Confused...

[UKHusband 1]

If there is the slightest possibility of wanting to return to the UK, she should "get around to it" before you move to the US. There's a pinned thread in the UK forum that explains why.

We don't have that intention to return to be honest, but I agree with you, it would be a good idea, thanks. Will talk to the wife about it - not sure we will have time now though... Any idea how long it takes?

One unrelated question after reading that thread you linked too - we are going down the co-sponsor route, but I read there something about the income requirement being only something like £12500 for a two person family?

My wife has a job waiting for her in the family business that will pay more than that, and we have savings both in the UK and the US - would we be better ditching the co-sponsors and going it alone, and if so would we just need a letter from the business detailing the job and salary?

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

We don't have that intention to return to be honest, but I agree with you, it would be a good idea, thanks. Will talk to the wife about it - not sure we will have time now though... Any idea how long it takes?

One unrelated question after reading that thread you linked too - we are going down the co-sponsor route, but I read there something about the income requirement being only something like £12500 for a two person family?

My wife has a job waiting for her in the family business that will pay more than that, and we have savings both in the UK and the US - would we be better ditching the co-sponsors and going it alone, and if so would we just need a letter from the business detailing the job and salary?

No, I'm not sure how long it takes. But I wouldn't leave the UK without getting it. Delay your US entry if need be. Returning to the UK is very difficult with a non-EU spouse. Your wife will lose her ILR once she is out of the UK for several years. You will lose the finanical investment you have in her UK visas to date. And she will need a new visa to return to the UK if she is not a citizen. There are currently about 19000 couples who are separated by the new UK visa rules. And the steepest decline in grants of UK visas are to US/UK couples - approximately 46 percent.

Are you talking about the income requirement for your US visa? If your wife were already working at that US job, then you could go it alone. The offer alone is not sufficient. But there is nothing wrong with co-sponsorship. In your case it seems a formaility only. Alternately, if your savings are somewhere in the realm of £37k, you can sponsor yourself that way.

[UKHusband 1]

Just closing this off! Had the interview today, very quick and painless (apart from having to re-fill a couple of forms that they had lost!). Was probably at the windows less than 10 minutes combined on both visits.

Most of the stuff we took came back with us without even being looked at, including most of the tax returns, an I-864a and all of the relationship stuff. They didn't ask to see any of the 'intent to re-establish domicile' stuff, not even any questions about where we would be living - quite surprising really.

Thanks to everyone from this incredible community who assisted - just over three months, start to finish, would have made a right mess of it without you lot lol.

Good luck to those still in the middle or just about to start the process - certainly if our experience is anything to go by, doing DCF through the London Embassy is efficient, simple and much easier than I would have ever thought it would be!

Done now until citizenship in three years (I think?)

[Yorkshirelass 1]

Congratulations! And wow - super straightforward, thanks for sharing this information - v useful.

Enjoy your arrival in the States and setting up life there.

I'm waiting my Packet 4, so shouldn't be too far behind you, fingers crossed....

Just closing this off! Had the interview today, very quick and painless (apart from having to re-fill a couple of forms that they had lost!). Was probably at the windows less than 10 minutes combined on both visits.

Most of the stuff we took came back with us without even being looked at, including most of the tax returns, an I-864a and all of the relationship stuff. They didn't ask to see any of the 'intent to re-establish domicile' stuff, not even any questions about where we would be living - quite surprising really.

Thanks to everyone from this incredible community who assisted - just over three months, start to finish, would have made a right mess of it without you lot lol.

Good luck to those still in the middle or just about to start the process - certainly if our experience is anything to go by, doing DCF through the London Embassy is efficient, simple and much easier than I would have ever thought it would be!

Done now until citizenship in three years (I think?)

[lost_at_sea 995]

Just closing this off! Had the interview today, very quick and painless (apart from having to re-fill a couple of forms that they had lost!). Was probably at the windows less than 10 minutes combined on both visits.

Most of the stuff we took came back with us without even being looked at, including most of the tax returns, an I-864a and all of the relationship stuff. They didn't ask to see any of the 'intent to re-establish domicile' stuff, not even any questions about where we would be living - quite surprising really.

Thanks to everyone from this incredible community who assisted - just over three months, start to finish, would have made a right mess of it without you lot lol.

Good luck to those still in the middle or just about to start the process - certainly if our experience is anything to go by, doing DCF through the London Embassy is efficient, simple and much easier than I would have ever thought it would be!

Done now until citizenship in three years (I think?)

Yay! Congrats!

Yes, you can go for citizenship after 3 years of living in the USA with your spouse, if you like.

[mayb 1]

Just finished reading through this entire post which was incredibly helpful.

Congrats on the visa and good luck in the states!

[UKHusband 1]

Just finished reading through this entire post which was incredibly helpful.

Congrats on the visa and good luck in the states!

Good luck to you mayb if you're just starting out - don't worry, it's nowhere near as tough or scary as it seems at that initial point!

Lost_at_sea's guide to DCF should be required reading for everyone starting out on this process - I am convinced that if you follow it (and actually qualify of course) that you will simply struggle to go wrong even if you try - she definitely cut through all the noise and confusion for us, and we are hugely grateful.

(of course you can't factor in the embassy receiving and then losing your forms as happened to us - not quite sure how we got to the interview stage at all given that, but glad that we did! Certainly wasn't prepared for that moment at the window when he told us that though - a definite 'ffs' moment, but was quickly resolved!)

This forum is an incredible resource for people going through a process that is out of just about everyone's comfort zone at first, and full of super nice and ridiculously helpful people.

I would say though that you can drive yourself quite mad with the waiting if you spend too much time here/refreshing the CEAC tracker so I'd say a combination of Visa Journey and a good dollop of patience are prerequisites for this experience lol.

Speaking of CEAC, our status has updated to 'issued' last night, so now we're just waiting for the courier notification before the (seemingly endless) waiting is finally over!

[mayb 1]

thanks for the tips UKHusband. I agree none of this could be done without this place!

I've already learned a lesson in patience, stupidly didn't realise we qualified for DCF so initally applied to the Chicago Lockbox facility and we are on month 4 of waiting for our NOA2 hence why we have just said forget it and have paid another $420 to try and go the DCF way!

From following your journey DCF does seem realtively painless as long as we are up to date with all of our paper work so my fingers are crossed for a semi-seamless journey as you have had!

good luck to you in starting a life in the states, I really hope you enjoy it!