Paul M B

Hi everyone. I only found this site last night and already it has given me a wealth of information that so far i had been unable to find. It has also given me some reassurance that im not the only one out there going through this.

I have been married to my wife who is from California for three years now and initially she came over to live in England to live. Towards the end of last year her family went through some important changes and we decided that we needed to be over there for them. My wife went over first in January with the idea that i would stay here until i had gained more work experience and saved more money. Four months later and i am just back from a short visit where we decided that it could take us forever to save as much as we want (four months was long enough) so we are just going to take the plunge and apply now. I just have a few questions that i hope you can all help me with as the process seems quite daunting.

-My wife isnt working at the moment and also living with her parents (due to the family circumstances.) Will this be a problem for us?

-Can anyone give me a rough estimate how long the whole process takes from the initial petition?

-We dont exactly have a great amount of money saved, at the moment only a couple thousand, so will this also be a problem?

ian-mstm

Your wife, as your sponsor, will be required to submit form I-864 (Google is your friend). If she does not earn enough or have assets enough to qualify, you will need a joint sponsor - any USC or PR, over age 18, and living in the US.


From the date of the initial petition about 8 - 10 months... maybe more, maybe less.


It'll be a problem only if you can't afford the fee for the I-130 (and the I-864 issue above). The current fee schedule is posted at www.uscis.gov in the "forms" section.

Ian

arcadium

Hi Paul,

I'm currently in the same process as yourself.... my wife filed the petition for myself in September 2007. I have my interview with the embassy next week (and I'm sh**ing bricks at the moment). If you do everything correctly, it won't take as long for you as it did for me. It turns out the National Visa Centre were waiting for me to file a certain form, and I didn't know anything about it, then when I did file the form I filed it incorrectly. So if you jump through their hoops, and don't be afraid to contact them if you go a very long period of time without hearing anything from them, I guess it shouldn't take too long.

If all goes well for me next week, I'll be moving over in August. It's a ball ache because the wife has been refused entry to the UK too, so we can't really see each other.

As for the financial situation, I'm not sure... but I know my wife was able to take into account the earnings of other members of the household or something, as she shares a house with her grandparents.

Good luck, and definately get on with everything as soon as you can! Check all the forms you send in about 10 times and get someone else to check, because any mistakes cost a lot of time :-(

Paul M B

Thanks for the info so far. I have already asked my Father in Law to be my financial sponsor and he has agreed and im fairly sure i can afford the fees for the forms. Im a little dissapointed by the length of time it takes as for my wife to come to England im pretty sure it took less than a month. Whatever it takes to be back with my Wife is worth it though.

Noorah101

It's true that it takes a lot less time for a USC to go to the UK. That's just the way it works.

You are allowed to visit each other during the process, but of course it costs money and you'd both have to show ties to your home countries.

The time will pass quickly once the paperwork starts moving.

Best Wishes,
Rene

Bob

What's her status in the UK? If she was resident in the UK, you'd have had the option to DCF, which would probably have been your quickest option, don't know if that's feasible now.

Paul M B

Sorry but what does DCF mean? Im not 100% sure what my Wifes status was. She came over here after we got married in the US and stayed for 2 and a half years. We only temporarily renewed her visa as we had long term plans to move to the states. Her visa for here is actually still valid i think.

Bob

Direct Consular Filing....search it out.

As she's not resident in the UK anymore it might be moot, but an option to explore if your able to use it.

ian-mstm

Direct Consular Filing. It's not an official term, but basically it means that she can file the I-130 directly to the US consulate in London and have it processed there rather than filing it in the US and having it processed in the US. If it's possible for her to do that, it'll knock a good 4 months off the process.

Ian

Paul M B

I just looked at information regarding that and unfortunately i dont think she qualifies to do that now she is back home. Im going to delve a bit further though as knocking that amount of time off would be a god send for us as i would love to be there by christmas.

Noorah101

You can try, but I think it will now be difficult to prove that your wife is currently living long-term in the UK, since she's been back home in the USA for 7 months already.

What is your wife's *current* UK status?

Rene

Paul M B

Im not sure of her current status. I will ask her when i speak to her later. When we last renewed her visa we went for the temporary renewal. I had a better look about the DCF and im pretty sure we cant do it as my Wife isnt in the country. Thats okay though, we just have to do it the other way.

The_English_Bride

Wow, is it really as quick as 1 month for a USC to join a UKC spouse??

Noorah101

From what I've heard, yes....a month or two. Weird, huh?

hobbes79

We applied for a UK spouse visa for my wife in early '06 while in the US. From mailing her passport with the application and fee, she got it back from the British Embassy with visa in place, in a little over a week.

It really is rather insane! I think it takes a touch longer now, but still, nothing all really.