Brit Abroad

Yes, you can have both US and UK citizenship concurrently.

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports/y/usa/renewing_new/adult Your British passport is your ID until your green card arrives.

What would happen if there was an emergency at home and you didn't have a valid passport to travel? Better to renew it in plenty of time to be on the safe side.

I shocked my outlaws once by saying I was "going for a mooch around the mall". It wasn't until my husband almost wet himself laughing that I realised I'd said something wrong.

Congratulations! Glad it was a painless procedure for you.

Congrats.

You can remove the conditions on the green card with a divorce waiver (if it comes to that), or apply as a married couple if you fix the issues you're experiencing.

Provided you aren't abusing your wife, and you can prove that you entered the marriage in good faith (read the forms to see what evidence is required) you shouldn't experience any difficulty removing conditions on your own.

Joint bank account.
Joint car, medical or life insurance.
Utility bills for the same address - either in both names or in each individual name at the same address during the same period.

These are just for starters.

I went back to Canada for my medical and interview in Vancouver, and was there and back within a week. (BTW, doubtful that your statement that the way people feel about their pets in the US is "different" is accurate.)

What a sweeping generalisation. There are people in every country who love their pets, and people who believe they are accessories or worse. It has nothing to do with nationality and a lot to do with the inidividual.

The first things you need to consider are 1. do you have somewhere to live in the US 2. do you have a job with sufficient income (that is either in the US or can be ported to the US) or assets to meet the financial support obligation for your family or do you have a RESIDENT US citizen who is willing to act as your co-sponsor 3. have you filed tax returns or is Venezuela subject to a dual taxation law with the US

As mentioned by others, you do not meet the 5 year US residency requirement to be able to pass citizenship to your children automatically, so you need to apply for visas for your wife and your kids.

Filling in the visa paperwork isn't difficult, and VJ has excellent guides for each step of spousal/family visa(s). If you can sort out the 3 issues above and are able to read and complete forms easily in English, then you probably won't need a lawyer. As always .. print out all the forms twice. Fill one of them in. Go back and read the instructions with the form and double check that you have answered the question in the way that USCIS require.

Good luck with your process.

We met in World of Warcraft. Knew each other as friends for years before we ever met. Married 5.5 years and still going strong.

It isn't about HOW you meet, it's the connection you make when you DO meet. People who haven't experienced it that way will never understand, and they don't have the benefit of seeing you together like "normal" couples and getting to know your partner over a long period. In time it gets better, because many of the people who want you to be the person they've always known will taper out of your life. Family will eventually come round when they see that you're happy and the relationship works.

Try not to let it get to you and be patient while they adjust. In some cases the person genuinely cares for you and can't see the long term future of you with someone they just don't know.

1. Communicable disease - predominantly TB (requires treatment and recovery prior to any immigration benefit being granted)

2. Non-biological child

3. Outside age requirement

4. Adopted child with related biological parent/s still living (ie adopted specifically for the purpose of immigration)

I'm sure there are more out there, but these are the immediate ones that come to mind.

Six years down the line from the K1 process, let me share a tip with you.

If you're planning on spending the rest of your life with this person who lives in America, spend time building and mending relationships in your life at the moment. Once you make the move, it's incredibly easy to lose touch, to feel homesick and lonely, even when you're with the one person who makes you feel whole.

Trust me ... take the time to enjoy the family and friends that you have NOW. Planning for tomorrow is great, knowing how the process works before and after you arrive in the US is even better, but the best thing is building a lot of memories of the loved ones that you are going to see much less of once that visa is in your hands.

Best of luck in your process, but please don't wish your life away. The time will come.

No, they will know once you board the plane as all records are updated from the boarded departure list.

However, you may want a list of periods of absence from the US when you come to apply for citizenship.

Google Skype Exporter. Within that nifty little app is the ability to export call lists to confirm the frequency of your conversations.

Other than that, everyone has covered the major points for the application. Good luck and a speedy process to you, OP.

It could be that your application is just one of the random selection chosen for interview. If it isn't, think about what additional information you could take with you.

1. A letter outlining the reason why you don't have joint assets (previous debt issues are understandable)

2. A letter from your sister and her husband confirming that you are jointly resident at the address since X date and the rental is in their names because of your debt situation.

3. Are you members of a church congregation or social club, where people who know you can confirm that you are a happily married couple?

Of course, in an interview, a couple is generally obvious to anyone who reads body language so if your marriage is genuine and goes to interview, you should have nothing to worry about.

Hope it goes smoothly for you, OP.

The problem with having a religious ceremony for family and friends is that there are always people with cameras, and in these times (when social media is global) someone will post them on the internet.

We already know that USCIS check Facebook, Twitter and other social sites as part of your "check" so if they see anything that even vaguely resembles a ceremony then you are married in their eyes. Too married for a fiance visa, not married enough for a spousal one if it wasn't registered.

If you don't want to spend MORE time apart than you have to while it is sorted out, you have three realistic choices:-

1. Get married in the US on a tourist visa and your new wife returns home while the CR1 is processed. When she comes to the US her visa will allow her to work immediately.
2. Get married in her home country and she waits there while CR1 is processed.

3. File the K1 Fiance visa, get married in the US once the visa is granted and THEN go back to her country and have a celebration of marriage ceremony for her family once she has either her greencard or Advanced Parole document.

You will always see conflicting opinions on the internet. There are always people who will suggest that you can get around any legality - and that's true, BUT if you are caught (and there's a good chance you will be) those people won't be the ones paying the price.

Being apart for a year is a hardship until you put it in context. You are, theoretically, going to be married to this person for the rest of your life. A year is nothing compared to that. It also gives your lady time to build up lots of memories with friends and families, to say long goodbyes, because once she arrives here, she's not going to have easy access to her old life and she probably will be lonely and miss them. That time can be precious, if you plan ahead.

Best of luck to you, OP.

Do this and remove any doubts ahead of time - http://www.dhs.gov/dhs-trip

This is the redress system for flying passengers who have issues with identification, where a suspected no-fly person has the same or a similar name and it has presented problems for an innocent traveller. It's not designed to evade the CBP check for visitors.

Although your circumstances re job and lack of lease haven't changed, the fact that you have officially applied for your fiancee visa shows them that you are doing it the legal way. Perhaps if you plan ahead and take a letter stating your intent to spend a couple of weeks with your fiance, that you will return to Canada on X date using the prebooked ticket and you will not be getting married during this visit it may go some way to pacifying any suspicion of intent to work around entry.

You could always try being upfront with them and stating that you were turned away (they will have a record in the system anyway) but you now have the receipt for your visa application. Don't know if you have started booking anything for your wedding, but any evidence for that would certainly help, too.

When I visited my now husband while the K1 was processing I didn't have a job and was living with my parents. They didn't ask a lot of questions, but did "remind" me that I shouldn't be getting married during this visit.

Good luck and I hope your visa gets processed smoothly.

Let's just assume for a second that this is a genuine post (overlooking the mention VAWA, which means she's either well-informed or has been doing some research).

First steps would be:-

1. Wait until he's out or you're out delivering his heroin. Call the Police and report him. They will ask you to make a statement and sign it and may put you in touch with an emergency shelter or take him in for questioning (buying you time to make a bid for freedom).

2. Contact a local women's shelter for accommodation and safety.

3. Call your home country's Embassy and ask for assistance with a ticket home.
4. Talk with the local courthouse or a lawyer about getting a divorce started.

I rather think a family member's wedding IS an appropriate family reason.

The whole point of AP is that you can live your life while waiting for the green card, especially when events occur in the spouse's home country.

If your wife doesn't receive her AP document within a week of your planned travel, make an Infopass appointment with your local USCIS office. Take passport and pre-booked tickets.

Yes, you could completely avoid the subject and not bring it up. However, do you want to worry about being asked and not having it covered? Are the kind of person who will spend a lot of time worrying about being caught out and look guilty lying?

To me, it's not worth it. If you have nothing to hide then the truth is always the best option.

Do you think the civil surgeons are stupid and inexperienced in human failings? Do you think USCIS expects every applicant to be lily white and perfect? Of course they don't. Humans are human, they make mistakes, especially trying things out when they are young. Most young people have tried drugs of one variety or another while they are in high school or college.

As a 20-year old I was treated for depression. I was over 40 when I went for my medical. I was asked if I had ever been treated for depression, or self harmed. I said yes, I had been on a course of anti-depressants but had never self-harmed. The civil surgeon then told me she would need confirmation from my regular doctor. It took 10 days for them to get the letter back from my GP stating what I had already told the civil surgeon.

Did it affect my application in any other way? No. Life happens. Anyone who thinks that there is a single person out there with a perfect, untouched life is deluded, and the average person working in immigration isn't looking to penalise you for having lived and made mistakes. They are there to weed out those who want to use an American citizen for immigration purposes rather than the validity of the relationship and try and stop people with terrorist intent from sneaking in through vulnerable people, as well as preventing drug dealers and those with criminal intent from entering the US.

When you stop and think about what their intent is, you can see that it isn't designed to trick you into lying your way through the process.

Sure, if you aren't asked you have no need to lie, but what if you are? Are you prepared for that? Will you have the necessary paperwork on hand to present? How would you feel if you were the civil surgeon and were presented with paperwork for a past that hadn't been answered correctly on the application? Would you wonder what else they were hiding?

Honesty is ALWAYS the best policy. You're clean now, right? Six months of clean that can be verified by a professional medic and lab tests, with a real life story of what got you into drugs in the first place. What is there to lie about?

I like the idea above, but I would start with the basics. Young people make misakes, that's the way they learn.

Write up your history and explain when you stopped doing marijuana. Go to your doctor and get a hair screening and blood screening to confirm no drug use in the last six month period and ask them to put it in writing to submit with your application.

You will, no doubt, be asked questions about it at the medical and interview stage, but provided you are honest and the evidence supports your statement, I don't think it's a big a deal as lying about drug use and being caught out in that lie.

Good luck with your application.

I don't get all the major drama with being separated when you are potentially going to spend the rest of your life with the fellow petitioner. What is it? 18 months physically apart ... with the internet providing instant visual and aural contact at will.

Seriously, if you can't be apart for that length of time then you don't have a strong enough relationship to weather future difficulties.

Besides, misrepresentation can be levelled at the applicant all the way through to when (and including) citizenship is granted. No cheat is ever completely safe, and who wants to spend a lifetime looking over their shoulder, being careful what they say to anyone in their life, whether in a permanent or temporary capacity. Seriously .. not worth it.

Buy whichever tickets are the cheapest.

If it's a one way, you're fine.

If it's a return, remember to call the airline and cancel the return portion of the ticket AFTER you have arrived in the US. Ask for them to send you confirmation so you can prove that it wasn't used. Sometimes they will refund a return leg and sometimes they won't.

Most European countries have ridiculously priced one way tickets so we always buy a return ticket and cancel the return leg.

Use it for anything that requires you to be out of the country. Real life happens while you are waiting for your green card. The process isn't meant to ruin your opportunities to enjoy family, friends and vacation time.

If you were in attendance at the time your husband tried to report fraud, you should've asked for an escalation to a more senior officer. The Police aren't gods, they have the same customer service requirement as any other public body, so don't be intimidated by them.

International fraud is big business, and you should contact your local FBI office and let them know about the card cloning and fraudulent charges. All Police reports of international fraud end up with them anyway.

Here's what the FBI site says about it ... http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud

It's horrible having to deal with the ramifications of getting clean credit after this has happened to you. I watched my Dad go through it all and it took a couple of years to get it resolved. Good luck, stay strong, it WILL get fixed in time, you just have to be persistent.