Comments | brits_americans: oh nos... another fiancee/marriage visa post

tronochick in brits_americans

oh nos... another fiancee/marriage visa post

Feb 24, 2008 21:07

Ladies and gents,

the British boy and the American girl have decided to wed. I pinky swear that i have done a lot of reading-up on this topic prior to asking a question and i have checked lots of memories and tags but i don't see an answer to my specific question, so i'll ask again:

( sparing folks the nitty gritty of another visa question.... )

visas, moving to the uk, marriage, employment

Comments 30

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dativesingular February 25 2008, 02:31:00 UTC

Seconding this.

tronochick February 25 2008, 02:33:34 UTC

i don't understand why though? we want to get married... what other option is there than a K1 or a K3? and once the visa is approved he can get a work permit, according the USCIS website.

am i missing something?

(The comment has been removed)

Thread 5

vapourtrail February 25 2008, 02:28:32 UTC

The k3 has a processing fee of $355 in addition to what you describe.

Even if you got married today, you'd be hard pressed to have his visa by July. We're going the K3 route as well and our attorney said give it 9 months to be on the safe side.

You *can* get married while he's here on a visa waiver & have him go back & apply. We're getting married here in Boston, then he'll go home and we'll apply. As long as he's not coming here, getting married and planning on staying all in one trip it's okay.

tronochick February 25 2008, 02:32:00 UTC

cool. thanks. that's what i thought but i wasn't certain. i'm calling the immigration attorney in the morning to get this process started but i just wanted to know if it would be a problem.

9 months seems like a long time? Visa journey seems to clock the time between applying and receiving the visa at 3 months, give or take.

vapourtrail February 25 2008, 02:37:58 UTC

I'd give it more time, especially because you're in Florida. Talk to a reputable immigration attorney there & see what they say. I'm just going by what mine tells me.

As an aside - do you actually plan to practice law in the UK? I'm curious because they get paid so much less over there - I hope you don't have a ton of student loans! ;)

tronochick February 25 2008, 02:41:41 UTC

Well, he's a barrister. he's guaranteed to make some decent money. i'm hoping to get a piddly job working with a human rights NGO, actually.
or maybe i'll go for my Ph.D. and teach law to LLB students. i don't know.. i guess i'll go where the wind takes me, he knows what he wants to do. the prospects over here aren't that much better for new lawyers, actually.. so my skills as a US attorney in the UK may be more marketable.

Thread 15

re: oh nos... another fiancee/marriage visa post onlyrobin February 25 2008, 02:35:12 UTC

I'm not that "up" on US immigration, but as far as I'm told, it doesn't matter where you get married, as long as there's a certificate. My husband and I married here in the USA in November and plan to move to the UK. He's there, actually - I guess that should be that I'm moving to the UK ... anyway ... what I'm saying is that how would they know that you didn't just decide to get married on a whim? Besides, a girl I used to work with got married to a guy from Russia and he was here illegally, they got married here, and he still got all his stuff approved. I don't know how much they paid, though.

Good luck to you!

pygmymetal February 25 2008, 02:46:05 UTC

I'm going to point you at Visajourney.com because that site rocks.

We filed at the end of July (K1) and got the petition approved at the end of January. That's 6 months. And we're not done yet. Brian still has to get past the interview phase.

You might have to rethink your timeline.

tronochick February 25 2008, 02:48:44 UTC

yeah i've been there.. which is what i've been basing my timeline on.

how long did it take from initial application to visa?

pygmymetal February 25 2008, 02:52:42 UTC

We don't have the visa yet. We just have the petition approved. The petition is Homeland Security, the visa is the state department. Supposedly the state department goes faster.

ultra_lilac February 25 2008, 15:44:33 UTC

Our K1 took six months from the original application to me having the visa in hand.
It then took another five months to get my work permit and three months after that for me to get my provisional green card.
It's a long, frustrating and expensive process.

I believe that you can apply for a SS number (which allows you to apply for a work permit) as long as the white form (I-90?) in your passport is still valid and you're planning to adjust status, but we missed the boat on that one and so had to wait.
I could be wrong though, I try not to think about that whole time too much!

Good luck!

joellevand February 25 2008, 05:08:30 UTC

FWIW, my husband had his EAD (work permit) within three months of adjusting status, so he wouldn't be workin that long w/o it.

I think K1 will be best for you; there could be problems if you marry here on VWP then apply for a K3 -- not rejection per se, but probably a delay. OR you could marry in England and then he could apply for the K3, though I do not have any knowledge on whether marrying w/o a visa in the UK when you do not intend to remain/live there is as simple as it is in the US.

tronochick February 25 2008, 11:55:38 UTC

it is possible to get a UK visit to marry visa. the only problem is that you have to have 'residency' for 7 days prior to going to the registry office to announce the wedding, then you have to wait a further 15 days (14 in Scotland) before actually being allowed to get married. if i had a 3 week break coming up, it would be no problem, but i don't.