited first-hand DCF reports available since this procedure changed in March 2007. Local Consulates may demonstrate different levels of flexibility about what constitutes “resident” for I-130 filing. In some countries, there is no requirement for a specific type of residency permit (ie, you may use rent receipts, pay slips or other evidence of living in your host country). In others, you may have to have a specific visa type (ie, Mexico requires an FM-2 or FM-3 permit). Please search for CURRENT, LOCAL experience posts online or contact your Consular office for specifics.
Bear in mind that residency requirements can change quickly; stay flexible and get the most up to date information you can find.
After you’ve confirmed where you file, and how you will file (in person or by mail), check to see if your Consular office will also accept the 2nd part of the process from you at the same time as your petition: the visa application. Again, each office has their own way of processing these cases, and there is no one way to explain it for each country. You will need to be resourceful and do your research. You may find helpful tips by reading the reports of DCFers from other countries, but don’t get distracted by requirements that don’t apply to you.
DCF is the fastest path to an Immigrant Visa, but it does still take time. Applicants should begin their process about 6 months before they want to move to the US, but expect wide variations in total processing time, and expect seasonal variations in local timelines.
Cases typically conclude in 1-5 months.
The immigrating spouse will still be making a complete Immigrant Visa application including police certificates, military records, medical check and Affidavit of Support I-864. Instructions from each Consular post will vary slightly, and will be sent to the beneficiary (foreign spouse) once the petition has been approved. The sooner you have your visa application documents collected and ready, the sooner you can inform the Visa Unit that you are ready for your interview.
DCF experience stories have been gathered for years at Kamya's site and posted to groups like alt.visa.us.marriage-based and visajourney.com. Reading others’ dated experiences will be valuable research for you, but do remember to check for up to date changes in instructions, fees and methods. Please consider adding your DCF filing and interview experiences to the growing list of current stories collected here at FBI in Visa Interview Experiences to assist others coming along after you.
1: Initial I-130 submission. Check your Consular Immigrant Visa instructions or USCIS Field Office instructions. The petition package includes:
I-130 (note that you must now include evidence of a bonafide marriage OTHER than your marriage certificate. Examples of evidence are listed in the I-130 instructions.
G-325A (each)
Photos
Fee
Whatever else
Read here for other users’ I-130 cover letters: (link to cover letter examples)
TIP: All FORMS submitted must be originals with original signatures. EVIDENCE may be photocopied, but bring the original to the interview for inspection.
To conform to the requirements of the “Adam Walsh Act” (you can read the reference in the 9FAM link above) the US citizen’s 'biodata' details are forwarded electronically to the NVC for a namecheck. Results are returned within two weeks, according to user-posted accounts.
There is no “NOA1” for receipt of the I-130, or “NOA2” indicating its approval. Your case will not appear in the online USCIS database. There is no formalized way for you to check on your petition, but there is no need for you to check on it. Petition adjudication usually happens quite quickly.
2: The I-130 is approved and the beneficiary is notified by mail. A checklist of required documents is sent, and a method for notifying the Immigrant Visa Unit that you are ready to interview will be indicated.
3: Return the checklist when you have your documents.
4: Beneficiary will receive instructions for the medical and an interview date.
5: The US citizen is not required to attend this interview, but often may attend. The visa interview will be conducted ONLY with the beneficiary. The beneficiary should bring 2 sets off the requested documents; a set of copies to submit and the originals for inspection (it’s recommended that you keep an entire copy of your submission for yourself as well). You may also bring additional evidence of your relationship, but most interview accounts are that no additional evidence is required. If you would like to submit photos, from your wedding or elsewhere, you can print digital photos several to a page and add captions.
At the conclusion of the interview, the beneficiary leaves their passport and the Consular Officer will give them an idea of what to expect next. A final namecheck is done before the visa is issued, and the Machine Readable Immigrant Visa (MRIV) will be glued in the passport and returned by courier, mail or be picked up in person. The Mysterious Brown Envelope, which holds all the visa application materials, will be sent with the passport and this Envelope must NOT BE OPENED before travel.
Some Consulates mail one large envelope containing the passport and the sealed MBE. The beneficiary may open the outside envelope to get to their passport.
The Immigrant Visa (with a few rare exceptions) is valid for 6 months from issue. Your first entry to the US must be made before that expiry date, and the US citizen MUST enter the US with or before the immigrant. It is permissible to enter the US with your Immigrant Visa and leave again to conclude your packing, moving, work commitments etc outside the US. If you will be out of the US for more than 6 months, please do more research on maintaining your Permanent Resident status. From the moment your are admitted to the US with the Immigrant Visa, you are a Legal Permanent Resident of the US.
TIP: If you will be selling real estate abroad, please check with your US tax preparer regarding the implications of doing so before or after you are a Permanent Resident.
6: When you enter the US with your Immigrant Visa, you will have your MRIV endorsed with a stamp, valid for one year. Your status is valid for longer, but the stamp is only valid for one year. This endorsed MRIV is now evidence of your Legal Permanent Resident status and can be used as the equivalent of the Green Card for ID and status proof purposes.
At the Point of Entry, you will go through Secondary Inspection, hand over your Mysterious Brown Envelope and answer a few basic questions. You will give a fingerprint and signature (they will be used to produce your Green Card) and if you need to update your US mailing address, this is the time to do so. Any time you change your physical address from this time forward, you must report it to USCIS via form AR-11.
Green Cards for immigrant visa entrants are produced at the Texas Service Center and will be mailed to you within 4 weeks.
If you applied for a Social Security number via form DS-230, it should be mailed to you within 4 weeks as well.
After 4 weeks, if you have not received any Welcome Letter from USCIS, or mail from the Social Security Administration, you should follow up with your District USCIS office and SSA office.
Permanent Residents who have applied for, but not received, their Social Security cards may be hired, work and be paid. If you fall into this situation, please see here: Do legal aliens need a Social Security number to work?
Note: If you have been married for less than 2 years when you enter the US, your Permanent Resident status has “conditions”. You should receive instruction at the POE about the importance of filing I-751 to remove the conditions. You will not get any further reminders from USCIS about this, so do plan ahead to file this before your second anniversary of ENTRY (not wedding anniversary).
Even though you have conditions on your status, you are a Permanent Resident. This time ‘counts’ toward your Naturalization eligibility, and you are held to the same rights and responsibilities as any other LPR.
Please read this article about your first arrival in the US: Arriving in America
While there is no US residency requirement for a US citizen to petition their spouse or family member to come to the US, the visa application requires the USC to be a financial sponsor through the Affidavit of Support contract I-864. The I-864 does require the US citizen sponsor to be domiciled in the US and to have income or assets that show the immigrant will not become a public charge.
Many USCs living abroad will not have a US-based income. Your foreign-earned income can not be used to satisfy the I-864 unless it will continue when you are in the US. Your assets, and those of your spouse, CAN be used in lieu of income, or you may have employment in the US starting up. A Joint Sponsor may be the only solution for some families.
Domicile is a difficult area to describe and it is interpreted differently at each Consulate. Casual observation indicates that some Consular posts are easy-going about this, as long as you have a US address (perhaps a relative), a job offer, have filed your tax returns and are making obvious plans to move to the US. Domicile is NOT the same as residence. Please read the following pages for more insight into domicile and remember that it is a very individualized topic.
ii) Determination of domicile . (A) If the sponsor is residing abroad, but only temporarily, the sponsor bears the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the sponsor's domicile (as that term is defined in 8 CFR 213a.1 ) remains in the United States, (more)
(B) If the sponsor is not domiciled in the United States, the sponsor can still sign and submit a Form I-864 so long as the sponsor satisfies the Department of State officer, immigration officer, or immigration judge, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the sponsor will establish a domicile in the United States on or before the date of the principal intending immigrant's admission or adjustment of status. The intending immigrant will be inadmissible under section 212(a)(4) of the Act, and the immigration officer or immigration judge must deny the intending immigrant's application for admission or adjustment of status, if the sponsor has not, in fact, established a domicile in the United States on or before the date of the decision on the principal intending immigrant's application for admission or adjustment of status. In the case of a sponsor who comes to the United States intending to establish his or her principal residence in the United States at the same time as the principal intending immigrant's arrival and application for admission at a port-of-entry, the sponsor shall be deemed to have established a domicile in the United States for purposes of this paragraph, unless the sponsor is also a permanent resident alien and the sponsor's own application for admission is denied and the sponsor leaves the United States under a removal order or as a result of the sponsor's withdrawal of the application for admission.
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Read the above carefully, a couple of times. It will makes sense soon!
US citizens must file income tax returns with the IRS every year, regardless of where the income is generated. Some or all of your overseas income may be exempt. Please use irs.gov or contact your tax professional for individual information.
The I-864 requires your most recent Federal Income Tax Return (a photocopy of your tax transcript from the IRS is fine). If you had no income or low income and are not required to file, include a letter of explanation in lieu of tax returns.
You can find information on ordering tax transcripts here: http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq1-6.html .
Most people report that they get the fastest service by calling from the US and ordering the transcripts through the automated phone system at 1.800.829.1040 (option ‘2’ at the first menu). The USC can have a trusted friend/family member make this call if they are not in the US – it is all teleprompt and you do not speak to a person.
DCF - Filing your I-130 abroad - Direct Consular Filing (DCF)
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