azulniew

We started the I130 process in London and are waiting the invitation for interview which should come through by the end of the month.

However we can't sell our flat in the current market and we dont want to rent it out so it looks like we will have to stay here for a while and go to the USA later.

I know we could complete the process, go over, establish an address etc, get a permit to be out of the country etc but we're not sure about doing that.

Has anyone stopped the I130 process and then had problems going through it again later? I know we will have to start from scratch.

Thanks for any advice and thanks generally for a great site!

BritishGuy36

If you are going to pause the process, you really need to do it in between the two applications - which is to say, after I-130 approval, but before you submit your DS-230 part I.

From your post it sounds like you have already submitted DS230 part I, so you now must proceed to interview, then you have 6 months after the visa is issued to use it, at which point you can come straight back to the UK again.

You could always phone the Embassy and ask for your visa interview to be put back a few months - but the I-130 approval is only valid for one year (at least that appears to be the consensus here), then you are back to square one.

Once the visa is activated, if you are going to be out of the US for 6 months or more, you should apply for a re-entry permit immediately upon entry to the US and have that sent to you by someone monitoring mail at your US address. That would give you up to 2 years outside the country without losing your LPR status. Bear in mind though that you can't start accruing your three years of residency required for naturalisation, until you are living there. So if you were to come back for two years and then move, it would be 5 years in total before you can apply for citizenship.

If I misunderstood your post and you haven't submitted DS-230 yet, you can hold off on that for a few months while you try and sell the flat, but make sure that your DS-230 is submitted well before one year after I-130 approval.

We are in kinda the same situation as you, it's difficult to sell property right now and all our cash (moving money!) is tied up in the bricks and mortar. Fortunately we have plenty of equity in our house so we can afford to drop the price a bit to make it cheap compared to other houses in our area, which is getting the viewers through the door (although no offers yet). It doesn't help that it's in the news every couple of days about house prices falling and the credit crunch going to get worse before it gets better I wish they'd just shush till I sell my house!

Michael

If you have equity in your flat and plan to use the equity to purchase a home in the US, it may be worth it to reduce the asking price to try to sell the flat.

The Fed has been reducing interest rates at a very quick pace over the past 10 months to try to stabilize the US housing market. The Fed dropped its interest rate by 3.25% during that time to the current 2.00%. Europe on the other hand have been more concerned about inflation and have done very little to reduce interest rates to help the housing market. The UK only had a .25% interest rate reduction this year to the current 5.00%.

During the 10 months, housing in some areas of the US has dropped by 20% or more creating a buyers market. It now appears that US home prices are near its bottom and should start to level out soon. I suspect that the UK is only starting its slide in housing prices.

Housing prices seldom start to rise again until they have leveled out for a period of time (at least one year but usually more). Since the US started to reduce interest rates earlier and at a faster rate than the UK, I suspect that the US housing prices will start to recover earlier than the UK.

So if you have equity in your flat, you plan to purchase a home in the US, and you wait out the market for the flat to return to the price of a few months ago, I don't think you will come out ahead since the US housing market will probably have risen even further.

Also, US mortgages are currently fairly low at about 6% for a 30 year fixed mortgage.

BritishGuy36

That's a good post, and as far as I can tell an accurate summary of the housing situation.

This is why I have knocked a few thou off our asking price, to get moved and get something bought over there before the prices start creeping up again.

ian-mstm

You need neither establish a US address nor get a permit to be out of the country. Once you enter the US on an I-130, you'll get an I-551 stamp in your passport, and you have immediate authorization to work and travel. You could catch the next flight to the UK without ever leaving the airport and you'd be okay.

Be aware though, that there are US tax and US capital gains implications if you become a US PR and then afterwards sell your house in the UK.

Ian

thedudeabides

Good post and some really helpful info.
Sounds like we're in a similar position to some of you guys. We just can't sell our house. No sale means we aint going!

meauxna

Also be aware that this is a limited-time strategy. If you think you will be outside the US for another 12 months or more, you MUST apply for a travel permit from inside the US.

I have this feeling that azulniew was asking about a re-entry permit before..

azulniew, you can delay your visa interview for a while, to buy yourself more time now. London doesn't care, and they dont' think you've lost interest or anything like that..
There will be a finite shelf life of the I-130, but that could be a way out yet.. not necessarily 12 months from approval.