jp23uk

good morning all! We need some help, my wife and i got married last december and after a stressful time we got approved for our UK spouse visa which was amazing and entitles my wife to work and do everything for up to 2 years. This was all good and great and she has found work and we are doing ok unfortuanately my wifes mother has been told she will need to under go chemo therapy and the first treatment is 3 months and the second one is 12 months. Her mother is a high paying job and a number of assests several houses in the US. She wants my wife to go take care of her because she has no one else to do so. So how do we go about getting a spouse visa for myself to join her in the US? Which forms do we use? The k-3 or another form? Also the support requirement my wife does not have a job over there as she moved here would my savings alone cover the support? Around $15000 i intend to work asap if we decide to move over so will this show sufficient cover? I have no criminal convictions i am in good health, and i have a good degree i am pretty sure il pass the character test but its just the financial support which is worrying us can someone please help us?

C_C

It's the CR-1 visa you'll be looking at and the petition I-130 for an immediate relative. If your wife has lived in the UK for more than 6 months continuously, then she can file directly with the US Embassy in London. If not, she has to send her petition for you to the US.
The wikis on this site should be a good start for you to look at, as well as the US Department of Homeland Security website.
Keep in mind that this is going to be a lengthy process taking about 6 months start to finish if your wife is eligible to file with the Embassy in the UK, or 8-10 months if filing in the US.

Re financial support: your earnings need to be at at least 125% of the poverty line for your household size. The current 125% of poverty line for a household of 2 is $18,213. However, this needs to be in ongoing earnings (i.e. salary, self-employment etc.). If you intend to use solely assets (e.g. savings) then you need 3 times the difference between your income and the 125% poverty line. So if you have 0 US income, you will need to be able to show them $18,213x3= $54,639 in assets in order to qualify. Assets need to be easily liquidated, so a property is harder to be used as asset, due to the current financial market. (You could however sell your property in the UK, if you have one, and use the money as assets to qualify).
If the above don't apply to you, you'll need to find a joint sponsor. This can be anyone living in the US (citizen or legal permanent resident) who can claim enough earnings or assets to meet the 125% poverty line for their own household plus you- the intending immigrant.

So basically you have 3 options: a) your wife moves to the US ahead of you, finds a job that pays above the poverty requirement and sponsors you with that b)you try to see if you have enough assets to qualify with those alone, or c) you find a joint sponsor.

For current poverty guidelines (last updated in 2009, still waiting for the 2010 ones), look here:
tp://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-864p.pdf

jp23uk

ok good thank you we plan on going to the usa at xmas to visit her family etc, the plan is to apply for the visa once we return to the uk in January 2011, and the new treatment for her mum (the 12 month treatment) should start february time, by January 2011 my wife would have been a resident in the UK for 6 months so she can file the petition at the embassy in london correct? Her mother would be my sponsor, would her assests be sufficient plus she earns over $100,000 in her line of work so i think i should be covered? So processing time is around 6 months? Which is long but bareable and my wife can enter the uk as she pleases so she can still visit until (hopefully) received my visa. As for evidence of relationship, would the stuff we used for her uk visa be ok, as we havent really documented our life after she was approved, we just lived normally!ha But we have joint accounts, etc phone records we dont email as much as we are with each other everyday!ha Or would our marriage certificate be ok? and the visa pack we used for the uk visa? Sorry for all the questions this has caught us off guard and after doing the long distance thing before we want to eliminate the time apart So its the Cr-1 visa and its best to wait till xmas once wife has been here for 6 months then do the petition etc, correct?

ian-mstm

If time is a factor, it would be quicker for her to start the process now and send the I-130 to the US. That process takes about 8 months or so, so if she files now, you'll have a visa by about April. If you wait until January for her to file in the UK, you won't have a visa until May or June.

Oh... trust me, you don't want to do a K-3 visa. You want a CR-1 visa.

Ian

meauxna

I'm confused by your timelines.. your wife has just now moved to the UK?

You want to live in the US when?

I'm not sure filing I-130 in London is appropriate for you.

Noorah101

When did your wife actually move to the UK?

If your wife has lived in the UK for 6+ months, she can file an I-130 directly to London (called Direct Consular Filing or DCF). Otherwise, she'll file the I-130 to a service center in the USA. The DCF process takes about 4 - 6 months; filing in the USA takes about 8 - 10 months.

K-3 is not a form, it's a visa type. But you don't want that one. You want to obtain a CR-1 Immigrant Visa. We have Wiki guides on here for that. Try reading up on CR-1 Immigrant Visa, and also DCF in London (whichever applies to you).

No, $15,000 in savings won't be enough. If it's just you and your wife in the household, you'll need more like $56,000 or so in savings. Your wife, if she moves to the USA ahead of you, can find a job paying the right amount and sponsor you, or she can use a joint sponsor.

No, future income won't count on the I-864.

There is no character test. There are security checks and health checks, but sounds like you'll pass those.

Rene

jp23uk

thanks for the reply she moved here in May, and her mother is not doing the treatment until next year, the plan is for her to go back before me in feb or march to look after her mum, my wife wont be able to work. Her mum will be my sponsor, despite being ill she still receives full pay for the year which has already been agreed by her employers and she will be working from home when she feels up to it. So i was thinking of waiting until my wife reaches her 6 month stage in the uk i.e. christmas time then 6-8 months i should hopefully receive my visa the cr-1. So by next June (earliest) i can join my wife in the states. Or file in october (her mum visits to discuss options then but im just wondering how my wife can file if we decide to do it in october how can she file in the USA if she is in the uk? How can she file for petition if she is not in america? I just thought it would be easier to do it in london as we are in the uk (me until i get visa and wife till early next year, does this not seem the most logical route? Either way it is only a month or two in it which we will benefit, but im open to everyones opinion.

Personally i would imagine id follow this route

- File for petition
- Complete the affadavit for sponsorship (her mum being my sponsor)
- Complete the visa form the D**** something correct?
- Medical interviews etc
- Visa = June 2011

Am i roughly on the right line?

thanks in advance

J

p.s. sorry if it doesnt make sense at work and having to rush this ha

C_C

It is normally quicker to file directly with the Embassy at the place of current residence, if the USC meets the criteria.
That said, I know people have filed to the US before while being abroad. I can't advise on that as I don't have personal experience, but it seems like lots of those who do it put their permanent US address on the forms (or a relative's US address, so that they can get correspondence there from USCIS) and some write a covering note explaining that they're temporarily abroad. Other people in the forum may be able to help you more with that.

Your timeline looks reasonable under current timelines. But the order is rather like this (for DCF):
-File I-130
-Confirmation from Embassy that the petition has been filed (within 2 weeks)/if USC found ineligible for DCF, the Embassy will instead return the application and advise them to file in the US
-I-130 approval, or request for further evidence and then approval
-Letter from Embassy's Visa Unit assigning case number
-After I-130 approval you gather all the documents needed for the interview (birth certificate, police certificates, marriage certificate, affidavit of support, other evidence as appropriate to your case) and once you have these - or once you are confident you'll have them soon - you send in the DS-230 form and the DS-2001 (notification of your readiness for interview). Around that time, you also need to arrange for your medical.
-Interview date received
-Interview and submission of all the above documents, and hopefully approval.

Start to finish 5-6 months, or a little more/less depending on individual circumstances (e.g. before your I-130 approval, you may get a request for further evidence, which may delay you for a couple of weeks).

Note on sponsors: your wife's mum will be your joint sponsor. Your wife still has to be your primary sponsor and needs to fill out the I-864 affidavit as well, even if she doesn't meet the income requirements (which is why you'll be using a joint sponsor). A visa cannot be approved without an affidavit completed and signed by the US spouse.

C_C

This wiki for London DCF should help you:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/DCF_I-130_Filed_In_London

jp23uk

OK thanks for that this weekend i will get all the required info as stated on the wiki and do a 'test run' to understand the procedure e.g. what the forms call for, no doubt i will have more questions! thanks for all your help!

jp23uk

hmmm proof of domicile, this is a worrying topic!

My wife has a bank account in the states, a valid drivers licence and her mothers address and her mum to state that we will be staying there and a voting register, is this sufficient? Also, her old employer said they would write an offer of employment at her old company if she decided to return to the US. Will this suffice, also would it be good if i (the UK citizen) have a firm offer of employment once arrival within the US? Plus when we go and visit at christmas if i were to make a joint account with my wife (if this is even possible? but we did this when she arrived in the UK) this would show that we intend to move back, plus monthly deposits into this account would this also be good? As to show that she was only leaving for a short peiod, her current visa the indefinite leave to remain is only valid for 2 years, i will not let her give that up until i have been approved because we want to be together, but from the uk i doubt they will allow her to apply for perminant residency for uk as we will no longer be living there and so will not be able to provide sufficient evidence that we intend to stay in the uk. Sorry for all the questions we went through all the stress of getting her over here now we have to do it again, for me, but now we are together we do not want to give that up!!

C_C

All the evidence you mention are good. If she or you can show a signed contract of employment, that would go quite far. People have been approved based only on this (a signed contract though, not just an offer). If she can't have a contract, an offer should still be ok, especially if she can prove that she's accepted it.
Re the joint bank account - we did that, my husband added me to his US accounts. I assume each bank has their own rules, we did that with Citibank. They asked me for 2 pieces of ID and accepted my passport and my UK driver's license for that. And we used his US address as our principal address. They didn't ask for anything else, but do ask your bank what they need.

Re intent to return to the US - evidence of leaving your life in the UK should serve well too.

No, she shouldn't give up her UK visa until you're approved, however she can go abroad for a while and return if her UK visa is still valid. That is to say, if she moves to the US a couple months ahead of you, just so that she can establish domicile ahead of your interview, then you'll need much less evidence because she'll already be in the US and that's the most secure way of establishing domicile really. Then as long as her UK visa is still valid, she should still be able to come back if something goes wrong.

jp23uk

ok ok that sounds like a plan, we wouldnt do the application until after christmas after our xmas vacation as i do not want anything to jeopardize that much wanted vacation The plan is for her to go back before me due to me having work commitments here and for the fact that it will take 6 month to hopefully get approved, we are just trying to minimise the time apart. Hmm evidence of relationship we have invites to friends weddings with both our names, we have flight tickets e.g. one at xmas and tickets to trips we have taken e.g. london etc but i honestly didnt think about this because a normal relationship does not have to document every event! We have a few photos but they are not exhaustive by no means :/ Plus our wedding was rather small scale e.g. my wife and myself and a witness, it was low key but at the time i was a university student just saving up for the uk visa and was living off of super noodles to afford for her to come here, the move to the uk has proved to be very expensive too, our intentions is to have a ceremony/celebration we have two big families and we want it to be special for everyone, for us our original marriage will always be special as we did it on the date we first met new years eve you dont need a big expensive wedding to have that memory! once we are settled and have the funds available, i have promised my wife and this is will what will happen once we get the ££££ sorted! The rest of visa seems ok to me i can get hold of the police certificate and the affadavit seems straight forward, however my wife has some debt in the us will this affect anything? Even with my wifes small debt her mum (co sponsor) income will be nearly 6 times the poverty line! please advise!

Noorah101

Your wife's US debt will not be a hinderance.

Rene

jp23uk

Thank you amazing support everybody most appreciated!