# Help filing the I-130 in the UK!



## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum, but have been active on the UK one. I'm a US citizen, and my husband (an Englishman) and I recently got married at the end of July, and I have leave to remain here in the UK as his spouse. However, we're looking to possibly move back to my home in North Carolina around next summer, and I've been looking into how we can start his immigrant visa process.

I know it's possible for us to file the I-130 with the US Embassy in London, and from what I understand, they have shorter processing times, generally. However, from what I also understand (Filing I-130/I-360 | Embassy of the United States), I must have resided in the UK for at least 6 months before I can file the petition. I've been a student in the UK since September 2010, but I entered the UK in June 2013 on a settlement entry clearance visa as my husband's fiancée, so we could get married in July. I then got my leave to remain visa as his spouse in August. My question is does my time here as a student count as residing in the UK, or would I have to wait until December to file the petition in the UK?

My next question is if I have to wait until December to file in the UK, am I better off going ahead and filing in Chicago? Neither one of us have a criminal record or anything, and my husband has never gone through an immigration application process for another country, so I'm thinking his visa application would be pretty straight forward. He's been to the US three times as a tourist in the past (twice to visit my family) under the visa waiver program, and he's never stayed longer than 3 weeks. I'm not sure when you have to move to the US once you've received your US immigration visa, either - is there a time frame in which we'd have to move? I'm nervous about starting the process, it takes only 4 months or so (I know other couples in the UK where this has happened recently), and then we're forced to move before we're ready.

One other question (sorry!): My husband and I want to visit my family over the Christmas holidays, and he would be able to prove ties back in the UK to a US Customs agent when entering (a job, tenancy agreement, return flight booked), but would starting his immigration visa process be likely to affect his getting in as a tourist for a few weeks in December? Am I just overall better off waiting until after Christmas to file the I-130 and we just plan to move by the end of 2014?

Thank you in advance for your help!! I'm just starting to get my head around US immigration regulations, I've only ever had to deal with the UK Home Office up to this point!


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## The_Okie (Jul 31, 2013)

If I were you I'd just wait til after you get back home to file for the visa.

*A*: Do not file in Chicago if you're wanting things to go quickly. Just wait 'til you're back in the UK to file with London as DCF filing is 90% of the time much, much faster. (more like 2-3 months than some experiencing 4-12+ months filing within the US) Even if everything is neatly organized and both of your records are clean, the processing times in general are just pathetic at the visa centers back home.
*B*: Pretty sure when they say you have to have lived in the UK for 6 months, they're saying you have to have been there for 6 months when you decide to file...as in it's your current home for the past 6 months (wait 'til December).
*C*: Since you're wanting to visit family in the States anyway, filing for a spousal visa may make things complicated at your port of entry as it will be shown on the computer screen that your husband has an immigrant visa underway. He _could_ be deported if they're too suspiscious, but either way they're extremely likely to take both of you aside and interrogate you separately for a couple hours.

I'd avoid the unnecessary stress and just plan on moving half a year later.


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

@6-months-rule for DCF
Contact the London Embassy. If your legal stay under student visa was not interrupted but so to say adjusted to your current status London may be able to accept your stay as of 2010.

@Chicago Processing Center
Processing times being published are averages. Considering the number of applications one can read in numerous forums about which are incomplete, filled out wrong, missing documentation - you name it - no wonder average times are off.

@London Processing Time
More and more embassies do not process DCF anymore.

@Travel
No reason for paranoia. He should have proof of binding ties to the UK with him. Yes, it makes no sense.

@Deportation
Deportation and Removal is a fairly lengthy process. Worst case scenario for travelers is Refused Entry. Highly unlikely with a clean history of entry/exit/pending spousal visa.


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

Thank you so much for your replies, The_Okie and twostep! 

I've just emailed the London Embassy about the residency requirement - they're very difficult to get in touch with! Hopefully, they'll answer my question. I know London is one of the few places that still processes immigration applications, and applying there would skip the step of our application being sent to New Hampshire (everything would just be processed here in the UK from what I understand). I did just find this old State Department notice, though, about the residency requirement, so I guess my time as a student won't count and I'd have to wait until Christmas, anyway, if I file in London:

Consular Offices Abroad Resume Accepting I-130 Immigrant Visa Petitions

Effective immediately, consular posts abroad will accept petitions for immediate relative immigrant classification from American citizens who are resident in their consular districts, including members of the armed forces, as well as true emergency cases, such as life and death or health and safety, and others determined to be in the national interest.

To demonstrate residency in a consular district, American Citizen petitioners must be able to show that they have permission to reside in the consular district and that *they have been doing so continuously for at least six months before filing the petition. Individuals who are in the country on a temporary status, such as student or tourist, would not be considered to meet the residency standard*.


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

@Chicago Processing Center
Processing times being published are averages. Considering the number of applications one can read in numerous forums about which are incomplete, filled out wrong, missing documentation - you name it - no wonder average times are off.

@London Processing Time
More and more embassies do not process DCF anymore.

So, is there no real advantage in me trying to file in London, and I might as well file in Chicago and get the process started? Filing in London does skip a few steps, and it's generally considered faster from everything I've read to file outside the US, but then I've also read where US citizens who live abroad with their spouse tend to have their I-130 approved much more quickly than average when they file in the US.

I know all this is speculation to some extent, but it's nice to get outside opinions!


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

It looks like six or half a dozen to me:>) Stay in England to get your six moths or file CR1 now. Whatever you do - read the instructions!!! Proof your documents three times, read them with a ruler from the bottom up. Make copies! Ask questions if you are not 100% sure. There is no stupid question especially when it comes to the maze of US immigration.


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## ina (Feb 26, 2009)

I'd wait until the end of December/beginning of January to file the visa application. Like this your husband can travel with you over the Christmas holidays. If the spouse visa is already pending then, it's much more tricky because in that case he would have a harder time proving he has no immigration intent which is necessary as a tourist. 

Also, the whole visa process is a lot faster if you're doing DCF (direct consular filing) in London. For many people it takes around 3-4 months. So even if you file in January, you might have the visa in hand by May. From the time your husband receives his visa, he has 6 months to immigrate to the U.S.


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## sarahincos (Feb 1, 2014)

Please please please update this with your progress as I'll be doing the *exact* same thing! If it isn't asking too much, how are you handling the financial aspect with both of you over here? Are you just going off of his savings in the UK, using a co-sponsor, or your own savings? We're trying to figure out the best way to go about it ourselves as it seems the financial req. is the biggest hurdle to get over. 

I'm from South Carolina so you're practically my neighbor in the UK lol!


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## Davis1 (Feb 20, 2009)

the affidavit of support may be a problem
have you bee n filing US taxes as required

personally I would return to the US alone to set up and file the for the spousal visa there 

spousal visa 
Immigrant Visa for a Spouse of a U.S. Citizen (IR1 or CR1)


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## sarahincos (Feb 1, 2014)

London does accept joint sponsors so as long as there is another US Citizen sponsor it should be exactly the same.


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

sarahincos said:


> Please please please update this with your progress as I'll be doing the *exact* same thing! If it isn't asking too much, how are you handling the financial aspect with both of you over here? Are you just going off of his savings in the UK, using a co-sponsor, or your own savings? We're trying to figure out the best way to go about it ourselves as it seems the financial req. is the biggest hurdle to get over.
> 
> I'm from South Carolina so you're practically my neighbor in the UK lol!


Hi Sarahincos!

Good news: my husband and I were successful with his CR-1 visa application, and we moved to NC permanently this past August.  

I filed the I-130 petition back in February (I had to wait 6 months after getting my spousal leave to remain in the UK in order to file the petition at the London Embassy), and we received notice of its approval by the end of that month. In March, we filed all the rest of the paperwork in preparation for the interview, which can be done online, my husband had his medical in April, and the interview and visa approval was on 23rd June. We received his passport and visa package back on 27th June.

I would definitely recommend going the DCF route, as it was very quick and the Embassy never took longer than 2 weeks to get back to us at each stage of the process. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact me, as I know it's a very stressful process, but US immigration is so much easier to deal with than UK immigration, in my opinion!

To answer your question about the financial documents: we used my mother as a co-sponsor. You still have to give them your personal financial documentation, even if you haven't earned any US income over the last 3 years (I had been doing freelance long-distance work from the UK for a US company, so I had some US income to show, but it was just below what we needed). The Embassy doesn't mind at all if you have a co-sponsor, and it's easier to use one, considering you need to show 3 years of tax returns and W-2s (or official IRS transcripts). Your husband's savings won't matter so much.

Therefore, in my experience, even if you're both living in the UK, the financial requirement can be an easy hurdle to overcome with a co-sponsor. You can also have more than one co-sponsor if your first one doesn't earn enough.

Hope this helps, and I wish you all the best of luck!!!


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

Oh, also, if your husband wants to travel with you to the US during the process, it should be fine. My husband visited my family with me over Easter, and they didn't care at all that he had an I-130 petition approval at the time. He had a bunch of documentation on him showing his continued ties to the UK, but the immigration officer never asked to see any of it. Better safe than sorry, of course, but with a clean bill of past immigration, travelling during the process shouldn't be a problem.


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## sarahincos (Feb 1, 2014)

Oh my gosh, thank you!! I am going to add you to my contacts so I can get in touch with you when we are closer to the process. Did they ask your husband anything about having health insurance at the interview? My husband is disabled (cerebral palsy) and I really fear that they are going to be harder on him for that. We are also debating whether to wait the two years for the CR-1 instead of going ahead and applying for the IR-1 (it will be May 2016 by the time we get to that point though, and he does need surgery done which he would prefer to have done in the US where they treat you like a person so time is a bit of an issue). Just a penny for your thoughts on those things if you wouldn't mind 

Really happy for your success!!


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

sarahincos said:


> Oh my gosh, thank you!! I am going to add you to my contacts so I can get in touch with you when we are closer to the process. Did they ask your husband anything about having health insurance at the interview? My husband is disabled (cerebral palsy) and I really fear that they are going to be harder on him for that. We are also debating whether to wait the two years for the CR-1 instead of going ahead and applying for the IR-1 (it will be May 2016 by the time we get to that point though, and he does need surgery done which he would prefer to have done in the US where they treat you like a person so time is a bit of an issue). Just a penny for your thoughts on those things if you wouldn't mind
> 
> Really happy for your success!!


Thank you!! And I'm very sorry to hear about your husband's disability.

The decision of which visa to apply for is really just based on when you and your husband can/want to move. My husband and I applied for the CR-1 because we'd been married less than a year at the time of our application, and we'll have to apply to get his conditional status removed 90 days before his current green card expires (which isn't really a complicated process if you're in a legitimate marriage). After that, he'll have non-conditional permanent residency, and he could apply for citizenship after 1 year from his current green card expiration. (Sooooooo much easier than getting British citizenship for us!!)

As far as the medical grounds go for an immediate relative visa refusal - from what I understand - they only really refuse immediate family if they think the applicant will be a danger to themselves and/or society (therefore, the most common medical grounds for refusal tend to be drug/alcohol abuse or a severe mental illness). A disability such as cerebral palsy shouldn't be an issue, especially if you can financially prove that your husband will not become a "public charge". He wouldn't be eligible for full-scope medicaid as an immigrant, anyway. But you'll learn more after your husband has his medical exam during the application process.

Regarding health insurance: it's not an immigration concern. Your husband technically has current health insurance, anyway, under the NHS. For your own benefit, though, I would check into health insurance providers/plans at least a year before you do move back to the States, because some obviously have waiting periods for pre-existing conditions, and your husband wouldn't be able to be treated for his current disability until the waiting period had expired. I know Blue Cross and Blue Shield in NC typically has a 1-year waiting period for the newly insured. Of course, this all depends on the plan your husband will have/can afford. From the stand-point of health insurance, it would be easier if one of you had a job providing health insurance lined up before moving, but that's a difficult proposition for most. We were lucky, because my parents own a business, and my husband currently has a job with them that includes health insurance benefits (we figured it was a good way to get him on his feet here, until he figures out his long-term career plan in the US - he was a music teacher in the UK, but he'd have to go back to school to get a teaching license in order to teach in NC).

However, I do completely understand your husband's preference for wanting to have the surgery done in the US - friends of mine and myself have had some pretty negative experiences with the NHS. But it is a LOT more affordable, so swings and roundabouts. I hope your husband will have the best of care wherever he is!

I really hope this post is helpful!!


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## sarahincos (Feb 1, 2014)

Riiiiight! Okay, I was not aware of the possibility of waiting periods for health insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions...or rather, that it was STILL an issue.

That begs the question then of when is the soonest he could apply for healthcare coverage in the US? If I remember correctly he needs at least an alien ID or whatever they call it, but I don't know at what point in the process you obtain *the magic number* that enables him to apply for coverage. The last thing we want is to be over there when he isn't covered, so it'd be better if we could purchase it and wait it out while we're still here in the UK as awkward as that sounds.

Alternatively, the possibility that we go through the whole CR-1 process and return to the UK after we have entered and arranged coverage for him in the US and wait it out is a much less attractive idea, but could that possibly work? 

I'm aware now of the issue that we might have to prove financial coverage as if he doesn't have insurance for a year in the US, and that's scary! Maybe you can shed some light and calm my nerves?


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## Davis1 (Feb 20, 2009)

https://www.healthcare.gov/


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

sarahincos said:


> Riiiiight! Okay, I was not aware of the possibility of waiting periods for health insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions...or rather, that it was STILL an issue.
> 
> That begs the question then of when is the soonest he could apply for healthcare coverage in the US? If I remember correctly he needs at least an alien ID or whatever they call it, but I don't know at what point in the process you obtain *the magic number* that enables him to apply for coverage. The last thing we want is to be over there when he isn't covered, so it'd be better if we could purchase it and wait it out while we're still here in the UK as awkward as that sounds.


It's an issue for the newly insured with SOME providers/plans. It all depends on the state you're in, the insurance provider you have, the plan you can afford, etc. Health insurance companies can no longer absolutely refuse coverage for pre-existing conditions under Obamacare (which is what often used to happen), but they can have waiting periods to grant that coverage.

Your husband will be granted an Alien ID # pretty early on in the process (if my memory serves, I think we were given one by the Embassy after the I-130 petition was approved). But from my experience, what he really needs to get health insurance is a Social Security # - my husband couldn't get any coverage or receive employment income without his - and you can't get that until your husband gets his visa approval and is in the US (you can request a SSN when you fill in the DS-260, but you still have to have already moved to the US in order to receive it).

I'm not sure how long it's been since you lived in the US, but you pretty much don't exist here without a SSN - EVERYTHING asks for it. Very different than a NI number, which I barely used whilst in the UK.

But as far as the visa application process goes, your husband's health insurance, or lack thereof, won't be an issue. All you/your co-sponsor needs to prove is that you make 125% above the poverty line for your household size including your husband. They may conceivably ask what your plans are regarding your husband's treatment, but it isn't a reason for refusal, if for no more reason than you can't apply for US health insurance coverage until you're in the US, and they have no way of predicting what plan you'll have. My husband has an ongoing social anxiety disorder that requires treatment, and it was mentioned in his medical exam, but the interviewer never asked about it, and my husband couldn't have had US health insurance at the time.

As for your husband's NHS coverage, it will cease once he moves to the US as a permanent resident, unless he decides to move back permanently to the UK. My husband's GP was quite clear about this - benefit tourism is a sticky issue in the UK, as I'm sure you're aware. If your husband didn't admit to having moved and came back to the UK only to have health insurance coverage, then I imagine he'd be in quite a gray legal area. I'm not an expert on this by any means - I only took a year of law in England (the GDL course) -so you might want to look into it, but I doubt it's legal.

So, if your husband needs surgery soon, it might be best to get it covered by the NHS before emigrating, and the UK does have good healthcare, for all intents and purposes. But I'd first see what health insurance plans might be a realistic option for you once you've moved back to the US.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help!!


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

I also don't want to forget to mention (I should have mentioned this earlier, I'm sorry!): in my husband's case, the pre-existing condition waiting period was removed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield, because they counted his NHS coverage as previous health insurance coverage (so he wasn't considered by them to be newly insured).

Again, this depends on the health insurance provider/plan, but I don't want you to think all hope it lost!! You just really need to call health insurance providers in SC.

Good luck!!!


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## sarahincos (Feb 1, 2014)

You have been a *terrific* help in helping me understand all this. Thank you so incredibly much for being patient and really explaining things  It helps so much when it's someone who has gone through the process and knows the nuances. Seriously, you are fantastic. I can't think of anything else to ask at the moment, but I'll be back if I do.


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## enfianced (May 13, 2013)

sarahincos said:


> You have been a *terrific* help in helping me understand all this. Thank you so incredibly much for being patient and really explaining things  It helps so much when it's someone who has gone through the process and knows the nuances. Seriously, you are fantastic. I can't think of anything else to ask at the moment, but I'll be back if I do.


No need to thank me, I'm happy to help, I definitely could've used more advice when I was going through the whole process. All I can tell you is what I know from my own experience and research, but I'm more than happy to answer the questions I can. It's all so anxiety-ridden, and it was really nice for me to talk to people who understood how it felt, as most really don't unless they've been in an international relationship, too. I wish you and your husband well, and again, feel free to contact me in the future!


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

There is no longer any preexisting condition exclusion in the U.S. medical insurance system, from January 1, 2014. That's thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). As Davis1 posted, Healthcare.gov has the details on the new health insurance exchanges.

There is a tax penalty if you are a U.S. resident and do not have PPACA-compliant medical insurance. The tax penalty applies from tax year 2014 and will grow over time. Also, you have a limited period of time to sign up for medical insurance through Healthcare.gov. You must sign up within 60 days of becoming a U.S. resident, for example, otherwise you have to wait until the next annual open enrollment period.

Forget everything you knew (or thought you knew) about the U.S. medical system prior to 2014. It has quite substantially changed.


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## Sardonicus (Mar 23, 2015)

This thread looks to be quite helpful for my situation albeit with a Japanese spouse. 

Looks like a long, hard road that hasn't even started yet.


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