MissGigl

Hi everyone,

In case it's of interest to anyone, here is my experience thus far
with trying to get my French husband to the US by going the direct
consular filing route.

Story: In Sept 2003 my husband (then boyfriend) was refused entry to
the US at Dulles (DC) after using the Visa Waiver Pilot Program 4
times (this was his 5th attempt to enter the country). He had never
overstayed his visa in the past, they just thought it was suspicious
that he was coming so often, usually staying for about 80 days, going
back to France then returning a few weeks later. He couldn't prove he
had to job in France that he planned to return to (because he wasn't
working at the time) and they didn't buy that he was living off his
savings and me supporting him in terms of supplying a place to live.
Also, they didn't like the fact that we had a joint bank account. So,
after a nasty interview the sent him back to France the next day and
told him to come back with a regular tourist, student, or business
visa.

We consulted 2 immigration attorneys and both thought his chances of a
regular visa approval were slim to none give his difficulties showing
"intent to return" to France since they knew I was in the US and he
had no job, house, car, etc. in France. (At that point he was doing
freelance programming work for a Romanian company which didn't really
give him a reason to return to France either.)

We were planning to get married anyway in 2004 so in December we
decided to get married in France. Went through all that
administrative mess and then married in Nice on January 30, 2004. Our
attorneys had advised us to file the I-130 directly at the Embassy in
Paris (YES, they do accept petitions from non-residents, but call
first and check just in case.) 2 weeks after the wedding we met in
Paris and submitted our I-130 at the Embassy on February 13, 2004. It
was accepted after a brief interview and we were told to wait for the
interview letter in the mail. On February 19, my husband got a letter
in the mail with the medical information and other forms to fill out,
but no interview date/time. The letter said that information would be
coming separately. We waited until February 25, but no letter yet --
so I faxed the embassy asking where it was.

They called him on February 26 and told him he needed to return to the
Embassy for fingerprinting. (This sucked because he lives in Nice so
he has to fly up to Paris to do this - why didn't they just do it at
the first trip?) Our attorney said they are requesting fingerprints
because his file is somehow flagged because of his refusal of entry.
The Embassy guy I called to talk to about if he could do the
fingerprinting at the final interview said no, because the processing
with the FBI takes MONTHS. Of course this freaked me out but my
attorney says that it will hopefully be more like 6 weeks. Pffft,
I'll believe it when I see it. This Friday my husband returns to
Paris for fingerprinting and then we'll be awaiting the results from
the FBI and the interview date/time. Note: fingerprinting is only
done on Fridays from 9-11 (same as petition submission times).

I hope this information is helpful to someone. I'll post again as the
timeline unfolds.

    :)

Peachbythebeach

good luck with your wait :)

Axiar

Thank you for posting your experience. Maybe you can offer some advice?
I am an American who is engaged to a French citizen. We plan to marry in
her country this May.

Originally, I thought I had to file an I-129F,
but since we’re getting married there, is that not necessary? You wrote
that you were able to file the I-130 directly at the embassy: are there
any US forms/procedures besides the I-130 with which I should be
familiar?

I also noticed that in order to marry in France, proof is
required that one is single. How did you manage that, via your
attorney(s)?

Lastly, because of my inexperience at all of this, I do
plan to consult an attorney ASAP. Do you have any recommendations?


Thanks in advance.

-Rob

Vinnic

Missgigl, good luck with everything. Hopefully your wait won't be too
long. Keep us posted on what happens.

Axiar, sorry I can't offer much
help with the I-130 or DCF since we went the I-129F route back in 2000.
But you could try searching for others' posts on this newsgroup for I-
130s or DCF for France because I seem to recall a lot of postings and
experiences over the past few years. Good luck to you too.

Meauxna

Originally posted by axiar
    > Thank you for posting your
experience. Maybe you can offer some advice? I am an American who is
engaged to a French citizen. We plan to marry in her country this May.

    >
    > Originally, I thought I had to file an I-129F, but since weÂ’re
getting married there, is that not necessary? You wrote that you were
able to file the I-130 directly at the embassy: are there any US
forms/procedures besides the I-130 with which I should be familiar?

    > I also noticed that in order to marry in France, proof is required
that one is single. How did you manage that, via your attorney(s)?
    >
Lastly, because of my inexperience at all of this, I do plan to consult
an attorney ASAP. Do you have any recommendations?
    >
    > Thanks in
advance.
    >
    > -Rob

Rob,
I'll butt in and recommend that you
do some searching for "Direct Consular Filing" or DCF, as that's how
the process of filing your I-130 abroad is commonly referred to. There
are indeed many other forms attached to the process, and your new
spouse will apply for an Immigrant Visa. The group FAQ is at
visajourney.com

From doing this myself, I can tell you that while you
may be able to obtain your 'proof of no marriage' type certificate
Stateside, the Consulate will also be able to provide you with the
local accepted version.

Soyonszen

(MissGigl) wrote in message news:<>...

Thank you for sharing your Paris DCS experience, merci bcp.
I didn't know they allowed that for non-residents. Great to hear that
they are now doing this.
I'm currently following the K-1 route, almost done with our
processing.
I hope things will go well for you and that you'll be reunited with
your fiance very soon. Bonne chance :-)

MissGigl

Hi Rob,

In our case our attorneys advised us to get married in France because
he wasn't going to be allowed back in to the US on anything other than
a fiance or spouse visa. At first we were going to go the fiance
route but we were advised that would likely take much longer than the
spouse visa. (Rough estimates were 6+ months for a fiance visa versus
2-4 months for an I-130 through Paris.)

Getting married in France is quite complicated if one party is not
French. This site: http://usmarriagelaws.com/search/europe/france/
has good information on all the details of how it works.

For one thing, one party needs to be in residence in the town you plan
to marry in for 40 days prior to the wedding. We were married in Nice
and that town required me to get a "certificat de coutume" but not all
towns require this. To get that paper I had to first go to the US
consulate in Nice and get a certificate of "celibacy" which I then
took to a local attorney in Nice who made the coutume (cost about 250
euros by the way). After all your documents are submitted the town
publishes the bans which takes a minimum of 10 days. In our case we
submitted our paperwork on December 30 and we were married exactly 1
month later on January 30. So, as you can see it takes some
logistical planning. Oh, I was able to get the medical work done in
the US by calling the French embassy in DC and getting a referral to
the ONE doctor in the US (in the DC area) that can do it for you here.
If you can't go to DC you'll have to do the bloodwork, etc. in France
too. Allow a day or 2 to get the results back.

I'm not sure about the I-129F since you're getting married in France.
If your fiance can come to the US on the Visa Waiver Pilot Program you
can presumably be together while it's being processed, but I'm not
sure about that. It would require you to make at least 2 trips though
(one to submit and one for the interview.)

We really needed an attorney in our case because of his previous
refusal of entry into the US, but you may not if your case is
straightforward. An initial consultation certainly wouldn't hurt
anything. If you talk to one ask them about how it would work if you
got married legally in the US (requires MUCH less hassle) then had
another ceremony in France. Eveyrone getting married in France is
required to have a civil ceremony -- religious ones are optional. So,
if you are having a big wedding in a church or whatever, you will
technically already be married by the mairie of the town. (Most
people do both in the same day, but it's not required -- so might make
sense for you to do the legal part in the US.)

Hope this helps!