Getting married & moving to U.S.

[CC Rider 0]

I am an American Citizen (by birth) getting married to a Canadian gal and will be moving to Illinois, my home state. As it stands right now she is not planning on working in the U.S. when we finally do move. I don't know if this would expedite the process of if she should apply for working status as well? We understand we have to make an appointment with the US Consulate in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We know the forms to fill in, but you can only make appointments online - you can't phone and ask for directions on which link to click on. Can anyone inform me of which link on the Calgary US Consulate website we need to click on in order to make the correct appointment please? I am thinking it is U,S, Citizen Services / American Citizen Services (ACS) Appointment and then Book an Appointment for a Passport Book or Card Application. Is this correct? And if so do I select Passport Services other than adding pages? If this is not correct, could someone guide me please? We are getting married on May 3rd and would like to set an appointment for somewhere between May 5 to 8th. Thanks so much.

[Ryan E 10]

Hello, you need to spend some time reading the guides: http://www.visajourney.com/content/guides and getting informed. Interestingly the US embassy in Canada websites are of little help. Calgary sends you to the Montreal site, and there you are sent to a dead link on the DOS site. You want this site: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/types/family.html

The process isn't as simple as getting married, making an appointment, and moving to the states. There is at least a 6 month (fiance visa) to one year (spousal visa) wait for the final visa to enter the US with immigration intent. She couldn't get a passport until at least three years after getting the greencard. Her appointment will be at the US Embassy in Montreal in about a year.

The fact she doens't want to work makes any impact of the actual process, but will impact with process you choose. Although, if your wedding date is fixed, then you really only have one choice - the CR1 visa as the fiance visa will not be issued before May 3rd and requires you get married in the US.

She cannot enter the US with immigration intent while waiting for the visa to be processed. Search the forum a bit for more info on this (she could be turned away at the border if they think she is "moving" to the US.)

Edited March 13, 2014 by Ryan E

[bigdog 376]

Welcome.

[Pitaya 2,577]

Welcome to the forum.

[Darnell 8,479]

You might want to chase after immigration status,

instead of any working visa,

as

spouses of USCitizens get other preferences.

Whoever told you about Calgary, for chasing an spousal immigrant visa, needs to dropped out of a plane at 10,000 feet without any parachute. It's just wrong info.