DCF process questions

[Tom R]

Also, on the CGI - Visa Type page: Do I select "Immigrant Visa-Scheduled by NVC-Registration Only" or "Immigrant Visa"?

 

[Randy W]

Also, on the CGI - Visa Type page: Do I select "Immigrant Visa-Scheduled by NVC-Registration Only" or "Immigrant Visa"?

 

 

 

You filed DCF and did not go through NVC, which is where the USCIS forwards petitions which were filed stateside, on their way to the appropriate embassy/consulate.

 

Select "Immigrant Visa"

[Tom R]

So my wife lived in the US for over a year while going to school there. Does she need a police report for that time?

 

There's no link on the travel.state.gov website under "United States of America" so I'm guessing she doesn't need one because it reads:

 

Document Finder

 

Please go to U.S. Visa: Reciprocity and Civil Documents by Country and select the country that issued your civil document.

 

 

Important Notice on Missing Documents: If a required document is unavailable per the country-specific guidelines in the Document Finder tool, you do not need to submit them to NVC. However, if you cannot obtain a required document for another reason, you must submit a detailed written explanation to NVC when you submit your other documents. The consular officer will then determine at the time of the visa interview whether you must obtain the missing document before a visa can be issued. As a general rule, any document that is listed as “available” on the Document Finder tool must be reviewed by a consular officer. Failure to obtain all required documents will delay your case.

 

 

[Tom R]

Never mind. Just found this:

 

Note: Present and former residents of the United States do NOT need to submit any U.S. police certificates.

 

[Randy W]

There is a link somewhere for how to obtain a US police report. I'm not going to look it up, since you don't need it. I may need to follow that procedure myself if I apply for a Chinese green card.

 

Interestingly enough, though, we had to get one for Jiaying's green card - the City of Houston rejected her fingerprints, even after a re-take or two, since she had whacked herself with a meat cleaver at the age of 7. We went to the downtown Houston police station and applied for it in person. The report said essentially, "Never heard of her".

[Tom R]

Yes, definitely going to submit the DS-260 very soon.

 

I'm still not clear about the one year. I know I have one year, but one year from when?...the date the I-130 was accepted, approved? ....the date the case number was issued?

 

And one year to do what...proceed with next step? ...interview? ....have visa issued?

 

Failure to take the requested action within one year will result in your application being terminated.

 

 

I'm reading this as "proceed with JUST the next step within a year." But I could also see it meaning "you must finish everything within one year."

 

Idk, maybe GZ will send me another email after I submit the DS-260 mentioning my time frame....

 

If not, I'll email them to ask about this.

 

 

So after submitting the DS-260 and sending in the documents, we received our instructions for doing the medical and scheduling an interview appointment. It seems from this letter that we now have another year from now to proceed with the interview. The letter states:

You must now register and schedule an interview appointment through ustraveldocs.com. Failure to schedule your interview appointment within one year of this notification being sent may result in the permanent termination of your case pursuant to section 203(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

 

 

But then again in the IV Instructions Packet on ustraveldocs.com it states:

Failure to apply for your immigrant visa within one year of being notified that you may apply may result in the permanent termination of your case pursuant to section 203(g) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.

 

 

Guess we'd better go ahead and schedule the interview for sometime before the one year anniversary of the I-130 approval date just to be safe. But it would sure be nice to know which one of these rules they're following. As I said before, we'd like to stall a bit more now if we can...

[Randy W]

You need to calculate a best and worst case timeline, based on when you can interview while leaving yourself up to six months to travel to the U.S.

 

When are you wanting to travel to the U.S.?

 

Typically, an application will be ABANDONED, making it difficult for us to discern a 'rule' as to when this happens - usually, there's no one still monitoring to even notice.

[Tom R]

When are you wanting to travel to the U.S.?

 

Good question. Last week my wife was excited about getting on with everything and moving this summer. Tonight she says December or early next year would be best for her. And actually, this timeline may work better for us since we're thinking of applying for our daughter's renunciation of China soon (a whole other can of worms, I know).

 

Speaking of that....any tips or links off the top of your head on renouncing from Shanghai? Or has anyone ever done this from the US? I've been researching this on other sites but haven't looked around on here yet. Seems it's a big pain in the you know what. I'll probably start a thread on this soon

 

Anyway, I know she will probably have 6 months from the medical exam date. Just trying to figure out if she needs to interview before the year anniversary of the I-130 approval at the end of March, or if she has a year from today. I think I'll email GZ and ask just to be sure.

 

 

BTW, I just got this message in a separate window when trying to post this comment a minute ago:

Access denied. Your IP address is blacklisted. If you feel this is in error please contact your hosting provider's abuse department.

 

I was using Astrill VPN - Server: Fremont 2. I changed servers and restarted chrome to post this time.

[Randy W]

 

When are you wanting to travel to the U.S.?

 

Good question. Last week my wife was excited about getting on with everything and moving this summer. Tonight she says December or early next year would be best for her. And actually, this timeline may work better for us since we're thinking of applying for our daughter's renunciation of China soon (a whole other can of worms, I know).

 

Speaking of that....any tips or links off the top of your head on renouncing from Shanghai? Or has anyone ever done this from the US? I've been researching this on other sites but haven't looked around on here yet. Seems it's a big pain in the you know what. I'll probably start a thread on this soon

 

Anyway, I know she will probably have 6 months from the medical exam date. Just trying to figure out if she needs to interview before the year anniversary of the I-130 approval at the end of March, or if she has a year from today. I think I'll email GZ and ask just to be sure.

 

 

BTW, I just got this message in a separate window when trying to post this comment a minute ago:

Access denied. Your IP address is blacklisted. If you feel this is in error please contact your hosting provider's abuse department.

 

I was using Astrill VPN - Server: Fremont 2. I changed servers and restarted chrome to post this time.

 

 

 

We have one member who says he was told by the Chinese consulate in the U.S. (I think actually the D.C. Embassy) that you need to renounce in the U.S. My understanding, though, is that those who are and/or have done it go to their PSB in China.

 

edit: It should just be a matter of the THREE of you showing up at the PSB and signing some papers.

 

Yes - just change your VPN server when that happens. We blacklist spammers - perhaps one of them conveniently logged in from Astrill on that I.P. address at one point - but that sounds more like a Level 2 or a Cloudflare warning. I get those myself from time-to-time, and Google even makes me respond to a Captcha thing pnce in a while.

 

And YES - WORK WITH GUZ. I expect that you won't have any problem as long as they know what you're up to, but only THEY can tell you how long they'll let you stretch it out.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Oh - also, if you've been looking on other sites, something to be aware of is that British citizens are treated differently as far as the citizenship issues - they are often given more inn the way of hoops to jump through.

 

For an American citizen, I believe it really is just a matter of BOTH parents signing some papers at the PSB Entry & Exit bureau. Go to the PSB - THEY will tell you what you need to do.

[Tom R]

Yeah, it seems like most of what I've been reading on other sites has been about either British or Canadian citizens. I sure hope you're right as far as it being easy to renounce as an American citizen. When my wife called the PSB last week about it, they told her that she needs to go there to talk to someone about it - wouldn't answer any questions over the phone. I guess we'll all go and hope for the best. Will let you know what we find out

[Tom R]

Regarding the time frame we have to interview. I emailed GUZ and asked if she has one year from her I-130 approval date last March to interview, or one year from the interview notification letter we got yesterday. They said:

Your beneficiary has one year to schedule an interview appointment since the date of the interview notification being sent. Please contact us each year if you intend to postpone the interview appointment.

 

So the one year window does restart after submitting the DS-260

[Randy W]

"Please contact us each year if you intend to postpone the interview appointment." Just keep them informed.

 

But yes, discussions of dual citizenship issues VERY often obfuscate which country they're from - there IS a difference. Start with your PSB.

[Tom R]

Update on renouncing daughter's citizenship:

 

We went to the PSB in Shanghai to talk to them and they said it's easiest to just move to the US and live there for 2 years, then come back to Shanghai and renounce.

 

Otherwise, they'd have to send a bunch of documents to Beijing and wait for them to process and make a decision, which could potentially take a long time. I guess it makes their decision much easier if the person has already been living in the US.

 

So we'll worry about this in a couple years.

[Randy W]

Update on renouncing daughter's citizenship:

 

We went to the PSB in Shanghai to talk to them and they said it's easiest to just move to the US and live there for 2 years, then come back to Shanghai and renounce.

 

Otherwise, they'd have to send a bunch of documents to Beijing and wait for them to process and make a decision, which could potentially take a long time. I guess it makes their decision much easier if the person has already been living in the US.

 

So we'll worry about this in a couple years.

 

 

Thanks for reporting back! Apparently, different PSB's treat this procedure differently, which would explain why some report that it takes months to a couple of years, while others report having it done on a single trip to the PSB.

Edited May 30, 2019 by Randy W (see edit history)