# Moving back to the States



## AdRed73 (Aug 8, 2020)

Good afternoon. My wife and I are planning on moving back to the US after living in England for the past 20 yrs. I'm a US citizen and she is a British national. I would like a little advice on how to sequence our move back, ie do I need proof of employment before she applies for a Visa, will companies hold a job for me and for how long while I get things sorted over here?


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

This is the US Embassy in London's page on applying for immigrant visas for the spouse of a US citizen: https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/fami...rried-child-under-21-parent-of-a-u-s-citizen/

Click on the drop down information for Filing a petition with USCIS. The process takes, as they say, "several months to process" and this may be subject to further delays if they have a significant backlog to work off.

You may want to consider finding a co-sponsor as that will take the onus off you to have a job and a place to live set up before you move over.


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

Just as she was your sponsor to the UK, so you will be her sponsor to the US.

There is a financial requirement to meet - an income of around $20k per annum. Some US sponsors return to the US prior to putting in the application to get a job to meet this requirement, but most either do it via savings or by having a joint sponsor such as relative in the US
The process is taking around 12 months at the moment.
You need to complete an I-130 to start the ball rolling. Then, once the petition has been approved, you will need to complete an I-864 as proof of support requirements.

Start here:

https://www.uscis.gov/i-130

https://www.uscis.gov/i-864

If you are not already a British citizen you might want to consider applying for this. If the US does not work out, you don't want to have to go through immigration back to the UK again.

It's a lot more difficult than when you moved over 20 years ago.


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