Chrisw1968

Hi Everyone - Great Site You Have Here

My current position is that I am British, living in Britain - my home here is on the market and I intend to marry my American girlfriend and live in the USA.

I have been there 6 times in the last 15 months, but always on a tourist visa - would we be able to marry over there if i was there on a tourist visa? or would i need to go to the U.S Embassy here and get a fiance visa?

Another thing that we are considering is getting Married in a different country (either Malta or the Caribbean somewhere) - would this make it easier?

If we got married abroad, would i then still use the visa waiver programme to get into America - and then sort out the permanent arrangements and legalities when I get there?

I really would be grateful for ANY advice that you good folks could give me - have a great day (see, its rubbing off on me already lolol)

Chrisw1968

Sorry, forgot to ask also - can i just swap my British drivers licence for an American (IA) one? or do i need to retake driving tests etc?
Thanks again

bobkatz

Chris,

You need to get your visa sorted out at the USA embassy in London before you set foot in the USA. If you tell US immigration that you are staying to get married they will put you on the first plane back.
Be prepared for a lot of paperwork!! Apart from the usual identity information you will need to have a full medical at the US Embassy doctors office and must prove that you have sufficient assets.

Bobkatz

yorkshire_lass

Hi Chiris, it is a great site isn't it!
you will need to get a fiance visa before coming to the US to get married. I believe the process is for your fiance to start the process at her end if she is in the US, but I am not too sure because both my husband and I were living in the UK when we met and married so we filed a different way. You would get more info if you post this on the visa forums in BE or go to www.visajourney.com, another great site for visa info.
As for your driving licence, I think the only place you can exchange a UK one for a US one is in Washington DC, and you have to be resident there in order to do it. As far as I am aware you have to do a driving test in all other states, maybe some don't require the road test, but it seems most do, and all require the written test. In some states you can drive on your UK licence for a period of time before getting your US one, here in Hawaii you can drive on a UK licence for 1 year from your time of arrival.
Good luck

Chrisw1968

Thanks Both - Im really grateful

I was kind of wondering (hypothetically of course) - what if Cindy travelled to Malta from her home - and I travelled there from here - and we then got married in Malta - and then returned to USA as husband and wife - would this cut out any of the hassle??

I put my hands up to not knowing jack on this subject (as you have probably already guessed lol)

bobkatz

Its a nice idea but fraught with Immigration issues. Since 9/11 things have tightened up even more . Although US Immigration has always been difficult.
Start online at the US London Embassy website and prepare yourself for a heap of paperwork.
Your fiancee will have to supply almost as much as you do.
If you married outside the USA it gets even more complicated with both USA and UK Immigration. Both sides are equally unsympathetic to you marital status.
I married my American wife in England an so we did it both ways. I have permanent residence in the USA and she has "permanent leave to remain" in the UK. The USA process was marginally easier than the UK one. The only difference being that I had to pay a UK lawyer £4000 to process my wifes papers or face standing for days in Croydon in a queue with thousands of asylum seekers.
We did the USA papers ourselves but there are specialist Immigration lawyers in London who can help with the paperwork filing if you want to pay. Steer well clear of any Immigration specialists advertising on the Net who ar not members of the Law society.


Bobkatz

Chrisw1968

Thanks again mate - i really do appreciate it
All the best
Chris

nai_in_av

Was there some issues with your American wifes applying for a UK visa? my wife and I married in the UK and it cost us about £500 and a day of our time, you only have to wait in line at Croydon if you don't make an appointment. Otherwise you simply go around back and in the entrance that way. For us the UK visa was far simpler to obtain than the US visa (and we had no problems getting the US visa). Just curious as to how come yours cost so much and would have meant days waiting in line.

Back to the OP it's not worth the hassle further down the line to head to the US on a VWP and get married, or marry in another country and deal with it that way. You will need to apply for a fiancee visa to get you into the US and then have to marry within (I believe) 90 days. You then file additional paperwork once married to get resident status/work permit etc.

One option you have if you don't want to be apart from your American girlfriend is for her to get a fiancee visa to come to the UK (takes about a week to get once you mail in all the forms, goes to New York IIRC) you then have 6 months to get married (in the UK), apply for your wifes UK marriage visa (used to be called Further Leave to Remain / FLR) which takes a day out to Croydon (make an appointment) once your wife has her FLR visa, you can then apply to one of the 4 service centres in the US for your marraige visa (CR-1). This is the route that my wife and I took (and sounds like bobkatz did too), and it took us about 10 months going through the Vermont service centre and being pro-active in generating all the forms ourself (see instructions at Visa Journey).

Good luck, but above all make sure you stay above board. I have heard that things can get extremely difficult if you try and shortcuts and get found out.

Chrisw1968

Many thanks for your advice - I will certainly take it all on board.

If I were to get a fiance visa, go to her home, get married within the 90 days etc - would I then be able to remain in USA whilst my green card application is being processed?

Sorry to sound so thick - but I know when I'm beaten lol

bobkatz

Hi,

No, there were no particular difficulties with my wifes UK visa other than in 2002/03 the Immigration dept at Croydon was so swamped with illegals and asylum seekers that we were offered a provisional appointment 4 months down the line or you stand in line for the day. If you dont get through that day, you have to go back the next day...and so on. And if you have one piece of paper not quite right then ...out. An absolute nightmare. An friend of mine who works for the Home office told me that certain law firms have "reserved" days each week at Croydon to process documents solely for their clients.
It was expensive but free of stress.
The only complication we had was that my wife had to return to the USA for her mothers funeral during the process and we were advised that UK Immigration would not let her back in without screwing up the process. So we had to courier her documents to her and she had to fly to Chicago and get her PLR stamp at the British embassy there before returning.

Bobkatz

elfman

There's actually a separate forum specifically for this kind of stuff:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=35

bobkatz

You must work for Immigration.

I'll use the other door in future

Just Jenney

You beat me to it.

As I was reading the OP's posts I kept thinking, "It's obvious he hasn't read the US marriage-based visas forum, or else he wouldn't be asking the questions that he is"!!

~ Jenney

bobkatz

I stand corrected naiinav.
My wife tells me that the original estimate was as much as £4000 but that the final bill was closer to £2000. So I guess we paid £1500 more than you did to have it all done for us.

I remember the lawyers rate was £489 per hour plus vat, so it was an afternoons labour for her, probably after a good lunch and before an early train. Nice work if you can get it .....LOL

Bobkatz

nai_in_av

LOL ...... I am in the wrong job!!

It sounds like Croydon was a lot busier when you were there than when we went, we headed there in December 2004 and while there was a big line for the "walk in's" we managed to make an appointment on the exact day we wanted (day after we married!) and so had no real troubles at all.