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Information needed, which visa and more

Information needed, which visa and more

Old Jul 24th 2002, 1:29 pm
  #1  
rhicel
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Default Information needed, which visa and more

Hi everyone. I am an american citizen. My husband is British. We are both living in London at the moment. I have looked at the INS website, the state Dept website, the American Embassy in London website, and written to the INS in London. They all seem to offer conflicting information and no one can give me any clear-cut straight-forward definitive answers, so I'm hoping some of you might be offer to shed some light on my questions.
We want to move to the US to live, together. Which visa do we need, K1 or V1? Can we file it here in London? What documents and forms will we need? Who does any medicals required and how do I find out the name of such doctors? How long does the process take from start to finish? How much will all of it cost?
And once my husband has been given a visa, will this be enough for him to secure work in the US before we go to live? He doesn't want to go there without a definite job to go to.
also, speaking about jobs, he is a computer programmer with a specialty in Visual Basic with a university diploma and 3 years experience. We are planning on settling in California. What is the IT job market like at the moment? Can anyone recommend some useful recruitment agencies?
Any info or insights into any or all of these questions would be such a help to us, many thanks,
Maria
 
Old Jul 24th 2002, 2:49 pm
  #2  
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Default Re: Information needed, which visa and more

You don't need a K-1 which is a fiancee visa and you are married. You don't need a V-1 which is a derivate to join visa for permanent residents not US citizens.

You need to do direct consular filing with the US Consulate in London. That is if you have legal residency in the UK. The US Consulate website is from what I understand quite comprehensive and you will find lots of people here on this newsgroup that have gone just that way.

You will file the I-130 with the US Consulate and you will need to financially sponsor your husband for his residency via form I-864. If you don't have an income of 125% of the poverty guideline for a family your size you can use your assets at 5 times the 125% PG amount, i.e. $5,000 in assets for every $1,000 needed. There is only one doctor, Dr. Phelan, and the exam is scheduled for the day of the interview. The ballpark costs for the exam, any jabs required, visa fees, photographs, documents, photocopies, mail expenses, will run you about $800-$1,000 US.

As for your question regarding job hunting for your husband, he can do that online but he cannot come into the US to job hunt until his visa is approved and he actives it at the POE. Once it is activated he can come and go whenever the whim strikes him.
I cannot answer your question about the job market for IT workers. Some will swear by it but if you watch the US news you will know that the dotcom industry is very soft at the moment and there are or at least appears to be more people looking for work than jobs available. Perhaps Mr. Travel who posts here will be able to help him with those how do I get a job in the computer industry qeustions as he is a bigwig in the computer industry in the San Jose area of California ;-) Also suggest your husband frequent the newsgroups that pertain to IT industry and that he visit the various online employment agencies to get a feel of what is or isn't available.

Also, you can checkout this website and see how another UK/USC couple did the direct consular filing in London:

http://www.britainusa.com/

BTW you do have to show that you have made inroads into re-establishing the US as your principal residency, i.e. apartment hunting, bank accounts, and you have filed US taxes even while you have been outside of the US if you have worked, right?

Rete
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Old Jul 24th 2002, 3:10 pm
  #3  
rhicel
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Default Re: Information needed, which visa and more

Hi Pete
Thank you very much for your quick reply to my questions.
Several problems, however:
Yes I have worked here, but not for a while and all my taxes were paid to the UK. I worked for UK employers and never filed any taxes in the US while living here.
I cannot support my husband, as I have no assets at all. He is the one who works, I am unemployed. How does it cost $800-$1000, the I-130 costs $130, what other costs are involved.
We also cannot look for apartments without a job, it's all Catch 22 stuff. will employers not be willing to take him on before he actually comes into the US?
You can mail me directly on [email protected] if you prefer.
Thanks for your help.
Maria
 
Old Jul 24th 2002, 3:11 pm
  #4  
rhicel
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Default Re: Information needed, which visa and more

Apologies I thought it was Pete, sorry RITA!!!!1
Maria
 
Old Jul 24th 2002, 3:33 pm
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Default Re: Information needed, which visa and more

Hi,
I've just been through the process, in almost similar circumstances except:
1/. My wife had worked in the US up until last September when we married and moved here
2/. She had filed tax return in the US (I thought you still had to do that even if you were resident abroad)
3/. She was resident here for the statutory 6 months before we filed in London.
4/. To help the "re-establishing of domicile in the US, she went back at the start of May, to rent an appartment, get her old job back etc.

As you have no earnings or assets in the US it seems you will need to find a con-sponsor who is willing to sign the affadavit of
support (I-864) although you as the US spouse will need to sign one as well (it does get quite complicated)

As Rete said, if you start to add up all of the fees (the initial filing,
police report/s, consular and visa fees, medical, if your husband has worked outside of the UK for 12 months since he was 16 he will need police reports from any or all of those countries, they may need to be translated, notary fees, photography, travel etc.)
Here figure is not far off.

The two best sources I found were the London Embassy site and
HERE.

I got my visa a couple of weeks ago and am just waiting for the completion of my house sale and I'm off, to be with the wife and to begin the job searching.

Keep posting, folks on here will help.

Good luck
Roger (+ Ida)
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Old Jul 24th 2002, 7:20 pm
  #6  
L D Jones
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Default Re: Information needed, which visa and more

rhicel wrote:
    >
    > Hi Pete Thank you very much for your quick reply to my questions. Several problems,
    > however: Yes I have worked here, but not for a while and all my taxes were paid to
    > the UK. I worked for UK employers and never filed any taxes in the US while living
    > here. I cannot support my husband, as I have no assets at all. He is the one who
    > works, I am unemployed. How does it cost $800-$1000, the I-130 costs $130, what
    > other costs are involved. We also cannot look for apartments without a job, it's
    > all Catch 22 stuff. will employers not be willing to take him on before he actually
    > comes into the US? You can mail me directly on [email protected] if you prefer. Thanks
    > for your help. Maria

Even with no income you will still be the primary sponsor for the I-864. I think you
should file all your missing returns with the IRS as soon as possible. If you live
outside the US you are still responsible for filing a US tax return every year (I do
not know whether this is true even if you make under the minimum required to file).

As suggested in another reply, you will need a "co-sponsor", a US citizen or
permanent resident who resides in the US who is willing to act as a sponsor for your
husband. Rogerpenycate can provide details about how to re-establish US domicile as
this was not an issue in my DCF case in London lasy year.

The I-130 costs $130. Medical exam is approximately 85 pounds (someone can correct me
who has more recent info). If jabs (shots) are required at the medical these each
have a cost associated (try to get them at your GP so you won't have to pay the
probably higher fee on the day of the medical).

Visa issuance fee is over USD $300 I think (Roger will know). All in the I-130 is
over USD $400. I seem to recall I paid between USD $500-600 but I cannot remember the
exact amount.

Read the links starting here

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/ins/insindex.htm

As to your husband's work situation I cannot comment on California. I work in IT in
the RTP (Raleigh) region and, as elsewhere, jobs appear to be difficult to come by. I
have personally never had any luck with agencies and they are not nearly as widely
used by people in the US as opposed to the UK, in my experience.
 
Old Jul 24th 2002, 7:55 pm
  #7  
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Default Re: Information needed, which visa and more

Yup it is Rete or Rita ;-)

BTW as a USC you HAVE TO FILE IRS TAX FORMS on all monies earned worldwide regardless of where you earned the money. The fact that the US and the UK have a tax treaty means that unless you earned more than $72,000 USD, you won't have to pay twice. But you still have to file a 1040.

You can start now to back file those missing tax returns.

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Old Jul 25th 2002, 1:20 am
  #8  
Mrtravel
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Default Re: Information needed, which visa and more

Rete wrote:
    >
    > Yup it is Rete or Rita
    >
    > BTW as a USC you HAVE TO FILE IRS TAX FORMS on all monies earned worldwide
    > regardless of where you earned the money. The fact that the US and the UK have a
    > tax treaty means that unless you earned more than $72,000 USD, you won't have to
    > pay twice. But you still have to file a 1040.
    >

If you make over $72K (or whatever the current amount is), you can still deduct
foreign taxes paid, correct?
 

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