Conundrum - please help!

[Olga Bof 0]

I am an American citizen, who also holds Italian citizenship and have been living in London for the past 7 years. I am hoping to move to Florida in October or so of this year with my boyfriend, a Colombian, who is also living in London.

My questions are the following:

Would we have to marry prior to leaving for the US? If so, should the marriage take place in the UK or Colombia?

If we did marry prior to departure, approximately how long would the visa process take before my partner could join me in the US?

Is it less time-consuming to seek a fiancé visa?

As I have been living in the UK for the past 7 years, I do/would not have documents, proof of financial status in the US, etc. How would this be handled?

Does anyone know if the London Embassy would allow Direct Consular Filing in our situation?

I would GREATLY appreciate any replies on this one as it doesn't seem to be a straight-forward one!

[olutayo82 0]

Since you are going back to the U.S to live.

The k1 fiance visa would be appropriate for you and your fiance.You would have to send the 1-129F petition to the service center of the area you last resided in the u.s. If it is florida, find out what service center takes care of fiance petitions.

I was in the same situation. I am USC that lived in Canada.

I last lived in Texas so i sent the petition to Texas Service center, they ended up transfering to California Service center.(still worked)

I was working in Canada by the way so i had no financial history in the US.

Before the Visa process was over, i moved back to the U.S and everything was fine.I started working, got an emp letter, bank statement e.tc.I moved back only when the petition was approved.

If you don't want to move before your fiance's visa is approved, i guess you can always have a CO-SPonsor to help you out by submitting forms 1-134 . You would have to submit a copy too for yourself as well.

Other people might have other input and it does not take long.Mine took a total of 6 months from when i filed the petition

[pax 0]

How have you been living in London for 7 years? If you have ILR in the UK but you still have domicile in the United States, DCF is the way to go for you, no doubt. Marry your boyfriend and apply for a CR-1 visa in London--no separation, no mess!

Alternatively, if you don't have ILR in the UK but you have an Italian passport, you might want to consider DCF in Italy instead, if your boyfriend has or can get a visa to go to Italy with you.

(EDIT: Okay, you say you don't have domicile in the U.S. Is there any way you can take some time to establish one while you get the ball rolling on the CR-1 visa? And are you really out of options as far as domicile goes? I hope meauxna will chime in on this thread.)

Good luck!

Edited March 13, 2006 by pax

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

She can live in the UK with her dual EU nationality, so SHOULD be able to DCF

[gag54611 1]

According to the Visa Journey profile on the London consulate, you can file DCF so long as you are a legal resident of the UK.

Assuming that is the case, you might be better getting married in the UK and then filing for DCF. Once granted, you could then move to the USA and your husband would be an immediate permanent resident. I haven't looked into this in any detail, so I don't know if there is a need for you to have already established any kind of domicile in the USA before being allowed to file for DCF. There might also be a complication since your fiance is not a UK citizen. Does he have legal residency in the UK? Take a look at this page on the London Consulate web site. The info on this page doesn't exclude your fiance's case.

You could also file for a K-1 visa while you are in the UK. You would send your I-129F application to the USCIS service center that covers the place where you last lived in the USA. The adjudication could then be done and you could travel together to the USA. You would then get married within 90 days of arrival and then adjust your husband's status to conditional permanent resident. K-1 applications through London for UK citizens take about 6 months. Your fiance's case may be different since he is not a UK citizen.

Regarding finances, as a US citizen, aren't you required to file taxes with the IRS? If yes, that is your financial ability proof.

Perhaps there will be other responders who have more direct experience than I can offer.

Best of luck,

G

[pax 0]

There might also be a complication since your fiance is not a UK citizen. Does he have legal residency in the UK?

I'm pretty sure that as long as he's legally present in the UK, she can do a DCF for him.

I'm also pretty sure that a K-1 filing isn't going to change anything as far as domicile goes. She'll need to be domiciled in the States, one way or another, to get any kind of visa for her fiance/husband. That doesn't mean she needs to live here, necessarily, but as VJers have mentioned before, domicile is a real thorny issue.

[meauxna 15]

There are a ton of links in the new DCF Guide here at VJ discussing domicile and Americans returning from abroad.

Have a snoop through, but my husband and I made the choice to marry sooner than later and our immigration process benefitted greatly from that.

If the Colombian citizen is legal in the UK, DCF is the fastest, bestest way to come to the US, IMO. (how 'bout all them initials!)

Don't wait too long to get started if you want to move in October!

Ciao

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I considered DCF (as a dual citizen residing in the UK) but decided to go the K-1 route since I didn't want to add "getting married" on my long list of things to do before arriving in the US in the month I had. This was a big mistake, in retrospect, I wish I'd done it.