Marriage in the US live in the UK

[JLN7124 0]

Dear All

Second post today, thanks again for your patience.

My fiance has informed his work that he wants to leave and this has then inspired them to offer him significant incentives to stay. We have already obtained a K1 visa and plan to get married in late October. Has anyone ever obtained a K1 visa then gone to live in the non US country for a couple of years. If this was the case. How long would it take for the US citizen to be allowed in the UK after the wedding. What other steps would we have to take to make the move possible. It looks like things would get complicated with the Adjustment of status and I'm sure there are issues we haven't even considered. I realise this is a rather open question, so thanks very much for your time, you have all been a great help so far.

[gwenneh 7]

The K-1 visa is a one-time use entry visa. After you enter the country to get married, the visa is cancelled. If you leave before adjusting status is complete, the process must be begin all over again if you want to come back to the US for anything more than a short visit. Even if you do wait and complete AOS, the non-USC cannot be out of the US for a long period of time or it will be seen as abandoning residence, and you're back at square one. Basically, if you enter on a K-1 and then leave, you cannot adjust status pertaining to that K-1; you will need a K-3 or some other method of visa before you can return to the US to live.

As far as going to the UK, getting a spousal visa is easy (particularly if you still have all of your documents from the K-1). You can get the forms from the UK embassy nearest you. www.uk-yankee.com is a site which deals with moving to the UK for US citizens.

Edited July 11, 2006 by Gwen666

[Joey559 1]

The person who I met my fiance through just married her UK fiance in Jamaica and they've filed for her to move to the UK to live with him. As I understand the process:

It doesn't take long at all and the forms are 1/10 of what we fill out for the K1/K3s. Basically once you have the marriage cert in hand you file with the nearest British Consulate (we're in Michigan and she filed in Chicago). Average time is 8 days to two weeks for them to process the case (you send the Uk persons finance/work information and proof of the relationship and show that you have enough between you and a place to live - very simple). They send you the visa. Once you get the visa and travel to the UK you are able to work right away. For those of us with UK SOs it is the easiest route - but then you'll have the headache of a DCF or worse if you ever decide you want to come back here. That's how we decided to live over here first and maybe in the future return to the UK.

And just an FYI - if you are going to go to the UK marry here then go as a spouse - if you go as a fiancee you wont' be able to work right away.

Good luck with your decision. My fiance just put his notice in as well and they've offered him incentives to stay but we're sick of being apart and as he says, if we don't try it here first we'll never know...

[gwenneh 7]

Average time is 8 days to two weeks for them to process the case (you send the Uk persons finance/work information and proof of the relationship and show that you have enough between you and a place to live - very simple).

I went to the consulate in person to make my application and was approved and had my visa in two hours-same day service! If you're close enough to a consulate, I highly recommend that route!