jojo70

Hello everyone,

I have been combing the board and have found lots of helpful information. I haven't been able to find exact info though, relating to my situation. I'm wondering if anyone can help. I am an American citizen living in the United Kingdom with my husband, a UK citizen. We have been married for 6 and a half years. I returned to the USA for a short period just after we were married to sort out my visa and have been living here in the UK with indefinite leave to remain since a few months after our marriage.

We now want to move the the USA, but are unsure how to go about it. From what I have gathered, DCF filing is the way to go. However, we own a home and he has been at the same job for 20 years. We are concerned about the timing issue. The plan is to sell the home and buy one in the USA and look for jobs when we get there. There should also be enough left to support us for quite some time if one of us can not find a job immediately. Do we need to sell the house first in order to prove we have the funds to live in the USA? Should we do that and I start the process on the USA end while he awaits approval? Or should we sell and just rent somewhere until he gets his visa? Will there be tax implications of selling a home in the UK and using it to purchase property in the US? It all seems so complicated.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Noorah101

Yes, you can DCF in London. I recommend NOT selling any property or finalizing any travel plans until he gets the immigrant visa in hand. The DCF process probably takes between 4 to 6 months, and he has 6 months to use the visa to enter the USA, so you probably have close to a year to sort things out.

If you see it's getting to be time to enter the USA and there are still things to be done in the UK, you can both come to the USA, your husband will become a PR upon entry, then he is free to return to the UK for a while to finish up last minute business.

You will need to meet some income requirements, and unless your UK income will continue from the same source (which it doesnt' sound like it will), you'll need to either show you have assets of the right amount (such as home equity or property), or find a joint sponsor who lives in the USA. See www.uscis.gov, Immigration Forms, I-864 for more info on that. To see what your level of income will need to be, look at form I-864P.

I don't know about the tax implications.

Best Wishes,
Rene

Noorah101

You will probably also need to show the officer at the interview that you are establishing domicile in the USA (there is a recent thread on that topic, do some searching on here). Have you filed your US tax returns while you were in the UK? This is a requirement. You can show that you're house-hunting, job-hunting, looking at schools for the kids, etc., to prove that you have the intent to reside in the USA.

Rene

lansbury

We did what you are planning last year, with the exception we purchased a house in the USA about a year before we moved.

To use the house as an asset for the visa you will need a written valuation from an estate agent and a statement from your building society showing the outstanding balance. That was all the Embassy required to show the equity in the house.

We had our first tax return done by an accountant and there wasn't any tax to pay on the sale of our UK house. That was sold for $380,000 and the US one cost $249,000 so we did think we might be taxed on the difference but that wasn't the case.