DCF in London / Work related visa help

[Mikiek 0]

Hi All,

We are new to this site and process so please forgive us if any information (forms, etc) we supply are not accurate. Please help by correcting us!

My beautiful wife and I got married in Edinburgh 2 weeks ago

I am from the UK and my wife is from the US.

We both live and work in Edinburgh. My wife has a work dependant visa. Her employer have sponsored her to work here and she has done so for over 2 years now. I have always lived and worked in the UK.

We are looking to move to the US asap, but could do with some advice along the way!

We have completed the I-130 form and are looking to post this to the London US embassy next week. We have also completed the G325a.

My wife will be taking my surname in the futue, but as she has a work related visa, so to do this, her passport will need amending. We dont want to slow things down, so should we change the surname on her passport now (to possibly save money and confusion going forward?) or should we process the I-130 now without amending the surname and amend this when we arrive in the US? Will amending it in the US confuse matters further? Will my US visa then have to be changed, as it will have her old surname on it?

We want to apply for the DCF route as this seems to be a quicker option than the K3. Is this correct? The US embassy in London have confirmed that we can do this.

After we submit the I-130 and G325a forms, what others do we need? I'm sure we will need the I-864 but not sure what others after that?

How soon can you have you medical check? How do you process the police checks, etc? Do you need a specific form for this or do you simply write to your local police for this?

Knowing what order to do things and roughly how long it takes would be a massive help to us so we dont want to waste anytime. We are very excited about living in the US!

Thank you so much for any advice you can give us. Your time in replying to us is really appreciated.

[MargotDarko 0]

Hello there! I'm from the US and my hubby is from the UK and we've just finished the DCF process, so I should definitely be able to help!

I have to admit that we avoided the name issue thing. I've kept my maiden name legally and will change everything after we've arrived in America. However, you don't have to worry about it in relation to the visa - her name will not be your visa.

The DCF route is definitely quicker. It's the quickest way to obtain an immigrant visa full stop. It's so much easier than a K3 visa as well, for starters you don't have to fuss about with overseas mailing.

Make sure you submit something that shows your wife's residency in the UK when you send off the I-130. A copy of her passport with the work visa should be good enough. We also sent along things that proved our ongoing relationship even though the checklist on the London USCIS site says not to send anything they don't ask for - we figured it was safer since it's part of the I-130 instructions. There wasn't any problem with sending the extra info. Also, we didn't have a problem with sending photos we had done at a booth in Tescos even though the instructions say it has to be US passport size. You'll need US passport size ones of yourself for the medical and interview, but that won't be for a few months.

For the police check, it depends on where you live. What it really is is the subject access form. You'll apply through your local police but you'll get something back from a national service for the whole country. It seems a lot of people can just walk into their local police station, show proof of identity and fill out a form for it. It should cost 10 GBP. We're in Thames Valley, and my husband was required to do it by post. There was a form to print off their web site though. So basically, first try contacting your local police and explain it's needed for immigration to the US.

The I-130 is basically like your wife saying, "Hello, US govt'. I am resident in the UK and this is my lovely British husband. We would like to move to America together. Please let my husband apply for a visa". That should take roughly two to three months to get approved. And then you'll get what we call "Packet 3". The petition is done through the London USCIS office and the rest is done through the embassy. They're in the same building but technically different entities and different addresses. So I recommend waiting for Packet 3 before sending anything else. Packet 3 will contain DS-230 Part 1 (the visa application itself) and DS-2001, a checklist of all the things you're supposed to bring to the interview. Once you have all the documents ready, you send them the completed form and checklist. You will then receive Packet 4 about two to four weeks later and the interview itself will be roughly two to four weeks after you've received the letter. So the whole process should only take somewhere between four and six months. I think there's been a little bit of a hold up recently and there tends to be a lag over the holidays, but I would be surprised if it took more than six months as long as you did everything on your end quickly.

After the interview, assuming they don't request any additional info, the visa arrives within three to five business days. Then you'll have six months to enter the US and activate the visa, and about six weeks after that the green card will arrive in the mail.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

As usual, Margo has left me with nothing to say :crying:

Good luck in your process!