Marriage in U.S. or Abroad - best route for mobility?

[gmartin808 0]

Hello,

I am new to this whole process. I am a U.S. citizen recently engaged to an E.U. citizen. We are currently both living and working in the E.U. Our situation is the following: We both plan on independently traveling to/from the U.S. to interview for jobs with the intention of moving and settling in the U.S. within the next 1-2 years. We are trying to plan our wedding (both time and location) that will allow my future wife to easily and freely travel back and forth to the U.S. to conduct her interviews and then easily allow her entry and permanent resident status once she has a found a job. As it stands, we are faced with 2 options:

1) Ideally, we would like to get married abroad in the next few months, prior to the start of the job application period, but are concerned that this might lead to complications in her traveling to the U.S. for job interviews as well as unnecessarily delay her ability to immigrate to the U.S. to start work (although maybe this is not the issue if she is given a work visa?)

2) However, as I understand it, it might be easier to wait 1-2 years after we finished our interviews, found jobs, moved to the U.S. , and only then get married and apply for a green card for her after all of this is finished.

Does anyone have any suggestions about what is the best path to take? Are there any alternatives that I am not aware of?

Thanks.

W change

[Harpa Timsah 13,261]

Get married when you want. Her being married to a USC should not pose a problem for visiting.

[Owen_London 65]

Hello,

I am new to this whole process. I am a U.S. citizen recently engaged to an E.U. citizen. We are currently both living and working in the E.U. Our situation is the following: We both plan on independently traveling to/from the U.S. to interview for jobs with the intention of moving and settling in the U.S. within the next 1-2 years. We are trying to plan our wedding (both time and location) that will allow my future wife to easily and freely travel back and forth to the U.S. to conduct her interviews and then easily allow her entry and permanent resident status once she has a found a job. As it stands, we are faced with 2 options:

1) Ideally, we would like to get married abroad in the next few months, prior to the start of the job application period, but are concerned that this might lead to complications in her traveling to the U.S. for job interviews as well as unnecessarily delay her ability to immigrate to the U.S. to start work (although maybe this is not the issue if she is given a work visa?)

2) However, as I understand it, it might be easier to wait 1-2 years after we finished our interviews, found jobs, moved to the U.S. , and only then get married and apply for a green card for her after all of this is finished.

Does anyone have any suggestions about what is the best path to take? Are there any alternatives that I am not aware of?

Thanks.

Unless she can find an employer to sponsor her for an work visa (hard), you are better off getting married soon in Europe, so that she can enter the US using a CR-1 (spouse) visa, and look for work as soon as she enters the US. You will either need to be there first (CR-1 visa) or both be still in Europe and moving to the US together, which may allow to use DCF (Direct Consular Filing, I think), which is generally quicker than applying for a CR-1 visa.

Bear in mind you have to prove that you can provide financial support, or get another US citizen to agree to be her financial sponsor.

You could alternatively apply for a K-1 visa, which allows her to arrive in the US, with you already there, and then get married shortly after. This doesn't sound like a good option for you, though, particularly since she would have to wait for her green card for several months before she could start work.

Read through the guides and wiki linked above for more info.

Looking at your options specifically:

1. Her US employment timing is going to be constrained by the visa process, whichever way you do it, and will likely end up waiting for the visa before she applies for jobs, as it's difficult to know how long that will take. You and she probably need to just accept this instead of trying to apply for jobs while any visa is still processing. Most visas take most of a year to process.

2. This is basically the route I followed, moving to the US on an L-1B visa, and getting married a couple of months afterwards. However, an L-1 visa is for intra-company transfers only, and is only available for executives or technical specialists (generally this means jobs that require a post-grad degree). If she can't get this, H1B is her other option, and, as I say, these are hard to get and over-subscribed.

I think you're going to want to decide when the two of you want to move to the US, get married soon, then concentrate on getting her a visa based on your chosen timing. Have her apply for a job in the US once she arrives.

[gmartin808 0]

Hi,

Thanks for the response. Maybe I should provide a little more detail about our situation. Job-wise, we are both currently in working in academia and will be searching for faculty positions at universities in the U.S. Career-wise, it does not make sense for either of us to move to the U.S. before beginning our job search, so we need to be able to search while maintaining our residence and work in the E.U.

I am hopeful that whichever university that would hire her would be able to help her at least get an H1B (am i correct that H1B for faculty positions at universities can be cap exempt?) that will allow her initial entry into the U.S. when we are ready to move.

So, given this new information, if we were to get married in the E.U., would this at all affect her ability to travel to the U.S. to interview for university jobs and/or ability to get an H1B from a potential university that would hire her?

Thanks

Unless she can find an employer to sponsor her for an work visa (hard), you are better off getting married soon in Europe, so that she can enter the US using a CR-1 (spouse) visa, and look for work as soon as she enters the US. You will either need to be there first (CR-1 visa) or both be still in Europe and moving to the US together, which may allow to use DCF (Direct Consular Filing, I think), which is generally quicker than applying for a CR-1 visa.

Bear in mind you have to prove that you can provide financial support, or get another US citizen to agree to be her financial sponsor.

You could alternatively apply for a K-1 visa, which allows her to arrive in the US, with you already there, and then get married shortly after. This doesn't sound like a good option for you, though, particularly since she would have to wait for her green card for several months before she could start work.

Read through the guides and wiki linked above for more info.

Looking at your options specifically:

1. Her US employment timing is going to be constrained by the visa process, whichever way you do it, and will likely end up waiting for the visa before she applies for jobs, as it's difficult to know how long that will take. You and she probably need to just accept this instead of trying to apply for jobs while any visa is still processing. Most visas take most of a year to process.

2. This is basically the route I followed, moving to the US on an L-1B visa, and getting married a couple of months afterwards. However, an L-1 visa is for intra-company transfers only, and is only available for executives or technical specialists (generally this means jobs that require a post-grad degree). If she can't get this, H1B is her other option, and, as I say, these are hard to get and over-subscribed.

I think you're going to want to decide when the two of you want to move to the US, get married soon, then concentrate on getting her a visa based on your chosen timing. Have her apply for a job in the US once she arrives.

[Owen_London 65]

Hi,

Thanks for the response. Maybe I should provide a little more detail about our situation. Job-wise, we are both currently in working in academia and will be searching for faculty positions at universities in the U.S. Career-wise, it does not make sense for either of us to move to the U.S. before beginning our job search, so we need to be able to search while maintaining our residence and work in the E.U.

I am hopeful that whichever university that would hire her would be able to help her at least get an H1B (am i correct that H1B for faculty positions at universities can be cap exempt?) that will allow her initial entry into the U.S. when we are ready to move.

So, given this new information, if we were to get married in the E.U., would this at all affect her ability to travel to the U.S. to interview for university jobs and/or ability to get an H1B from a potential university that would hire her?

Thanks

I don't know the answer to your first question, sorry.

However, as Harpa says, her ability to travel to the US will not be affected by marriage. Should it affect her ability to get an academic H1B? I would guess that it shouldn't, but that would be only a guess.

[Harpa Timsah 13,261]

H1B is dual intent, meaning that it can lead to a GC and the person is able to enter the US with the intent to immigrate. So marriage won't affect her ability to get one. It does seem a bit of a waste for the employer to pay for a H1B when the person has a cheaper alternative to immigration to the US through a spouse, but I suppose if they want you, they want you. Good luck on the upcoming cycle!

[gmartin808 0]

ok... that makes sense....

for us, it's a chicken and the egg thing..... probably already having a green card or spousal visa makes it easier for the employer to hire her.... but it doesn't make sense for us to apply for a green card until she gets hired and we move here.... so i guess we just need to hope that they will grant her an H1B or for us to try to figure out her possibilities as she is interviewing with her future employers

[Harpa Timsah 13,261]

Here's a thought: What country are you in? Some countries offer a fast alternative for spousal visas called "Direct Consular Filing."

[gmartin808 0]

does switzerland qualify?

[Harpa Timsah 13,261]

No, not Switzerland. Austria does. So close...

[Morningmist 76]

"I am hopeful that whichever university that would hire her would be able to help her at least get an H1B (am i correct that H1B for faculty positions at universities can be cap exempt?

Yes they are cap exempt. But it depends on what you are doing. Working in the IT department wont get you the H1B. Professors, researchers, and lecturers will fall in the exempt category.

[Harpa Timsah 13,261]

They said they are seeking faculty positions. That means professor.

[Morningmist 76]

A professor would be considered faculty. Not all faculty positions are Professors.

But I take it back about not all higher education jobs qualifying. Apparently, they do. Whether or not the University will sponsor you is another matter. The University I applied to apparently kept all their visas sponsorship for Lecturers , Associate professors and Professors. None for any of their ancillary departments.