Options for US Immigration

[Maxi2]

Hoping someone could give me some advice.....

My boyfriend is American and I'm British. We both have full citizenship in our respective countries. I'd like to move to the US permanently but although I have a degree, I only have a couple of years of work experience and it's in a non-specialist field.

Neither of us really wants to get married just for the sake of me getting into the country and even if we did to do that it's unlikely we could afford the move/marriage/living after I give up my UK job (and there's no guarentee i'll be able to get another good job in the US once i finally get a work permit after the marriage)

I guess i'd like some recommendations on what people think my best options are. Getting a H1B is pretty unlikely it seems, unless I go over as a tourist for 90 days and secure a job while i'm there - risky since i'd have to give up my UK job to even go there for that long.

I've considered getting a temporary work permit (H2B) just so i can get out there and try to look for a better job.....and also give myself and my boyfriend more time to decide if we want to get married. Is that a realistic option?

* How much easier is it to find a H1B employer while in the US? Is that even realistic?
* How likely would i be to secure a job even if i did one of the above?
* Can anyone give me recommendations on places i can find H1B/H2B employers?
* For a marriage visa it states my husband should be able to "financially support me" - can someone provide some clarification on what they look at to establish that?
* Are there any options i've overlooked here?


Thanks

Maxi

[Marco 72]

Neither of us really wants to get married just for the sake of me getting into the country and even if we did to do that it's unlikely we could afford the move/marriage/living after I give up my UK job (and there's no guarentee i'll be able to get another good job in the US once i finally get a work permit after the marriage)

I don't know what kind of job you have at the moment, but the American job market is much more flexible than here. Of course it also depends on where in the US you would be moving to.

I guess i'd like some recommendations on what people think my best options are. Getting a H1B is pretty unlikely it seems, unless I go over as a tourist for 90 days and secure a job while i'm there - risky since i'd have to give up my UK job to even go there for that long.

Even if you were able to do that, it could take many months for you to be granted a visa.

I've considered getting a temporary work permit (H2B) just so i can get out there and try to look for a better job

H2B is for jobs which few if any Americans are willing to do. Most H2B workers seem to be poor Mexicans who work in the meat packing or food processing industries. Some of these jobs can be dangerous. See Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation for working conditions in the US food processing industry. I would avoid it like the plague. Why don't you go for a shorter holiday, if you can't afford 90 days?

* How much easier is it to find a H1B employer while in the US? Is that even realistic?

Hard to say, without knowing more about your degree and work experience. In the US they always seem to be short of teachers, but that's partly because many teachers there don't make a lot of money.

* For a marriage visa it states my husband should be able to "financially support me" - can someone provide some clarification on what they look at to establish that?

See here. If your husband can't act as a sponsor he can get someone else to do that, if he finds someone who is willing.

* Are there any options i've overlooked here?

Some advice from someone who has been in the same situation:

- Spend time getting to know him better. Visit him a few times, ask him to come over for a while.

- Don't overstay in the US or try travelling to Mexico or Canada and then re-entering the US to prolong your stay. You may regret it for the rest of your life. In the same way, don't let him overstay here when he comes. UK immigration can be very tough with overstayers, even when they are US citizens.

- If after a couple of years of visits and long distance relationship you feel that he's the right person, marry him (preferrably in the US). How to go about it will depend on whether you are going to move over there or he is going to move over here. In my case my wife joined me in London. Good luck.

[Maxi2]

Marco

Thanks so much for the reply. I appreciate it. I'm happy to give a few more details, not sure if it'll help....

My degree is a general business/IT one (don't get too excited about the IT aspect here! It's pretty general stuff, nothing like the high-tech stuff that's in demand in the US). My work experience is entry-level procurement/purchasing roles, project based work, some buying. I've also been a retail manager in the past.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't qualify for anything under H1B from the research i've done.

I know there's some horror stories about the H2B visas but some of the service/hospitality jobs don't seem too bad...are these worth looking at in your opinion?

Thanks again for the help.

Maxi

[Marco 72]

Hi Maxi,

You are probably right in that with your work experience it might be difficult to get an H1B visa. I understand that these days it's difficult even for very experienced programmers to obtain a work permit in the US. However, if you were granted a green card as the spouse of a US citizen you probably wouldn't have any problems getting a job there.

About service/hospitality jobs in the US, it could be something like cleaning rooms in hotels (see here or here), but By the way, I'm not recommending these websites, I just found them on Google.

In my case, my girlfriend and I met about ten years ago when I was on holiday in the US. We kept in touch on the phone and the internet, and visited each other many times. We gradually grew very fond of each other and decided to live together. Two years ago she came over here for six months (the longest a US citizen can stay in the UK without a visa), then we went to the US to get married, since it was too difficult to do it here. She joined me soon afterwards after getting her visa sorted out. Some of my relatives and friends were a bit sceptical, they said we hadn't lived together long enough before getting married. However in cases like this you really don't have any choice. You either get married or break the law. I must say that in spite of their misgivings our marriage has been a great success . It could be that a long distance relationship helps you get to know the other person better in some ways, since you get to communicate a lot more than you normally would. We may decide to move to the US at some point in the future, but for the time being we are ok in London.

[Maxi2]

Marco

Thanks once again for the reply. I guess the situation is pretty much as i thought it was but your input has helped me greatly in confirming what i was thinking and helping me to stop questioning myself!

It sounds like your situation is very similar to my own. My boyfriend and I have been in a long-distance relationship for the past two years and I don't think either of us really have any problems with getting married (although it's not the circumstances we'd choose to do so in ideally) but as you mentioned, our families are an issue in that they find it very hard to understand our relationship and think us foolish for 'rushing' into marriage when we've spent so little time together in 'reality'

It's good to hear a success story from a situation like this. I'm happy things worked out for you and wish you the best of luck with your marriage!

Thanks so much for the help.

Maxi

[ca2lejero]

It´s difficult to find some employer that would sponsor your work visa, although depending on your field of expertise... Imagine, you are at the interview, everything goes nice, than, at the end, you tell them that they need to sponsor you... Like I said, depends on many factors, personal too, so good luck.
Some people do it through ''offices'' semi-legally for like 5-6 grand (they would give you some company, and you don´t have to work there), but you know the risks...
There is no such a thing as H1B/H2B employer, practically any employer can do that if they want, even if there is only one employee in the company. Also your employer would have to show that he/she could not find anybody on the US market and how he/she tried.
As your sponsor, your husband just should show some minimum income, like for both of you, maybe $20-25 grand a year. It sounds scareer than it is. I would recommend you to go this direction. Yes, it will take time and paperwork, but work visa is trickier, besides, to change employer ia headache enough...
Hope it was helpful, good luck.