Me Eng -Wife American - Live In UK - Moving To USA

[anchorsaway]

Hello all

What an incredibly useful forum this is! Real people talking to each other - and helping each other out. Which brings me to my story...

I'm English, my wife's American, we married in the USA 5yrs ago, and she moved to England, (what an interesting visa journey that was! ). Anyway, now we are moving back to the USA. I looked on the US Embassy website and see that we can fill in an I-130 form and send that into the Homeland Security office in London.

As we are not 100% sure of our departure time, (pending jobs over there etc), I phoned a rather expensive helpline number, (£1.20 a min!), and found out that there is a maximum of six months from the visa approval date and it expiring, before it is used. In short - I have to move to the USA within six months after getting the visa.

But, what I wasn't able to find out was the average waiting time to process a visa application. I know this may vary from case to case, but in the case of a normal visa application, does anyone know what the approx average waiting would be? I.e. how long will it take to get the visa? There seems to be some indication on the US Embassy website that under these circumstances, this Alien Spouse visa application may be a bit quicker:

Note: If the U.S. citizen and the immigrant visa applicant reside in the United Kingdom and the U.S. Citizen is filling the I-130 with the Department of Homeland Security (Immigration) in London, it will be possible to begin the administrative processing of the immigrant visa application before the petition is approved and received by the Immigration Visa Unit.

- although I'm not quite sure what that means.

Thanks in advance for all your help

Paul

[anchorsaway]

Plan B....

Seeing that there are equally as complicated forms after the I-130, (as there were forms for my American wife to come and live in the UK), here is a reviewed scenario....

As regards the I-864 Support Form - we neither have property to sell here in the UK, (or any great savings to speak). Also, when we move back to the USA we would have no jobs, (and the chances of obtaining employment in the USA whilst living in the UK will be next to nothing), although my wife would be able to pick up some work pretty quickly where she used to work - but not in the salaries/savings that would probably be acceptable as being able to support the pair of us.

We would be living with my wife's parents, (who are both employed). Would it be more sensible for me to get my father-in-law to be my sponsor? Is this possible? Can the I-130 be submitted by my wife, (here in the UK), and the I-864 submitted by my father-in-law in the USA? How complicated would this become, if at all possible?

Paul

[JAJ]

I'm English, my wife's American, we married in the USA 5yrs ago, and she moved to England, (what an interesting visa journey that was! ). Anyway, now we are moving back to the USA. I looked on the US Embassy website and see that we can fill in an I-130 form and send that into the Homeland Security office in London.

Has your wife got her British citizenship? If not, has she thought about applying for naturalisation before she leaves?

[Marco 72]

Hi Paul,

You don't actually need to move to the US six months after getting the visa. If you are not ready by then, you can just fly to the US, get your I-551 stamp in your passport, then fly back to the UK to sort out any remaining business for a few months, as long as you can provide an address in the US where they can mail the actual green card.

About the timescale for obtaining the immigrant visa, it's hard to say. See here for some average processing times. It could take anything from six months to a year or even longer.

About the affidavit of support, it's not a problem for your father in law (or any US citizen) to be a co-sponsor, as long as he is living in the US.

I would suggest you post a message in the following forum as well (US marriage-based visas discussion group). Many people who post there moved to the US with the visa which you are going to use:

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

[anchorsaway]

JAJ,. Marco - thank you very much for your help and support

I shall check out the expats web forum as well.

Paul