British Expatriate Network

Hello Everyone,

l have been reading the other posts on this subject and l am totally confused as to what l need to do now!

I am married to a US Citizen and we are currently living in the UK. She has been here for a little over a year now and we have been discussing moving back to the states.
We are unsure as to how to do this process! What forms to fill out and how long it takes to actually get my visa to move there! Also, we thought about moving and then applying for the visa, is this possible or not?
l am sorry if this subject has been covered already but l honestly did read the other posts and l am confused as to what l need to do.

Any help you could give us is greatly appreciated!! smile
Cheers!

You apply for the visa before you go. It takes around 3 months from the first form, ending with a medical and interview in London where the visa will be granted.

You can find out everything you need to know by visiting the London consulate website and checking out the section on immigrant visas. I also put together a now very out-of-date website when I was doing this 3 years ago. The essence of the process is the same, but lots of form numbers have changed and the fees have gone up a bit too.

Specifically, you want an immigrant visa in the immediate relative category. In a nutshell, you file an I-130 petition with the INS in London. Concurrently, your wife applies for the visa with the visa branch at the consulate. While your petition is being processed, you have to collect various documents (birth, marriage certs etc), and when everything is ready, your wife will be invited for interview.

The one slightly tricky part is that you have to prepare an Affidavit of Support (I-864) and for this you need to prove that you can support your wife in the US without recourse to public funds. To do this, you have to have sound plans of where you are going to live and work when you get to the US.

Kelso42 Ameriscot is totally right, but i think she got confused thinking you where the US Citizen, instead substitute everything she said for you to do, and instead have you wife do it.

Sorry, yes, Luke is right.

Your wife, the US citizen, files the I-130 petition and prepares the I-864 Affidavit of Support. You, the UK citizen, applies for the immigrant visa.

Thank you so much for the website and for all the information!!! I really appreciate everything!!

l am sure l will have more questions as the time progresses!! Great to know that there are so many knowledgeable folks on here!! Cheers!!

I like your website Ameriscot - you might think it a bit dated but it's interesting to read everything laid out so clearly and from a real-life point of view.

Thanks, Pilgrim.

When we were moving, there weren't really any websites for people in our situation so I really wanted to record what we went through. Now, the embassy website is so good that private sites aren't as valuable.

I've thought of keeping it up to date, but then that wouldn't reflect my experience so would get into the realms of practicing law without a license - quite a few people in similar situations were actually threatened with law suits by the bar associations in their states.