British Expatriate Network

Hello everyone!

My boyfriend and I are thinking of getting married. Its v exciting, but it also seems like a bit of a minefield. I am a brit on a student visa and he is a US citizen.

Has anyone been through the same process? I'm worried about the INS as I've seen the film Green card and don't want to fall into any traps. How long does it all take to become a legal resident? Are there any pitfalls I need to avoid? And if anyone could direct me to a really good website that would be great.

Thanks

smile

So are you planning on getting married here before your visa expires and then applying for residency. Or are you planning on going home and applying for a K-1 Visa?

If it is the latter http//www.K1faq.com is an excellent resource.

I'm sure there are a few other people on this board who can help you out. Good Luck!

Thanks very much for the link. We are actually hoping to get married here in the states. From what I can gather I'll need to apply to change status from my student visa to a different one... but which one I'm not quite sure.

Is it more legally correct to get a K1 visa and / or less time consuming? If so perhaps I should consider it?

Thanks again

Hello there and welcome to Britnet. smile

I got married to my American wife when I was here on a tourist visa. It was a very straightforward process and went very smoothly. The only thing that took time was assembling all the supporting documents to accompany the application. I suggest you start the ball rolling as soon as you are married, and certainly before your current visa runs out.

Go to your local library, and look for a book on how to submit an application. I am sure there are several. Your husband will have to complete a petition on your behalf, and you will have to complete an application. These forms can all be downloaded from the INS website. Or else phone them and ask them to send you a package of forms. You will both have to submit autobiographical details on another set of forms and your husband will have to prove he is financially able to support you. You will also have to send in your passport, marriage certificate, your birth certificate and any marriage and divorce papers from previous marriages. You also need to get a number of photographs taken, in exactly the style specified by INS, and you will have to undergo a medical examination by a doctor on the INS approved list.

It took my wife and me about 6 weeks to gather the necessary documents (we had both been married twice before so there was a lot to gather. Luckily I had my birth certificate with me) and undergo the medical exam, and one long evening filling out the forms. We sent the whole lot in to INS with fees totalling about $450.00 and it was about five months to the day after that that I received my permanent residence. In the meantime we had been summoned to he local INS office for an interview, and we were expecting a lot of “What is her favourite movie?” type of questions but in fact there was none of that. Just half an hour of chat while the officer verified the details on our application forms, asked me if I was a terrorist or a Nazi war criminal (They don’t expect you to say yes, but they want it on record that you said no), then the permanent residence stamp in my passport and the green card in the mail a few weeks later.

Bear in mind that if you apply for permanent residence while in the USA, you will not be allowed to leave the country until a decision has been reached, even for a family emergency. If you do your application will be treated as abandoned and you will have to start all over again, and pay a new lot of fees! The only way round this is to apply for an advance parole, allowing you to leave and re-enter the USA if necessary without affecting your application. This costs an extra $100.00 or so but is probably worth it.

We did briefly think about using a lawyer but decided against it. Wisely, as it turned out. A lawyer wouldn’t have been able to speed things up at all and would simply have relieved us of hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars!

I hope this helps.

Congratulations. Hope it all works out well. I got married this year in June, and my K-1 took from the previous DEcember until June 1st to pan out, and of course I had to be outside the US. But others will know more about this.

Wow! Thank you for the very useful information. The process with the INS doesn't sound nearly as scary as I'd first thought.

What a great board! How can I have lived without it for so long??

grin

Dunno. Have you been to the main chat bit (Britnet) yet? :grin:

what about the 212(e) rule if the poster has a J1.I think I am correct in stating that marrage is not a reason within itself to allow a person to circumnavigate the 212 rules?

after Sept 11th, advance parole was suspended until further notice.
or that is what the woman at my interview told me.

That's not true. They are still granting Advance Parole on much the same timings that they always were:
http://shusterman.com/aos.html

Not so! I received my advance parole in January 2002

my bad

Hi Murchie

I think that after you have been in the US for more than 90 days on your J1 visa, your status of intent is allowed to change. I.e. when you entered the country on your J1 you had to prove that you had reasons for returning to the UK (or home country) and were not intending to emigrate. After 90 days though, you can apply for adjustment of status and get married on a K1 visa. During your application, you'll have to stay in the US until your Advanced Parole is granted (which can take a few months depending on which INS office you apply to).

Good luck, Em