Stevie P

Did you look at the I-864 form and instructions, and the I-864P as I suggested? All the answers are there.

*Again sorry I did not clarify: I was curious if there was a set amount say for a three year period a person would have to have 40,000.00 in savings before you qualifiedor your visa.

I'm not sure what you mean by this question. Previously we told you that the visa will be valid for 6 months from the date of the medical exam. What do you mean by "limited time on the visa"? And why plural? Are you getting more than 1 visa?

*No just one, I think I wil leave this site to the husband from now on.

Sometimes can happen, yes, if one is placed into admin processing for further background/security checks, or if something is missing that the ConOff wants to see, then they ask you to provide it before issuing the visa.

Rene[/QUOTE]

*Thank you that helps, I am a nervous person so I have a tendency to worry that we have missed something. I appreciate your responses.

Stevie P

Rene- My pension was already in progress when I left the US to come here.

Noorah101

You were already receiving funds from it, and will continue to receive from it once in the USA?

Honestly, ALL the financial answers you need (how much income you might need, how much savings you might need, and what to do if you don't have enough), are ALL answered in the forms I suggested reading. If you've read them and still don't understand, let us know which part you don't understand. But please don't keep asking the same question without reading the material first.

If you are looking for just a yes/no answer, then "yes", there are income and/or savings requirements.

Rene

Rete

The income and/or savings, if used for the I-864, need only be current at the time of the interview, even though they ask for paystubs, bank records, etc. for three years past, I believe.

A pension is ongoing and unending, until death of the beneficiary and in some cases will transfer to the surviving spouse, in whole or in part. I.e., my husband's Canadian pension is ongoing until he dies and if I survive, I am entitled to 1/2 of that pension until I die.

So if your pension is more than $18,000 annually, then for a family of two you should be fine.

For the wife: we tend to be literal when at all possible. Thus your use of the word visas instead of visa makes one think there is more to Steve's postings than we are currently aware of. That is all. Having you respond is beneficial because as the person on whom Steve's IR-1 visa is dependent, you have answers readily available to our questions that he might not know the full answer to.

Stevie P

Thank you so much for these answers, please accept my apologies for my wife not phrasing her questions better.
We now have a lot of reading and research to do.
It's an absolute minefield trying to follow the correct procedures. And we'd rather get especially the financial requirements info sorted before anything else.
Once again thank you all for taking the time to help, it really is appreciated.

Rete

Please, Steve, do not apologize for your wife. There is no need at all for an apology. Perhaps she would like to sign up for the site on her own and participate along with you. I'm sure she will have as many questions as you and perhaps some that come to light after reading into the IR-1 visa process.

It is not a difficult visa to obtain and really is very straightforward. But there are nuances for example on how to reply to a question on the form, either with a yes, no, or N/A. Finances aren't difficult and I don't see that she will have a problem being your sole sponsor since she has a ready income from a pension at her disposal.

Both she and you can ask questions regarding how to get along with obtaining driver's license, social security card/number, etc. Many USC really do not know about doing these things until they have to navigate the process for an immigrant.

Fortunately, she probably has a good credit rating in the US and can easily obtain credit for herself and name you as a cardholder on the same account. This will start you off with obtaining a credit rating in your name as well. Credit rating are essential for housing, car purchases, etc.

Members here only want to help make the transition easier for you to get here and help you acclimate to the US way of doing things which is vastly different from what you are familiar with in the UK.

Stevie P

Thank you Rete, for you're very kind reply.
Having looked at my wife's finances, we may be just short of the required rules regarding her yearly income.
Would it be better to have her brother in law be my sponsor instead of my wife? Can he do this for me?
He is a USC with excellent credit rating and a high wage earner, and more than willing to do this.

ian-mstm

Your wife, as the USC spouse, must be your sponsor. There's no option for her to not be your sponsor. Your BIL would be a joint sponsor. The terms are not interchangeable. Yes - he can be a joint sponsor.


This is irrelevant.


This is good! So long as he has sufficient income (or assets at 5x the income requirement) for his household size plus you, then he's good to go!

Ian

Stevie P

Thanks for the help, Ian. Much appreciated, we just want to have as strong a case as possible.

SanDiegogirl

I am going to throw another aspect of moving to the US.

Presumably the US wife has a settlement visa for living in the UK currently. (spouse visa).

If she does, but does not as yet have British citizenship, if the US move does not work out and they wish to return to the UK, then, if they have been out of the UK for 2 years or longer it they will have to go through the UK immigration process again.

Just something else to consider.

Stevie P

Hi SanDiegogirl, thanks for you're reply. Yes my wife is currently on a spouse visa while here in the UK. I have read about the problem of getting back into the UK once you leave but didn't know it was a 2 year period.
To be honest my wife is 100% certain she does not want to come back here, she does like a lot of things as far as living in the UK, but, not half as much as she loves things in the US.
There's also a few medical issues she has, one of which she was advised by a specialist to move to a warmer climate to really help with it. So I'm sure you can imagine the UK isn't high on that list
I don't want this reply to sound too one sided as regards to my wife's needs, I also have many reasons why I want this move to go ahead too. And have no real doubts that we won't be wanting to come back to the UK other than visits.

SanDiegogirl

Fair enough..... just wanted you to be aware that the financial requirements for bringing in a non EU spouse have become much higher since 2012 - I'm presuming your wife entered pre 2012.

Stevie P

My wife and I are going to the U.S to visit family over Thanksgiving, I'm wondering while we are there, is there anything we can do to help our visa process? Like getting info on house rental prices etc, would this help with our case?

ian-mstm

Not really, no... however, you might want to show your brother-in-law the I-864 form while you're there!

Ian

Stevie P

Thanks Ian, will do.