kerrymuns

Hello,

Ive never written on any of these sites before, so please excuse me if i sound confused.

Anyway me and my boyfriend are hoping to move to the US possibly next year, but we're not to sure how to go about it? Im a Hairdresser with 15 years experience, Im also qualified in Childcare & Education (5 years experience) and have worked in nursery schools, and also been a nanny.

My boyfriend is a Property Investor-doing this in the US and owning property there aswell as in the UK. He has an IT background.

We are both in our 30's if thats any help?

Do you think this would be a good enough set-up to apply? & do you think they would welcome our skills? and would it be easy? How long do these things tend to take?
We were originally thinking of Colorado? and maybe live there for a couple of years minimum? We have both travelled the USA, so know we will love it there.

We have read the notes that Pulaski wrote. On first review we were thinking that applying firstly from my boyfriend under "money" as he's an investor would be difficult. We thought I should be the main candidate...thoughts?

Any advice appreciated..

Kerry

dbj1000

Slightly less than zero chance, from what you've told us so far, unless your boyfriend has enough money to meet the investor visa criteria. Does he have $1M to invest over here to get him an EB5 visa?

Oh, and he'd need to be your husband.

No, it certainly won't be "easy". And no, neither of you have skills that are sufficiently in demand in the US for you to get any other kind of work visa.

christmasoompa

Hi Kerry and welcome.

As dbj said, your chances don't look good based on what you've told us, unless you have an awful lot of money stashed away (and get married first - US immigration does not recognise common-law relationships). The US is notoriously hard to get into unless you have very specialist skills or are closely related to a US citizen.

I'm intrigued though, what in the Pulaskis Ways article made you think that you would be 'the main candidate' - which visa did you think you'd be eligible for?

If you can tell us which visa you'd think you may qualify for based on the Pulaskis Ways article, then we can hopefully tell you if you're right or not.

ian-mstm

No.


No.


No.


Many years - because you will need to find some other way to qualify.


I've heard Colorado is quite nice... but you're likely not going to end up living there - at least, not in the immediate future.


No, you don't really know. Visiting the US bears no resemblance whatsoever to actually living in the US.


Oh... since you ask, the best possible way to get into the US is to marry a US citizen. If that's not an option for you, then a company transfer is the next best option... but, of course, you'd have to work for a UK company that has a US branch office or wants to set one up.

Ian

kerrymuns

thanks all,
this is Kerry other half here, Olllie.

regarding the method of application we were suggesting, it was, after reading Pulaski's notes an educated guess.

Kerry has skiils, perhaps not in demand in the US, but experience with it nevertheless.

I, on the other hand am an investor running a UK company but specialising in US property. I also own US property, have an ITIN etc.

In Pulaski's notes it mentioned than applying under the "money" section would involve scrunity to the Nth degree - we have no problems with this I'm just thinking it might be a waste of everyones time. Is my business worth $150k? who's evaluating? the notes are not clear with regards to owned assets - I own property in the UK, I cant bring these with me but they are owned in a treaty country and they produce cash flow of which would be brought with me.

the assets are worth over $1m but again who's valuation is recognised?

All this said I felt Kerry's application may be a better/less complex route in.

marrige is another year away I reckon.

any advice appreciated.

lisa67

Application for which visa??

henryh

It's a sad state of affairs and I'm sorry to say it, but Kerry's skills really will be of no use whatsoever for immigration purposes. Your best hope is through your property investment business, using one of the investment visas (E-2 or E-5), or possibly an L-1. Do some research on those.

Other countries (Australia, Canada) may well be a lot easier. If you heart is set on the USA I recommend consulting a competent immigration attorney to discuss your options, people on these forums have relatively little experience with your possible routes of application.

christmasoompa

Means diddly squat I'm afraid. Experience & skills are no good unless they are specialised enough for a company to want to sponsor her - do you really see a company spending thousands of dollars on a visa & waiting a year for her to start work? There are plenty of hairdressers & nannies in the US who can start instantly and for free, so her skills just aren't going to get you over there.

Sounds as though your property business is your only option so if that fits the criteria (i.e. has enough employees in the UK, you will leave the UK office running & start up in the US employing US citizens) then that might be your best route. If you did get that visa, then Kerry would have to be your wife to accompany you.

I don't know enough about it, but there are others on here with experience of it, or do a search of the forum to find more info from those that have been through it.

Or, as Henry has suggested, consider another country.

kerrymuns

thanks guys,
all interesting stuff, I'll research the relevant forms, speak to some people in the know.

Before business, my skills are IT based (IBM for 6 years) I did consider going down this route for application.

in theory, if I was to go back into IT, apply for sponsorship through a multi national company and got in. How long would I have to be employed before I could leave and do my own thing again?

kerrymuns

I forgot about cash in the bank.

I know this is relevant under some applications. Pulaski's notes say 2 years salary in the bank required - but what is 2 years salary?

caleyjag

A bloody long time. Many years.

With the IT plan you'll likely be on either an L1 or H1 visa, depending how you do it. These visas won't let you work for anyone else, or on your own. You'll need to be around for long enough to get your greencard. That can take an awfully long time. In all cases you need to be married before you can both come.

However, to be blunt, you are not likely to get an H1-based IT job right now. There are far, far too many unemployed US people looking for work who have IT experience. Moreover, a lot of large companies, such as banks, that have claimed government bailout money are explicitly banned from employing foreign workers on H1bs.

On the bright side, there are sill H1b's going this year for this very reason so if you can find a company willing to employ you, you might be able to get out here this October.

I reckon your best bet is to get in with an international company with a UK office, and in years down the line you can maybe get a transfer.

christmasoompa

Re-read the Wiki link. It says '2 years living expenses', not 2 years salary. So rent, insurance, food, taxes, utilities, etc for 2 years, plus of course any start up costs i.e. things you'll need to buy. What those living expenses are will depend on which are you are living and how you like to live.

Emigration is not a cheap business, our move is costing us £20k - and that's just to get over there. Once we've bought cars, insured them, paid rental deposits on a house, etc, we're probably looking at at least £35k in total.

Eric S

Actually, that's not entirely true. Some visas allow a non-married partner to accompany on a B-2 visa. As long as the partners live together. Do a search in the forum on "cohabiting partner". The disadvantage is that you can't work on a B-2 visa. On the other hand, even if you are married, depending on which visa the primary person gets (H-1B for example), the partner won't be able to work anyway.

Noorah101

Another benefit of being married is that if there is a path to a green card, they both get it.

Rene

Redwing

I agree. One of my daughters, who is a supermarket manager, told me the other day, that she is amazed at the number of IT people who come in applying for any kind of job.