New Consular Visa Filing Rules

Under a new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") rule,  consular processing of family based visa petitions will be filed in the Chicago office of USCIS instead of with the US Consulate where the beneficiary of the petition lives.  It is expected to delay the processing of the petitions which were often issued relatively quickly by the Consulates.   Some persons living in countries, such as Mexico, El Salvador, Panama, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, India, Ghana, South Africa, China, Thailand, Russia and the Philippines, where USCIS maintains field offices, may file their I-130 petitions with the field offices in their home country.