Fuzzy

I myself am moving to Australia early next year and was just browsing the US forum, reading a few posts and was just wondering has anyone actually got married to an American soley for their greencard and if you did how long did it take, was it easy, did it cost you etc?
I am only asking purley out of curiosity and the lengths people have gone too, to secure a reisidency in the US.

Duncs

Thats illegal. If the INS believe it is a sham mariage then they would refuse to grant a visa.

I am perhaps being over sensitive about it but quite frankly in the context of this forum i believe your enquiry to be offensive. Many of us here are Brits who married Americans. I met my wife at University in Ireland whilst she was a graduate student and i fell madly in love with her. I love her more than anyone i have ever known and i am crazy about her, she is the best thing to ever happen to me. I married her because of these feelings not for a poxy green card. We had lengthy discussions about which country to live in after we married and it was a hard choice but we opted for the USA over the UK for a variety of reasons.

Moving to another country is actually quite a hard thing to do (at least the process has been emotionally tougher than i expected) but it is done becasue i love my wife and want to be with her.

I suggest you piss off and find another forum along the lines of visa cheats.com to ask your stupid questions. Plase dont bother those of us on here with your nonsense again.

regards,

Duncan

Fuzzy

It was a simple and honest question, if can't give a proper and formal reply you over sensitive prick then don reply at all.

ScarlettHill

I don't think the previous poster is being over-sensitive. People go through a nightmare of red-tape to be with their loved ones and don't appreciate such cynical questions. I too think the question was offensive, though I might not choose to express my opinion in quite the same way. Visa fraud undoubtedly goes on - as does burglary, terrorism and rape. Would you walk onto a forum such as this and asked for a head count on how many of us had committed one of these crimes and expect not to cause offence? I doubt it.

Try www.thinkbeforeyouspeak.com for some helpful hints.

Regards
-=-
Scarlett

scotch03

I see non reason for over reaction.

I would suggest that those who have gained a green card by such means would probably not join this forum as this is in the main a support forum.

You can get your green card by such means if that's what you desire. I personally prefer to live with morals and values - but that's my choice.

Yosser

moving to Oz is a tad more easier than moving to the U.S, I know because I spent a year in Oz and I have been here for 3.5 years in the U.S.

No one in their right mind is going to answer your question....I mean who knows what kind of person reads our threads.

You have heard of the Feds checking out chat rooms with under-age sex offenders, noting stopping them from reading how illegal aliens gained entry into the U.S.

America is THE hardest country to get into, just because "its the worlds melting pot".....doesn't mean you can walk right on in.

BrigieDarling

With you again Scotch!

A marriage of convenience just sounds like something out of a trashy novel (which I would probably read) to me!)

I was married for 6 years before I even had time to do the paperwork.... 3 kids in 4 years will not leave you enough energy to pick up a pen!

Pulaski

Well said, Scarlett!

Fuzzy

Thank you Scotch and Yosser for answering my question without averting to insults. It was a simple question out of curiosty and you gave me a straight forward answer, took a while to get there like.
Maybe i should have known the answer myself, maybe i should have known better than to leave myself open to a bunch of insecure idiots who like to feel big by insulting people over a keyboard. Would they say as much in a face to face conversation, i think not, cowards.
There are some strange people on the USA forum, take the guy who thinks slavery was the best thing that ever happened to black people, and how i laughed (not) at the majority of people who agreed with him.
The US are welcome to people like him.
I'm going back to the Oz forum for a read of some decent posts, well sort of. Won't be coming back here so bye y'all or dude or something like that!

Pulaski

How little you know about me. I can't speak for the others, but I'll happily tell anyone that asks me that question to my face that it is an obnoxious and offensive question!

ladyofthelake

You obviously haven't been there long enough to encounter PB, Wilf or Slippers yet.

tony_2003

Couldnt have said it better myself. My wife and I chose to live in the states because I thought it would be easier on her since she still had a fair bit of University to go through. This was only after a lot of discussion. I am glad we did move here instad of the UK though because I have grown to love this country.

ianoneill

I don't see why this question would be offensive. If you didn't marry for a green card, (I didn't), great. If you did, he's only curious.

However, after marrying an American, who I love very , very much, who I met in the UK, and moving back over here to be close to her family, I honestly can't imagine why anyone from the UK would marry "for a green card". The process is long, arduous and in many ways expensive. The limitations imposed by your transitory state are severe. (For 2 years or more, you're effectively in limbo with only "temporary resident" status, which can be a headache if you're trying to get mortgages and the like. The INS are innefficent, difficult to work with and, above all, absolutely, rabidly paranoid about the fake green card issue, so they can be gruelling to deal with at worst, absolutely exasperating and frustrating in their inefficiency at best. If you have any type of professional licensing (I'm a lawyer), you have to jump through multiple time-consuming and expensive hurdles to be able to practice in the US, such as one-year conversion graduate degrees, etc.


And the end result? As much as really enjoy living in the US, I really wouldn't say that it is all that different from the UK. There's a slightly higher standard of living, true. But only slight. Apart from the odd exception, if you were unskilled and unqualified and on a low income in the UK, you will be probably still be so in the US,. Likewise, if you were skilled, qualified, and on a good income in the UK, you will probably continue to be in the US.

I certainly enjoy living here, and god knows, I would have moved to deekest, darkest timbuktu if that's what it took to be with my wife. But if you come from a relatively comparable nation like the UK, I wouldn't say that the US has that much more to offer to make it worth the hassle one would have to endure to get a fake green card/marriage.

Duncs

Ianoneill,

Maybe i am just sensitive but i thought it a bit crass to post such a question on this site where many of us have made the move through love and i agree about the USA vs UK thing largely i dont think its that big a difference on the surface and if you are a Brit you have all the idignity of being asked if your 3 years Bachelors is as good as a 4 years degree etc etc

One question though you said you are a lawyer. Me too. What Kind? Solicitor/barrister? how did you get re-qualified? how hard was it to get work after you became an Attorney? I am thinking about redoing graduate school to get the JD and go through that route but i would be interested in your own experiences.

regards,

Duncan

ianoneill

I was a barrister back in the UK. Curing the residential and qualification defects of state bar requirements really depends on which state you intend to practice in. I actually did go back to Northwestern university to obtain a JD; but that was because my LLB was from UEA, which isn't a well known school out here. The majority of state bars, though, will admit you to take the bar exam with an LLB from a common law country once you complete an LLM at an ABA accredited law school. The LLM takes about a year and you can do it at night at most schools.

Unless you want to come to the US and practice in Louisiana. Then you're well and truly screwed because they're a civil law state. You'd have to check into the applicable state bar's rules. I know in IL, the LLM is sufficient on top of an LLB is sufficient to cure the qualification defects.