We report on the electrochemical preparation of porous GaAs substrates in fluoride-iodide aqueous electrolytes for the lattice mismatched epitaxial growth from the vapor phase. The aim is to gain control over the uniformity of the pore nucleation layer and pore branching below this layer to achieve structures with a high degree of porosity and periodicity while leaving minimum damage on the substrate surface. Layers of In_xGa_1-xAs with varying In content are grown on GaAs substrates with different pore geometries and depths. Substantial differences in the surface morphology and photoluminescence efficiency of the layers grown on porous and conventional substrates are observed.