Hi,

I'll start with a bit of relevant history, I met my wife while she was studying during the summer in the UK in 1998, She went home and we visited each other at every opportunity, She moved over here in Sept 2000, and was married in March 2001. Our Son was born Oct 2005 ( got him a US passport & SS number at earliest opportunity), Wife was diagnosed with cancer in March 2006 and recently was given the all clear.

Obvisously all our priorities have changed and she gave up her great job to become a stay at home mum and look after out son Josh. We have recently been considering a move to the states before our son reaches schooling age, 2008ish, i've got to say at this point it IS only a consideration, mainly on how easy it would be for me to get a visa and work in the states.

I'm just after a bit of advice on how easy it actually is to get the K3 Visa ( if that is actually the best route to take), How long the process could realistically take (we're in no rush what-so-ever) and is the visa time-limited (i.e. can we get the visa, THEN plan on moving 6 months down the line).

I know these questions seem a bit flakey, but were really just at the stage of weighing up the pro's & con's, and i'm sure i'll have a lot more questions. We have a pretty good standard of living in the UK, but i know the wife would like our son, to better get to know the American side of the family & friends and experiance a bit of american up-bringing.

Thank for any responses

Dave

Go for the IR1 instead of the K-3.

Since your wife has lived there for so long you can definitely do a direct consular file with the US Embassy in London.

I've seen people complete IR1s in London in four months. Realistically you'd be looking at more like 6-8 months to do one. As long as you've never overstayed a visa in the US and you don't have a criminal record, you shouldn't have any problems. Do NOT take my timeline as a typical IR1 in London timeline; we moved at a glacial pace gathering documents for various reasons. It should not take you the 14 months that it took us.

The issue will be sponsorship; domicile WILL NOT BE AN ISSUE IN YOUR CASE. Your wife will have to petition for you no matter her employment status, and since neither one of you is employed in the US your income in the UK WILL NOT COUNT towards the income requirements. You can use the equity in your house (if you own property) in the UK as long as it's sufficient. The I-864 affadavit of support form will have more info on that; the income requirements change frequently with inflation. If you guys can't come up with sufficient assets yourselves you will need a sponsor in the USA...but no matter what, your wife has to fill out an I-864.

A K-3 is a non-immigrant visa that requires an adjustment of status once in the United States, and you will require authorization to work on it. An IR1 is a ten-year unconditional green card, the equivalent of the indefinite leave to remain visa in the UK; you are free to remain in the US and work anywhere you want. The IR1 is what you want, if you are not severely time-limited. Once an IR1 is issued you have six months to activate it; all you have to do is visit the US and get it stamped. Your permanent resident card is then sent out a month later to your address in the United States. You don't have to be there yet. Once it is issued I wouldn't faff around and take a year to move to America, but if it takes you longer than six months (as it has in our case) I don't think anyone's going to hassle you over it.

Thanks a lot for the swift reply.

I can see i came to the right place for advice. Both of us do not have any criminal record, neither of us have outstayed any previous visa's and we have more than enough equity not to be a financial burden on the state. The only major thing that is kinda putting me off is the US healthcare insurance system with the wife's previous history, but thats a different matter.

I shall try and obtain more information on the IR1 visa, and see what is required. I can't see it will be problem, i'm solvent, employable, no criminal record, healthy etc. I think i might make it a little project and see where it goes. It really is all above realising our options at the moment.

Again, thanks for the info homesick. Much appriciated

Dave

No problem...and the health insurance issue is something you should worry about. Before committing to a move, you should check around with carriers in the US to see how they would treat her medical history both for health and life insurance. A really poor medical history can even keep you from getting a mortgage, and that happens here in the UK too. It really depends on what kind of cancer she had, how advanced it was, what her family history is, what her prognosis is, etc. If she had IBC for example, you guys can probably forget coverage for her. If she had very early stage cervical cancer, you might be OK. It all depends. Check it out.

Hmmm, i've look on the US dept of state website for additional information.....and WOW.

It looks like the 1st course of action is to file a I-130. I know it was mentined that domicile wouldn't be an issue, but she has been here so long that she no longer has a US address (apart from family addresses), so i'm not sure how that will play out.

I've started filling out the I-130 form, and hit a few hurdles already, for example, "18. Address in the United States where your relative intends to live", well, we simply don't know yet, i "guess" we could put her parents address down, but we have no intentions of doing so. I've also looked at the documentaion required to prove a family relationship:

1) a marriage certificate (easy)
2) termination of previous marriages (not applicible)
3) Photo's (a real pain to find a photographer to do US style photos, as experiance by trying to get our son's done)
4) a completed and signed form G-325A biographical information for me. (i'm having trouble finding this form, but i take it it's a medical check, so i guess i should book an appointment to the quacks).

When i said earlier i shall make it a bit of a project, i think i mean't to say a major project, just looking at http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/ty...types_2991.html has given me a headache and i need to take 2 neurofens and lay down.......not a good start.

Just put her parents' address. That's what I did.



Just put down her parents' address. That's where they'll send your social security and green card if you decide to do this; your passport with visa and all the other stuff is sent to your UK address. Even if you don't intend to stay there, put the address anyway. You WILL have to fill out a form notifying the govt of each address change, but so what?



No, that's the easy part. When we did the I-130 we just used photos from one of those booths at the mall.



Uh, no...that's not it. Look it up on the USCIS's website, you should find a link to it in PDF format.



It's not really that hard; if you look at my timeline vs my join date on VJ, you'll see that we did it all by ourselves without any help from anyone here. That's not to say we couldn't have used a bit of support, but this is straightforward enough to do on your own without a lawyer. Hell, we did it. Yours is a straightforward case. When we filed the I-130 we didn't need so much evidence so I can't help you there, but check out the United Kingdom regional forum for people who have filed that form more recently.

You've got good information on the IR1 visa process using Direct Consular Filing. Since you're not in a hurry, this is probably the best choice of Immigrant visa for you. However, I would like to suggest you also consider an alternative. Finding a job for yourself in the USA first, with a company that will sponsor you for a work visa would provide both the security of a job and generally big company health insurance for your family with no qualifying. Depending on your skill set, this may or may not be a good option but I think it is worth checking out. Since the rest of your family are US Citizens already, the Employer only needs to deal with your visa. Then once in the States, your wife can file the I-130 and adjust your status to permanent resident. This is not the correct forum within Visa Journey to deal with either IR or Work visas but there is plenty of help here.

Hmmm, thanks for the info pushbrk, perhaps a moderator could move it to save me typing it all out again.

Your point about finding a US employer to sponser me may be a route of interest, as i work for a multi-international company with offices in 140 countries, and all over the states, but i'm not sure if they deal in my area of expertise, in the location where we wish to move (Boston). So i might be best biting the bullet and setting out on this journey not relying on my employer, although i will get in touch with our human resources and make enquiries (it would oviously make it an easier transition if i know where i can find work).

But at this point i'm of the opinion i'd rather get all the paperwork out of the way here and now, while we have no pressure, then leave a transistion period if/when we move to find a job. I'm in what is considered a skilled occupation, so i'm hoping ( with addition skill training specific to the US) i'd find work, if i gave myself, say, a set period of a year.

If you have sufficient assets and/or resources to go a year without work, it is likely those resources can qualify you to self sponsor. You'll want to check into all that too. It's good to weigh all your options.

There is a forum here for Direct Consular Filing--that is the nickname for filing I-130 overseas. Many of your Qs about filing from abroad are answered there.

All of it will make a lot more sense after reading this page: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...om&page=dcf

Domicile is an issue, but one that you will be able to overcome. Please don't ignore it.

It wasn't for us. The instructions from London state that an intention to re-establish domicile in the United States is good enough. I do not have 'domicile' in the US, but my husband got his visa.

Thats good to know, but i take it on the I-130, you put a family address as the place you intend to live. We have no intentions of living with my wifes family as we should be self-sufficient.

Also, i've started filling in the G-325A forms, can i ask, it informs you to fill in all 4 pages but the pages are duplicates, i take it you have to fill them all in with the same info. Seems a bit unnessesarly labourious, but i guess i'll get used to all the beaurocricy.

I think a better option is to get used to using the fillable PDF forms. Once you fill the first page of the G325a, the other pages populate automatically. :-)

Good tip. I love those ones that the IRS has. So convenient!

See, that's why i love getting advice from forums. Great tip, i didn't know the PDF files were writeable.

OK, so thats I-130 form filled in, G-325a for both me and the other half completed, most of the Documentation found (i take it these do have to be originals, i HATE to send the originals to everything, it would be a nightmare if they lost them) & we'll make a trip to the nearest photographers that do US style passport photo's this weekend. Hopefully posted off the London Monday & and i'll take it from there, i still haven't seen what the IR-1 application involves but i imagine it's all good fun.

Ok, i've filled in all the forms and copied all the relevant certicates and such, and was going to post to the US embassy in London, but i've had a nasty thought, if i send this application in and start the visa process, will this affect my rights to travel to the US when we go across to the states? We travel twice a year to Boston, and i'd HATE to think i'd have trouble getting through immigration the next time we go because they think because i've filed for an immigration visa i want to stay there permanently, i know how twitched some of these guys can be.

I know this is a question that comes up a lot in the K1 forum (don't ask me why I read there...I never had to go through the process myself) and filing for an immigrant visa does show you eventually have intent to immigrate. It however, does not mean that they will automatically deny you entry into the US to visit. Showing that you still have strong ties to the UK (a home, a job, etc.) can overcome the assumption that you're going to stay. To me, filing for an immigrant visa shows that you want to do it the "right" way, but you're right that some of the CBP officers overthink things a little. (Suppose they have to.) That would probably be a question you want to ask in the IR1/CR1 forum though, as they'd be more familiar with it.

Seems like I may be too late to save you time on this, but the London Embassy only needs one copy of the G-325A (clipped from the I-130 checklist from the Embassy website):

"Only one form to be completed by the petitioner and one form by his/her spouse. Do not submit multiple copies (even though you might see instructions elsewhere to do so)."
My husband and I submitted one copy each and left off the other three, and as you can see by my timeline we are now awaiting Packet 4 so it is clearly the way to go!

Thanks for the tip, i found some PDF file whereby you can fill the G-325A online and it automatically fills in the other 3 forms, thanks to a tip on here.

I went looking for some US style passports in Sheffield today only to be told on one photographer does them, and he wanted £50 for 2 single photo's. i just laughed and left, i'll have to make a trip up to snappy snaps in leeds where we got 4 for something like £13 when we got my son's photos for his US passport.

But the I-130 should be away be the end of the week.