Hello...and HELP!!

[Philipjames6 0]

Hello people, I'm new to the forum and in need of some help from all you guys and gals in the know.

Ok this is going to be a bit long winded so please bare with me....I am currently in the military and am married to a US citizen, we have been married for over 3 years now and have a 2 year old son who is a dual citizen. We have been living together in the UK since we got married and in the states for a couple of years prior. I have previously lived in the states as part of my work on a NATO-2 visa. We are unsure of exactly where in the states we will be going back to if/when I get a visa.

So my question is which visa would be best for me? I want to be able to get straight to work and I also want it to be as quick as possible. Well I was hoping to move around Xmas 2014 if not summer 2015.

Hopefully I have given enough details for someone to help me.

Cheers in advance

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

The IR1 visa which you will find discussed as CR1/IR1. The difference is being married over 2 years you will get a 10 year greencard instead of a 2 year card. Process is identical. Because your American lives in the UK, the petition can go to the USCIS office in London rather than Chicago. It saves a lot of time. The process is called Direct Consular Filing (DCF).

One of our members started a London specific thread for DCF. It will be very useful. A few slight changes have been made since the first post, so read through it looking for new form names, etc. This is the thread http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/443127-dcf-london-i-130-for-ir1cr1-spouse-guide/

You are eligible to work the day you enter the US on the visa. It won't take as long as a year to get it.

Edited December 14, 2013 by Nich-Nick

[NikLR 13,231]

The best would be to dcf if you can! Then it is a few months vs a year.

[Philipjames6 0]

Many thanks for the awesomely fast response you have helped me out a lot, and the person that went to the effort to right that idiots guide that you linked to. Now just need to find out how long I have once I have been approved to move to the US as I cant really get out the military until next December due to pension rights. And I am pretty sure I have to have an official out date before they will give me the visa

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Many thanks for the awesomely fast response you have helped me out a lot, and the person that went to the effort to right that idiots guide that you linked to. Now just need to find out how long I have once I have been approved to move to the US as I cant really get out the military until next December due to pension rights. And I am pretty sure I have to have an official out date before they will give me the visa

Yes, you will need to take military discharge papers to the interview. Just wait awhile before applying. And you can stall the interview by not sending in the Readiness for Interview document London uses. (Formerly called DS-2001 which was a paper form mailed in.) It is an online form submission now and I don't think is has an actual form number. That is one of the recent changes not covered in the guide and corrected later in the thread.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Nich-Nick