Zez

Hi there

I appreciate that this has almost certainly been answered a hundred times, but after a night of searching last night I am more confused than ever! Thank you for your patience.

One of my husband's clients is currently trying to recruit him to go and work for them in San Francisco. I'm trying to understand the visa thing thing and failing so can't work out if we'd be interested in negotiating further with them or not.

I'm not really interested in going abroad for a year or two then back, I'm looking to settle somewhere with the kids.

Hubby is a masters graduate and chartered accountant and would be working in a senior position. Am I right in thinking eb3 or if lucky eb2 are his way to green card? Is he likely to need to come on a temp visa (h something!!!) and then change, or should we be pushing company from the start that we need to sponsor us for green card?

I too am a graduate, ex chartered accountant and have plans to train to teach if we stay here. The thought of many years being unable to work scares me! Am I right in that if he gets a green card I could too...and then I could work? Is this really likely to be years? I know there are those tracker websites, but I couldn't work them out!!! Gee, I don't sound like an educated person do I, failing to understand this stuff!

Lastly another off putting thought is leaving my parents forever. My parents are retired...am I right in my understanding that they could never ever join us, even if we became perm residents, in spite of being financially self supporting?

Thank you

fatbrit

An immigrant visa from the get-go is unusual. Most go through the non-immigrant work visas before preceding to permanent residency. If this is the case for you, ensure that the contract states that the company will sponsor for permanent residency after a stated period of time.

You can certainly work with permanent residency. Whether you can work or not with a non-immigrant visa depends on the visa type.

From residency to naturalization takes around 5.5 years. At that time you can sponsor your parents for residency. The most common pitfall is obtaining health care for them. You would have to be well within the 1% to withstand an extended hospital illness without insurance without bankruptcy.

Zez

Naturalisation=citizenship?
If he goes in with non immigrant visa, are we talking years til residency and therefor me being able to work? If he gets perm residency, do I?

Thanks for replying so quickly

fatbrit

Yep.

Depends on:
* How long before the company sponsors you
* EB1, EB2 or EB3 classification
Good case scenario would be a year to sponsorship with an EB2. Should work out at, say, 2 years to residency. On the other hand, could be a decade or more....or never.

If you're married, yes.

Zez

Thank you so much. A couple of years I can cope with. Would deffo make timetable to sponsorship art of the negotiations!

civilservant

The timetable yes, but you have no control over which EB category he is eligible for, and that determines if its 1 year for a Green Card or 10.

Zez

I can't work out if it'd be eb2 or 3. He had masters degree and professional accountancy qualification. Senior role. Requires someone with knowledge/ experience of uk taxation and treasury, hence why they are looking at hubby rather than us citizen.

Would it be likely 10 years for eb3 then ...

civilservant

EB3 priority date is currently February 2007, so 6 years.

Zez

Oh my goodness!

Michael

When negotiating the employment contract, get it in writing as to when the company will apply for a green card (could possibly be from day 1). At the same time, ask if your husband can speak to the companies immigration lawyers to try to determine if your husband will be classified as EB2 or EB3 and hopefully they will give a truthful answer. From those answers and faith in the company, you and your husband can then probably base your decision on whether to accept the position.

Zez

Just asked hubby for job spec. It asks for bachelors degree in accounting, pref masters degree. Chartered accountant. 10 years experience. Knowledge of uk and us tax and international auditing. Is there any chance with some tweaking his sort of thing could be eb3? Would hubby's unrelated masters or uk professional accountancy qualification (and the job's requirement for uk tax knowledge and experience) have any chance of being advanced degree or equiv? Really don't want to go if I'm effectively unable to work for 6 years!

Zez

Sorry, clearly I mean eb2!!!

civilservant

We are the wrong people to ask, because nothing we say is binding. You need to approach the potential employer with these questions, who can consult their attorney. An advanced degree has been accepted as a bachelors degree plus 5 years progressive experience in the past, but this is more complicated than we can really advise.

Jerseygirl

With reference to your parents...generally it is not feasible to bring elderly people to live in the US because of healthcare costs. Healthcare is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US. There are loads of past threads about this in the US Forum.

They can visit but UK travel insurance gets harder to obtain and more expensive as they age...especially if they have any health issues. It cost us approx $1k for travel insurance for my then 83 yr old MIL to visit us for just over 2 weeks...she had several health issues.

Zez

Thank you all