englishbunny

I would have a consultation with an accountant or maybe a lawyer. It's better to be safe than sorry and like a PP has said - we're not experts!

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had experience of getting an H1b status approved while being in the US and then returning to their own country to get the actual visa stamped in the passport. I esp would be interested in advice from people that did it in Moscow.

Should I still fill out DS 160? What fees should I pay? What other docs to bring to the interview?

thank you so much in advance

Iriska

Can I ask how long your visa took to process? I'm applying for an H1-B in the US and the USCIS site says it's taking 2 months but I'm keen to know from actual people how long it's taking.

Thanks

Englishbunny, I could have written your post

Yorkshirerose:

I can also HIGHLY recommend volunteering!

I've been here for 10 months and have made friends through volunteering (it can also help with confidence...volunteering your time speaks of your character and the people you work with will appreciate your time. PLUS it gets you out of the house!), I also attended a free weekly yoga class through my local library. I also emailed the wifes and girlfriends of my husbands colleagues and met up for coffee. One of them even let me borrow her car for my driving test and practiced with me. When I first got here I spent time going to my local library to check out books and now I know people there to chat with and I am recognised which makes you feel part of your community. Which is something you probably miss if you come from a small town. You can also 'audit' classes at the local university which means you attend but don't take exams..or pay for them. I considered that when I didn't have my greencard. Another way to meet people.

I volunteered full time when I got here and I got a job easily when I started job hunting because I had US references (which was a major factor) and I had learned the 'language' of my field here in the US.

If you are a beauty therapist can you advertise for clients and do home visits? Can you do charity work to offer your services to women who are suffering with illness or physical issues?

You may have low self esteem but you talk on here as someone intelligent and kind. You just need to get yourself out there!

Good luck with everything!

Thanks for the thumbs up HLP, how is Vermont? You seem like you're settling in amazingly so kudos to you!!

* I hate the medical system..

* I hate how everything is so expensive.

* Evrything thing always seems like alot of hassel (nothing is simple and easy)

* Having to pay money for a bank account, i mean what the hell is that all about.

Everything always seems so far apart..

This country should be rolling in money, i mean state tax and then also country tax.

* Back home ur employer takes the tax out of yr paycheck every week/month (one tax which is for the entire country).

* when u buy something the tax is already in the price so u dont have to worry about adding it on top.

* I never payed money for my bank acount

* We have medical care (NHS), Evrybody in England has medical whether yr working or not, even if yr an imigrant.

* Doesnt take you hours on end just to apply for a job, i can not believe the ####### they ask. unnessary Question as for as im concerned.

I may sound like im moaning alot but when i compare to what iv know all my life, Things in England seem better.

I maybe i also find it hard becoz me and my husband are lving with his dad, I feel uncomfortable most times, i do the cleaning as i feel i should becoz im not working which is fare anough.

I am a huge animal love and i want a pet, but my father in- law doesnt like animals in his house, back home i always had pets, i had to give up my pet rabbits to move here.. if i had a dog its be companian, and i think that would be away to get me out of the house and mayb meet ppl.

I would love to make the house more femine and also updated (living in the 70s) but of course i carnt.

They things i did back home and now i carnt do them, i didnt realise that it would be this way.

I was thinking of voluntering at a dog kennel or scrapbooking store, i have a passion for animals and art.

I have no Qualification here, i went to beauty school back in England but its gunna cost a couple $$$ to just convert my certificates and to find out if i need futher training ect, so that is also very frustating to me.

Until u have moved here u dont realise how much it is different, and how much u miss what u are used to.. Some ppl i guess adapt easier than others.

I dont think me being a shy person who has very low self asteem and no confidence helps.

I think a slight change of perspective will help a lot here. It's funny because I'm from the UK but my take on the things you hate about the US is so so different:

* Medical system - no doubt it's a pain in the ####### - but I take the view it's better to pay and look after yourself, than have an imperfect system with extremely long wait times and hospitals which are dirty and ridden with disease. There are ways around it and more affordable options - for example for my Birth Control I went to Planned Parenthood who were excellent. I would rather pay lower taxes and pay for my own medical system which is reliable than pay higher taxes + council tax + god knows whatever tax and have a sub-par NHS.

* Cost of Living - OK I'm sorry but I just don't know how you can say this. My H & I were working in the UK and we were lucky if we had any money left following our bills. After you have a huge amount of tax taken out from your employer, you then have council tax, then mandatory TV license. You need Sky let's face it so that's a BT bill then a Sky Bill. Then a mobile phone bill. Then water, and gas AND electricity AND Sewage. Petrol is crazy expensive. Right now in the US we have half the bills we had in the UK. Plus, sales tax in the UK is now 20%. I've just looked up sales tax in Cali - something like 7.25% - so that's less than half than the UK whether it's added on at source or not.

I'm not having a dig - I'm just trying to say that it's all about perspective and you have to make the best of the situation. You're very lucky to be in the US and you have a marriage you're happy in - if you focus more on the positives it'll help.

Regarding meeting new people, have you tried meet up groups on the net... something like meetup.com? You could go with your hubby and meet new couples.

I would DEFINATELY volunteer if you can, it'll get you out there and make the days go by so much faster and keep you busy.

Good Luck! I'm really sorry the US isn't what you want it to be - give it a chance and maybe it'll turn itself around.

I've been in the US a year and unfortunately my husband's credit rating isn't the best so I've been the one building the credit. I used my name for all our bills and have a Chase account. 6 months after being with Chase I applied for a credit card with them but was declined due to not enough credit history.

About a year after I arrived I got a letter from Capital One and I applied for a card. I was honest with the application and got a card with a limit of $500. I plan to pay it off every month and build credit slowly. If u pay it off in full it doesn't matter what the APR is.

Good luck!

Chase have been great. I could open the account without a SS#. We opened another joint account with my husband and they've been great and there's a branch right down my road.

My other option is to wait to file for citizenship. I have been an LPR for over 25 years. However, I spent the last 5 years abroad in graduate school, and only returned last year. I have read that I have to physically be in US for 30 months in previous 5 years, so I suppose that means I will have to wait until the end of next year to apply for citizenship.

Thanks a lot everyone!

How come you didn't file for citizenship before you left the country for graduate school? I would have a consultation with a lawyer and see if they can't plead a case for you so that you could apply for your citizenship sooner - 25 years as an LPR must count for something right?!?!

Other than that your spouse could come and wait in the US on a different visa - could she get a J-1 for example in her field of work? That would at least give you some time together. I definately WOULD NOT give your greencard for an H-1B - you'll just cause more problems I think in the long run.

Good luck!

RIcardo, should we use lawyer or go by ur self to file this F2A petition. which one the best u think?

is the lawyer really2 can help us to united ASAP? thanks.

I would have an initial consultation with a lawyer (most charge a reduced fee for this, mine was $100 for an hour) and then do what they suggest yourself. I thought having studied this stuff for almost 2 years now that I knew all there was to know, until I sat in my lawyers office. She gave us a good action plan, hope when I thought there was none but more importantly peace of mind, and for me, you can't put a price on that.

No matter how much you know, I'd definately seek a good lawyer's advice initially, then run with their suggestions. They may come up with a plan you hadn't even thought of!

She is using a lawyer who seems to know less about immigration than she does.

She needs a new lawyer. I know a lot about immigration but thankfully, my lawyer knows 100000 times more thank I do and if I thought that I knew more than my lawyer did, she wouldn't be my immigration lawyer for much longer.

In the meantime, I am thinking maybe she should try to get a tourist visa and visit me for 6 months or however long is the tourist visa. I spoke with a few lawyers and they all said she would probably get rejected for a tourist visa (B1/B2?) because she has a green card case pending.

I believe they're right. On the B-2 application there's a tick box which the applicant has to tick to say "I have no visa applications pending". The B-2 is a strict non immigrant visa, by ticking that box she's declaring immigrant intent = will probably be denied IMO.

Am I right in thinking that even if you get NOA2, you still have to wait to have your case be looked at by the NCV and that's what the PD date is referring to? It's just that the NOA2 process seems to be going so much quicker, but the PD is still ages away, it doesn't make much sense?!?

When does FY 2012 kick in?

How are there only 3605 signatures on this petition?? We need to get this up!! This needs to be 100 times that amount!

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?unitefam

I too am checking it at an unnatural rate. As an optimist I can't help but wish for PD current - that would be amazing!

I've thought of this idea myself and I think it's an excellent one. Keep in mind though once you get to New York, your bags get offloaded and you have to collect them from a big room where your cases will be. So getting the U haul van to the port might be a challenge, or you could get a taxi from the depot to U-Haul - but it would have to be a big taxi!

It might be worth weighing up all the costs as other posters have said - perhaps getting an inside cabin just for your luggage might work better.

And no, you won't have to take your suitcases anywhere. You give them to the staff before you get on the ship then they are delivered to your room on the day you embark.

You'll have fun no matter what - cruising is a lot of fun, especially on a lovely ship like the QM2.

Sorry, I'm not sure about the adjusting status... this was just what my lawyer told me.

Yeah, I know I will have to go back to Australia but I will have a fair bit of notice (at least i hope!) before i go back so just looking at ANY possible option this stage

What visa have you entered the US on? If it's a waiver I don't think you can AOS from a visa waiver. If it's a B2 it has to be current I think.

What qualifications do you have? Have you any experience in the service industry? If so you could try for a J-1 which is an exchange visa. Just make sure you get one without the 2 year residency rule. The maxium duration you could get a J-1 for is 1 year but at least it's something. Oh and you'll have to apply for it in Oz I'm afraid.

There is no point being soo negative about this. It's a huge shame that the PDs went as far ahead as they did but now they've retrogressed and I'm as gutted about this as the next person. But this is a waiting game we're all playing. You ARE going to get a visa, it's just a question of when and I know a queue of people who would kill for that opportunity.

Is it fair? No, but being negative won't help the situation. I'm very optimistic and have confidence in the powers that be and the USCIS - they've done this for a reason. Maybe now, people won't apply, they'll get through the applications and the PD will be a lot closer.... you just don't know - if you look at the other thread in this forum, you'll see A LOT of people who got their paperwork through this year and who aren't even on the board now. I bet they didn't even think they'd have their visa yet! But they did because they believed and that's all you can do!

I'm in the exact same position too, the only slight difference is my husband is a PR, not US citizen. Luckily the NOA1 is taking a LOT less time to go through for F2A than it was earlier this year. My J-1 is good until May 2011 so hopefully this will all be done and I'll have my EAD by then. But I don't mind if I have to wait a little bit... but at least now I know I can

Hi Everyone!

I'm just abaout to start getting my paperwork together but I wanted to ask - do I need to change my name on my passport (to my married name) before I file my I-130?

Many thanks,

september VB

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC INDIA MEXICO PHILIPPINES

1st 01JAN06 01JAN06 01JAN06 01JAN06 01DEC92 01JAN97

2A 01JAN10 01JAN10 01JAN09 01JAN10 01JAN09 01JAN10

2B 01JAN05 01JAN05 01JAN05 01JAN05 15JUN92 01AUG02

3rd 01MAR02 01MAR02 01MAR02 01MAR02 01MAR92 01JAN95

4th 15OCT01 15OCT01 15OCT01 15OCT01 01JAN94 01JAN91

enjoy

OMG the priority date is Jan 10 - I can't believe it, I'm about to file my I-130 and I'm so grateful that the spouses of PRs are getting processed so much more quickly!!