Maryannh

We are planning to move from Scotland to California in 2021. My 15 year old daughter is currently attending private school in Scotland, going to Year 11. We are planning to wait until she finishes her GCSE in 2021 before moving her but not sure if this is the best option because if she succeeds to Year 12 in the US then it’s just one year of high school before she moves on to university. We are afraid that might affect her grades which would be important for her admissions.

Alternatively we can move her ASAP or consider keeping her in Scotland until she finishes her A levels?

She was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and currently a day student, so boarding her would be a last resort.

We would be grateful if anyone with similar experience would share some kind advices and information.

Thanks very much!

Maryann

civilservant

Moving at that age is not a good idea, for the reasons that you pointed out.

What visa are we talking about here? This will determine what happens to any children at 21.

steveq

We moved to the US with our two sons as the eldest finished GCSEs, and we knew there was no turning back when we got here, so this is where we will stay. Both boys went to our local state grammar schools in the UK. They both entered High school programs, the youngest did really, really well, but the eldest would probably admit that his couple of years there was extremely hard work, not only to get exam qualifiications, but to jump through the bureaucratic nonsense of "graduating" from high school when his GCSEs had him covered and then some.

If she moves, you must fight tooth and nail for all her GCSE work to be recognised properly, as more than the equivalent of the usual American school experience. With hindsight, we too should have pushed harder - much WAS recognised, but a lot really wasn't. The school did administer some positioning tests, but both boys aced them - showing again that the schools calibrations of expected achievment are wildly off.

Our youngest got fantastic results in his APs and is on a "Academic free ride" at university - something to look forward to if your daughter is academically gifted too. Universities WANT these young people.

Steve

Maryannh

My partner is French/American and we’ll be moving as a family.

Maryannh

Thanks very much, Steve. After his GCSE, did your eldest attended year 11 and 12 in the U.S. or only Year 12 then on to university?

My daughter is working quite hard at school but she is really more into art and design than her maths )

Cheers,
Maryann

steveq

Hi Maryann
My son did the last two years.

Steve

scrubbedexpat096

To be fair if you haven't already filed paperwork you'd be lucky to get a visa application completed by the end of next year......

cautiousjon

OP, it's worth asking how you will qualify to move to the USA if you're not married to your French/American partner, who is presumably a US citizen and birth mother to your daughter?

steveq

Don't know many blokes called MaryAnn

steph0scope

“Partner” won’t cut it unless you are applying for a K-1 fiancé visa and getting married when you get there (and that would be pointless since it would be more expensive and mean you are in limbo status unable to work for several months when you arrive so the best option would be to marry first and apply for a spousal immigrant visa for you and an immigrant visa for your daughter as the step-child of a USC, assuming she is not the birth child of your boyfriend). Also K-1 visas are not “mission critical” and don’t fall under the travel exemptions at the moment. Likely that don’t be the case anymore by the time your cases are ready for visa interviews (around a year from now if you apply soon) but who know what will happen in the future?

Unless your daughter is a USC already she can’t just go to California now to go to school. She will need a visa.

what do you mean by “French-American”? Is he French? Or a USC? It’s an odd term for your circumstances as the only thing that counts is that he is a USC for him to bring a fiancee into the country. The “French” part is completely irrelevant. The only time I hear Americans talking about being “German-American” or “Irish-American” is an attempt at a claim to European ancestry and the first part (in these cases, German or Irish) is just where great-great-great-great-great-granny is believed to have come from (or their Ancestry DNA results) and is not their actual nationality.

I don’t think any of our dual nationals here would refer to themselves as “British-American”. So I am asking to make sure that he is actually a US citizen and not just someone with distant American ancestors.

Pulaski

It is quite possible for a USC to not be able to pass on citizenship to their children, most commonly if the USC parent was either [1] born outside the US, or [2] born in the US but left before their 16th birthday, and did not subsequently live in the US before the birth of their child. In either case the child will need a visa, but on entry to the US using the visa, they will immediately become a USC, not a permanent resident.
That actually is not true. A child living in the US is required to attend school, or be registered as being educated at home. This applies irrespective of the child's visa status, or even if the child is in the US illegally, and a child cannot be turned away from a school if they are resident in the school's catchment area.
​​​ No, because the correct description is Anglo-American.
If he is an actual USC, I wonder if he has been filing his annual tax returns?

scrubbedexpat097

I guess it is entirely possible that Maryann is married but just refers to her other half as her partner. Not everybody calls their other half husband/wife nowadays You are all just assuming...

And if her partner has US citizenship then I'm sure they can move as a family. Plenty of people hold more than one citizenship.

All she wanted to know was about schooling for her daughter..... and SteveQ explained to her what she needed.

scrubbedexpat099

On what basis could she move ASAP?

steph0scope

My post was already longer than I anticipated without throwing in that even if the partner/husband is the birth parent of the child that this does not automatically mean the child is a USC. That’s an added factor that I was waiting to first find out if they are married and if the other adult in the relationship is the birth parent before we can then go down the road of physical presence requirements.

Regarding “she can’t just move to California and go to school” of course I’m aware that every child here must go to school but it’s the “just move immediately to California” that’s the impossibility without a visa or citizenship. Once she’s here of course she has to be in school but it’s the getting her legally that’s the issue. The OP needs to clarify the questions raised about her marital status, parentage of the child and others. With the scant information provided it’s currently impossible to know what path, if any, is open to her. And thus the whole process of answering becomes a drip-feed operation.

civilservant

OP has questions to answer. Until then we're going in circles.