Bringing money to America + Bank accounts

[Rachel-Marie 1]

Hey all! Today we got my Fiance's interview date in London - April 27! Can't wait.

Anyhow (I apologize ahead if this topic isn't in the right place) BUT I my fiance has some questions from those moving to the US from the UK.

How did you go about bringing your money over? Should I/Can I open a bank account for my fiance in the US and have him transfer money?

What's the easiest way to go about it?

Any info regarding this topic is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

[pushbrk 12,888]

Hey all! Today we got my Fiance's interview date in London - April 27! Can't wait.

Anyhow (I apologize ahead if this topic isn't in the right place) BUT I my fiance has some questions from those moving to the US from the UK.

How did you go about bringing your money over? Should I/Can I open a bank account for my fiance in the US and have him transfer money?

What's the easiest way to go about it?

Any info regarding this topic is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

A lot depends on how much money. If less than 10,000 USD, he may want to just exchange pounds for dollars and carry it over.

[ameribrit 37]

Hey all! Today we got my Fiance's interview date in London - April 27! Can't wait.

Anyhow (I apologize ahead if this topic isn't in the right place) BUT I my fiance has some questions from those moving to the US from the UK.

How did you go about bringing your money over? Should I/Can I open a bank account for my fiance in the US and have him transfer money?

What's the easiest way to go about it?

Any info regarding this topic is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

Congratulations on your interview date!

Personally I am using Post Office international payments http://www2.postoffice.co.uk/finance/making-payments/post-office-international-payments to send money over to my fiancee's account. We will sort bank accounts out when I get over there.

This is a very easy, safe and secure way to send your money over from the UK and It tracks exchange rates live.

Good luck for the 27th

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

You can bring over any amount, however if the total is more than 10,000 dollars there is extra paperwork meant to make sure you aren't bring over drug money.

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

You won;t be able to open a bank account without him there. Easiest thing would be to do a direct bank transfer from his UK account to your US account, and then add him to your account once he gets here.

[Y&E 12]

The cheapest and very safe way to transfer money is XEtrade. That's on the XE.com website. I used it and it was very easy. Depending on the bank that you want to bank with to open your own account you may need to hold you GC but you may be able to be added to your SO's bank a/c with just your K1. You will definitely need a SSN to open / be added to a bank account though. Go to your SSA office 2 weeks after arrival, but no more than 2 weeks before you I-94 expires, and apply for your SSN.

Good luck with the interview.

[SophWeb 25]

If you decide to do cash instead of transfer, make sure you get Travelers Checks so that is they get lost/stolen, you can replace them and you won't up out of pocket.

That's what I did - brought over about $7000 in Travelers Checks and then deposited them into my husband's American account when I arrived.

Travelers Checks are also good cause you can go get them when the dollar is in your favor...so even if they dollar drops by the time your visa gets approved, if you have purchased the checks previously while the dollar was good, you'll get more bang for your buck.

Edited April 5, 2011 by SophWeb

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Lots of Brits from the past have also said they preferred xe.com.

Banks will vary on who/when can be added to an account. Many different experiences are reported. Go into the bank in person to get the best answer. Try a different bank if you don't like the answer. My husband got added with only his passport, with the agreement that he would need to provide his SSN when he got one.

Edited April 5, 2011 by Nich-Nick

[cathy2904 97]

Bank of America added me to my husband's account without a problem. They just needed two forms of I.D. I gave them my passport and UK driving licence but she couldn't find a field for the licence so she took my (UK) credit card instead. I am planning to use Post Office International Payments for my money transfers. It was pretty easy to set up an account but have yet to make my first payment.

[Krikit 1,164]

Moving from K-1 Process to Moving to America.

[topaz75 1]

What I found an easy way to move funds from Europe (Germany in my case) to the US was Paypal.

You can add a US bank account to a German Paypal account (and i guess UK should work, too) as a secondary personal account. You can now move funds from your European bank account into Paypal, and then from there into your linked US bank account, Paypal will do the currency conversion. Since all associated accounts are yours, there are no paypal fees, you just get a not so great conversion rate when going from one currency to the other. But I didn't find it worse than the exchange rate most banks give you, and you definitely save on fees.

N.B.: It doesn't work the other way round, you can NOT add a foreign bank account to a US paypal account.

[Patricklove 0]

I am considering keeping my UK bank opening an internaltional acount they have the same bank Lloyds TSB in NewYork. This might be easier intially prior to opening an account with my future husband.

[Daniel&Theary 30]

The cheapest and very safe way to transfer money is XEtrade. That's on the XE.com website. I used it and it was very easy. Depending on the bank that you want to bank with to open your own account you may need to hold you GC but you may be able to be added to your SO's bank a/c with just your K1. You will definitely need a SSN to open / be added to a bank account though. Go to your SSA office 2 weeks after arrival, but no more than 2 weeks before you I-94 expires, and apply for your SSN.

Good luck with the interview.

Believe it or not BANK of AMERICA does not require a ss number to open an account. Atleast in California they do it to try and get illegals business.

[CBP-SRT 9]

Hey all! Today we got my Fiance's interview date in London - April 27! Can't wait.

Anyhow (I apologize ahead if this topic isn't in the right place) BUT I my fiance has some questions from those moving to the US from the UK.

How did you go about bringing your money over? Should I/Can I open a bank account for my fiance in the US and have him transfer money?

What's the easiest way to go about it?

Any info regarding this topic is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

Just hand carry it over. You can carry as much money as you would like. However, if the amount is over 10K USD then you would need to declared it on your customs form. Failure to declare may result in a fine and further delay your entry. There is no tax or anything if you carrying over 10K.

[Ning 619]

Just hand carry it over. You can carry as much money as you would like. However, if the amount is over 10K USD then you would need to declared it on your customs form. Failure to declare may result in a fine and further delay your entry. There is no tax or anything if you carrying over 10K.

Correct. I brought a lot more than 10K with no problem. I declared it on the form & was not asked a question about it. There are many other ways to transfer the money. Each one has a price to pay for the service. Just decide what price you are willing to pay.