British Expatriate Network

I don't know of anyone can help me? My wife and I are currently living in the U.K. My wife is American and we are hoping to move to the U.S but don't know how we go about applying for my visa!?

Does any one know what the first step would be that we need to take? What form/forms do we fill out? What website do we need to go onto to do this? How long does the whole process take? What is the whole process?

Hope someone can help!

Cheers
Neil

It's a fairly straightforward process that takes about 3 months from first application to getting your visa. Once you have your visa, you get a green card on entry into the US.

First of all, you need to visit http//www.usembassy.org.uk and read everything they have to say about immigrant visas/immediate relative category.

Basically, your US wife sends in an I-130 petition to the BCIS in London. At the same time, you send off your visa application (form DS230-I) to the Visa Unit in London. These two forms take about 6 weeks to churn through the system. While this is going on, you have to collect several documents to support your application. The one you have to get cracking on is the Police Certificate, which takes up to six weeks to arrive. You also have to make sure your birth certificates, marriage certificate and any divorce/death certificates from a previous marriage are to hand. If you've served in the military, you'll need papers from that too. Your wife also needs to prepare an Affidavit of Support. Once you've collected all this stuff, then you send off your document checklist to the Visa Unit and this basically tells them you are ready for the interview.

Once the Visa Unit has received I-130 approval from the BCIS, they've processed your DS-230 and received your checklist, they will schedule you for a medical and interview in London. You get the visa the same day if everything is in order.

The quickest the process will take is about 3 months. You can drag the process out yourself, and start about 10 or 11 months before you plan to travel.

Hmm Thanks so much for that! It doesnt seem to be that hard at all!!!

I wonder though...When my wife and I were in the U.S we filed an I-130 at the Nebraska office which will be ready in June...Do you think we can use that when it comes though?

Yes you can, but you need to get a change of address to them so that they send the approval to London rather than to the field office where you lived previously.

ps the info I gave before assumes that your wife is legally resident in the UK, ie not in the UK as a tourist.

Yes my wife is legally resident in the U.K so thats OK. When I spoke to the INS they told me that the I-130 would be sent to me at my address which at the time my mother in Laws house. So I guess thats what will happen then? It will be sent there? then I could just get my mother in law to send it over to me here?

So basically all I have to do is wait for them to send me my I-130 then..and theres nothing I can do untill then right?

Pretty much. Sit and twiddle your thumbs mate, and post more jokes on here.

Incidentally, why "midgeure"?

crikey-ek Neil, not seen anything of you in ages. I didn't think you and your wife were working out, glad you ended up getting things back together.

Fancy, you started off over here together, ended up both back in England, now you're trying to get back again.

I hope you get settled soon !!!

asks the Suggs wannabe :lol:

Vegas,

Yep and thats what I shall do!!! So it doesn't matter that I have left the U.S while my I-130 was still pending? All I-130s look the same don't they?

Yea Nik we sorted things out eventually LOL...We are certainly hoping to move back over there but this time to Seattle!!!! Plus neither of us can pass our driving test and theres no-way we are going to spend the rest of our life in a country on Public Transport.

Midgeure is just a name that I have cos I have been a fan of his for AGES!!!!

The Amurrican driving test? Man, Stevie Wonder could pass the NV test. :lol:

I don't think it's a simple as that. No one will process anything based on your copy of the approval notice - they need the original from the BCIS which is sent to a field office or NVC,

You need to file a change of address notice with the BCIS service centre that is processing your petition. I believe that your wife should write a really smarmy letter to them explaining your circumstances and requesting that they change the processing office to London. She should also write to the London folks asking how best to proceed.

Given that your wife is legally resident in the UK, it will probably be just as easy to start over and file afresh in London. They only take about 4-6 weeks to approve the petition and a further 4-6 weeks to process the visa. You can be done and dusted within 3 months.

Ameriscot..

Hang on my heads starting to hurt..OK this is what happened, my wife and I filed my I-130 and the G-325A (biographic) with Nebraska in febuary 2002 when living in the U.S but were told that it would take until June 2003 so we went back to England to live untill then...

Thats OK right...so in June we get the approved I-130 and the approved G325A sent to old address in the U.S (our mother in-laws, she sends it to us over here) then we just get on a plane and head back over to the U.S to finally start our life in the U.S.A!!!! 'Right'??? Or is there something we need to do after we get the appovals back???