DCF London - Dual Nationality

Hi everyone,
I've a pretty complicated story to bear with me...
My wife and I have been apart for over 2 years now, waiting for her to get her American citizenship. She is now Irish/American and I'm Irish/English (we both have 2 passports each). We've been together for 9 years now and we have only recently married. She moved over to the States about 1999 having been there for her J1 a year or two earlier. I used to work for a US/Irish company so for the first 3 years I was in America every month for a good portion of the time. So I never overstayed my visa (got a B1 through work) but we had a relatively normal life. After 911 my company folded and I've been going back and forth for about the last 2 years purely on visa waivers (notched up about 25 trips in 2 years).
Now that she has a US passport we'd like to get me a visa, we are hoping to do DCF as it's the quickest but I can't work out if we are allowed to apply for this. My wife is planning (now she has a US passport) to come and live in the UK for a while and then we are both gonna move back. My questions is this..

1. As my wife has an Irish passport as well and has bank accounts social security numbers etc for living in the UK what are the residency status issues.
2. How long does she have to be here before we apply for DCF.
3. Does she need to be in the UK for us to apply or can I just photocopy her Irish and US passports as proof of eligibility to apply for DCF before she gets here.

Thanks for reading my sprawling ramble of an explanation and thanks in advance for any advice.

If your wife has an Irish passport, she can move over to the UK as an EEA national.  She can work immediately, etc.

If you're going to apply for DCF from the UK, I'd say it's a good idea to wait a while.  We've had a couple of people on here who have applied only a matter of weeks/months after establishing UK residency and they've run into trouble with that.  It seems that a wait of a least a year (or better yet, two) is a good waiting time before going for DCF (though I don't know of a written rule...which is kind of the problem!).

Your wife needs to be resident in the UK when applying for DCF.  She isn't eligible to go for DCF from the US.

Hi Paul - I moved this topic into Repatriation, and hopefully you can get some insight here. Lola is right about the DCF - it isn't really the process for you guys. It is for couples who area already living in England and have properl established residency here - meaning they've actually lived in the UK with intention to stay in the UK.

For clarification, let me see if I understand your situaion... you and your wife are both Irish nationals, right? Both of your jobs moved you to the US - and she gained US citizenship through living in the US long enough with her work visa. You however had to come back to the UK, and have just been visiting her there. Now you want to move to the US. Do I have all of that right?

If so - I am guessing the way to get you to the US is through her filing a spousal visa - in the US - for you. I've never done this, and so it is just an initial guess - I'm sure other people can chime in here with some more concrete info... I do know, though, that the DCF isn't designed for your circumstances.

Hope this helps even alittle bit! I know it is all very confusing at times...