An Insider’s Tip for Cutting a Five-Year Wait Down to Just 18 Hours…

Matt Collins (January 15, 2010)

Is Direct Consular Filing Right for YOU?

I first met Doug and Isabel at the 2008 Offshore Advantage Academy in Cancun. They were a great couple…

He was a retired Crime Scene investigator from Las Vegas. And boy, did he have stories to tell – like the time he was interviewed about his job by CBS staff working on a new show called CSI. Or, when asked about the safety of his new home in Panama, he responded that “there are parts of East Las Vegas that are worse than anything you’ll find in all of Panama.”

His wife, on the other hand, was a business school student from Panama. I’m not even sure she’d ever been to the States. He met her after expatriating, and – as is often the case – they were soon hitched.
For these two, today’s A-Letter probably won’t offer much. They were pretty well settled in their new Panamanian home. But for so many others, that’s not the case…and if they find themselves wanting to return home with their new wife, they face a pretty complicated situation.

Because while love may know no language, no administrative delays…we can’t say the same thing about the U.S. Embassy…

Enter Direct Consular Filing (DCF).

Direct Consular Filing is a little known backdoor that can save you boatloads of time and money in obtaining a green card for your foreign-born spouse (obviously, you’ll still need to be a U.S. citizen to get a green card for your spouse).

The traditional alternative can be nightmarishly tedious…thousands in fees for an immigration lawyer…an average wait time of five years according to the NFAP.

Well Direct Consular Filing bypasses all that…

In the simplest terms, DCF means that the American Consulate in your home country will process your application there …rather than sending it back to the states. That’s it. They process your application as a one-off request, rather than sending it through the assembly line back in the states. And since this alternative isn’t very widely known, you’re almost guaranteed to be processed tout de suite.

In fact; one satisfied customer says he got a green card for his lovely bride – a process that has taken months to years through traditional channels – in just 18 hours. Here’s his story…

“Two months before my wedding in New Zealand to a South African citizen (but NZ resident) I called the consulate and made an appointment. I got an appointment for a day after my wedding.

“We gathered all the necessary papers (birth certs, police clearances, etc.) and went in on our appointment day. It costs $450 to file in NZ, and the appointment is about 20 minutes, as they open your package containing the files and letters and passports, check them all in front of you, and give you a receipt for your valuables. Our appointment was at 2:00pm.

“At 8:00am the next day, DHL knocked on our door. Sitting on the step was a prepaid shipping package we bought at the consulate containing all our materials, and my wife’s paper green card, stamped and approved.

“18 hours.”

As he mentions, you’re going to need all the relevant documentation; birth certificates, police clearances, passports etc. Also note that his wife wasn’t even a New Zealand citizen; just a resident. This is allowed by some countries – New Zealand obviously included – but it’s a useful tip for anyone interested…

That’s because it’s immensely easier to obtain a residence permit in a country like New Zealand than a Green Card for the states. So it might seem counter-intuitive, but if the American Consulate in your new home country doesn’t have DCF as an option, it’s probably still worthwhile to get residence permits for a country that does before going through traditional channels (here’s a list of those countries that offer DCF. Cross-Reference with the residence rules stated in Bob Bauman’s Passport Book and you should have a handful of prospects in a few minutes).

Finally, in closing, we can say that we’ve personally tested this one out, and it works.

Or at least our Legal Counsel, Bob Bauman, can say that… “My daughter-in-law received her green card within 90 days of her arrival in the US, probably because she filed, based on her marriage to a US citizen, with the embassy in Cape Town, rather than filing once she arrived.”

Yours in Personal Sovereignty,

Matthew Collins

P.S.: Knowledge is power; especially when it comes to investing, managing your wealth and taking greater control over your own citizenship and personal sovereignty. And we’re offering our entire library FREE to anyone who joins the Freedom Alliance in the next 72 hours. Click here for the details…