US and UK Citizen want to live and work in US

[IJB 0]

Hi all.

I am a UK citizen and my girlfriend of 4 years is a US citizen. Until now, we have managed with a long distance relationship and visiting each other frequently (and she studied in the UK briefly). We are now exploring options of how to be together and need advice.

The easy answer appears to be for us to get married. To do this, is appears that I would need to apply for a fiance visa (K1) and for us to get married in the US within 3 months. We understand this, but ideally would like to be living together (either in the UK or US) before marriage, and 3 months is not very long to plan a wedding. I understand that it is impossible and illegal to live together permanently (beyond 90 days) unless one of us manages to find an employer willing to sponsor a visa application. Although we both hold post-graduate degrees from our respective countries (me in urban planning and her in marketing), we are relatively junior with 2 or 3 years experience and in a global recession, the liklihood of finding an employer seems to be slim at best.

We are therefore at a crossroads and are trying to identify all possible options. So far we have identified the following:

a) Become engaged and then marry and apply for immigrant status and go from there... (Pros - seems doable and with least complexities Cons - not our ideal plan and not particualrly romantic!)

B) Maintain long distance relationship and keep applying for jobs in the hope something comes up (Pros - none to think of! Cons - no certainty)

c) Live and work in another country/region (e.g. Australia, or Far East Asia) (Not ideal, may compromise ability to apply for later visa?)

d) To apply for a postgraduate/doctoral degree programme and fellowship (Pros - seems to be doable, Cons: Expensive and not first choice)

We have discounted doing anything illegal or breaking up!

If anyone can give advice on the above (liklihood of success), or has direct experience of a similar scenario, or can provide any possible alternative options, please let me know!

Many thanks!

Ian

[payxibka 10,045]

moving to general immigration discussion forum

[TracyTN 237]

You'd have more than 3 months to plan a wedding. The K1 visa is valid for 6 months after issuance - surely you could plan a wedding in 6 months (plus the 90 days you'd have once you get here).

Marriage is the easiest option to get you to the states. You may find this link helpful for putting it all in context:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Pulaski%27s_...Work_in_the_USA

[VanessaTony 3,567]

As your fiancee is the US citizen she will probably want the wedding in the US. She can plan the wedding (with your assistance from afar) and then you can enter on the K1. The process takes around 6 months so planning the wedding in that time is relatively easy... HOWEVER you need to avoid setting anything in stone until the visa is in your hand. This is what I did. I set a tentative date 9 months from when I applied for the visa and planned everything (like what kind of flowers, the decorations etc) up to the point of actually booking. We "reserved" the location for the wedding as only a small deposit was required and they told us that if we needed to change dates that was fine. They just wanted to be sure that whenever it happened that we would use them which is why they allowed us to reserve even though it wasn't "sure". Same with the church. Just check with all your vendors (this is the "wedding" term used for every company etc doing something for the wedding, such as hair, makeup, location, pastor etc) and ask what their policies are on changing dates. As said above, you have 6 months to use the visa so you can continue working at home etc..while she plans/books stuff... but I also know it's hard though to have that visa sitting there screaming "you could be there NOW!" but it's an option

Another option is the CR-1 route. Depending on where you want the wedding to occur, this means you can plan the wedding at your leisure, get married, and THEN do the CR-1 route which allows you to work immediately on entry into the US. This would mean along with the 6 month time for the CR-1 visa wait time, you would be waiting for the wedding planning time too.

Another option is to get married in a registry office and THEN plan the big party for when you actually enter. Personally while this idea isn't the most romantic, it means that you can have the big gorgeous wedding you want, while applying for the visa at the same time and this cuts your wait time down. This also means you can work up until you leave in the UK and as soon as you enter you can get another job and this will really help with the "big" wedding costs and you don't feel the pressure of time. I know a big part of the K1 route sucking is being unable to work until we have an EAD or greencard... and if your girlfriend wants a lot of the 90 days to plan for the wedding, it will mean you not working that whole time, and then another 3 months or so till you get the EAD... and i hate not working, not just the boredom but being unable to "contribute" to the household except with cooking and cleaning etc...

Or you could have two weddings, the UK one first and THEN the US one. I considered this option but felt like the second "wedding" was a lie (it just felt weird) so instead as we married in the US we're having an Aussie reception when we get to Australia (hopefully this year) for all the Aussie people that couldn't make it. And we made sure the "actual" wedding was recorded on video and we'll play that before the reception.

Hope that all makes sense. Good luck with your decision

Edited January 15, 2010 by Vanessa&Tony

[John & Mary 1]

John and I were in your situation, and ultimately realized that if we wanted to be together, we were going to have to get married and we were going to have to do it on the government's time-frame, not ours. (Work visas were and still are damn near impossible to get-- I'm afraid you'll chase your tail with that one. We gave up pursuing that in a matter of days, and John has a PhD.) The first time he tried to come visit me for a long stay (two months), he was denied entry into the country because CBP was afraid we might get married. We were still just trying to decide if that's what we wanted to do! However, the government does not grant "boyfriend visas" or "dating visas." If the relationship is solid enough for one party to move to another country for the other, the government figures it's serious enough for you to get married. They're not wrong.

You just have to get used to the idea that the price you pay for an international romance is that you will sacrifice much of the "storybook" prolonged-courtship-then-Barbie-Dream-Wedding ideal. However, it does turn out to be romantic and perfect in its own way, and I don't feel cheated. We went the K-1 route and married in the courthouse with our families present, then we had a big reception three months later.