rjm_cmyk

They knew my circumstances - I doubt they understood them though. As a K1 specifically, you are in a DMZ between resident (as defined by the DMV ) and resident as defined by USCIS. You can't establish residency under the DMV rules so you are (arguably) not covered by the 10 day rule but neither are you a visitor so I just don't want to get stopped by the police as they certainly won't understand the nuances of the K1 visa and AOS process....

They knew my circumstances - I doubt they understood them though. As a K1 specifically, you are in a DMZ between resident (as defined by the DMV ) and resident as defined by USCIS. You can't establish residency under the DMV rules so you are (arguably) not covered by the 10 day rule but neither are you a visitor so I just don't want to get stopped by the police as they certainly won't understand the nuances of the K1 visa and AOS process....

Personally I wouldn't (and haven't risked it). I even have copies with me and back at home in the US but I do take the original. The problem will be coming back to the US both at your departure airport and at immigration in the US. I prefer not to have any risk with the IO at all. They really don't have any sense of humour. I do it by the book.

I'd like to use my awesome predictive powers to suggest that the traffic in this thread will start to build as soon as CSC reaches six months out. Closely followed by the complaint about RFE's (fingers firmly crossed)......
Best of luck to all - especially those not being processed by CSC.

Your TV's will be 240V anyway so leave them there, same for most electronics The cost of shipping bulky items is likely to be a toss up between buying new here and selling in the UK cf. shipping costs to bring here Clothing is cheap here so avoid shipping routine stuff. Bedding is a different size too. Focus on the stuff that is of emotional value rather than just household chattels I moved from a UK semi to my wife's house. In the end I got all my stuff boxed up on a couple of pallets. The bulkiest stuff was my DVD collection - which is still in the garage and will get chucked at some point and my vinyl collection. Clothes - I brought very few (moved from Watford to California) , brought some old crockery and cutlery but mostly I brought my personal nick nacks just about all of which fits in my study.
Emigrating is a great opportunity to have a realllllllllyyyyyy big clearout of accumulated stuff.. I spent 12 months culling stuff from my house. Took a while and several attempts to throw out some stuff but in the end I did and don't regret it.

I moved to the US to marry a USC who is also a Brit by birth. There would be no chance of us moving her kids at this point in time even though we could have legally settled in the UK. Don't think her ex would have been too pleased for us to take the kids back to the UK either. Having been visiting the US for over 20 years I come to it open eyed about it's good and bad points.
I'll go for USC next year but only because we both want to split our time when we retire between the US and France and I don't want to run into any GC problems.
This is all assuming The Donald hasn't kicked me out anyway and Brexit doesn't happen...

Yeh - we didn't bother with affidavits or indeed photos. I reckon they're really only interested in solid evidence of financial co-mingling. Everything else is arguably circumstantial. I suspect they mostly look at solid financials such as joint bank accounts (over the 2 year period) , joint health insurance, mortgages and wills/poa/trusts etc.

I've lost track of what this argument is about...
Personally I'm really happy to hear about other's success in this process. It gives me a feel about the timescales especially in my own month_filers thread where I'm with a bunch of fellow travellers. I know full well there is nothing they can do to influence the pace or decision process of USCIS so if they get a result before me - well it's all good. People are getting through the process some quicker than me , others will slower. It's just how it this imprecise process run by humans works.
Stressful ? Nowhere near as a much as the getting the visa and AOS in the first place. This is a breeze by comparison to other stages.

Got mine in a couple of weeks. Opinion seems to vary about this passport stamp thing. As in some offices say they can't give it as the LPR can only have one immigration document at any one time and that's the NOA1.
You'll only get a stamp if the ROC process is going to over run the one year extension. I read this on the internet so it must be true.

Does seem somewhat OTT given what I remember of the post.

All fair points. Ultimately it's what you feel comfortable sending in. ATEOTD you just want to sleep well at night so you send in what suits your personal circumstances, the perceived view of the DHS of your country, what you actually have to offer and what your personal comfort level is.
I'm happy with all that but suggestions that you *have* to send in 30lb of paper may well be well meant but it's not an absolute requirement for everyone.

Whilst the UK and USA share a version of English I think you will find things more different than you might expect. Once you get past the flattery that is "geeee I love your British accent" you will get onto the stage where you realise that some won't understand what you've said. Either because that accent is actually a bit stronger than you might at first think and secondly because idiomatic English can often be confusing to Americans.
There is also the issue that just about everything is different to the UK to a larger or lesser degree. Things you take for granted in the UK won't work the same way in the USA. Some will be minor irritations to begin with , some might be a big pain.
If this sounds like a negative view - it isn't - it's what moving country is all about be it from the UK to the USA or from the USA to France. It's part of what's exciting and fun about it !

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Perhaps if you're moving from rural Wales to NYC. Moving to SF after the SE of England I find it so much slower - even in the city

This is what I did.
1) Got a secured credit card through my bank (WF) - I kindly lent them $1000 at 0%APR for this privilege.....
2) Used about 30% of that credit every month - if you don't your score will go down (go figure)
3) After only three months got offered a "proper" credit card by Capital One which I took out and got a huge $500 credit line on that one.
4) Wait
During this time I have tracked the ups and downs of my credit score on creditkarma.com - good site.
It goes down if I don't put purchases on the cards and also dropped when the hard enquiry on the second card hit. A temporary issue and I have no plans to splurge on anymore credit applications for the time being. The one other the bank recommended (and they would wouldn't they) was a bank loan as additional types of credit improve your score. As I don't need to borrow money and don't really need a higher credit score at the moment I didn't take them up on their kind offer of a loan at outrageous levels of interest. Reading CreditKarma there is obviously a sweet spot in terms of number and type of credit lines but the biggest deal is how long you have had the credit lines and there is not a lot you can do about that.
By way of comparison - on my cards in the UK I had a typical limit of 10-20,000 UKP - here I'm only good for $500 on an unsecured card - starting over indeed !
Oh and make sure any cards you have report back to the credit agencies !!

"Home" is such a vague term anyway - to be applied as one sees fit, which may well be different to someone else.
For me home is the north of England where I was born. I have very little connection with the place having not lived there since I left for college in the 1977 but it still has that emotional draw which I can recognise for what it is - a slightly irrational nostalgia for one's youth and a certain sense of identity.
My life now is in California and having been here for whatever it says in my sig, can say I have never felt homesick for either home or where I made my life in the UK - the London area. I have to add I have been coming here for nearly 16 years so really why should it feel strange ? Yes people can't always understand what I say, some things , ok many things are different and some are good and some are bad . Why change your life so enormously if you only wanted what you had originally ?
I have just had three weeks in the UK. Seen family , friends , a bit of sight seeing and had a really good time. At the end I was looking forward to coming back because my life here is moving forward while what was my life in the UK is moving in other directions. Live with it...

I would say this is the first port of call. Five years is a long time to be looking for work and not find any. I would initially give him the benefit of the doubt and explore this if he is prepared to discuss this aspect. I have been doing consulting work since I arrived (7 months) but expect this avenue to dry up later this year. From day one I have paid my own way and when that work dries up I will be seeking other work and I'll be happy to do anything to offset my cost of living.
I certainly would NOT be asking for the luxuries of life if I did not pay my way or fund it myself. We share equally all family costs but I know I buy the occasional toy and I fund that myself.
If he can offer no reason for not seeking any work or a realistic liklihood of work in his chosen field and wants the luxuries of life he needs to explain how he is going to fund his share of it .
It's a simple question - how are WE going to fund our lifestyle.

I would say this is the first port of call. Five years is a long time to be looking for work and not find any. I would initially give him the benefit of the doubt and explore this if he is prepared to discuss this aspect. I have been doing consulting work since I arrived (7 months) but expect this avenue to dry up later this year. From day one I have paid my own way and when that work dries up I will be seeking other work and I'll be happy to do anything to offset my cost of living.
I certainly would NOT be asking for the luxuries of life if I did not pay my way or fund it myself. We share equally all family costs but I know I buy the occasional toy and I fund that myself.
If he can offer no reason for not seeking any work or a realistic liklihood of work in his chosen field and wants the luxuries of life he needs to explain how he is going to fund his share of it .
It's a simple question - how are WE going to fund our lifestyle.

It's kinda like AA - my name is Richard I married a US citizen. Whaddya want to know ?
Things I can tell you.
1) Unless your situation is unusual - you don't need a lawyer - it's not that hard. I did it...
2) You will ask questions that have been asked many times before - we all did
3) People will be a little more gentle with you if you do a bit of reading first - the guides are very useful but it's worth double checking to make sure that things haven't changed.
4) The process will stretch out into the distance and things won't happen for a long time and then the next thing you'll be rushing to get everything done and hey ho you'll be here
5) You *will*take too much stuff to the Embassy when you finally go for your interview despite us all telling us you won't need it (we all did)
6) You've come to right place.
*Do* start a timeline - it's easier for us and the site can tell you more about the process if you do.
Best of luck on your journey.

It's all been said above but no harm repeating it :-)
You can (from my and other's experience) self sponsor at the London Embassy. My tips are have a clear statement explaining assets and provide supporting documentation. Make it easy for them - always a good idea when doing this process. It's been stated on VJ and I'd agree , that the US Embassy wants to be clear that you can survive K1 -> AOS and have sufficient funds for that. What that figure is - well that's anyone's guess but my logic is that if it looks like say six months cash then it's going to be easy .
It did take a completed AoS from my fiance but only because like everyone else I thought - well it can't do any harm... They never looked at it. I just said I was going to self sponsor and here was a statement of my assets. Easy peasy.

A pub here (or in Helsinki or in Paris or wherever....) is never going to be the same as a Britpub. That said - how many Britpubs are left. Dahnn saarfff - they were fading away when I left and had watched many close - buckling under the weight of supermarket pricing, breweries and frankly a general trend away from pub drinking.
I love a good pub (and can still find them when I visit friends in the Midlands) but I think there is a nostalgia developing for them as they fade away. Sad for those of us that grew up with them but I suspect the new drinking generation is not doing it in smoky pubs.
In respect of home sickness - I will probably never feel that home is here - there's that core affection - call it nostalgia for where I grew up but my *life* and new family is here and I've taken the opportunity to completely change the shape of my life . Yes it helps having resources following the sale of property of the UK but I want to get away from the 6 day week I was working (in my own business) and enjoy life here in California. Been here for 6 months and not felt homesick but looking forward to seeing my family and friends in the UK. Hopefully they are looking forward to seeing me ...

My (now) wife once gave me a marmite sandwich for the train journey home. This was the first time I had stayed with her family when we were at college together. She thought you applied it like jam....
Fair to say I have never let her forget it (Christmas 1980)

I'm not sure there is the nuance in American swearing that there is in English. I was asked by some High Schoolers last week about the various , let's call them uncouth, terms used in The Inbetweeners.
I was asked about someone being called a "w**ker". I tried to explain that this could used as almost a term of endearment as well as an outright insult - context is all. Same goes for "#######". The word shite mentioned earlier is to me a different word completely to it's obvious origin.
I did once try explaining how Brits can use our super word "really" to mean just about anything from the excited right through to complete sarcasm - all in the same sentence :-)

Try getting them to eat Marmite

It should say "if you are stupid enough to send us too much money don't expect a refund and if you are so thick you don't send us enough , we won't process your application until you send us the right amount"
There you go - campaign for clear English version :-)

I know this is a slightly old thread but I though I'd add to the comments (for other people reading). If your relationship is genuine then London certainly is not out to get you. In addition you can fluff a few things and it still won't go titsup. I've just had my AOS this week. I managed to get my age wrong ! A jab in the ribs and a correction from my wife caused much amusement to the IO.
Mr and Mrs style questions ? Well most men would probably get those wrong and the IO's know it so it's really about the "vibe". IO's have seen all shapes of relationships and plenty of scammers. They can tell the difference between the two pretty well I'd have thought.
And for those going through London K1 - I can guarantee you'll find it a breeze if your relationship is genuine and you make sure you comply with their requirements in terms of documents. My top tip ? A properly arranged (small) folder where you can easily pull out all the documents they ask for. I can also guarantee you won't believe me until you walk out that door with a spring in your step.

It should say "if you are stupid enough to send us too much money don't expect a refund and if you are so thick you don't send us enough , we won't process your application until you send us the right amount"
There you go - campaign for clear English version :-)