Justine+David

Thank you, but I have found out that a LPR can petition married children as well as petition parents. I asked a friend who is an LPR and brought her mother over. It took about 3 years, same wait time to become a US citizen. Thanks for your input. I am also confused about the lack of a time frame on the court documents. DOES ANYONE KNOW IF IT MATTERS? Why isn't there a "departure by" date?

This is not true. Please see this link for further details:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/immigration-parents-overview

Your husband needs to be a US citizen before he petitions his mother. She may petition her children as an LPR, although she would need to be able to sponsor them financially. Will she be working in the USA?

Applying for a visitor's visa is kind of a snowball's chance in you know where, IMO. Your brother in law will be coming from a high-fraud country plus he already showed that he "wants" to live in the US by crossing the border without a proper visa. Why would any CO let him in?

I understand that from his perspective, he will not live here because his wife wants to stay in her home country. But US immigration doesn't care about this...nor will they be inclined to fully believe him.

I'm sorry that he was treated so horribly US immigration, that is never okay. But I think his chances of a visitor visa are nil. He can try if he wants and has the extra $$.

My biggest piece of advice is to not have a long CV. My impression from David is that British CVs are pages long and American ones are not. Unless you're going for like dean of a school or a CEO position, keep it to one page, two pages max. No one wants to read more than that (and to be frank, employers won't read them)

Thanks, Boiler. I know a bit about CIMT, but nothing much about drug conviction waivers. Of course, if there is no waiver, that's probably why

If you're worried about the NHS, all you really have to do is make sure to live in an area where there is a good trust (i.e. a good zip code area) because the quality of care does differ, but there are many areas of the UK where it is excellent. Beyond that as well, if you really don't want to deal with the NHS, it is an option to buy private insurance in the UK, which is better than the NHS. You also have the option once a permanent resident of the UK with your husband to go abroad in the EU to become residents of other countries that have better health care as well. Your husband could also watch your daughter while you work and vice-versa...

Immigration doesn't really care if you and your husband divorce. The marijuana issue needs to be dealt with and he is ineligible for the VWP. If he was going for a B2, he would have to deal with the marijuana charge as well as the fact that even if you're divorced, his daughter is still there. Immigration looks for reasons to deny you, not the other way around.

The problem with trying to get a waiver (I don't know all the ins and outs of waivers for drug convictions) is that you need to prove why you cannot live in the other country with your husband. It's very difficult, especially considering how wealthy the UK is. There were a few people who got waivers a few years back (JustJ comes to mind; you could PM her), but in her case, she was the only relative that could care for her elderly mother who had many health problems.

Here are some links to some prominent threads of waiver threads in London in the past couple of years:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/232495-the-2010-london-waiver-list/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/247015-waiting-for-i-601-waivers-in-london-us-embassy/

I would strongly consider sending Traci+Andrew and JustJ a private message about their lawyer, who I believe used to be a former adjudicator for the people who ran the London waivers in the embassy.

Good luck; I'm sorry for what you're going through.

Boiler, does this mean that if my children (will be British by descent, first generation) live in the UK for 3 years any time before their kids are born (even if they come to the UK as minors), they will be able to pass along descent? That's how I thought I read it, but wasn't sure.

Do you know how long they have to be in England in order to pass along the citizenship? Just curious...

I thought I read that you could only pass British citizenship by descent once, though, i.e. our grandchildren wouldn't be eligible, just our kids.

From what I do understand the OP deeply cares about his wife. I don't support her actions and reactions at all but come on guys really??? Call USCIS, tell them where she is and her arrest record, and hopefully they'll show up and take her??? That's a straight cold comment in my eyes!

She has been arrested for assault multiple times and has abused her children to the point that Child Protective Services has had to take them away. This is not the type of person that should be living in America on a green card.

Please know that I am a registered nurse and I recognize that she has deep psychological problems that need to be addressed. There are better mental health programs (not to mention free) in the United Kingdom and maybe being deported will kick her hard enough in the pants to get help.

Seriously though, OP, if her green card is expired, you need to call USCIS and let them know about the situation. I honestly think it's best for all involved. I can't imagine what it must be like for those kids to a) move to another country b) be abused by their mother c) placed in foster care in an entirely different culture. That is so messed up and I really fear for them. At least if they went back to the UK they could be among their home culture.

ETA: OP, I know you do. But is anything really going to change? Time to take charge instead of wishing for yesterday...

Call USCIS, tell them where she is and her arrest record, and hopefully they'll show up and take her.

My only concern are the kids. Do they have a good father/family back in the UK? I assume they won't be able to stay with you since you're not the biological dad.

UK Yankee has a forum on tax advice if you're looking for more info too, but Nich-Nick (unsurprisingly ) is correct!

Your kids (if you have any) will get automatic citizenship for both, but their kids (assuming they don't marry a Briton) may not get it automatically. It's a bit confusing, but it seems like your kid would have to sometime before they have a kid live in the UK for 3 years and then their kids (your grandkids) would be able to have citizenship. David and I are looking into this as a possibility to do it when our non-existent as yet kids are growing up.

We're thinking about petitioning David's sister now that he's a US citizen (and yes I know it's taking 10+ years).

I've read through the guides and had a question: Does the notice of action paper with the priority date go to us or would it go to her? I assume it would go to us like it did to me when I petitioned for David's K1, but just wanted to ask. Do they send anything to her at all? She just doesn't have a great track record of keeping everything organized and it's important paperwork to keep for 10 years...

Glad to hear you are doing well Damian how much longer on the citizenship front? David just got his, so glad to have all the immigration money paid off.

nobbie: I think a large part of our obesity epidemic is because it's so much cheaper to eat junk food. People on tight budgets have a harder time affording what amounts to a "luxury" like fresh fruit and vegetables. It drives David crazy too. Where do you shop at? Giant food isn't too bad for pricing, although "whole paycheck" is definitely true of whole foods, lol.

Nope, sorry. Good luck

David is now a citizen! Very glad to have this journey over...for my fellow Baltimore folks, it's not a hassle at all. Free parking, his interview was all of 30 minutes, mostly with the guy just going through papers; appointment was at 8am. We came back for the oath at 2pm and it was fairly crowded. Everyone got their packets, sang the national anthem, said the oath, listened to Barack talk about immigration, and basically that was it, under an hours time.

The only thing that kind of bothered me was that while there were some kids that were milling around before anything started, some woman came in and basically very rudely said to get the kids in their seats. I totally understand having kids sit down, but the way she said it was like they were things, not people, and I got a taste as an American citizen how immigration officials sometimes treat foreigners like second-class people. It really left a bad taste in my mouth.

But, other than that one person, the rest of the officials were very welcoming and made it a great occasion. Glad to be done with USCIS!

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USCIS Dallas/Lewisville, Texas Lockbox
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Justine+David....|06/19/13|09/09/13|09/19/13|09/17/13|10/29/13|10/31/13|02/24/14|03/24/14|03/24/14|Baltimore, MD
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mjc79............|12/17/13|09/25/13|10/02/13|10/07/13|10/28/13|11/18/13|--/--/--|--/--/--|--/--/--|New York City, NY

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USCIS Phoenix, Arizona Lockbox
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One cannot reset the 90 day clock while visiting on the VWP by going to Canada or Mexico...

No, but they could spend the first 3 months in Canada and then spend the next 3 months in the USA...or vice-versa.

Listen: I wouldn't do it. It's unlikely you're going to get the visa unless you're very rich.

Because you have access to the VWP, they expect you to use that and not a tourist visa.

And keep in mind that if you are refused a tourist b2 visa, you can never use VWP ever again...that's a huge risk to take, IMO.

I'd just plan for 90 days in the USA, maybe do some traveling up in Canada if you want to extend it.

I guess I'm a little confused. How was he able to find money to fly back home but not file to adjust status? Adjusting status should be his number one priority because of this exact situation. Unfortunately, he will have to start all over again with the immigration process.

Does your mom have a green card? I suppose the easiest way would be to wait until she becomes a US citizen. Wouldn't he be a derivative citizen if he was young enough?

Adding David's interview date!

Did you get your letter yet? I got mine today. Interview date is March 25th. I wonder if we'll be there together? Now that would be cool :-).

He is on March 24th : ( but good luck to you and everyone else!!

Baltimore is same day, same oath every day from everything that I've read.

Still awaiting on the letter on the official date, but I imagine it will be sometime in March. lol, I haven't tried to prep David at all (he is the UKC) because not knowing what is going on for months on end, it would have made me crazy. So I just decided to only start it when he got the letter. He probably already knows most of it though, as he's very politically inclined. He'll just need to learn stuff like the governor of Maryland and our state reps/senators.

Can't really talk now, but apparently got a text at midnight...on 2/16, scheduled for an interview, blah blah, blah. yes!!!

The other thing that annoys me is that the processing time for Baltimore hasn't been updated since November 30, 2013 (for N400, the current date is May 24, 2013). You would think they would at least update that! I'm sure this snow storm will result in more delay...I'm just hoping that we get the letter soon because we will probably be moving in July. I don't even know what to do if we move out of state, do we have to start the process over again?

Still waiting on Baltimore...and it snowed again today. Starting to wonder if we will ever get it...