cjb

I know this has probably been asked a million times and I am sorry for that, but I am at my wits end.
I live in Scotland, I have been in a relationship with a woman who lives in Iowa for quite some time now and we plan on marrying and settling down in the USA.

After looking for info all over the net, it is pretty obvious that getting in to the States is almost impossible to do in our situation. Work based visas are pretty much a no no without an offer from a US employer, and even then I would need to have skills no one local in the US has.
We had been considering me entering the country under the visa wavier program and marrying towards the end of the 90 day maximaum period I can stay, but from what I have read, this is not recommended. We didnt really know anything about ways that you are allowed to do this, so we emailed the various official sites asking if the visa wavier thing was allowed and have got no reponse, now I get the feeling that emailing them that might have been a bad idea. Could us emailing them this query have affected us in any way or am I just paranoid?
Their is also the fiance visa which we have found out about. What is the usual time it takes to get this visa? I know my fiance has to apply with the INS who then forward the application to the american consulate over here that I would apply to get my visa from(London I assume?). Does this usually take a long time? Do I need to contact them at all or will they contact me once they have the application?
And I assume I would have to travel to London for my interview? I am sorry for throwing this at you all at once but I have been trying to find out information about this for the past 2 weeks and I am ending up more confused than I was at the start.

Any information/advice you could give me would be much appreciated.

Onigiri

http://www.mindspring.com/~docsteen/...o/visainfo.htm Accept the disclaimer and
read everything in this site. Coming to the USA on a visa waiver and getting married
to that iowan is the best option you have. It is also cheap for the INS and the
US-Consulate. Read about the visitor's visa adjustment link. another useful site is
www.k1faq.com

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Kathie

Hello CJB

I second onigiri's suggestion to read doc steen's page. It's pretty jam-packed with
information. If you go the K1 route, you will have to make the trek down to London
for your interview. (big ugh, I know) If you're a fellow weegielander, we'd be happy
to share what we know about going through the process on that end.

All the best, Kathie and Dougie

Jb

[usenetquote2]> > I know this has probably been asked a million times and I am sorry for that, but[/usenetquote2]
[usenetquote2]> > I am at my wits end. I live in Scotland, I have been in a relationship with a[/usenetquote2]
[usenetquote2]> > woman who lives in Iowa for quite some time now and we plan on marrying and[/usenetquote2]
[usenetquote2]> > settling down in the USA.[/usenetquote2]

Also read the US Embassy in London's web pages if you haven't already. They will
explain the process in detail

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/

Visa services

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/visa/visaindex.htm

cjb

got lots of info.

my fiance live in Iowa and so will need to file the petition with the INS office in Nebraska.
what sort of timescale are we talking for them to approve and forward it all to the embassy in london?
i know in the uk i can hurry things along by getting the required forms now and sending them back to the embassy while they wait for the petition to be forwarded to them, but are we talking 2 months? 6 months? what is the average time for nebraska to forward petitions to the uk?

thanks to anyone who can help

Onigiri

see http://www.davehollis.com/k1/list.php4

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see http://www.davehollis.com/k1/list.php4

cjb

that looks very promising
we were originally thinking of 4 or 5 months anyway, now it seems that we could get it all processed well in that amount of time!

Bryn Mawr Australian

Did you check to see if DCF is possible?

Monica


cjb wrote:
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cjb

hate to sound dumb, but what is DCF ?

Memerson

DCF = direct consular filing see http://k1.exit.com/dcf.html for more info

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grajan

Hi cjb, we got all excited there about the DCF.... but now we discover that the UK doesn't do it... oh well... back to the K1 :-) Graham/Jan... just starting out too..

PriZm

The UK *does* do direct consular filing, the only catch is the US citizen spouse has to be a resident of the UK (legally) i.e. with a leave to remain, indefinite leave to remain etc stamp in her/her passport.

Lots of people have done DCF in the UK, myself included, look at http://www.kamya.com/interview/ for interview experiences.

PriZm

grajan

Thanks for clarifying that priZm.. I failed to state I was referring to the situation of a non-resident US citizen, as per cjb's situation.
Graham/Jan