World wide DCF program terminated

[FIANCEE-VISAS]

I-130 Petitions No Longer Accepted by U.S. Embassies

January 23, 2007

Per Department of State instructions, effective immediately, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine and U.S. embassies worldwide are no longer authorized to accept or adjudicate I-130 petitions. American Citizens must file petitions for their relatives with the appropriate United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) office in the U.S. Petitioners can check http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-130.pdf to find the appropriate office. Please visit www.uscis.gov for more general information about filing the petition.

Petitions that have already been approved at U.S. Embassy Kyiv but have not yet undergone visa adjudication must be forwarded to the USCIS office in Moscow, Russia. Embassy staff will forward all of these in the coming week.

We will post more information on this matter as soon as it becomes available to us.

Closing a window that should have been closed a long time ago, actually

[Bala]

More information on the reasons for the end of DCF as we know it, as posted with the U.S. Embassy, Japan:

http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/visa/tvisa-iv-newi130.html

Family-based immigrant petitions must now be filed only with USCIS

Effective immediately, in accordance with the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, overseas consular posts are no longer authorized to accept or adjudicate family-based immigrant petitions. Persons seeking to file an I-130 petition must submit it directly to the appropriate USCIS office.

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act

The Adam Walsh Act provides that persons convicted of specified sexual criminal offenses against a minor cannot file petitions for family-based immigrant visas. Thus, a criminal history record check is necessary to determine whether a petitioner is eligible to file a family-based immigrant petition.

Consular officers at embassies and consulates overseas do not have access to information about arrests or convictions of citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States who file family-based immigrant visa petitions. USCIS officers have access to databases with this information, and are therefore able to make determinations of eligibility to file these petitions.

As a result of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, these petitions can no longer be filed at U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. All I-130 petitions for family-based immigrant status must now be filed only with offices of the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services (USCIS).

The USCIS maintains an office locator page, based on place of residence, on its website.