I130 - Exceptional circumstances with job offer
 

Hello, I had a question on what exactly qualifies for an exceptional circumstance in regards to a job offer for an I130 application. I'm a dual US and UK citizen and am living in the Netherlands currently, working as a contractor for a German company. I received a permanent job offer (employee, not contractor) with this company to work in the US for their Ohio based subsidiary and applied for an I130 application to move my husband (He's a Dutch citizen) over with me. Unfortunately, our application was sent to the Nebraska centre, and we're looking at early 2021 for our application to even be reviewed.

I saw that it was possible to have our application processed by the local embassy in Amsterdam if exceptional circumstances exist from this list: DOS-I130May1412.pdf (can't post links, so that's the name of the doc on the USCIS website).

Would my job offer in the US qualify for an exceptional circumstance? They were hoping I would be moved over by sometime next year, and I don't want to lose the offer because of how long the application will take. If so, how long does it typically take from start to finish this way?

Thanks in advance :)

Re: I130 - Exceptional circumstances with job offer
 

It is most likely at the discretion of USCIS whether this qualifies under special circumstances, but my layman's guess would be "no", since you clearly have the ability to go and start working whenever you want. You and your husband can visit each other while waiting, and he can move over when he gets his immigrant visa, just like any other applicant. I don't see any special circumstances (maybe just inconvenience for you).

Filing directly through London takes about 8 months start to finish these days. I haven't seen anyone on here doing that from The Netherlands, so maybe 8 to 12 months is as good a guess as any.

Rene

Re: I130 - Exceptional circumstances with job offer
 

Adding here that I don't think it's a good idea to file a second I-130 anyway, since you already have one in the system. You want to avoid making the process any more confusing for USCIS.

I don't think it will take 13+ months just to get the I-130 looked at, that seems way too long. Perhaps that amount of time for the whole process from filing I-130 to visa in hand.

Rene

Re: I130 - Exceptional circumstances with job offer
 

I agree with Rene. In USCIS mind there is nothing preventing you as a US citizen moving tomorrow and immediately gaining employment.

Re: I130 - Exceptional circumstances with job offer
 

As correctly stated, there is absolutely nothing stopping you moving back to the US to take this job, other than you don't want to be separated from your husband.

Don't even bother with this as 'exceptional' as it'll be denied.

Re: I130 - Exceptional circumstances with job offer
 

Out of interest, where did 8 months come from?

I did less than 5 months including an RFE late last year. The timeline thread shows similar.

Re: I130 - Exceptional circumstances with job offer
 

Just from having read the threads on this forum. I'm glad yours didn't take that long.

Rene