Mikiek

Great - thanks for the reply...

Does anyone know what the UK timelines are?

Mikiek

Hey guys,

I would really appreciate it if someone could answer a few questions for me as I'm a little confused.

I have lived in the US (born in UK, married US wife) for 1 year and 9 months now. I arrived on a DCF (I-551) and am about to process an I-751 to remove my 2 year conditions. Once these are removed can I sponsor my sister (and her family) to live in the US? - My sister, husband and 4 children want to move to the US with me. If so, what is the process (I-130?) and time lines? Or do I have to wait for my I-400 to be processed and approved in 15 months time?

I have searched the forums and can only find http://www.visajourney.com/content/child and http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/B1.pdf under http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/314-immigration-guides-for-foreign-relatives/ I am confused as these only talk about sponsoring your child or husband/wife. What about brothers and sisters? Do you use the same forms and process?

What are the processing times for this? I have read anywhere from 1 - 23 years so I am really confused.

My eldest niece is currently 15. I know that if they reach 21 that makes them an adult. If this process takes that long, can I still bring her to the US?

Many thanks,

Mikiek

Hi All,

I arrived in the US 18 months ago with a CR-1 visa. It had restrictions placed on it due to (my wife is a US citizen) only be married for a 6 months. I wanted to check with you all on what my next steps are? I think that I need to submit an I-751 form and this will remove the restrictions, but this is all I know.

How long will my visa/green card last after the restrictions have been removed? (initially 2 years).

When do I need to process the I-751 form? (I believe its within 3 months of the expiry date - which is June 2010).

I want to become a dual passport holder - I am a UK citizen. How do I go about this? Any suggestions on how to apply-paperwork, fees, when to apply, etc would be very helpful and appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

Michael

im going to be travelling from edinburgh too , can i ask what airport in london you used??

Sure,

best deal we could find was with BA (unfortunately) going to heathrow T5. You get the tube from there and its a fairly short journey into the Embassy location.

Easyjet only goto Stanstead and Gatwick which are both too far away from the centre of London...

Book as soon as you get your interview date as flights get very expensive in the UK when you leave them late.

So there is somewhere you can leave you stuff before before you go through the xray machines?

Hi All,

We have our interview tomorrow morning We are travelling from Edinburgh so we will be spending the day in London...

Can anyone who has been to the Embassy please let us know if you can take a small bag (not rucksack) and mobile phones, and perhaps a camera (for our day out )?

We appreciate security will be tight, but as we are travelling so far, not being able to take a small bag (to hold the paperwork in) and our phones will be very hard!

Please advise kind people

Thanks so much everyone... We really appreciate you taking the time to reply. All responses were very helpful.

Lets hope its that easy! Its on Friday this week

Thanks so much everyone... We really appreciate you taking the time to reply. All responses were very helpful.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts...

We have booked our flight so lets all keep our fingers crossed it goes though ok!!!

We are in the same situation and the price increase on flights is crazy

Our interview is on Friday (fingers crossed for that) and we were also debating on booking flights early...

We have booked them for 24th June so hopefully we have left enough time in between if there are any problems!

I say go for it if you think that you case is clear cut and you believe (after checking EVERYTHING at least 3 times, on 3 different days!) that everything is in order...

We are 99% confident that we have left enough time...

Best of luck to you both.

Hi All,

Can anyone please let us know any websites to purchase flights from the UK to the US?

Our destination is Minneapolis and we dont mind about layovers so long as there isn't too many

We have tried most of the airlines directly and find that Continental or Delta seem to be the cheapest.

We would prefer to fly from Edinburgh but will consider any UK airport if the price is good.

Many thanks.

Hi All,

We have our interview date set for 6th June 2008.

We are looking to leave the UK on 24th June 2008.

We have looked at flights over the past few weeks and the prices are starting to rise (over £100 each ) so we are thinking about booking the flights this weekend... They will be non-refundable as refundable tickets cost twice as much!

Can you please let me know your thoughts on this and how long it took from interview to obtaining the visa (especially if you had any small problems)?

Thanks so much

Hi All,

We have our Interview date set for 6th June 2008! Woohoo, we are getting excited

Here is a little info on us...

My wife is from the US and I am from the UK. We both currently live and work in the UK.

We married in Nov07, exactly a year after we became romantically involved

During the application for the DCF, we had to obtain 3 sworn affidavits from our friends to verify our relationship, which are complete.

My wife will have a job when we arrive in the US with her current employer. (I'm not so lucky but I work in IT so I am enthusiastic about finding employment).

Can anyone please advise us on what questions or type of questions we may be asked at the interview?

Yeah...

Was thinking that, but was hopeful we could do them both on the same day (medical AM, interview PM).

They could then say at the interview, the Visa will be with you in a few days, (posted) on condition that the medical results come back without any problems.

Hi All,

Does anyone know if you can arrange the interview and medical on the same day in London?

The reason I ask is that we live in Edinburgh so a trip to London is not exactly close to home!

If not, do you know if one is arranged before the other and how long roughly there is between the two? (So I can plan some time off work!!!)

I have lived in Northampton, England most of my life but recently moved to Edinburgh to be with mygirlfriend (now wife) who is from the US.

We are working on our DCF and I have just applied to have the police check made in our local police station in Edinburgh.

My question is... Will this check my history for Northampton as well as Edinburgh (I assume it is a national database they read from?)

If not, then I guess I will have to apply for the same check from Northampton Police???

Thanks for any advice you can give...

Mikiek

I am a US citizen and have been living and working in the UK for almost 3 years.

I recently married a UK citizen and we are working on the visa process to go back to the US together. As a part of the DS-230 I need to fill out form I-864, Affidavit of Support, to prove that I make enough money to support the both of us (I will continue to work for my current employer when I return to the US). The form is asking for information from IRS taxes, but I have not filed since I moved here. I have only just found out that I have too

I have half of 2005, all of 2006 and 2007 to file. We have looked at websites for help in completing this but find it very complicated and dont want this to slow down our DCF application.

We emailed a company in London for assistance but they want £600 - £900 per year, so that's a bill of upto £2,700!!!

Anyone know of anyone that can help for a reasonable fee? Or any good website that we can read to try to understand it so we can file ourselves?

Many thanks for all your advice...

Thanks,

Mikiek's wife, Alison

Mike,

You should have been filing annually, even though you were earning overseas. US Citizens have to pay tax all their lives, even if the income is earned elsewhere.

Yeah... We only just found that out recently

I have half of 2005, all of 2006 and 2007 to file. We have looked at websites for help in completing this but find it very complicated and dont want this to slow down our DCF.

We emailed a company in London for assistance but they want £600 - £900 per year, so that's a bill of £2,700!!!

Anyone know of anyone that can help for a reasonable fee? Or any good website that we can read to try to understand it so we can file ourselves?

Many thanks for all your advise...

Hi there,

I am a US citizen and have been living in the UK for almost 3 years. I recently married a UK citizen and we are working on the visa process to go back to the US together. As a part of the DS-230 I need to fill out form I-864, Affidavit of Support, to prove that I make enough money to support the both of us. The form is asking for information from IRS taxes, but I have not filed since I moved here. Does anyone know if I HAVE to use the information from US tax returns or if I can somehow prove my income with my UK P-60 or some other way???

Thanks,

Mikiek's wife, Alison

Hi All,

We are new to this site and process so please forgive us if any information (forms, etc) we supply are not accurate. Please help by correcting us!

My beautiful wife and I got married in Edinburgh 2 weeks ago

I am from the UK and my wife is from the US.

We both live and work in Edinburgh. My wife has a work dependant visa. Her employer have sponsored her to work here and she has done so for over 2 years now. I have always lived and worked in the UK.

We are looking to move to the US asap, but could do with some advice along the way!

We have completed the I-130 form and are looking to post this to the London US embassy next week. We have also completed the G325a.

My wife will be taking my surname in the futue, but as she has a work related visa, so to do this, her passport will need amending. We dont want to slow things down, so should we change the surname on her passport now (to possibly save money and confusion going forward?) or should we process the I-130 now without amending the surname and amend this when we arrive in the US? Will amending it in the US confuse matters further? Will my US visa then have to be changed, as it will have her old surname on it?

We want to apply for the DCF route as this seems to be a quicker option than the K3. Is this correct? The US embassy in London have confirmed that we can do this.

After we submit the I-130 and G325a forms, what others do we need? I'm sure we will need the I-864 but not sure what others after that?

How soon can you have you medical check? How do you process the police checks, etc? Do you need a specific form for this or do you simply write to your local police for this?

Knowing what order to do things and roughly how long it takes would be a massive help to us so we dont want to waste anytime. We are very excited about living in the US!

Thank you so much for any advice you can give us. Your time in replying to us is really appreciated.

You can not live in the US while a K1 visa is being prosessed... you will have to be in your own country... once a K1 has been approved you can then move to the US and marry within the 90 days allowed.... as for working in the US once a K1 has been approved you can fly into the US via JFK and you will get a temp EAD (employment authorization document) it is only valid for 90 days and you will find it hard to get a employer to hire you for just 90 days... after you are married you will file for AOS (adjustment of Status) and along with that you file for EAD that is valid for 1 year... that will allow you to work until your Greencard is approved....

Even if you were to file today for a K1 visa it would not be approved by Dec 2007...

if you are both living and working in the UK check out if you can do DFC as a married couple as this would be the quickest route and would give you a Greencard from the day you arrive... the other options are K3/CR1 if you are married but it would entail you being apart for some time while it is approved and your then wife has to establish a residencey here in the US...

The guides at the top of this forum will give you full details of all the visas you could file for...

Kez

Hi Kez,

Many thanks for your quick and detailed reply.

You say the quickest method would be to do a DFC as a married couple. Can you please let me know what a DFC is (or stands for) and if you mean married in the UK or US?

You also say that if we done a K3/CR1 if we are married, then we would have to be apart for some time. Can you please explain why?

Many thanks,

Mikiek

Hi All,

My Fiancé (US citizen) and I (UK citizen) were planning on moving to Colorado in Dec 07. We plan to marry within 90 days of living there.

To live there I need to know that I can find employment legally. Can I apply for a K1 visa now, move in Dec and also work legally whilst waiting for the K1 to be approved? Can I obtain an a work authorization card (EAD) whilst I wait for the K1 to be approved?

We are living and working together in the UK and don't want to spend anytime apart. If I cannot work whilst waiting for the K1 to be approved (if we apply now it is very doubtful it will be approved by Dec 07) then we will have to remain in the UK until approval comes through.

We want to know the fastest route to move, but we both need to be working. My fiancé has already secured a job when we move to Colorado.

Can you please clarify this for me?

Many thanks for all your help.

Mikiek