# Sponsoring my spouse for a green card



## cyndia (Jan 6, 2015)

Hello everyone,

I first posted on this forum when I was asking questions about gaining an EEA family permit for myself, and everyone was so helpful, so I figured I'd give it another go now.

My situation is that I'm an American citizen, and I was married in the US to my Irish husband back in March. My permanent residence is technically in Virginia (my parents are located there, although I haven't lived there in 7.5 years), but my current residence in the US is in Florida, where I have been residing for the last year while earning a doctorate. My husband is still living in London - we met there while I was earning a masters. I just flew out to join him a week ago, and will be staying here for the three months of my summer break on a family EEA permit.

I understand that I need to file an I-130, and Biographical Form G-325A for myself and for my husband. My main question is - where am I supposed to file? Is it based on my permanent residence, or my current residence in the US? Or should it be based on the fact I am outside of the US right now (that lockbox is the same as the lockbox suggested for my permanent residence - the Chicago lockbox).

Sorry if it's a silly question, I just want to make sure we do everything correctly. Thank you in advance for your help!


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## cyndia (Jan 6, 2015)

Oops, and one more question - we know it will take a while for the green card application to be processed, but my husband wanted to come visit me in Florida for 10 days at the end of October. He has a job in London and a rental agreement on his current flat, has never overstayed any previous visits, or been denied any visas. Does he have a reasonably high chance of being allowed to come visit me, or is there anything else we can do to ensure he'll be allowed through?


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## TeamTrumbley (Apr 23, 2015)

As someone currently going through this process, I would suggest you use the address where you currently live and work/study in Florida. Your UK summer address is temporary in terms of the entire visa process, so it makes sense for you to use you are physically at, as long as you are going to remain there for the duration of the visa process. (I have been warned that changing your details partway through can delay things quite a lot but there will be people on here who can tell you better than I whether that is actually true).
Your acknowledgement of receipt will come by email and post (so you will know about it even while you are over here) but your paperwork to say they are forwarding your case to the NVC will come to the address you put on the form. 
We put our form in to the Chicago lock box January 27th (my husband is based in Michigan) we got the email confirmation February 10th.
It took two months (April 14th) after that to get the notification that our I-130 was approved and being forwarded to the NVC.
The NVC confirmed receipt and issued our case number and avadavat of Support bill on May 10th. It took a further 2 1/2 weeks before the website recognised our case number and accepted our Choice of Agent.
So basically even if you apply now you have roughly 3 months of waiting before the next stage and by then you will be back in the US.
With regard to the visa waiver given everything you've said and that you will have paper work to prove you are investing time and money on doing things properly his chances of successful entry should be pretty good - but I'm not an immigration officer and haven't personally attempted entry on a visa waiver since we started, so again there may be others in a better position to advise you!
Good luck


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## cyndia (Jan 6, 2015)

Thank you TeamTrumbley, that was incredibly helpful! 

I will be in my new address in Florida for the next 3 years so I'll plan to use that. I have a friend that can check my mail as well while I'm gone if needed, although it's good to know they send the notification electronically as well. 

I did have one more question about the total fees. So far, I can tell we have to pay the $420 to file initially, but I didn't see any fees listed for the affidavit of support. What other fees will we need to pay later?


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## TeamTrumbley (Apr 23, 2015)

Hi there, sorry for the delay - I was offline this weekend and just catching up now. 
If I remember rightly the bill is $120 for the AOS and then I think there is another $325 for the actual application itself.

Any changes will pop up here Fees for Visa Services

Your husband will have to have a health check in a Harley Street Doctors named by the embassy where they will check for TB, inoculation and literally make sure he is male. This will cost £250. it is worth getting a list of the inoculations needed and checking them as they charge a mad amount to do them on the day. I have a link somewhere that I will hunt up for you.

Incidental costs will include about £10 for passport photos, you need to submit one with the visa, One with the medical questionnaire and one with the police report. Which in itself is another £65 I think. It's possible you made need to an extra copy of the police report for the doctors, but I'm not sure from the wording on their leaflet and need to check.

I let you know if anything else crops up!


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## cyndia (Jan 6, 2015)

So just as an update, we filed a few weeks after my last post and received the I-797C notice dated July 01, saying they received the case on June 29. We've been checking a few times a week for updates but have yet to see anything... Do they normally process a little slower at this time of year? Or should we be worried that something is wrong? We're getting a little antsy now that I'm back in the US and he's still in London (it's so much easier being patient when we're together, haha).


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## Davis1 (Feb 20, 2009)

the whole process can take up to year 

SPOUSAL VISA
Immigrant Visa for a Spouse of a U.S. Citizen (IR1 or CR1)


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## cyndia (Jan 6, 2015)

I know the whole process can take quite a while, but we're still just on the first step, and I thought it was only supposed to take around 3 months for it to get forwarded on to the NVC?

EDIT - actually I'm just realizing I can't count. It hasn't actually been three months yet, so I'm definitely prematurely worrying. I think we'll be hitting that in about another week and a half or so.


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## cyndia (Jan 6, 2015)

Is it worth considering applying for a K-3 so he could come sooner than the year? I'm still a little hazy on how that process works. I looked at the website, and it said to apply for the K-3 you should file the i-130 at the chicago lockbox (I filed at the Nebraska since it was the lockbox for my current residence), then file at the i-129 at the dallas lockbox afterwards. Would I still be able to file the i-129 even though I didn't file my first one in Chicago? And at this point is it worth it, or should we just wait out the process on the i-130? I'm not sure what the processing times are like on the K-3, I checked the current processing times and it just had a date in January listed next to the I-129?


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

The conventional wisdom is that a K-3 won't arrive any faster.

You probably haven't even reached the halfway mark for the USCIS part, by the way. Six months would not be surprising before the NVC even gets the file.


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