abbeymg

Hello,

I am in the process of moving my husband to the US. I have a question about health insurance upon his arrival. He will be searching for a job in his field (Software Engineering) and will hopefully get insurance benefits through that while I finish my graduate studies. I am in my mid-20s and on the last year of my parent's health insurance I am eligible for before I age out, which luckily overlaps with the last year of my studies before I can get a job.

My question is, my husband has German health insurance but will not be eligible to get on my parent's plan when he moves here and I will not have my own plan until next year. What is the best course of action of getting him covered while he is finding a job and settling in? I don't want him to go uninsured. He is healthy, but obviously we can't guarantee anything won't happen to him in the first month or two of his arrival. 

I looked into this plan for him, does anyone have any experience with this company?

Thank you!

Update:

I finally got in touch with a higher-up manager at my bank. He thankfully knew what I meant and ordered a check drawn on Wells Fargo through the German bank, as the consulate said it had to be drawn on a US bank.

I sent my I-130 documents today, so hopefully it works out and that check, guaranteed and in USD drawn on Wells Fargo (a US bank) is accepted. Fingers crossed.

5 minutes ago, Jorge V said:

My answer isn't German specific, but I'll share to get things started. Mexico accepted personal checks or money orders. I did not have checks so I ended up sending money to someone in the US so that they could get a money order and then Fedex to me. It wasn't ideal but it worked.

Thanks, I was seriously not hoping for this answer. :/

Germany does not accept personal checks, so I guess I can try the money order thing, but we seriously need to file like... now. I really don't have time to wait on my mother to send me that from the US, especially because post in Germany takes forever. UGH this process is literally the most stressful and painful thing I have ever done in my life.

Has anyone had any luck with an international bank draft?

Hello,

I am a bit confused as to how to make payment if I 1. do not have a US bank account and 2. do not have any personal checks. What methods of payment have you been using now that credit card isn't available? I'm really frustrated by this.

Thanks.

Ok, thanks everyone! I will be sure to follow all these steps to ensure they know he is intending on settling in the US.

Hi,

Can my husband work internationally after receiving his green card (in the process of getting it now). The reason I ask is because he should get his green card by August 2018 if everything goes according to plan, but his job placement in Germany lasts until April 2019. 

I will have already relocated to the US as of May 2018, which is why we filed already (DCF through Frankfurt). He plans on spending the months of December and January in the US, so he will be away for 3 months, then a month and a half back in the US and then another 2 months, most likely, before he settles here for good. Will this cause a problem? He plans on working here once he is free from his contract in Germany.

Thanks!

Thank you so much to everyone who replied! It looks like I will then file directly with the consulate, hoping he will receive his visa by late spring/early summer and enter with me then. 

One last question for all of you super helpful people: Should I file rather sooner than later, or should I file in January or February so that he gets will hopefully have his permit approved by the summertime, so he could come over in August with me? Obviously, it would be ideal for us if he could arrive after our second wedding anniversary simply because less paperwork down the road, so I don't want to apply too early and leave him scrambling to enter the US before the six months is up, but we have a wedding on August 25th, 2018, so he HAS to be in the US by that date, so I want to be on the safe side. When would you recommend filing? 

Thanks again, sorry for overloading all of you with questions.

1 hour ago, JFH said:

Yes, this would work. He needs to enter the USA within the validity of the visa (6 months from the date of the medical examination) but he is then free to come and go as he pleases as he will be a permanent resident. He should be mindful to not spend more than 6 months at a time out of the country. 

 

You don't need to establish domicile for him. Domicile is a requirement for the USC, not the beneficiary. 

Thank you! An addendum to this question that I realized may affect the answer... I am dumb and somehow forgot to put this in:

We were married on August 9th, 2016, so if we apply for his permit this winter, but he receives his visa and arrives AFTER our second wedding anniversary, is he a conditional resident still? Or does it count from the date of his arrival, meaning we will have already been married for two years at this point. Would this affect his ability to come and go as he pleases for less than six months?

Hello,

I am a US citizen married to a German citizen. We live in Germany right now. I want to move back to the US for a job next summer (2018), but my husband is finishing his graduate studies here and won't be able to move with me until spring 2019.

Could we still apply for his permanent residence while living in Germany through Frankfurt? I know this process is A LOT less stressful than filing once I am back in the US for whatever reason and takes only 3 to 4 months to process and grand visas/green cards.

So basically, my question is: if we apply for his visa in March 2018, and it is granted by June or July 2018, but he can't permanently move to the US until March of 2019, would this disqualify him from getting his green card through filing directly in Frankfurt? Is there a six month (or similar) time limit to when he can ''activate'' his visa by arriving in the US?

Our timeline: I move back in May 2018 ---> He receives permanent residency in summer 2018 ---> He moves to US permanently late winter/early spring 2019.

We can definitely establish a domicile for him (a place of residence, open a bank account, transfer his driver's license, etc) but he would have to go back and forth between Germany until the end of March 2019. We would like to limit our long distance time as much as we possibly can, obviously, so I would much rather apply for his visa while we are still together in Germany if possible. This also means that if he already has his visa he can start applying to jobs while still finishing up grad school, which would be a huge weight off of our shoulders because it means less time spent unemployed. 

Thank you!

My parents would definitely cosponsor, they love him and actually want us to come back. I've mentioned it before and they've offered. They're pretty well off, would that be enough?

Hi,

American living in Germany with my husband here. He's German and we've been married since this August. He's currently doing his master's and I'm working. I really want to be a nurse, and was planning on returning to school to do an accelerated BSN program (I already have a BA) once my husband is done with his master's. The problem is, will the fact that I won't be working when I move back to the US prevent him from getting residence?

He plans on working after his master's and hopefully will begin searching for a job in the US. We have a size-able amount of savings and we will have more once we go back to the US (I hope), because I'm working right now. Will this be enough, or would it be best for me to find a job in the US while we file for his residence permit/visa? I'm a bit overwhelmed, starting is really scary and I'm worried about our future in the US, which is where I truly want to be, especially because nursing is not a field that's really as broad/highly esteemed and challenging in Germany as it is in the US. Has anyone every gone through anything similar? Will the fact that I'll have been an expat for two or three years hinder our application for him? I've retained my US driver's license and permanent address at my parent's place, as well as American credit cards and bank accounts open.

Thanks!

Hi all,

I am American and live with my husband (German) in Munich. I currently work in advertising and dislike it and my husband is getting his master's in Computer Science. When he is done, we would like to move to the US. Here's the problem/what I'm slightly nervous about: When we head back to the US, I would like to pursue a new career that has been calling to me for years (nursing). This will involve going to school for about 2 years to do pre-reqs and get an accelerated BSN, full-time. I don't plan on looking for a job. We have a comfortable amount of savings and my husband will have his master's degree in Computer Science at this point.

Would we be denied entry back into the US as I will have been an expat for three years at that point and won't have a job in the US? I've kept a US credit card line and bank account open, and am registered in my permanent address at my parent's place in Connecticut. I've also kept my US driver's license and not switched it out for a German one because I don't want to have to switch it once we go back. Once he gets his visa, he would obviously work. My worry is that as his sponsoring spouse, I will have to work to bring him over. Has anyone gone through a similar process? What would be the best way to get us over there?

By that time, we will have been married for more than 2 years, which is good, but I'm a bit overwhelmed by what the best course of action here is. Moving to Germany with me as his wife was ridiculously simple. I don't even know where to start from here.

Thanks!