Mark T

My wife recently completed the DCF process in Brazil and has arrived in the
US 2 weeks ago. She has two children (ages 6 & 7) that we planned to bring
here to the US. The preferred option of including them in her DCF process
was not available since their Dad was not in agreement with them coming to
the US so soon. Since we have completed the process for her, he has now
agreed that they can come up here with her.

It is unclear to me what options we have available to get them up here with
us. Can she use the DCF process for her kids in Brazil as a conditional
permanent resident, or is that process only an option for US citizens? If
she can't, can I file for them even though they are not my children? If
neither of those is an option, is the only other option to file for their
visa through the process here in the states for immediate relatives and her
be the petitioner?

Any feedback would be greatly appreicated.

Also, if there is anyone that has any questions about the DCF process in
Brazil recently, feel free to ask and I can convey what our experience was.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

Rete

Not she, but you, as their stepfather have to petition for them. Don't know if you can DFC for them yourself at the US Consulate in Brazil but worth a phone call or e-mail to them to ask.

If not, you will have to go the long way which means they will not be here in the US anytime soon. Their I-130s would have to go through the service center here and then when approved sent to the US Consulate in Brazil, they will need the medical, documentation, etc that your wife and an interview.

A shame that their father waited so long to give is approval. Perhaps he knew that would allow him up to a year or more with the kids remaining there in Brazil.

Rete

Rete

Did you write up the experience and post it to the kamya.com site for archiving. There is a limited number of DCF experiences for Brazil there and a current one would be of great value.

Rete

Mark T

I was not familiar with kamya.com, but just wrote it up and submitted it.
Don't know if it is appropriate, but a copy is include below, also:

Filed to start the process in Recife on 3/25/04. Wife had all medical and
police certs, along with other required docs before we filed. Received
packet 3 4/28/04. Had some confusion on how to handle packet 3 as I was not
in country to assist and my wife does not speak any English and the lady
that was helping her was somewhat unfamiliar with the DCF process for a
spouse and it took 3 weeks to get Packet 3 response back to Rio. The "ready
for interview" (I think I-2001 form) was returned on 5/21/04 by Sedex.
Received interview notice on 6/4/04 for an interview date of 7/7/04. She
travelled to Rio on 7/6/04 and arrived for interview at Consulate at 8am.



She somehow got directed to an NIV orientation upon arrival at the Consulate
and sat in an auditorium for 2 hrs while she was supposed to be at the
Immigration Dept. At 10am, somehow someone figured out she was in the wrong
place and directed her to the Immigration Dept. Upon arrival, she was
informed she was late. She explained what had happened and apparently they
accepted or verified or both that she had in fact arrived at the Consulate
on time. They proceeded with document review. They told her the photo she
had was incorrect and directed her to go across the street to get a new
photo. Only about 15 mins and she was back. They then reviewed her
documents again and indicated to her that the I-864 was not signed and
executed. (Don't know how that could have been because I had only sent her
signed and executed copies, two since she lost the first one I left last
time I was down there in March) Regardless, they directed her to the
cashier's cage to pay for the visa fee. She ended up being around $18 short
after the conversion from Reales as they were using 3.2 conversion at the
embassy and we had expected under 3 and her cousin talked her out of taking
any extra money due to theft concerns in Rio. This was about 1pm and she
was told she did not have enough time to go back to her cousin's house and
get more money and return before 3:30pm when they closed for the day. She
was given a new interview date of 8/2/04 and told to come back then.



She left the consulate's and sent me an email in distress. I tried to call
into the consulate's office but missed the call-in time by 5 mins after
being disconnected 10 mins into the first call attempt. I had to wait until
Thursday to make direct contact with them to understand what all had gone
wrong and ask if there was anyway for them to see her again while she was
still in Rio. I made contact with their office at 11:30 CT next day and
talked to a clerk to start with and she explained what had happened the
previous day. I told her I did not understand how she could have had an
unexecuted copy of the I-864 and she indicated that was the case when
Edilene was there the previous day. I had also had Edilene verify the 864
over the phone that previous night and she indicated that my signature along
with the notary's was on Page 6 of the 864. Still clueless to this day why
they made this determination. Regardless, I then spoke to the actual
administrative person that did the review and she indicated the same thing.
I then asked to speak to a consulate officer and was told she was out of the
office and would return in an hour from lunch. I called back an hour later
and was told she was still not back and to call back in another 30 mins.



I called back at 1pm CT and finally got to speak to the consulate officer
that conducts the interviews. It was a pure phone call of intimidation, in
my opinion. This lady started off the conversation by giving me a lecture
on proper respect for people and I asked why she was telling me this and she
said that I had been disrespectful to her employees. I assured her that had
not been my intent and had gone out of my way to make sure that was not the
case and asked her what I had said or done to make them feel that way and
she said that she didn't have any specifics and it was just a feeling her
employees got. I told her I was sorry they got that impression but it was
wrong. She then proceeded to tell me about her day and that she had been at
her desk all morning inundated with work and didn't get to lunch until 2pm
and had just gotten back from lunch at 3pm and was very busy. She proceeded
to tell me she was the one person in Brazil that approved or denied (not
exactly) all Immigration Visas in Brazil. She then asked me what she could
do for me. I asked about what had occurred the day before at the interview
and she indicated that Edilene has come unprepared for the interview and
explained the issues from the previous day. I again questioned the
evaluation made of the 864 and that did not go over well. She then
proceeded to tell me there was no value in discussing what had happened at
the interview and what else could she do for me. I asked her if there was
any way that she could get back in sooner for another interview and she
indicated that they had made an exception and squeezed her in on 8/3 and if
that was not acceptable, she could put her at the end of the line and she
could come back at the end of the year. At that point she indicated she had
a line outside her office and she looked forward to meeting my wife on 8/3
and she hoped she had all of her documentation in order and hung up the
phone.



I had already made contact with a local House rep's office in my district
earlier in the day, as well as had placed a call to my Dad who is involved
in North Carolina politics. I then followed up on these calls, but was
concerned about "rocking the boat" after the call that took place with the
consulate and worried about what impact that would have with her reception
for the second interview. I spoke to a staff member in Elizabeth Dole's
office in NC who handles immigration cases and indicated I was unsure if I
wanted to do anything after the phone call of intimidation. She said, with
my permission, that she would like to send a faxed letter explaining how far
Edilene had traveled and asking if there was anyway they could grant her an
interview earlier while she was still in Rio. At the same time, unknown to
me at the time, my Dad had also contacted a friend at DOJ (#3 at DOJ) and he
had made a phone call to the Director of Consulate Affairs at the State Dept
in DC. This guy sent an email to the consulate general in Rio making a
similar request and asking for an understanding of what had taken place.



On Friday morning I received a phone call from my Dad early, about 710am,
indicating he had received a fax from his friend at DOJ and that Edilene
could come back into the consulate's office that morning if she could get
there by 1130am or if not, she could come in Monday morning before 1130am.
I then got Edilene on the phone because with time zone differences, that
only allowed 1hr 45 mins for her to get there. We had not planned for this
and I THEN found out she was staying over an hour away by car from the
consulate's office. We tried to scramble but it soon became apparent that
we were not going to make Friday. I was really wanting to get her in there
that day so she could still possibly make her flight out of Sao Paulo that
night, as well as the instructions from the consulate general had her asking
for a different officer for the interview if she came in on Friday, but if
she came in on Monday, she was to ask for the one that read me the riot act
over the phone the previous day and I thought it might be better to have
some fresh blood in the process. That didn't happen, however. We gave up
on Friday shortly after and went for the Monday option. In addition, they
indicated they would accept a faxed copy of an executed 864, in this case,
and that I should fax that to their office before she came in. I hustled on
Friday morning and got that done and changed her plane ticket (more $$) to
the following Thursday evening from SP, allowing some extra time in case
there were more problems after Monday.



On Monday she showed up at 8am, got called in for the interview around
915am, from what I could tell. She got asked some questions by this same
consulate officer about why she was "talking bad about the consulate's
office" and Edilene assured her she had not and had only conveyed to me what
had happened. That only lasted a few minutes, her documents were reviewed
and they asked her two questions about our relationship, where we had met
and where she was going to live in the US. She then told her that her visa
was approved and to come back at 3pm this afternoon to pick up her passport.
She went back that afternoon and picked it up as expected. Waited until
Thursday morning and flew from Rio to SP, got on the flight that night to
Chicago and arrived the next morning. Took about 45 mins to get through
Immigration and Customs at O'hare at 515am in the morning and we were out of
there an hour later. Her passport was stamped with the I-551 stamp with
CR-1 type and life has been bliss since. That was two weeks ago yesterday.



Sorry for the saga, those are the details on this sequence of events in our
case.



Mark


"Rete" <member167@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Originally posted by Mark T
    > >
    > > Also, if there is anyone
    > that has any questions about the DCF process in
    > > Brazil recently, feel
    > free to ask and I can convey what our experience was.
    > >
    > > Thanks in
    > advance.
    > >
    > > Mark
    > Did you write up the experience and post
    > it to the kamya.com site for archiving. There is a limited number of
    > DCF experiences for Brazil there and a current one would be of great
    > value.
    > Rete
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com