r.youden

Hi everyone, I'm new to this site so I thought I would introduce myself.

I have recently been offered a job in North Carolina with a provisional start date of the 5th Jan 2015. My wife is a US citizen and we have been living in the UK for the last 4 years (she moved to the UK on a fiancé VISA before we got married).

As I'm sure most of you appreciate this is a big move and the company I will be working for are assisting with the VISA process (hopefully I'll get them to pay for it).

I really came on here to see if anyone had any advice / pitfalls we need to be aware of. We are currently in negotiations regarding an apartment but they need 60 days notice so that isn't likely to come to fruition for a couple more months.

Just thought I'd say 'hi'

Pulaski

I hope so too, because if it's a work visa they are legally required to pay. If you want/ need to change jobs you might want to look into later changing to a spouse visa if you want to stay and/or your employer baulks at applying for a green card for you.
NC is quite a large state. Whereabouts will you becoming to? .... Most expats in NC seem to land in the Raleigh- Durham Research Triangle area, another large contingent are in the greater Charlotte area. In other parts of the state (British) expats are much thinner on the ground.

rpjs

Welcome to BE!

So are they sponsoring you for an employment visa, in which case, as Pulaski says, they have to pay for it, or are you doing an immigrant visa based on your marriage to an American?

If the latter, I hope you've already started the process because if you haven't you need to right away to have the visa by Jan next year, if that's possible. The good news is that because she's resident in the UK, your wife can file the I-130 petition with the USCIS unit at the US Embassy in London (what's called "DCF" here) which is a bit faster than filing it to the US.

if you look at this thread you'll see that people who've filed their I-130s to London in April are getting their visas around now, so you might be in luck, but the timescales do fluctuate back and forth a lot.

You'll probably be in a much better position to sort out accommodation once you're over. It might be worth asking your new employer if they'd be willing to spring for temporary accommodation for your first month or two.

r.youden

I believe we will be applying for a K-3 spouse VISA so we may pay for that (the have an Immigration lawyer working on that side of things for us).

We are looking at Winston-Salem currently. There are a couple of Brits who work for the company I will be joining - Richard Childress Racing so it won't be too bad! With an American wife I spend a lot of time in the States so I don't think I'll be getting home sick too quickly.

rpjs

Hmm, did the lawyer tell you it would be a K-3? If so, fire them now as they are incompetent. K-3s were brought in back when it was taking several years for I-130s to be approved. That's no longer the case, so the K-3 is virtually dead: if USCIS receive an I-130 petition and an I-129F for a K-3 they'll usually toss out the I-129F because the I-130 is processed faster now.

It sounds as if your lawyer is not aware that you can file directly in London. Do not let them persuade you to file anything with the Chicago USCIS lockbox as that will add months to your timescale.

Unless you have any issues like a criminal record or previous overstays in the US, you can almost certainly do the whole process yourself without an immigration lawyer. Most of us did!

Have a look at this: DCF I-130 Filed In London

You never know, homesickness affects you in different ways. I think I adjusted pretty well and also had visited the US to see and then with my wife many times, but there were still times when things just felt strange.

Pulaski

The usual visa for someone in your situation (married over 2 years) would be an IR-2, and little is heard of the K-3, these days, but it may be a quicker way to get you over than the 8-10 months an IR-2 would usually take.

I believe that Richard Childress's main base is near Lexington, where he also has a nice little side-business , so you may be joining the few of us expats who are further off the beaten track in NC than those who live in the expat enclave around Raleigh, or in the greater Charlotte area.

rpjs

IR-1 shurely...

And 8-10 months would be filing the I-130 in the US, "DCF" is normally a couple of months faster and right now seems to be hitting around 4-6 months.

SanDiegogirl

Be aware that if you move to the US before your wife has her British citizenship, and then you decide the US is not working out, say, after a couple of years, and you want to return to the UK, you will have to apply for a spouse visa for her and start the immigration process all over again.

Pulaski

Where did that "2" come from? ..... You are correct.

soap addict

Welcome and good luck with your move.

There are a few of us around Winston Salem/Kernersville/Summerfield.


Soap addict

r.youden

The K-3 VISA was what I found on the US immigration website. The immigration lawyer RCR work with is pretty good so I'm letting them tell me what is what.

I big things that we are concerned about is getting a bank account setup. My wife closed her old account before she moved to the UK so we will both have to start again. Do you have any recommendations for how to go about doing this? Can you contact a bank before you move and start the ground work?

Also how does driving work regarding licences and insurance. Obviously I will have to get a US licence (I think my wife will have to re-apply too as hers has expired) but how does insurance work whilst still using a UK licence and how long is that licence valid for?

Thanks guys.

civilservant

You really need to concentrate on the visa first, and getting that in motion, before you worry about little things like driving licenses and bank accounts. It is by no means a slam dunk that you will have a visa by January.

rpjs

As you will learn, official US government information sources are frequently one or more of outdated, incomplete, misleading or just plain wrong!

I'd strongly suggest contacting them and making sure they're aware that the "DCF" filing through London option is available for you. You have a chance of getting your visa by January if you go through that route, but highly unlikely if your lawyer files or advises you to file through the US.

As others have said, that's not anything like as big a thing as getting the visa! I'd suggest ask RCR if they have brought over any ex-pats recently who could make a recommendation. In general, if a bank branch is used to dealing with new arrivals, you'll probably have little difficulty getting set up when you arrive - in short, the bank officers need to be aware that you DON'T need a Social Security Number to open an account, a passport number will do.

Every state is different in this respect - you'd need to research NC's particular requirements. Your wife will probably have to relicence - mine did, as her old RI licence was long expired, and NYS required her to start from scratch and take the written test, road safety course and road test as if she was a new driver. Having said that, she took a few refresher lessons, not having driven during her time in the UK, and passed easily.

You're very welcome, and good luck with your journey!

Bob

IR visa via DCF - 6-10 months processing...so might be tight for the start date, but would get you a greencard on landing.

K3 visa is dead, don't even bother. Same processing time but then you'd need to do AOS afterwards.

Spouse might want to get UK citizenship before leaving as it's much harder to bring a spouse back to the UK these days.

Banks, well plenty of threads on the subject, but end of day, might want to ask the locals. Same for who to use for car insurance, but getting a license is pretty easy, just read up the drivers book on the DMV site for the stupid stuff like penalty points and drink driving that relates to under 21 year olds as most tests seem to involve those type of questions.

Pulaski

NC has a stupid requirement that you can identify a yellow warning sign only from it's shape (when in reality they have silhouettes or writing on them in black). There are four of them, a house shaped one for a school, a round one for a railroad level crossing, a pennant-shaped triangle for "do not pass", and I think the fourth one is a rectangle for a bend in the road.