paleenglish1

Hi all,

This is a complicated situation as I am sure you all know, & it is pretty frustrating when it's not as straight forward as we wished.

At the moment, we are unsure as to what the best approach to our situation is, am I right in saying that submitting the I-130 in London & waiting for the approval (approx 4-6 months) before immigrating is correct, while hubby sets up shop in the States? & from there the greencard/PR can be sorted?

The situation is, there has been a change of employment for hubby (the joy of contracting!) so we are getting relocated to the States, covered by work if done within 30 days of the final day of work, hence the urgency as we don't want to pay for all the shipping if it can be avoided. So if this can be used, great! Down side is I'm left behind with no things, including a place to live. 4 weeks notice is still required for my work so has to be factored in, unless it's put on hold & I just take leave to help find a house & sort out our pets etc.

Is there a website or place to get some more useful info, we have been going off everything that USCIS has told us, & it's worrying that from everyone's experience they are not as reliable as the should be.
Thanks for all the advice so far & thanks in advance for any more!

Noorah101

Hi and Welcome you and hubby to BE.

To be honest, it is not complicated (the paperwork and process is easy, especially filing directly to London), and it's very straightforward. The problem is, people get unrealistic expectations when it comes to immigration, and once they find out it's not very flexible, they get frustrated. Just try to roll with it, and adjust your expectations accordingly.

Yes, exactly!

Once you use your Immigrant Visa to enter the USA, you become a US PR immediately (i.e. you get your green card immediately at the POE), and can live and work in the USA from Day 1.

Fantastic! Your situation just keeps getting better! That shouldn't be a problem, file the I-130 now, and then hubby is free to leave whenever work dictates so.

No friends you can stay with? What will you do with your home, are you renting now or going to sell it? You will have plenty of time to give your work 4 weeks notice...you'll have that much lead time until your interview date. But really, what would happen even if you don't give 4 weeks notice. Nothing.

Compared to so many other people, your immigration situation is one of the best out there. A clear path to the USA, hubby has a job lined up in the USA, work is picking up the moving costs....be grateful!

Rene

Noorah101

Here are some useful links:

BE Wike Guide to DCF: http://britishexpats.com/wiki/DCF_I-130_Filed_In_London

US Embassy London website: http://london.usembassy.gov/immigran...in-london.html

USCIS Website (mostly to obtain the forms needed): www.uscis.gov

Rene

paleenglish1

I completely agree Rene, the timescales are the worst part, but it will all be worth it once done, the regret is not doing it as soon as we married. Don't we all love hindsight!

I hope it only take the 4-6 months for it all to go through. Hoping for less but I know that's pushing it big time . Will be hard being away for that long, but deployments have done it to us before, we are just more settled than we were now.

We own the house, only bought it last year, so hoping that we can get a tenant in pretty quick, hopefully I can crash with someone while it's all being processed.

The other worry is a job for me when I get there, telecommuting would be a dream! But however practical the boss thinks that is, who knows. Also to work as an engineer (I'm an engineering consultant) in the States I have seen that you may have to register, which would mean more joyous paperwork & cost I'm sure

Noorah101

I understand the concerns about you being employable in the USA. But that will be a concern no matter which immigration route you take, so that's a different topic. If you have any questions about being employed in the USA or what it takes to getting your engineering registration, etc...please feel free to browse and post in our General USA Forum, where such topics are common: http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=57

What kind of engineering do you do? I work for a large, worldwide engineering firm myself (admin side of things).

Rene

Hotscot

FWIW

I've been in California for 15 years. As a sales engineer I've always worked from home and only looked for jobs where I could do that.
On some of the job sites, eg Indeed.com, you can specify home office or remote in the search process.
There's always companies needing people willing to travel over a large geography while being based out of a home office.

(However I can just about remember when all the flying and different hotels seemed luxurious. These days nothing better than coming home.)

ian-mstm

Seeing this comment, I'm not sure you fully understand the process. You couldn't have started "as soon as we married" (unless, of course, you married the moment you found out your husband was relocating!) because the visa has a limited shelf life of 6 months... so you would have either had to move to the US within those 6 months - most likely at a time you weren't ready to go, or you would have had to abandon the visa after spending the money to get it processed.

Marrying a USC gives you a clear and easy path to the US... but the paperwork still needs to be processed... and that takes time.

Ian

paleenglish1

Thank's Rene, I will have a look for the employment sections. I am a Building Services or MEP design engineer/consultant, electrically biased. I may have to send you some private messages in the future depending on what type of engineering firm you work for

hotscot, I will have a look into that too thank you . I agree, I do enjoy being home, wherever that may be. Travelling is fun, but not for too long.

ian, it would have been beneficial to look into this & start the ball rolling in any way we could is what I meant, we have been married for 4 years & now all of this is brand new to us, having any kinds of head up or previous knowledge & background info on it would help as I'm sure you can appreciate. If we could have had some kind of PR sorted a long time ago when we had more time & less deadlines I'm sure it would be a lot less stressful

Noorah101

But in order to have "PR sorted" a long time ago, it would have meant you living in the USA a long time ago. You can't obtain PR status while living outside the USA. So there wasn't much you could have done ahead of time except research.

Rene

paleenglish1

Hi everyone & thanks again for the help!

We have submitted the paperwork, & now we wait.......

How long does it generally take to get notice that the petition has been received?

Thanks

ian-mstm

Some people get a notice within a couple of weeks; others never receive a notice. When money has been taken from your account, you'll know it's been received.

Ian

paleenglish1

It has been over a week now so I'll keep an eye on the letter box, & of course the bank account!

Thank you

hungryhorace

USCIS haven't told you this. A mis-informed idiot in one of their call centres for which the credentials are to hold an IQ of less than 50 and be able to transcribe documents over the phone clearly.

I suggest you speak with an immigration attorney who actually knows the law, unlike the call monkeys in the USCIS center.