Daisydolittle13

Hi there,

We are a couple from London (me) and California (him) who married in London in February this year. He has moved over on a fiancé visa and we just got the family of a settled person visa. He now has his biometric residence permit and is on track to the 5 year route to get a UK passport.

We are considering moving to California in the longer term and have been researching the I-130 and immigrant visa route. I am having trouble working out some of the details - if anyone was able to help with the below questions I would be very grateful:

For the financial requirements for the immigrant visa he would have to act as my sponsor and prove that I wouldn't be a burden on the state. Does that have to be via a permanent job in the US or are you able to pay that money into the account in a lump sum and say that he is domiciled in the US? We would like to avoid being in separate countries waiting for the visa to be processed.

The US consulate in London says to allow 10 months for the I-130 process. Any ideas on how long this is valid for it you decided to delay applying for the immigrant visa?

Does anyone know the average processing time for the immigrant visa and the process as a whole?

Does anyone know a ballpark on cost for the process?

Any information would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Daisy

SanDiegogirl

I'll leave the US experts to give you info regarding the I-130 and its process.

Sounds as though you will be doing Direct Consular filing

Just to say that, to obtain the next UK visa at 2.5 years and then to obtain ILR at end of 5 years you need to be living in the UK without long absences.

If you leave before ILR and are out of the country for 2 years or more, then, if you want to return to the UK, you'll need to start all over again.

ian-mstm

No, he wouldn't. He's your sponsor because he's the USC spouse, but any US citizen or Permanent Resident can act as a joint sponsor to cover the financial requirements. See forms: I-864, I-864P, and I-864 Instructions. All the forms are available at www.uscis.gov.


Read the forms - they'll answer all your questions.


It'll be somewhere between 6-10 months. Don't start the process until you're less than a year out from moving. You can delay the process at just about every step if your plans change.


Many of us know the entire process inside and out.


Plan on about $2,000.

Ian

Daisydolittle13

Thank you so much! You're replies flagged up some interesting info we didn't know.

Daisy

Embrta

I'm not sure about your other questions but Currently there are people on this forum obtaining IR1 visas (spouse visas) in around 2 months. Check out the thread: Immigrant Visa (DCF: I-130 Filed in UK) - TIMELINE ONLY! In this forum for an idea on how long it is currently taking. Costs are roughly:

$535 i-130 (petition)
£300 - medical examination
£45 - for ACRO (POLICE CERTIFICATE)
£10 - medical summary from GP and vaccination record (some charge)
$325 - visa interview
$220 - immigration officer
££s - to get to London twice
£10+ - us passport size photos
££s - flights
£18 - courier service for passport delivery with visa
And anything else I have forgotten.
This is all off the top of my head so is approximates.
but the London US embassy
Website is pretty good and after reading it all a few times you'll have a good idea of the process. They even update you on their website for petitions they are currently working on (so right now it says as of the 15th of August they are working on petitions filed the 31st of July).

Hope this helps

ian-mstm

FIFY. The caveat YMMV is always important... and 6 months is roughly the historical average over the past 20 years - despite any periodic speed up or slow down of the process.

Ian