U.S. Citizens Abroad to be Required to File I-130 Relative Petitions with USCIS in the U.S.

Historically, a U.S. citizen living abroad with a foreign national spouse could file an I-130 Relative Petition with a USCIS office abroad and then, upon approval of the I-30 petition immediately have the foreign national spouse complete his or her “consular processing” at the U.S. consulate abroad. The U.S. citizen would re-establish domicile before the U.S. consulate interview (if that had not already been done earlier in the process). This approach often avoided long delays associated with filing an I-130 Petition with USCIS in the United States and waiting for the I-130 petition approval to wend its way to the U.S. consulate abroad. USCIS recently has indicated that it may end this practice in 2011.