TommieMariaBear27

Hi! I'm Tommie and my Fiancé's name is Maria. I live in The USA and she lives in Wales, UK. We are just starting the K-1 Fiancé Visa process, and wanting to get married as soon as possible in the USA. We have already met in person, known each other for over 3 years, I have a house for us here in America, I live on disability payments ($1240 a month) She receives disability assistance in the UK too (Equivalent of $445 a month) And we both have perfect police records.

We've already started our research, and we have many questions for now or later:

Do we try to afford an Emigration attorney?
Do we make enough money to qualify for a Visa?
How much money should we be prepared to spend?
Are those "$299 Fiancé Visa Specials" online even worth looking into?
Is it true that the 'emigrant' can still receive financial assistance in the US if it was being received in the UK?
Are there any possible ways, regarding disabilities, to avoid the those two huge London trips for her physical and Embassy interview?

Any help would be appreciated, and thanks for reading!

lansbury

Welcome to BE

If everything is straightforward most people do it themselves.

You need 125% of the poverty level for a family of the size yours will be. Your disability payments are not enough for a family of two. You will need a joint sponsor at a later stage in the process.

Only deal with the official Embassy and USCIS web sites, anything else is probably a scam.

Once the person ceases to be resident in the UK, their UK benefits stop

No, medical and interviews are only done in London.

If your fiancee is on benefits what are you going to do for medical insurance for them in the US. A very important consideration.

Michael

Also besides the issue of health insurance (green card holders do not qualify for medicaid (only emergency medicaid) or other means tested benefits), you will have to consider that even though she would qualify on your FICA contributions for social security and medicare benefits when you get older, I believe that qualification starts when you are married and if you aren't contributing to FICA taxes, she can't qualify on your qualifications since you won't be qualifying in the future but my have only qualified in the past.

However the medicaid requirement for green card holders may change in 2014 when health care reform is fully implemented so check that out carefully.

scrubbedexpat099

Croeo,

You can use capital as well as income.

Depending where she is in Wales it could be a straight shot to London, my Mother's side is from the Neath Valley.

Daffyd

Noorah101

It's a personal decision whether to hire an attorney or not. It might be a good idea to have at least a consultation with one, should cost about $200, just to make sure you're on track with everything...especially financially, as I think this will be your most difficult hurdle.

Her money doesn't come into the picture, so the question really is do YOU make enough money (or have enough in assets) to sponsor her? Take a look at Form I-864P at www.uscis.gov, Forms. Look at the 125% column for a household of your size plus the immigrant (if it's just the two of you, it will be two). You either need to earn that much money annually, or have 3x that amount in assets (savings in the bank works best). I don't think you can use your disability income, but I'm not 100% sure.

For the K-1 visa, there are two different addifavits of support. The K-1 visa requires the I-134 (also found at www.uscis.gov). If you don't qualify financially, you can have someone else be her sponsor for the I-134. For her subsequent application for adjustment of status (AOS), the affidavit of support is form I-864 (again at www.uscis.gov). If you don't qualify financially, you can use a joint sponsor for that one.

But the big question is...with limited income, are you sure you earn enough to cover you both, in reality? Do you have medical coverage that she can get onto?

About $2,500 for the K-1 visa and AOS.

No. If you need outside help, you should only use a qualified immigration attorney, not an agent or agency.

It depends what kind of financial assistance. Having received it in the UK has no bearing on whether she's qualified to get it in the USA. New immigrants are not able to get means-tested benefits, or if they manage to, the government will come to the sponsor for repayment. So you should assume that no, she will not be able to receiving financial assistance from the US government in the USA.

No, the medical must be done by the one designated by the embassy, and that doctor is in London. The interview must be done in person, and it must be done in London.

Rene

scrubbedexpat099

He only mentioned income, but not his assets.

Or hers.

fatbrit

I''m pretty sure he can. Not that it's enough, mind.

jeffreyhy

Liquid assets can be used - assets that can be converted into cash within 1 year without undue harm to the sponsor.

Regards, JEff

jeffreyhy

We need more information about the source of that "disability income".

Regards, JEff