maiden

Hello to All, I am so happy to have found this site!! My fiance and I hope to make many new friends with all who are or have gone through our situation. We have been worrying over this and desperately seek some guidance. i am patti, in northern NJ, engaged to Steven in the UK. We met on the Net. He has visited here three times in the past 3 years. He is planning on coming over in June and we will be married. We will then apply for the work permit, but in the meantime he would need to get some work in the interim. We are hoping to get him a sponsor but have no idea how to go about that. He is by trade a jeweler but is willing to take something else until the permit comes through. He is very computer literate and hardworking. Please, we would love to hear how many of you have handled similar situations ..Thank you so much for reading this far and for any help you can suggest.

Ray

Hi.. Seems that you are under some misconceptions of the system... You will be the sponsor..and you start by filing the I-129 in the US for a fiancee visa..

Visit: US Marriage Based Visas http://britishexpats.com/forum/forum...?s=&forumid=35
or
http://www.visajourney.com/ for a forum, just for people in your situation

maiden

Hi, Ray, sorry I was not clear on that...I meant, an employment situation or company that would be interested in hiring (is it called "sponsoring" ?) him...New to this, so sorry if I seem slow, lol....patti

Ray

Work won't happen until he's arrived got his EAD and his SSN
then you start looking for work

monster

Sorry to be brutal, maiden, but the chances of him finding a company to sponsor him on a work visa are somewhere around zero. Work visas are very hard to come by, even for people with stacks of degrees and experience -you have to show that there are no US citizens who can do the job, and the H visas -which are the most likely- are all gone for this year, as I understand it.

You have to sponsor and support him and bring him over on a fiance visa, then once you are married he can apply for the appropriate documentation to work.

I think it is possible to marry when he has come over on a visitor visa then apply for adjustment of status, but he still can't work in the interim and you have to convince the INS he had no immigrant intent when he arrived as he didn't enter the country on an immigrant visa.

The forums Ray pointed you to are definitely the place for the more technical details.

hth

Patrick

He has to come in on a fiance visa not a visitor visa. Your asking for trouble if you do it that way.

Monster stop thinking and get give facts, nothing good ever came from thinking

Patrick

lairdside

Sort of, almost.

"Ten foot pole anyone"?

Here's another current thread (seems a lot of it about recently):

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=213184

monster

Yeah, I know what you mean. Problem is it makes for a very unpleasant world if no-one is willing to go out on a limb and try and summarise things in layman's terms, including all options. To a beginner, EAD, K1, L2... mean nothing. You have to start somewhere.

I know people who have done it the visitor's visa way. I wouldn't even dream of attempting it if I were in that position -it lies in convincing the Immigration authorities that you had no immigrant intent when you arrived, which -as Patrick said- is asking for trouble if you did. But some people do it. They still don't get to work, though -which was the question in the OP (and many of them get sent straight back to the UK).

lairdside

I'm by no means judgemental M.

I adjusted from VWT status.

With, I add, NO preconcieved immigrant intent

I just thought posting the thread was easier than reposting everything. The OP needs to read the case law in particular and to remember to diferentiate between preconcieved immigrant intent and misrepresentation/objective fraud.

As you can see people on that thread are misunderstanding it.

Manc

maidens, I put this in laymans terms for you.

He cannot find a company to sponsor him. H1B (company sponsor visa's) have been fulfilled for calendar year 2004.

You say he is your fiance.
A fiance visa is a K1. It is applied for in Britian through the US embassy. It is good for 6 months in departure from Britain and the for a further 90 days in USA in which time you guys MUST get married.

If he comes on a Visa Waiver, (tourist visa) and the immegration officer gets a single wiff of his intention to work/get married/not return to England then he will be deported.

If he does come on a visa waiver, and you do get married, then the process is liable to be held up and get you guys in BIG trouble. Also if he works illegales in that time of adjustment of status or waiting for employment authorisation, and the INS find out then he will be deported, and banned from the USA for a certain length of time.

K1 visa is your only option.

lairdside

He won't be deported, he may be allowed to withdraw his application for admission or be subject to expedited removal according to the IIRIRA of 1996. No such luck to be eligible for deportation.

For those who have the time here's a couple for starters:

Matter of Cavazos, Int. Dec. 2750(BIA 1980) clarified and reaffirmed. Matter of Ibrahim, Int. Dec. 2866 (BIA 1981).

Healy and Goodchild, 17 I. & N. Dec. 22, 29 (BIA 1979)

Illegal work is forgiven for the IR's of USC's provided no misrepresentation has taken place......


Gotta run

lairdside

Oh - you can find them all here:

http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/vol17.html

Englishmum

Maiden - Think very hard about this. Can you afford to support your fiance for a few months if he is unable to work? There probably aren't too many jobs in the jewellery trade in New Jersey; the only places I can think of are in midtown Manhatten (around 58th St and Fifth Avenue) but many of them seem to be wholesalers. A Jewish friend worked in her cousin's jewellery business in Brooklyn but was recently laid off to due lack of work.

However, I do have a very good friend who got married in Hoboken last September (I went to the wedding) and he wasn't on a fiance visa. He came over to the US from his native Australia to visit his sister in NJ and he had a round-the-world ticket. Through his sister's friends he met a woman and when he left the US she missed him so much that she flew out to Oz to visit him a few months later.

He returned to the States to stay for a few weeks with his sister and to see his niece and new baby nephew - and to do some work on his sister's house as he is a builder. He was about to leave again and his girlfriend got into a terrible state - she couldn't bear him to leave again. Well, he couldn't afford to keep flying to Oz and back, and she just said to him that perhaps they should get married. He was quite happy to do so (neither had been married before, he was 36 and she was 41) and within 6 weeks she had arranged everything. He was out of his visitors visa by a week, but his sister has a Green Card and they arranged for his change of status with her immigration attorney. (You're going to need one).

Obviously they took a risk - but within the last couple of weeks he's received his work authorisation and obtained a Social Security number. He needs to return to Oz to sort out legal matters with his house and will need to apply to the Immigration authorities in Newark for 'advanced parole' to leave the US and re-enter. As you can imagine, he's in the building trade and there is no lack of work (unlike the US where it's hard to find any good tradesmen he did the traditional apprenticeship and is a quality craftsman). There are so many people out there who are keen for him to do work on their kitchens, bathrooms etc. and happy to pay cash in hand. Now he's 'legal' he can put his rates up as he is self-employed and will have to start paying tax.

Maiden - unless your fiance can support himself until he gets permission to work (and it took 5 months for my friend to get work authorisation) it could put a huge strain on your relationship. Even when he gets permission to work, he may not be able to find a good job for quite some time (unless he's in the building trade eg. a plumber, cabinet maker etc!).

Could you not consider moving to the UK instead? Have you been to Britain for a visit?

maiden

Dear Mum,
Thanks for a really inspiring story...my best wishes (and sighs of longing) to the happy couple...

Unfortunately, much as I would LOVE to relocate to the UK (and we have planned on visiting Steven's family as soon as we get ourselves sorted and some funds built up), I cannot do that at this time, due to family and work obligations...

Financially, yes, it would be tough for us while his permit comes through but we could manage...

I had considered going over to the UK to get married to Steven and our coming back here...but that is a whole different issue...think I'd have to be there for at least 21 days or something; I need to check it out...

Steven has done some carpentry work, so that might be an option in the interim...and I have seen many large Jewelry stores/showrooms here in North Jersey and hoped to try them out...

We missed each other so much during the last year that we were hoping to get married on a visitor visa, but all you guys have scared me so much that I see the K-1 Route is the way to go (we had looked into it earlier but could not bear to wait longer than necessary). We had not realized the ramifications of marrying on a visitor visa. Thank you for pointing this out.

The saga continues.

Thank you all so far for your information and opinions; don't worry about being brutal, I am happy to know the reality of things and am determined to be positive about this whole process.

maiden

FlyergirlUK

Not quite true - the I-129F is processed through one of the five service centres in the States first, then onto NVC and then onto the US Embassy in London. The USC, (the petitioner) does the paperwork for the I-129F apart from one set of G-325As which is completed by the beneficiary.

Check out the UK Embassy website for more information on a UK spousal visa, (someone told me it was around $500) and then the US Embassy, London website for information and requirements on filing the I-130 for DCF, (Direct Consular Filing).

Whatever you decide, be sure to research your subject thoroughly in order to avoid errors.

Have a look at visajourney.com for an indepth FAQ section covering all you need to know about the various processes.