US Immigration from France

I am filing the I-130 visa for my husband to move to the US with me (I'm an American citizen). We currently reside in France and have for over 10 years. I am currently unemployed, and therefore do not have tax returns for the past couple of years, as you are not required to file. Will this be ok for the visa process however?

Hi all,

After months of going through the K1 visa process and the Adjustment Of Status (AOS), I thought I would share my experience in a post. The information I found on this forum was immensely valuable and I thought I would give back to the community.

I am a French citizen and my now husband is an American citizen.

The K1 VISA:

We filed the I-129F in early November 2023 with all required documentation. We included pictures summarizing our 8 year long-distance relationship as well as plane, train tickets and passport stamps. The I-129F was approved in 4 months (early April 2024).

Then one of the most frustrating parts began: our case being at the NVC. It stayed there for over 3 months. At this point, we had no information on the reasons why the case was not send to the American embassy in Paris. We just had to be patient.

When the file was FINALLY received by the US embassy (late July 2025), I was able to book an appointment. There were no slots before early December 2025. So another 4 months of waiting... In the meantime, I did my medical exams late September 2025 in Paris as well. Closer to the appointment date I received an email saying that the embassy appointment reservation system had migrated. This was a total mess. My appointment was kept but the visa type had switched to an obscure special radio broadcaster visa! I tried over and over to have it fixed but the customer service was the most useless I have ever experienced. At the end, this error did not impact my appointment. I hope the new appointment system works better now.

When it is time to go to the embassy, be prepared to arrive early as there are thorough security checks. And do not bring any laptops or large bags or you will be denied entry. You can bring your phone but you will have to leave it in a case. Inside, you have to stand in line for ~3hours with nothing to do. Then a first consular officer checks your documentation. They just asked for the basic required documents (DS-160, appointment letter, passport, ID pictures, sealed medical exam, birth certificate, etc). The only unexpected document they asked for was the letter from my husband asking for the I-129F extension (it expired early August 2025). I had it but I did not think they would actually want it. After this, I moved to another officer who interviewed me. They asked me basic questions (the interview lasted 5mn):

• When was the last time you saw your fiance?
• How many times did you see each other?
• Have you ever done anything illegal?

I was approved right away and received my passport with the visa a few days later.

The AOS:

On January the 15th, I flew to the US (San Francisco) with the K1 VISA. We married 10 days later and I filed the I-485 (AOS) and I-765 (work authorization) early February. It was a bit painful to gather all the documentation but we managed to do it. In the process, we received only one RFE regarding form I-864 Affidavit of Support. We had not submitted the correct tax transcripts. Be sure to send over the tax RETURN transcripts (the very long ones). As a side note, for European citizens, the multilingual birth certificates they provide in Europe do work for the AOS! No need to pay for a certified translation.

After the RFE, everything went smoothly and quickly. I got my biometrics appointment early March, received the work authorization mid-april and got interviewed by an USCIS officer early May! Our case was transfered to the San Jose field office. The USCIS officer was really nice, asked some questions about our relationships and looked at the pictures we provided. The questions were:

• How did you first meet?
• What was your favourite travel?
• Have you met each other's family?
• Other questions that I don't remember but none of them were tricky.

They told us that they would certainly approve us. We were approved the next day! And I received my green card a couple days later. We were very impressed by how quick our case was handled (3 months!).

Also a side note: on my USCIS online account, the estimated processing time for the work authorization was accurate. The one for the green card was not at all (it was showing something like 20 or so months).

If you have any questions, do not hesitate :).

My PD is May 2023 and my DQ is April 2025 under the EB2 category.

I have no idea how much longer I ll need to wait. If anyone has recently received an IL, could you please share your DQ or PD for reference?

So we got the visas in the mail yesterday.

Of course there are a few snags (aren't there always?)

For one, his passport was due to expire in October and they attached the K1 to it, so he's worried now about coming with a passport that will expire so soon. In France, you must relinquish the old passport to have the new. Also you can't file for a new updated passport earlier than sometihng like 6 months before the expiration. He did all he could for that, but his interview happened while waiting for the new passport so they took the old and attaached the K1 to it.

Now he's not sure what to do about that. He can't relinquish the passport because of this. France doesn't give out passports unless you relinquish. He'll techinically come with a passport that has 'enough' time left on it... but only just. He's worried about what documentation he'll have while waiting for his COS to process.

The other concern/question was: Is it possible for him to open a bank account here before he comes? He wants to close out his financials over there and would like to open his bank account here before coming so that his money is already here. Is this possible?

Then there's the little things, he's bringing his cat... we're trying to figure out the best way to do that. Does anyone have experience with this?

What about his cell phone? Can he use the same phone that was bought in France here and just change the cell service provider? I'm guessing that they'd just change the chip?

TIA for any helpful tips!

Hello everyone,

I'm Mathias, 21, from France. My dream is to work in the US for a few months since a magnificent 9 days trip I did in 2023 to meet a WWII veteran in NC.

I discovered lately that there is a visa that I can ask for, the H2B, since I work in restaurants since 3 years + 1 year in the construction, here in France, and have to bigger graduation that a highschool diploma.

I would love to find a sponsor for the 1st half of fiscal year 2026, between october 202 and April 2026.

I have some questions :

Is it too late to start searching a Sponsor ?

Is California a state with a high seasonnal work demand during winter ?

How can I find job offers from H2B sponsors ? Are they reliable websites or companies too help me in my search ?

Thanks for your help

Mathias