M+K IL

Since your fiance / fiancee can actually get into the US (on a tourist visa I assume) - if you choose to go CR-1 rather than K-1, getting married in the US physically (rather than via Utah zoom) is also an option. Provided he/she later return to the country of origin this is perfectly fine. Popular city halls might be booked weeks in advance, but smaller towns should be fine (I don't think it took us that long to book in SF - definitely under 2-3 months). But yeah, YMMV - with K-1 your fiance(e) won't be able to work for a while, with CR-1 they can soon after they arrive under CR-1 status

Could be. But for EB-2 and EB-3 at least, you likely can't shorten the time it takes to do PERM that much - you have to prove a suitable candidate can't be found first. After PERM is done, then sure. I think my employer did premium processing, because it seems to move quite fast after that.

You having applied for EB-1 likely makes a huge difference here -- I did my EB-2 when it was considered fast (2017-8) and it took over a year in total, not 8 days to approval

You need to declare them and, if it is over $500, bring documented proof of payment. I brought them anyway even though they were under the threshold. So that question in the checklist - have you been arrested, cited etc - the answer would have been yes. Parking tickets don't count as I understand it, moving violations do

Could it be that the interviewer also misunderstood this?

As Mike said even with a job offer success is not guaranteed. Your job offer will likely has language to the effect that it's void in case an H-1B is not secured. The company lawyers would apply for you, you just need to provide the documents and show up to the interview. Large companies would have backup options of placing you in another country (mine has a London office) but won't guarantee placement. Since you are already in the UK, I'd say work for a US based company in the UK then try to transfer later? Don't mention that that's your intention when applying of course. DV and self sponsored EB-2 as others mentioned are good ideas too - the first one is a lottery but free to enter so why not, the latter requires proving you are highly sought after so depending on your situation L-1 might be the easiest

Hello there!I am another IT professional. Going to give a general overview here, feel free to send a private message if there are specifics you don't want to disclose. - If you find a company that is willing to sponsor an H-1B, that's an option. Note that there are limited H-1Bs available a year so applications have to be submitted in time and then subject to a lottery. If you have an advanced degree from a US university you get to double-dip here (there's a pool for such applicants, if you did not get selected you get automatically re-entered into the general pool of applicants). If you do this... IIRC applications have to be in by April. I did my visa interview in... June, if I recall, approved soon after. Visa only valid starting Oct 1 and you can enter 10 days early (so my orientation session has a lot of other H-1B holders). Dependents get H-4s and those are straightforward to get - If you work for a multinational that has both US and UK presence, you can ask for an L-1 (transfer) visa. I think you have to have been in the non-US branch for at least a year, but better check as this is second hand experience from colleagues. The best bet before applying for PR is to switch to H-1B ... but you can keep trying until you succeed as L-1 can keep being renewed - since you are in IT... the Georgia Tech online masters might help you increase your chance in the H-1B lottery (but check first if it counts). I know at least one person who did this on the weekends and graduated I started my process in early 2016, got to the US in September 2016, GC in mid 2018 (started that process January 2017) and now just passed the naturalization interview. Good luck, and again, feel free to ask more questions here or privately.

I concur with others who suggest just getting this over with and naturalize - but just checking. Which country are you from and does it allow dual citizenship? There's no timeline filed so it's hard to tell.

Ouch, so sorry to hear! We moved to the Chicago area from there, my initial dream was to get naturalized at the ceremony under the Space Needle Hope your case gets unstuck soon!

Happy belated birthday @TBoneTX !

We haven't met but welcome back! This thread will probably keep me posting even after my journey here is done ... though heh who am I kidding, we might want to try and convince our parents to retire here so the next round might commence soon

I sense OP is trying to get enough facts to convince his/her future in laws to go home rather than stress his/her fiancé out by living illegally

Celebration! Though we are still awaiting our oath ceremonies to be scheduled (doing legal name change so no option for same-day oath), and after that... we'll probably need to drink when dealing with getting all our paperwork adjusted. Passport, SSN, then all the bank accounts, credit cards, insurances ... driver license, car registrations, oy vey. Now I feel like I need another drink. Done! I updated my relevant posts yesterday but forgot to do the timeline until earlier today People in my job role already drink heavily. Haha. Normally whiskey but at home for the missus' sake we drink wine and sake.

2 naturalization interviews yesterday! And we were blissfully unaware that the area near the USCIS field office was struck by tornadoes the evening before - we just noticed in our area it rained heavily. Ignorance is bliss in this case Took the train to the interview, so we were glad it not only not rain but also was unseasonably cool at least in the morning (by the time I left my interview - we were scheduled 2 hours apart - it was bright and sunny, so I was sweating more, but it's nice to see the blue sky nonetheless). Many bottles of wine were bought after that.

To close the loop: If there are recent years in which you under-withheld, and owe IRS taxes, also upload the Account Transcript for the most recent year showing a balance of 0, *or* evidence of a payment plan. We generally slightly over-withheld to avoid this but missed the mark in one or two years thanks to unexpected stock performances.

My wife and I both passed our interviews today! Some notes while it's still fresh - traffic fines do count. Bring evidence of payment - the number of times you've been married includes your current one - so when asked how many times your spouse has been married, it's 1 not 0 😅 - if you ever owe money to the IRS, even if you pay it immediately and has no payment plan they want to see evidence of payment. So bring the Account Transcript from the IRS for the latest year showing a balance of zero Thanks @Mike Ed for suggesting bringing tax records! We didn't submit the account transcript initially, but my wife's interviewer was kind enough to let her give me a call so I can send it to her then she uploaded it. I had all the transcripts downloaded just in case but initially only submitted the Tax Return ones per IRS guidance. Since we requested legal name change, we'll get our oath appointment later. Otherwise looks like they do ceremonies in the same building too (Chicago Field Office)

Ah, I thought this applies to everyone regardless of country of origin? https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/family-immigration/immigrant-visa-for-spouse.html#13

Ah. In that case... as long as she just wants to use your surname, I think the marriage certificate itself is proof of name change and she is free to use her married name in the US. And I think even flying with passport and PR saying different names is OK with that marriage certificate - so more things to carry but that should work. Good luck!

One option is to wait until naturalization in 3-5 years. That's what we are doing Our country also does not recognize dual citizenship anyway so we won't need to deal with its bureaucracy - if your wife wants to keep both passports then that might be trickier, I'm not sure what would happen if the names are mismatched. Probably OK too, so that might be an easier route - just have the changed name in US documents, but only change when naturalizing

My wife and I did this. Bear in mind you might want to have strong evidence the fiancée will be returning back after visiting and getting married - return tickets etc. But with an existing B visa that's definitely an option (in our time the Utah online marriage didn't exist and our parents will likely frown on it anyway)

Or those from companies that either won't sponsor EB green cards or have problems obtaining them - e.g. https://h1bgrader.com/blog/facebook-perm-lawsuit-gc/

Fingers crossed for that! Hope your daughter gets her new passport in time

Gotcha. Yeah, having bought a house recently too, you definitely don't want to delay that just because of getting a passport! Glad it worked out

Congratulations! must be a relief To clarify, is it just the USPS mail forwarding, or did you notify the passport agency of the new address directly? Or both

So it's not all bad news. Yes you were misinformed, but on the other hand now you get to do the easier path documentation and interview wise! Best of luck