Question about moving

[Heidi&Nikki 0]

Hello everyone!

I wasn't sure which area I should write this so I decided to write it here Someone can move this if it doesn't really belong under this area.

So, me and my spouse (who is US citizen) got married last July in the USA while I was visiting her there with ESTA. We were thinking for a long time what to do, should we stay in USA or move to Finland (where I am from). We decided to move to Finland mostly because it is so much easier to get a residence permit here than in the USA. After we got married I got to spend a few more weeks in the USA before I had to fly back to Finland. My spouse followed me to Finland in last October. So we've been living here in Finland for almost a year now.

Lately my spouse has really started to miss home and her family. I've been trying to suggest moving to USA but she's refusing to even talk about it. Mostly because it would be so hard to move back to USA. She quit her job and sold most of her stuff before she moved here and we don't really want to be seperated for a long period of time again. I would be perfectly fine with living the rest of my life in the USA. I've lived an year in the USA while working as an Au Pair so I kind of know what excpect I know it would be a hard and long process to get me there but I would be willing to do it because I fear that my spouse won't ever be happy here. I've been doing my best to make her feel like home here but she keeps saying that she feel like she doesn't belong here (and I can't really blame her, unfortunately Finland isn't the best/friendliest place in the world for foreigners).

Has any of you moved to another country first and then to USA? Is there a way to start the green card application process while both of us are still here in Finland?

I would really appreciate any help/tips you can give

Sorry for a long and messy post, I'm not a very good writer.

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

Welcome!

My husband moved to me in Ireland first, mostly because immigrating that way was much easier. He spent just over 3 years in Dublin with me, but had a hard time adjusting to the super liberal culture, and found it difficult to find work which meant he was bored, So once we found out I was expecting twins, we started looking into moving back to his home town in Arkansas, where he has family (I had no family in Ireland).

Yes, you can stay together; your wife would petition you for a CR-1 spousal visa via the lockbox in the USA, and once you get the visa, you can move to the USA together. There is one potential issue, which is the affadavit of support; your wife, as petitioner, needs to prove she can financially support you, and this is usually done by showing US based income from a job. There are two ways to get around that; if you two have a lot of savings (you'd need around $65'000), or getting a co-sponsor- a US based person who is willing to stand guarantoor for you.

[Heidi&Nikki 0]

Thank you for your reply! I need to look that up. It's nice to hear that we're not the only ones in this situation (well I ever thought we were but still )

About the affadavit of support, if I would get a job offer from USA would it be enough proof that I could support myself or does it have to be my spouse or co-sponsor that is supposed to be having the needed income and supporting me?

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

A job offer is not enough, the job would need to have actually started and showing it with paystubs.

[Pitaya 2,577]

Welcome to the forum.

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Welcome fellow Finn!!!!!!!!