# Will be moving to USA, a couple of questions



## jsumner86 (Jun 23, 2013)

Hi all

I married my wife who is an American citizen 1.5 years ago. I have lived in the UK my entire life, but after seeing the UK my wife decided she'd prefer to move back to the states. Initially we stayed in the UK (my wife obtained her legal residency status in the UK), as I felt the organisation that currently employ me needed me to resolve some of their issues before I'd be comfortable leaving, and I think I've now reached the stage that both they and I would be happy for me to move on.

My wife and I submitted the application for petition for a spousal visa in the USA to the Chicago office almost 2 months back now (we didn't apply for the fiance visa prior to us getting married), and I have a couple of questions:

1. Does anyone know average waiting times for the visa to actually arrive on my doorstep? I'm led to believe it's around 10 months, but I'd heard of people that have waited years. I really hope this is not the case still. My employer knows I plan to leave, and I don't want to end up in a situation where I'm there for a lot longer than either of us planned for.

2. What are the differences between the USA and UK in regards to work e.g. job interviews, application process etc. I work in the IT industry.

3. Does anyone have any key pointers in general that they wish they'd known to begin with?

Thanks all


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

The spouse visa will take anything between 6 and 8 months. When you arrive in the US you will be issued with your Green card.

With regard finding work it is no different to the UK - apply, interview, network etc etc. If you have a good degree and experience then those will stand you in good stead. 

Bear in mind that you won't have health insurance at first - either until one of you gets a job or you get individual health insurance. Hope you have taken this into consideration. This should be your number one priority to obtain.

Where are you going to live? Will you have temporary accommodation? family/friends? Will you have funds to purchase/rent a car?


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## jsumner86 (Jun 23, 2013)

Crawford said:


> The spouse visa will take anything between 6 and 8 months. When you arrive in the US you will be issued with your Green card.


That's good news, and should give me plenty of time after I receive notification that it's been accepted for me to get things arranged.



Crawford said:


> With regard finding work it is no different to the UK - apply, interview, network etc etc. If you have a good degree and experience then those will stand you in good stead.


No degree yet, but I'm into the second year of a part time online based computing degree (bachelors with honours) with the open university (specifically chosen so that I can continue this whilst living in the US). As I work in IT, there are a couple of globally recognised IT specific certifications that I want to obtain prior to me moving there (cisco, VMWare etc.). I'm 27, been working in IT since I was 20, (the last 1.5 years as a manager of both people and systems) so a reasonable amount of work experience.



Crawford said:


> Bear in mind that you won't have health insurance at first - either until one of you gets a job or you get individual health insurance. Hope you have taken this into consideration. This should be your number one priority to obtain.


I will bear this in mind, but either way it'll have to wait until I get a job there, which I'm hoping will happen quite quickly.



Crawford said:


> Where are you going to live? Will you have temporary accommodation? family/friends? Will you have funds to purchase/rent a car?


We're moving to Florida, where all my wife's family and friends live. Initially, we'll live with them to help us get our feet firmly on the ground, and then we'll move into rented accommodation with the view to purchasing once we're sure where we want to live.

We have a few thousand pounds in savings so far, but are hoping to expand that up to 10,000 pounds by the time we leave, which should hopefully be enough to keep us going (car etc.) until we both get full time work there.

Thanks


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## Fireran (Jun 25, 2013)

Visa wait times can depend on your status. 6-8 months seems average


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## jsumner86 (Jun 23, 2013)

So, I started this thread 10 months ago - I appreciate that this is necromancing but as this is my thread I think I'm allowed to 

I just thought I'd give an update, especially for anyone else in a similar situation. I originally submitted our i130 in May 2013. It moved to the NBC by June, and that is where it stayed without any movement until December 2013. It then got transferred to the Texas Service Center and stayed there for a further 3 months, before finally being approved in March 2013 - I must emphasise that they only did this because I sent a series of e-mails to the director of USCIS and other relevant people regards the level of service and how they had failed to meet every single one of their Service Level Agreements.

Our application was then eventually transferred to the National Visa Center where it has been there for almost a month. We have yet to received our application number, but based on other peoples experiences, we are due to receive it this week.

Once we have our application number, we can submit all the forms, payments etc. and as we're already prepared for this, we're hoping to get through this stage in a little over a month, maybe two. And then it's the medical checkup, embassy interview and we're done!

It's been a very long time coming, and increasingly stressful as each month has gone by, and I fully expected this would be over with by now at the point that I started this thread. But we're almost there, and I now expect that we'll be departing for the US by late august.


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## Davis1 (Feb 20, 2009)

a spousal visa is currently up to 15 month ...most around a year .... a few less than 8 months 

affidavit of support being the biggest problem to slow things down ..so you are about par for the course


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

Oh poor old you ...... timescales have gone way out since last year!


Hopefully it won't be too long now .....hang on in there....


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

The time line for your processing is about average for current processing. The shutdown last year has delayed everything by a few months. 

Your emails must really have made an impression.


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## jsumner86 (Jun 23, 2013)

Crawford said:


> Oh poor old you ...... timescales have gone way out since last year!
> 
> 
> Hopefully it won't be too long now .....hang on in there....


Indeed. Normally such an unexpected delay wouldn't bother my wife or myself, but there have been several other factors involved that means a rapid move is becoming increasingly important. All the unknowns about the process, its time scales and a distinct lack of any kind of communication with USCIS but canned responses has put its toll on us.

I do appreciate that there are other applicants out there with worse problems than our own though.



twostep said:


> The time line for your processing is about average for current processing. The shutdown last year has delayed everything by a few months.
> 
> Your emails must really have made an impression.


I sent three e-mails in total, and our application was approved within about 30 minutes of sending the third - the response I got to this e-mail implied that it had been pulled out of the pile and processed as a direct result of my correspondence with them.

Quite a number of other May 2013 filers are still waiting, to my knowledge.


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## almorah (Oct 1, 2011)

15 months. Oh no!! Is that in relation to K1 visa process too I take it? Sorry, I am new to all of this complex scenario.


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## Davis1 (Feb 20, 2009)

The K-1 usually more 8 -10 months 
but the country the alien is from can extend it a lot further 
especially Arab countries where most will into AP 
and other countries where US men buy a bride gave huge backlogs and plenty of fraud


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## almorah (Oct 1, 2011)

I thought it was usually about 8-10 months. Well, from what I have seen written. although I am aware everyone's circumstances differ. Hopefully UK-USA isn't too long. Thanks Davis1


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## jsumner86 (Jun 23, 2013)

Just one more update from me on this thread.

478 days, thousands of $$$, hundreds of phone calls, dozens of lengthy application forms, dealing with three different US agencies and two trips to London, we have just left the US embassy in London having successfully navigated the minefield of US immigration system, and my visa/legal resident green card has been approved. Finally we can progress to the next (and final) stage, which is PoE at Orlando Florida.

Had I known about this delay when we filed at USCIS in May 2013, I'd definitely have gone DCF instead. We could have migrated a year ago if we'd done that. Oh well, it's finally over now.


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

Congratulations .......

Yes it was a long slog but all worth it now.

Welcome to the US .....


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## Pallykin (Mar 30, 2014)

In regards to your question about the difference in job hunting between here and the UK:


A degree is a requirement for most professional positions. Without that "piece of paper" it will be difficult for you to get interviews. Equivalent experience doesn't count.
It's taking an average of 6-8 months for mid-career people to find new roles.
Job posting don't have close dates, and the hiring process can extend for months.
Some employers post positions, but aren't really sure what skills they want, so they interview people but don't hire.
Time off is very limited - average is 2-3 weeks, but some places make you earn it before you can use it so not much time off the first year.
There are no work contracts. So you can be let go at any time with or without a reason.

I should add that I'm in the process of relocating to London, and a good part of the drive behind that is to get away from American work practices.


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