I was just wondering if anyone else here has considered and/or will be living in their non-US-citizen spouse's country in the future...just curious....my husband and i plan on moving back to belize and starting a family in about 5 yrs--we are in the US to save money and further our educations so we can lead successful lives in a third-world country. We also wanted the visa so we could travel back and forth to visit family, whereas before, Steven would have never been able to even take a vacation with me in the US. If the US is only temporary for you, why?

We have chosen to live in Belize for many reasons...we are environmentalists for one, and have land down there and secondly, want to raise our kids in a less-materialistic place, in the hopes that they will grow up valuing different things in life...my husband's country is such a beautiful place, with so much diversity, and we are both so in love with it....has anyone else chosen this path?

We're not moving to Venezuela any time soon, due to the current political situation and crime rate, but we've discussed the possibility of moving to another Latin American country. So far, it's in the "wouldn't it be nice someday..." phase, with no definite plans.

If you do go, consider having the non-USC spouse obtain US Citizenship first, assuming the other country doesn't prohibit dual citizenship. With only a green card, time spent outside the US could constitute abandonment of permanent resident status, but the marriage to a US Citizen could make it hard to enter as a tourist, so it might be difficult to enter the US again. You'd might have to go through the whole visa process once more to return to the US even for a visit. However, once a person has US Citizenship, they can leave the US for as long as they want, and come back at any time.

My fiance and I have spoken about this as well. We met while I was living in Brazil and he wanted me to stay but I was not ready for that - being a recent college graduate at the time and missing my family and friends.
I went back to stay with him twice and I SERIOUSLY considered staying there but we decided that the K1 visa is a better choice for us now.
For the same reasons you stated, belize, my fiance is moving here. He will have many more opportunities here in the U.S., will be able to study, work, and learn English.
However, we talk about returning to Brazil to live. He loves his country (as do I) and I think we'll go back one day - hopefully not too far from now.
It's hard though because my family and friends are here. My fiance has lost his parents and his grandma who raised him [] within the last year and a half. It's been very hard for him, yet it makes it easier to leave Brazil behind now.

My fiance is from the Amazon and besides the EXTREME HEAT & HUMIDITY it's a great place to live. We'll see...only time will tell.

My husband (U.S. citizen) and I (Canadian citizen, soon to be applying for U.S. citizenship) would like to move to Canada sometime in the future.

Even though most things are a lot cheaper here in the U.S., health insurance is NOT. At the moment, my husband has great health insurance with his employer, so we're okay for now. But he plans to retire at 62 (10 years from now) and we won't be eligible for Medicare until 65. So, we are hoping to move to Canada at that time and to get my husband Canadian citizenship.

I have 2 adult sons in Canada, and my daughter is here in the U.S. with us going to college. My husband has 1 adult daughter here in the U.S., so no matter where we live, we won't be near some of our children.

I've already started looking into what is involved, even though in 10 years the whole process could change.

wow i didn't realize one could lose ones' permanent resident status...hmm....how long does citizenship take again? 4 yrs after you get the green card or something like that? we plan on birthing our children in the US, for obvious immigration reasons, so we will be in the US for some time (because babies are in the fuuuuuture for us...) so maybe we'll still be here for the citizenship...thanks for bringing that up....

As long as you stay married and living together, you're eligible for citizenship 3 years after getting the Green Card. And you can usually start the paperwork 90 days before that three year period finishes. It'll typically take them 6-9 months or so to process things (but by the time you're ready, the processing timelines will have changed), so four years total isn't far from the mark, though it's probably a bit quicker. See the US Citizenship forum here on VJ for more details.

Note that, as long as one parent is a US Citizen and has lived in the US for the required time (five years total, at least two of which must have been after age 14), the child will automatically be a US Citizen at birth regardless of where the child is born. So there may not be a huge immigration reason for having your children born in the US. There may be plenty of other reasons you would choose to do so, though.

We talked about moving to Brazil after we retire. Probably to a beach where we can sit all day, drink coconut water and enjoy doing nothing

I even want to move back to Mexico right now even while waiting for my NOA2! He's never been here before, and I don't know how he'll feel about living here. I'd like to think that we can stick it out long enough for him to get his citizenship, but only time will tell.

I also need some time to finish my Master's and get to a point where I can freelance from home to make money, because I can't go back to working for a Mexican company. We'd never be able to afford a car, house, and kids on what we'd earn. So, the plan is to save money, build some capital and move back.

My husband is retiring in 4 years and we are going to settle down in my country, Philippines. We... ok HE already bought a beach front property just last year... of course there's no way in h-ll we can afford something like that here in the US... it doesn't cost much to start a business there, so he is more than willing to try life back there. And since he is still young by the time he retires (38 yo), he might look for a job in the US embassy there in case he gets bored sitting on his a_s. He is now working in the US Emb - in Moscow for the last 2 yrs and Czech starting July for 3-4yr assignment, so hopefully that would be an edge for him. So, I can't wait to move back home... yes it's a third world country, but there is no place like home.

Gabacha--it sounds like we have a lot in common....like you, i randomly chose to do my undergrad field work for my thesis in Belize and again randomly, met my now husband. My thesis was about a student's guide to social change-work with NGOs in developing countries...what was yours about? i agree with you, in that if i could move to belize right now i would...and the thing is, we potentially "could"...but, we have a bunch of random goals that require money so we wouldn't have to say, take out a loan, to open up a dancehall...such is life....even if you guys don't last long in the US and end up moving back to Mexico sooner than you might like, i do think the move to the US is an important cultural experience for the non-US spouse, especially in getting to understand where you came from...my husband and i were raised in incredibly different environments, economically, religiously, etc. so i think even though the move and transition is tough, it is well rewarding...i imagine you're young too if you were in school at the time, i'm 21 and steven is 25...just wanted to say hi

This is an interesting thread -- it's made me think a lot about the future (which is a little bit scary, but good). My fiance and I have a LOT to do that requires us to be in the US. I have to finish an English Lit ph.d, which I can't do in Colombia. He wants to be in the animal care industry, for which the U.S. has a MUCH larger market. And like Lucyrich, I worry about the political stability and overall safety of my fiance's country.

On the other hand, I love Colombia. I can imagine myself some day retiring happily to or summering frequently in Cartagena. And I know he loves Colombia with all his heart, so I cannot rule out the possibility of living there for a long period of time -- it would make him so happy.

Hi Belize! Believe it or not, I never even thought about your reasoning behind the non-USC spouse moving to the States, but it makes a whole lot of sense. His wanting to move is for two reasons: 1)I was getting to feel unhappy living in Mexico and 2) we're both sick of the treatment workers get in Mexico with no job stability and working like a dog for little to no money. And anything that we'd like to do in Mexico (even as simple as having his own taco cart) requires money that he'll never be able to get from working in Mexico.

In an incomplete nutshell, my thesis examined Yucatec Mayans' perceptions of Cancun and how migration to Cancun for work changed the village. My personal life merged with my academic life when I fell for a Yucatec Maya who decided to move to Cancun for work because he had no options in his village! But our courtship and the first six months of our relationship took place in his village, and we later moved to Cancun, where I spent five years.

We are planning on living in the U.S. for the first few years probably but haven't decided yet about whether we will move to Canada but it may be an option in the future (we'll have to wait and see.) My family is here!

We are planning on living in the States for now to save money and finish school, pay off debts stuff like that for a few years and then move back to Peru.

We haven't planned it. It has been more of a "retirement" thing.
It all kind of dependes. If we have children. How things go economically. etc...
Ideally, we would move back and forth. But that is just not realistic for us.

bleah, did I say anything?

Daniel

We decided to do the K-1 because I wanted to get married in the states with my family present and originally we were just going to go back to Nicaragua together. My SO has never been here so I was a little nervous that he won't like it but we have now decided to live in the states for political and financial reasons. We plan on getting established, possibly my SO becoming a citizen and having our first child here then going as missionaries to a LA country possibly Nicaragua. I love Nicaragua and all the Central American countries I have lived in so it is a definite possibility we will live there again some day.

This is great thread, which I have enjoyed reading. For us our plans are for him to of course come here and not sure how long we will actually be here. Even though I would love to live in his country for a while... it is just not going to work out for some obvious reasons being the relationship between Cuba and the US. But neither him nor I want to stay in the US for a long time and decided with this path because 1) I want him to meet my family and really get to know them; 2) it will be easier to travel or do missions somewhere else when he is able to enter and leave said country easier (and that is not the case for him in Cuba now). There are certainly other reasons now, but they seem to be slipping my mind. We want to move possibly to another LA country and work and live there. Our heart is to live and serve others and for whatever reason we are drawn to LA, I mean clearly being as he is from Cuba and me... well, I feel in love with a Cuban and even before that fell in love with other LA countries. For me, and him as well, living and raising a family in a place other than the US is ideal because there are just different values there and life is simpler... which is what we are about, "living simply so others can simply live." Ganted that can and should be done wherever one is at, but something is lost being here in the US. So we have no definite plans as to where or when... but some time int he future we will be moving out of the US, probably after he gets his US citizenship so as to make the in and out travel much easier. And who knows what will happen with Cuba in the future, so we may even end up back there... which would be great with me. As others have stated the hardest thing will be being far from my family, but I know that whether I were single or married that is still my heart to live and serve in another country. Only time will tell and God know.

My wife and I plan on living in Colombia. It will be a few years as we are looking at property but want it paid off before we go back to live. I have had enough of the life here in the states. While I realize how good we have it it just isn't for me any longer. I have travelled a lot over the last four years and seen many places I can live more comfortably and the people a whole lot more pleasant to be around. We figure about 5 years, 7 tops, in the meantime we can spend 80-90 days a year there. Enough to keep us both happy.

Doug

We plan on moving back someday. When? Not sure. Still in the "wishing" stage.

Good question, like hearing others responses! We were talking about that last night

By the way, what part of Belize is he from? I lived on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua for a few years and when we traveled back by land (chicken buses and random adventures) we went to Dangriga, Belize. I wish my honey could have traveled back that far, he would have felt like HOME! man, I LOVE that coconut rice and beans and fresh coco bread! AYE, getting homesick again. It was awesome because the Creole people of Bluefields and the coast are very similar to the Belize people. My love has some Garifuna blood in him too. Do you like to punta? Girl, I would come to your dance hall!

Anyway, yes we plan on going back to Nica in 4-5 years too. We want him to have the opportunity to get to know the culture, where i'm coming from and to meet all my family and friends. And it would be nice to have him making better money, he's a panguero down there and working hard and not much money at all. This whole transition thing is going to be so hard on him, I don't think he's going to adjust well. And we'll have to move someplace warmer, Wisconsin would kill him! We want to have kids here and then go back there. I would prefer the lifestyle and simplicity there and want my kids to know that. I love being so close to the earth and walking to the markets daily, I love playing in the mud and planting and cutting open fresh coconut with my machete. But then the struggle of my family and friends all here and my parents not being able to see their grandchildren and i'm soo close to my family...

this crazy thing they call love, my friends. lots of road blocks and jumping through hoops just to get them here... aye. stay strong. this is such a great support system, others try to understand but really have no idea! we do! and it will make our love stronger and better because we had to work so hard to get it!

Eli y Mauri and Kristen&Mark brought up something that I`m surprised doesn`t get mentioned much- have any of you (especially K-1ers) already experienced or heard of serious problems with immigrants being unable to adjust to the US? Anyone finally get his/her visa and then get so homesick or just plain frustrated with life here that they just went back home?

As for our plans, we`d both like to live in my wife`s country someday. Like a lot of you said, the money is a big reason we aren`t there now. Although I`ve travelled there fairly extensively, the only time I`ve actually lived outside the US was with the military and that was like living in a little piece of the US. There`s no telling how well I would cope, but I`s sure like to have the experience for a while. Ideally, I think it would be great to live there for a few years, then snow-bird for the rest of my life!

Hello again my friends,

Well, yes, this is exactly our plan as well as for exactly the same reasons! We love that life in the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua--the values, the land, the simplicity. Not that life is perfect there because there is lots of drama in the community where he lives but overall, big picture, that is the life that we want. So, yes, I can understand fully your life plan! Sending you many blessings, Phoebe and Georgie

We do for sure. Jamaica is where our relationship started. Can't wait to move back. We already have land - just need to start saving money to build on it!

Although my husband has been in Italy for the past 10 years, he is from Guayaquil, Ecuador. We visited over the summer and I really liked it. Like many of you, we are going to save money and build a house down there and move after hubby gets citizenship. We lived in Italy together for two years after we were married but there didn't seem to be many opportunities there and life was pretty difficult. Hopefully within the next 10 years we'll have college loans paid off and some money in the bank so we can go down there.

oh, man! i love this thread. my husband is from colombia. i have been to colombia a bunch of times. i love colombia. i daydream of when we can move there. seriously, i even flip through the real estate sites and imagine a time when we could split out time between the states and colombia. if it were not for my mother who would absolutley go into cardiac arrest if i told her we were moving to colombia, we would move there. however, i am married now. my husband left a land he loved to be here in the states with me. so, i cannot ever rule out moving there for any reason, including my mother, i suppose. the cool thing: my mom is totally psyched about visitng colombia and seeing the country, which raised carlos. maybe...just maybe...she will see what i see in colombia and move there herself. much love to you all.

Sometimes I get so frustrated with things here that I want to say screw it and move to Mexico.

We plan to set up shop in Germany at some point in the future - we're researching whether or not to get Karin's citizenship..or not - plus whether or not I'll be able to live and work there..one step at a time. In general though, we foresee us living in Germany in 5 or so years.

My husband is also Belizean and I lived in Belize with him for a couple of years until last summer when I came back home to Texas. I really miss it and definitely plan on going back. Sooner than later maybe! I don't live in the same area as the OP but I agree that it is an amazing country that I adore very much. I live on one of the cayes and have a small business there that makes practically no money, so I'm here right now just trying to figure things out. Also, my family kinda needs me right now. It's hard to move to the foreign country when you are so close to family and when they don't understand your choices (like mine), it's only that much harder.

I would like for Dean to come here becaue I agree that he needs to see where I come from and it would be nice for him to get away from the small island drama for awhile but it will be most likely 2 more years before he can come to Texas. So anyway, I'm actually thinking about returning back to Belize this summer and teaching school on Caye Caulker. I have torn feelings about living in either country but I know that right now I want to be with my husband so we'll just have to see how things work out.


P.S. to the OP Belize....just in case you haven't done any in depth research on the whole citizenship thing. I have a friends that live on the island. She's from Chicago and he's Belizean. Anyway, they came over last summer on the fiance visa, got married and got his greencard really quickly. They were back in Belize in late December. They own very profitable, busy businesses on the caye and need to be in Belize frequently. They told me the rule was that you must spend at least 6 months a year in the US or you will lose your privileges. I don't remember if this was 6 consecutive months or if that mattered.

This is a great thread,did'nt realize there were so many stateside that had an interest to move out of the States. I also happen to be one of them along with my wife. Having been to Colombia on five different occasions and being so near retirement my mind has been constantly on making this big move.We can possibly do this as soon as the second half of next year. The places that come to mind as far as area is concerned is the Armenia Pereira vicinity. The elevation, around 4000 ft high, is perfect as far as year around climate, around 80 degrees, with relatively no humidity. The country side and people of Colombia are very friendly and always ready to lend a hand. We also are planning to build a house from the ground up. My wife has a small house in Tulua that we ar interested in adding onto. Right now the dollar is taking somewhat of a beating ahving gone from 2200 pesos to 1900 pesos in the past year so now seems to be the time to invest. Ideallly we would travel and livein both countries. Good luck to you all in your future endeavors.