Success stories

[Mags]

I'm looking to move over to the states with my family, my husband is an American citizen living in the UK on a spouse visa, we have been married two years and have two kids together.

From what I can gather it's a complicated procedure (major sore head!) I was looking to hear from people who have been through it, any tips.. how much money it cost over all, waiting times, ect, ect.

I'm 4 months pregnant and will be staying behind while he goes over to work with his father.. god only knows how long it will all take. I'm not happy with this set up, I would much rather he waited until the baby was born, but he doesn't want to waste money on extending his visa here.. but is willing to waste money on tickets flying back and forth! makes very little sense to me.

Ugh.. I'm not looking forward to any of it

[kabuki]

First thing, you must make sure that your husband has filed his US tax returns during his stay in the UK. It's more of a formality than anything. You fill out the tax form and the exemption form. If he made more than something like $85,000 in any of those years, he would then have to pay tax on any income earned over that amount. If this has not been done, then the visa procedure cannot be started. This is where my sister was held up as she was unaware of the fact that she had to claim her earning in the UK for every year.

They went through a lawyer to ensure things were done correctly and the visa was received in a timely manner. I'll ask her to send me the details and I'll post them here.

Best of luck.

[kabuki]

My sister said the following about the process:
"I would say go look for a lawyer. You won't find one in the UK you will have to look for one in the USA. We had Monique Milucky from Virginia Tommy Andrews (was who she was under). Go to the US website and look at the visa's. Look for the spouse visa one. You will go through a few things to see what you will apply for. The first visa is to see if you can apply for the second visa. The second visa is your green card. I'm not sure of the names right now but I can get all of the stuff out and have a look for you. Basically we took a trip to the USA to see our lawyer because it's easier that way and you need to sign stuff and what not so we did all that then. You would be looking at a year to complete all the paperwork and stuff. If you are approved you then have 6months to move to the USA. So while you are applying I would look at companies that can move there stuff and look at flight dates and things but I will email you another time when I have all the info together."

[Marco 72]

You don't really need a lawyer, unless there are special circumstances (e.g. criminal convictions). See this forum

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=35

and the wiki

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/CR-1

for more information.

[Mags]

Thanks guys! I really don't think we could afford a lawyer, well.. I know we couldn't.. so that's out.

I just cannot believe the amount of time it takes.. this is such a nightmare.. totally puts you off from even trying

And yes, I do have a criminal record from my younger days nothing too serious or jail time.. but still.. it's a list.. so that will just add to it all.

I'm going to get tooled up and become my own expert.. and brave the storm.

Please keep any success stories coming or anything that you think I should know.. I need all the help I can get right now.

Mags.

ps Thanks for the expats link Marco, a lot of good reading in there.

Ohh, one more thing- do they take into account what meds you are on? are there any meds that would get you a refusal?

[Marco 72]

Actually, my understanding is that it only takes 6 months or so to get an immigrant visa. About your criminal record, did it by any chance involve drugs?

[kabuki]

The time will be dependent on your situation. Most people I know have said it takes 6-12 months. I don't have first hand experience as I have no plans to move back to the US with my partner.

As someone else said, you don't need a lawyer, but if things can possibly be complicated, then it's usually the way to go. I would probably do it on my own, but depending on your record and whether or not your spouse has kept up to date on the filing of his tax returns, things should run smoothly with the procedure complete closer to the 6 month mark.

Hopefully those who have gone through the process will appear and offer the stories, but unfortunately, many forget about this site after their procedures are complete.

Best of luck!