Our Journey Through the Direct Consular Filing (DCF) Process - US CR-w

My wife (US citizen) and I (UK citizen) recently navigated the DCF process while living in Australia, due to her receiving an incredible job offer in the US. I thought I’d share the process as it’s not very common and there was a fair amount of ambiguity. Hopefully it’s useful.

Overall timeline: - Time between day initial expedite request sent to consulate and CR-1 VISA received in passport: 110 days - Time between I-130 in person filing and CR-1 Visa received in passport: 51 days

Here’s an overview of our experience:

• Location: We were based in Melbourne Australia but went through the Consulate in Sydney

• Why DCF? We qualified for expedited processing due to extenuating circumstances. The extenuating circumstance was that a U.S. Citizen living abroad received a job offer requiring immediate relocation back to the U.S. The job offer was too good to pass, necessitating a quick move.

• Getting Professional Help: We decided to hire an immigration lawyer familiar with the Sydney consulate. Their expertise was invaluable, especially given the process’s nuances and our tight timeline.

We found this invaluable, they were familiar with the process that was not very well documented online and explained that, if the consulate decided to accept our case as an expedite, there would be two in person interviews. The first one would be to file the I-130 in person, which my wife would need to attend, and then the second would be the actual visa interview, this would be just myself and my wife didn’t have to be there. I’d also need a medical as part of the process, ideally prior to the second interview but also can be done after. Unfortunately only a few places in the whole of Australia could do this medical and none of them would give me an appointment (even provisional) before having a confirmed final interview date.

Timeline Overview:

• October 10, 2023: We enlisted the help of an immigration lawyer, due to my wife’s job offer. Given the short term nature of the job offer we really didn’t want to mess anything up and so we decided to get a lawyer, and specifically one with experience with the Sydney consulate.

• October 16, 2023: Signed and emailed scanned copies of I-130 and I-130a form along with G-28 form. Our Lawyer sent all of this along with a very very detailed overview of our situation and critically why we believe that this qualified for expedited DCF processing.

• Late October 2023: Considered follow-up due to no response from the consulate. We didn’t want to seem pushy so didn’t follow up even though we really wanted to.

• Early November 2023: Pushed wife’s job start date to mid December as we knew we wouldn’t make the timeline.

• November 9, 2023: Lawyer followed up with consulate as hadn’t yet received response.

• November 13 2023: Received confirmation that our expedite request was accepted; first interview was scheduled for December 12 to file the I-130.

• December 12, 2023: Attended the first interview successfully. We brought all of our documentation and a photocopy of everything, which at this stage was a big massive ring binder. Paid the I-130 filing fee.

Technically only my wife had to attend this interview but I went anyway in case it helped. It probably didn’t make a difference - I just awkwardly lingered behind her. I do want to call out that even though everybody was very nice and helpful, you could tell that this want a very common process. There was a little bit of of confusion once we’d entered and passed security about whether we would file the paperwork downstairs and then head up, or just head up and do it all in one go.

Anyway, all went well, and we even cheekily asked if there was any chance I’d be able to get it wrapped up by the holidays or if not could I go home for Xmas/NY. They politely told us that just isn’t possible. Our Lawyers told us in no uncertain terms was my wife to leave Australia before interview 1, and was I to leave Australia before my visa was issued. My wife flew to the U.S. the following day

• December 12, 2023: Received an email from consulate at 5pm saying all approved and to submit DS260 online and email them once it had been completed with the confirmation page. I immediately submitted the DS-260 form after legal review, the following day.

• December 18, 2023: Received email from consulate saying interview slot available January 2nd. Accepted this immediately and started to get everything ready for the interview. Despite having contacted a few of the physicians at the start of the process to get a provisional date to no avail, at this stage the earliest I could get an appointment was the week after my final interview. Sigh.

• January 2, 2024: Completed the final interview. Paid the interview fee (honestly I got lost with what all the fees were, I just paid every time they asked me too…)

I have to say everyone was extremely helpful at the consulate. Again you could tell it wasn’t a common process as I was sent from one desk to the other for payments and the cashier had to go check with one of the consular officers because I wasn’t doing things in the typical sequence.

My consular officer asked me questions about my wife, our marriage, where I was from and motivations for going to the U.S. Everyone gets a bit nervous in these situations but my guy put me at ease pretty quickly. I did sense and overhear a bit of frustration with other people because they hadn’t followed instructions or had missing documents.

I explained I couldn’t get the medical appt in time and they said no problem, take your passport back and your prepaid envelope and after your medical they will send us the results electronically. They advised once I had received notification from the physician that this had been sent, to speed things up I should drop the consulate an email to say it should be in their inbox and double check with them I could send my passport in (I guess to check there’s nothing wrong with my medical).

• January 10, 2024: Completed the medical examination. I have to say…this stage I just felt like I was paying a lot of money for not a lot of anything. Blood test, x ray, couple of vaccines to keep me up to date, and a 10 minute W&A.

• January 22, 2024: Submitted passport and documents to the consulate after getting notified by the physician that my results had been sent a few days before, and the consulate saying I could send it in.

• January 29, 2024: Case updated to “Administrative Processing.” on the DOS website

• January 30, 2024: Case updated to “Approved.” on the DOS website

• January 31, 2024: Case updated to “Issued” on the DOS website

• February 1, 2024: Passport received on February 1st! Couldn’t believe the day had finally came. I had an envelope that was sealed and not to be opened, to be provided to a customs official at border.

I left a few days later to visit family back home and then flew to the US. At immigration I handed my envelope over, they took me to a side room where I waited for ten minutes, they asked me to confirm some contact details then stamped my visa. Apparently soon I’ll have the physical green card in the mail!

Overall very stressful but I know the timeline was very quick and I am one of the lucky ones.

That was a lot of typing, let me know any questions.