Bob

too true...especially now with the massive hike in fee's, it'll be a tad pricey now...

Elvira

Lawyers' fees?

But it's perfectly possibly to do this without a lawyer - though you'd have to be detail-oriented. We filled in all the forms ourselves but paid a lawyer to look them over before submitting them.

All the forms and fees are on the uscis website. But, as I said, they are going to go up SIGNIFICANLTY fairly soon.

ScillyBrit

My OH has a very 'demanding' job, I think the last thing he would want to do is come home and start processing forms for immigration...
We are lucky enough to be able to afford to go through the lawyers... though I do try to keep this at a minimum...
Thanks for the info on the work visa, I didn't know the time frame on that one, cool... I should start promoting myself in the area!!! Hmmm... let me clarify that... I am a western equine coach so I will be looking for students...LOL!

Bob

you could do 'em...

Elvira

I did all 5 of ours. It ain't rocket science

ScillyBrit

I could... but, I probably won't !!!

I'm better off leaving it in the hands of those who are in the 'know'...
If I told my OH I was going to be tackling this, he would probably just tell me that he would prefer the lawyers to handle it!!! That wouldn't be a critism of my abilities, he is just that type of person who would rather a 'professional' deal with things like this.

scrubbedexpat099

I did mine.

Not that hard.

No more so that say getting a SSN, getting Insurance or registering a vehicle.

I am however no good at cleaning, definitely wish I had a 'professional' to do that.

JAJ

Visit http://www.richw.org/dualcit/

Incidentally, United States nationality law is within the jurisdiction of the State Department, not the Department of Homeland Security.

ScillyBrit

Thank you for posting this link... this has been a good day for learning new things!!! Very interesting, though I would have liked to have seen more info on multiple passport holders.

ScillyBrit

Hmmmm...

Taken from the link above:

'In some cases, a country may seek to restrict dual citizenship by requiring one of its citizens born with some other citizenship to renounce (give up) the other citizenship upon reaching adulthood. Similarly, newly naturalized citizens in some countries are required to renounce their previous citizenship(s): the US has such a requirement, for example, but Canada does not. And in some cases, a country will automatically revoke the citizenship of one of its citizens who aquires another country's citizenship by naturalization, even if no explicit renunciation was involved.'

Apologies for hi-jacking this thread, I will post further enquiries on the Immigration section... just wanted to highlight this.

farmerwife

And the end of the paragraph from the link sums up....

"Other countries (such as the U.S. in recent years) may treat their own naturalization oath's renunciatory language as essentially meaningless and take no steps to enforce it at all."

JAJ

The key point here is that the U.S. does not require naturalising U.S. citizens to go to the Embassy of their old country and obtain proof they are not a citizen of that country any more. And many countries do not recognise the U.S. naturalisation oath.

So de-facto, dual citizenship is allowed provided the new U.S. citizen does not try to "use" his foreign citizenship while in the United States.

ScillyBrit

That's how I read it too... thought it was interesting... just in case anyone else was out there in my position and was not sure about this

BamaBrit

My Parents are also wanting to move over here. They have been here a lot on vacation and are convinced that this where they want to retire. The only thing they are worried about is the health care costs. But my wifes Aunt is a Nurse practitioner and my MIL is a RN and so is my wifes grandmother so we could probably offset a lot of costs because of this. But im still worried about them if they come down with a major illness like cancer or something like that, both of them are heavy smokers and i know insurance companies would frown on this. They would both be able to work for 8-10 years before retiring so maybe they could get medicaid , i dont know yet. I havent really started to research like i need to.

farmerwife

Here's a quick primer on Medicare -

http://www.aarp.org/research/medicar...673-FS45r.html

To be eligible for Premium free Part A Medicare they would have to work here for 40 quarters (10 years). Until then, jobs with health insurance would be the best bet.

Medicaid is (simplified) a health program for those on welfare/in poverty -
not an option for new immigrants (asylum seekers excepted).