RainbowPrincess

Thanks for all your detailed replies and the useful links. Certainly clears up everything I needed to know. It could be an option for us to live together in the UK, but to be honest, I'd much rather move to the US! I'm going to read up as much as I can about my options getting into the US by other means.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

If nothing else, the immigration laws of the US did make one big change in regards to gays & lesbians -- it used to be that the homosexuality was classified amongst the rubric of "psychopathic personality" under the medical grounds. And this was a ground of "exclusion." Curiously, it was not a ground of deportation.

Back in the late 70's, the medical profession came around to the idea that homosexuality was not an "illness". In light of changing medical standards, it was now impossible for the former INS to obtain the "Class A" medical certificates.

There is an interesting body of case law from the 50's & 60's on this which are of historical interest, but are now pretty much dead letter.

The US has made the journey to the point that homosexual conduct is no longer a crime. But the US is not at the point uniformly that it is a total non-issue across the board. [Aside -- any bets on when the military's "don't ask, don't tell" rule goes by the wayside?].

scrubbedexpat099

[QUOTE=md95065;6738894]Just to be clear - they would be "good to go" assuming that each of them individually was qualified for an appropriate visa.

The fact that they were or were not in a relationship would be completely irrelevant.[/QUOTE

I took it that this was implied:

kstoss9

If it makes you feel better one of my good friends who is American woman, has been in a 5 year relationship with a woman from Scotland. She applied, on her own for a immigration visa through a job offer (she's a vet-in fact they both are!) and she was approved. Her sexual orientation is not a question during that process, they focused on was she qualified for the position, thats all. She and her partner (my good friend) have gotten an apartment together in Boston. Of corse she will have to re-apply ever couple of years or so to stay working in the US but it can be done, just not based on marriage.

Hope that makes you feel a little better!

~Kate

meauxna

I guess no none ever posted the list of other ways you can immigrate to the US; have a look here: Pulaski's Ways: How to Live and Work in the USA

ovidien

i'm in exactly, exactly the same situation as you (right down to the wanting to move to america instead of the easy route of having my partner move here ) so thank you for making this thread, because it saved me googling and coming up with a whole load of law i don't understand.
thank you. and thank you the rest of you guys for all the help. much appreciated.

meauxna

Anyone who is interested in the options/discussion of can go to the Immigration forum here http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=34 and in the top right corner's 'search this forum' box enter 'same sex' (set the results to 'posts' instead of 'threads'). There have been some good resources posted recently.