Moved from UK to USA ?

[Shucky]

Just a long shot:

 

Has anybody here made the move from the UK to the USA permanently?

 

Just wanted some reassurance it is possible. I know its difficult, expensive, longwinded etc but it is possible :-)

 

Also at this point may I add a very very frustration based annoyance towards illegal immigrants, it is partly because of them the honest ones of us find it difficult to emigrate (due to restrictions and laws) when we would be willing to contribute 100% to the new country, socially, tax wise, everything. Sheesh!

 

x

[zebracolors]

I would so trade places with you if I could. I want to go to England and live. However its really not that bad. I was told that Americans wanting to go to the UK usually are fine, because there is not a problem between the two countries. I've been reading and if its anything like immigration to UK, you'll need to clearly have a purpose for wanting to move here. Either to study, or be sponsored by a job company. And having to live here so many years before you can be made a citizen or some such. Here is the official Department of State Visa page. Hopefully it will help. I hope you make it.

 

http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_1750.html

Edited March 20, 2010 by zebracolors

[hoping2heal]

I really think having the right information can take a lot of the "pain" out of the process.

 

What is your plan for coming here? WHo is petitioning to have you come? Your partner or a family member? Or are you coming here for studies with a university or employment with a company?

[wotamuppet]

Hi Shucky,

I can totally sympathise with you, I notice your g/f is a student, well emigrating to the US is a nightmare if you don't have either a well paying job or $$$ in the bank.

My husband is dual US/Canadian and will have to move back to Canada if we want to live together as the sponsorship rules re: income are pretty inflexible and not easy to satisfy in this economic climate.

He can only get agency work (which doesn't count) as he is born and bred Canadian so his US background check comes back blank. As he's just looking for entry level or general labor stuff he just gets passed over for someone whose background check does give information. It's almost like a suspicion that hey, he *must* have done something bad to have left his home country so whats hiding behind that blank check???

 

And we can't even visit each other freely, being married to a national of a country that you have no residency rights in means likely denial of entry, unless you can produce really compelling evidence of your intention to leave at the end of your visit. He's twice been refused entry to the UK on those grounds, no matter what evidence you give they just don't believe it.

 

It's really frustrating but at least we do thankfully have another option. I just feel so bad as he's always wanted to live in the US, he's now there and earning good money but he'll have to give it all up for us to be together and go back to Canada where he *doesn't* have a job but where they waive the income requirement if it's just a spouse being sponsored.

Just be prepared for tons of red tape, frustration and separation and don't let 'em get ya down

Edited March 21, 2010 by wotamuppet

[Shucky]

Ah thankyou thats all very useful.

 

Basically we are both students which makes it harder, but I would be looking for full time employment, I am very well qualified here, but alas a law degree from a different jurisdiction is worth about as much as the paper it is written on. The career my beautiful girl wants to follow: Law. Typical, neither of us could just switch those qualifications to another country, the plot thickens.

 

I'm in the process of applying for a Visa (J1) to allow me to work over the summer, for 4 months and then 1 month of travel time, which should give us a great opportunity to live together and for me to really cement that I can cope living there (Wow, 80 degree heat all the time, that'll be tough)

 

Then it'll be a case of finding a job sponsor and trying to establish some reasoning for why I should be employed above all US citizens in a time of economic hardship and lack of jobs...no problem right. My girlfriends mom and my parents I'm sure would help us out financially,

 

Wotamuppet: So even being married doesn't make it any easier? That's crazy. Why is the world so mistrusting? sigh.

 

Zebra: I would love to just swap with you :-D maybe we can get on the phone to MTV or something and organise some pretend "fly on the wall show" where 2 people swap life and country....hmmmm?

 

Hoping to heal: I think that taking on an extra year of education will be my back up if I can't get a job, basically as far as I'm aware if I spend a year in school in the US I can stay for an extra year at least....and then I'd have US qualifications to add to boot. I'm thinking a Masters of Law from a US school would be the best way, can't hurt my cv but would seriously hurt financially :-)

 

thanks again x

[wotamuppet]

Well Shucky, I think you are on the right lines with your thinking of going to the US to study and getting to know your g/f better. At least that way you would be legally there in a non-tourist capacity so therefore if you did decide to get married you would be able to adjust status without the otherwise lengthy period of separation.

I don't know how much you've gone in to the financials and the rules and regulations but the best forum I've found is Visa Journey, you can follow other peoples struggles and learn from them.

 

Hahaha I feel like a secret agent all the time and all I'm trying to do is visit my husband, it's crazy! I kind of have to have two personas depending on which country I'm trying to get in to, it's so stressful spending an entire transatlantic flight going over what you will say if you get asked this, this or this...at the end of the day though it's the luck of the draw who you get, it's just horrible always feeling like you're not going to be believed. I have to say though I've been very lucky so far but then I used to be a flight attendant so I obviously have a massive history of entering and leaving the US/Canada, albeit under different circumstances. Plus I'm pretty good at talking my way out of things lol.

The only bad experience with immigration I've had was in the UK, ironically enough. I flew in with hubs, they held him for 8 hours, questioned us BOTH...it was unreal. And he's a Commonwealth citizen of Northern Irish descent who had tons of proof he didn't intend staying permanently. And doubtless while they were concentrating all their efforts on him a few dozen illegals slipped in...gool old Britain, eh? lol.

 

Anyway, good luck with everything! If you need any advice I'm on that Visa Journey forum, same user name as here. Just shoot me a PM.

[Rollercoasterr]

Never, ever, ever lie to the BO. You must be honest at all times.

 

Oh, and if you do decide to get married and Adjust Status(CR-1), you should know that by considering it, that`s illegal. It`s pretty funny actually. You can get married here or there on a whim and then do the CR-1 visa, but you CANNOT come here or go there with intent to do it. That`ll get you a ban.

 

As long as you`ve got your ducks in a row and your finances straight, it should be easy peasy.

 

Mathew is from Canada and I`m in the US. We`ve gone the K-1(Fiance) visa route and tomorrow makes 6 months exactly since we started. We`ve had no RFE`s, no hang-ups and pretty much all of it is waiting. When we visit, we`re honest, we bring lots of ties to our countries and neither of us have been denied entry.

 

Visajourney.com is a site for family immigration, so if you`re not thinking about coming to the US as a spouse or a fiance I don`t think it`d be much help. But it couldn`t hurt to read up on the stuff. There`s`a lot of helpful information there. I know I couldn`t have kept my sanity without it. Mathew and I are under the name Kayla*Mathew on there.

[wotamuppet]

I agree, Rollercoaster about the honesty with BO's. Maybe my attempt at trying to bring a bit of humour into the situation was misread-sorry about that.

 

My problem is that I have two different sets of circumstances, as viewed from the perspective of BO's of both the US and Canada. They both view them differently so I have to put my case accordingly. I'm just in a less common situation in being married to a dual citizen, I also have no real ties to my home country and I'm also internet self-employed, but I do have assets in Canada to make it doubly difficult. He's only been in the US a couple of months too, last time I visited him there he was there to do a course and had no specific plans to stay on, so he was technically a Canadian resident still. But now he's a US resident, which changes things. Likewise when we met up in Canada before Christmas he was technically a Florida resident as he'd been on an extended visit down there. Actually, I think I get the BO's so confused they just take pity on my complicated life and just let me in!!

 

All you can do is make sure you are very familiar with the rules and how they are likely to be applied. As you also mention, it's down to your intent and also demonstrating that you intend to leave at the end of your course. Obviously if you are planning on going in as a student, getting married and staying PRIOR to getting a student visa then that'd be immigration fraud. But I believe it's ok to spend time getting to know your g/f or b/f as long as that's not the primary purpose of your visit. If you then decide to get married you will have to show that wasn't the real reason for the student visa, but as long as it wasn't then all you can do is tell the truth.

That's just an AFAIK tho lol. I haven't done it myself, I've just read what other people have said on the subject, hence the recommendation the OP searches out advice for himself.

Edited March 22, 2010 by wotamuppet

[Rollercoasterr]

I didn`t misread what you said. What I posted wasn`t pointed towards you, I was adding to what everyone else said. Everyone here has given such good advice to the OP.

[wotamuppet]

I didn`t misread what you said. What I posted wasn`t pointed towards you, I was adding to what everyone else said. Everyone here has given such good advice to the OP.

No problem Rollercoasterr, I was just a bit worried in case it looked like I was encouraging him to do something illegal or something, so thought it best to clarify.