gumbi2400

Thats what I thought. Much appreciated! Been feeling a bit homesick lately and was thinking about going back to visit, don't want to have any problems!

My mistake, I should have specified. Yeah I'm wondering if it's going to be an issue entering on the VWP.

I realize at this point there's nothing we can do to retain the green card (which is particularly annoying as we were 2 weeks away from her qualifying for naturalization).

http://london.usembassy.gov/dhs/uscis/abandon.html

A re entry permit still requires you to maintain the US as your permanent residency despite being temporarily absent.

Presumably you have been filing taxes.

Thanks for this. We have both been filing taxes (easy enough since I'm the only one with income). And do still have an address in the states for mail purposes, as we still have CCs in our name in the states.

We would have applied for a re-entry permit, but since we were likely moving to the UK permanently we didn't file. This was likely a mistake on our part, but as we've already left the country, there isn't much we can do now as far as I understand.

As for travel, should we expect any difficulties traveling back to visit?

Hello all. My wife and I lived in the states together for 3 years when we first got married on an IR-1. We move to the UK a little over a year ago, and will likely settle here permanently.

I've been thinking about it lately, and was wondering if there is anything we need to do with her green card. We may decide to move back to the states one day, and I realize this means we will have to re-apply for a visa in that case, and I don't want to do anything that might hurt our chances later on. I know we could have applied for a re-entry permit, but again, we were planning on being out of the country for more than 2 years.

Lastly, if/when we decide to go back to the states to visit family and friends, can she still enter under the Visa Waiver Program?

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, so let me know if I should move it. Thanks in advance

Depending on where you are filing from, it may be possible for the processing time to be as short as around 5 months. Granted, this varies depending on circumstances and on your location so search for your relevant USCIS field office: https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplayInit.do

I don't know the details of your case (and therefore clearly this does not establish a lawyer-client relationship nor is this legal advice). Nevertheless, I would consider it a wiser move to seek naturalization before moving away rather than imperil both your spouse's residency and potential naturalization.

Unfortunately, I will be moving either way within the next 2 months. If we apply, would the application automatically be abandoned when we move?

There is no such requirement for a citizenship application. On the contrary, often a beneficiary would obtain US citizenship prior to moving to another country, so there is no problem with coming back to the US in the future. As a US citizen, your wife may live in any country.

I could have sworn that it was possible to lose the citizenship by moving out of the country within 6 months of being naturalized.

So the next question would be, is it possible to apply for naturalization and move before it's granted? If so, are there any pitfalls to watch out for?

While fingerprints are required later on, I do not believe it comes on the police check (unless your country requires it). I think the police check is good for 6 months, so I would just get the process started. Though it sucks, worse case scenario they will let you know if you're missing anything.

I found sending in my tax transcripts from previous years, letter from employer, and a selection of previous paystubs and bank statements work for me. As for what to answer for income, I would think the advice of just multiplying it out should work fine. It sounds like you are well over the minimum so I doubt they would look into income too much.

Not sure if this is helpful, but here was my experience. I was largely unemployed for the years before I got married to my UK spouse. I had a well payed job for a few months before we were married. When we sent in our AOS I submitted my 3 previous tax transcripts (even though the income didn't qualify), and also included bank statements, pay stubs, and a letter from my then employer saying how much my estimated income that year was, as well as how long I was employed and that I was in good standing with the company. We had no problems with the AOS portion of the process, and we did not need the co-sponsor.

All that being said, if you have someone that qualifies, and is willing to co-sponsor, I would recommend sending in as much information as you can from both people on the AOS, and err on the side of caution.

A couple of final thought to keep in mind. In my experience, the people working these cases do care, and will usually only deny a visa if something is seriously wrong. They WANT to grant the visa. It's a stressful time in life, but you'll be surprised how quickly after it's over it all becomes a distant memory and you two start your life together!

All the best!

Hello all,

This forum was super helpful in getting my wife (UK citizen) over here and settled, so I am back after a few years in need of further assistance.

I recently received a job offer in London that I have accepted, and we will be moving there most likely within the next few months. I will be entering the UK on a work visa as my wife is currently unemployed and we as such we don't satisfy the income requirements for a UK spouse visa. If things don't work out, we really want to have the option of coming back. After doing a lot of reading, I'm not sure what we should do. As I see it we have a few options.

1) Apply for a re-entry permit and we should be pretty much good to go if we decide to move back in less than two years. I see this as being a bit tough since we will have difficulties proving we were "domiciled" in the US while away. I don't think a US mailing address (my mother's house) qualifies for this requirement.

2) Just move and apply for a new spouse visa on return (not sure how income requirements work if I'm in another country but that's what Google is for!).

3) Have my wife apply for US citizenship (she qualifies as of this month) and not worry about it. This could be difficult, as one of the requirements of obtaining citizenship is proof of intention to settle permanently in the US, when in reality we aren't sure which country we want to settle in permanently. Not to mention the fact that would most likely be leaving the country well before the application would be processed (gotta love how long US immigration takes!).

I know that this sort of thing can be quite tricky so any advice/insight would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Mods, if this isn't the correct forum, please feel free to move this thread as needed.

Approved! Now I hope they hurry up and generate the forms and send it. I'm so happy. Thank you so much to all, without the community here, we wouldn't have been able to make it through this whole process.

For all the rest out there still waiting, it will come!

By a happy accident, I ended up on the night shift where I work. A bit higher pay, and we are also almost on the same schedule. Thank you all for all the well wishes. I will update this as soon as I hear she's been approved!

So its finally time. My wife has her interview at the London Consulate at 8am tomorrow (midnight my time). I can't even express how nervous we are. Have a few concerns here and there, but hopefully everything will go through, and we will finally be back together after almost a year and a half.

All that being said, thank you everyone for all the help and support. As you all know it is quite a tough process, and it will test your relationship to its core. For those still waiting for various stages of approval, keep strong. All will be well!!!

Thank you again

So what about things like childhood asthma, or stomach problems my wife is getting an esophageal endoscopy for soon? Should that be on there, or is it ok to drop it off?

She actually called and got the email code of the week (which btw sounds like some weird radio show contest).

As for the medical, I can totally see you're confusion. I should have been more clear. She has not yet been to her medical. The question was, does she need to bring her medical history to the medical exam. Online says yes, but Knightsbridge doctors instructions from online say no. So we are just a bit confused.

Thanks again for all the help, it is very much appreciated!

So the question is, does she need to get her medical history from her GP? Just trying to suss this all out ahead of time.

Quick update as well, she sent the email to the embassy asking if she can be scheduled sooner, just have to wait and see.

Hey all,

So we just got the interview appointment letter today. Looks like March 28th. Just have a few quick questions:

1) Second page of packet 4 was blank. It looks to be normal, but just want to confirm if that is indeed the case.

2) Is it possible to move the interview date forward? Don't want to be too greedy, but it would be nice to have her back before her birthday.

3) When looking on the website for the general medical information, it says she needs to bring her medical records. However, the embassy specific information only mentions vaccinations. Does she really need to get the full medical records?

As always, all help is very very much appreciated.

Looks like it didn't matter, case was completed on the 28th and just got her interview appt on the 28th of March! Anyone know if it's possible to move it any closer, or am I just being greedy?

Hello all!

So on the December 30th we received an RFE for some dates that were messed up on the DS-230, not to big of a deal. I was out of the country at the time so I wasn't able to respond back till the 7th they received it in their system on the 11th and I though all will be well. Now it hasn't been to terribly long, but it has been over two weeks now. Is it normal for such a simple RFE to be under "review?" I realize I may just be being a bit impatient (as I'm sure we all have at some point in this crazy process). Any ideas on how to get a better idea of what may be going on?

Next question, is it possible to schedule the Medical now? I don't think it is, but hey, it never hurts to ask!

Lastly, is there anything I can do to be a bit more proactive? I already sent all my evidence on this end to my lovely wife, and I'm just wondering what else I can do.

As always, any help, support, and advice is greatly appreciated.

Search for the consent form that your representative uses first because usually they need that from you before they can look into your case. It's probably on their website.

To be honest, I just called my congressman's office directly, and they were quiet helpful. All the best! Also be sure to throw in something about how ridiculous the whole process is and how it needs to be reformed. It should never be acceptable to keep a married couple apart for such a long period of time!

It looks like all my rushing and stressing was all in vain. Turns out the "Sign-in failed" message was because I entered in the wrong IIN multiple times. Silly me, its still "in-process." Ah well, the advice is still very much appreciated. Teaches me not to be over excitable!

Thanks for all the quick responses. Looking at them, it looks like it's not to difficult. Only question I have (at the moment anyway) is about the required documents. Do I need to fill out another I-864, get another Police Cert, get more copies of birth certs, etc, etc..? Or will she get all those back at the interview?

Sorry for all the dumb questions, I've felt pretty prepared for all these steps except this one. So any and all help is much appreciated.

Got the ever-elusive "Sign-in Failed" message today, and with all the excitement, I just realized, I don't really know what happens next. My understanding is that it is pretty consulate specific. So are there any good guides on what happens from here? There seem to be fantastic ones for every stage up to this point, but can't seem to find much. Any help would be immensely appreciated. With any luck, I'll come back from Christmas in the UK (yay!) and have an interview date in Jan, and my wonderful wife back with me in Feb.

Thanks again!

Joel

Well overwhelming for buying A4. I do realize that it is part of section 2. However, I thought it needed to be sent all at the same time, and then sign it at the end. Then again thinking about it now, I could just call the NVC. Not to mention, she sent it to me snail mail as well, so a little bit of patience wouldn't kill me!

Thanks for the help. Have to say its a great community here!

Hello all,

I have asked many questions in this forum, and have received many fantastic answers. Out of all of these questions, this may be the most ridiculous. I just received my wife's DS 230 packet in the mail, and it looks like she accidentally forgot page 3 of the form (the first page of the sworn statement). I just paid the IV bill today, and my question, is simply this. I have a copy of page 3 that shes filled out, and as its all typed, can I just print out the copy I have and send it in? There's no signature on this page or anything so I figure it will be alright. The reason why I ask is because of paper sizes. Yes, paper sizes. Will they care that the rest of the application is on A4 (the standard in the UK) and that one page is 8.5 x 11? Or will they not even care?

Thank you so much for putting up with my crazy questions!

All the best!