Questions About Moving Stateside

Hello All-


My British husband and I are looking to move back to the US within the next year. I am beginning my research into the requirements, etc. and I was curious if anyone has gone through this process from the UK that could give me some advice and pointers? Roughly what is the wait time if applying for the I-130 (immigrant visa;green card) from the UK, not the US?  I've heard it's a faster process if you apply from the UK rather than the US. Researching all of this is very overwhelming...I'm thinking it's going to be more of a headache than it was to immigrate to the UK!

Also - in my research, it noted that as a spouse, my husband can apply for the I-130, immigrant visa or the K-3 nonimmigrant visa. Does anyone know what the differences are?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am in the process right now- when I sent in our I-130 the waiting time until receiving the case number and application was 4 months. It usually takes another 6 months before the greencard is granted, though a friend of ours applied in Jan. and got approved last week.

I would suggest expecting at least a 10 month process, though DH and I applied a year before we planned on arriving in the US, in case anything were to get delayed.
 
It would be helpful to look at this thread to see how long people are waiting: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=62457.75

You can also find a lot more people going through this process on the Dive into America site.

Your DH will need an immigrant visa as he is planning on residing permanently in the US. A non-immigrant visa is a visa for someone who wishes to visit the US.

As far as understaning what the I-130 is look at this site: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_2993.html

That is wonderfully helpful, thank you very much for taking the time to respond. Have you found the immigration process to the US to be harder or easier to when you came to the UK? Also, did you manage to stay long enough to get your citizenship here?

You can also find tons of information/timelines/etc over at www.visajourney.com That is what we used when bringing hubby over from the UK.

That is wonderfully helpful, thank you very much for taking the time to respond. Have you found the immigration process to the US to be harder or easier to when you came to the UK? Also, did you manage to stay long enough to get your citizenship here?

I found finding which US form to fill out when complicated- but because we got married and got our documents together and applied for the UK LLR within a week I definitely was more stressed with the UK app! With the long wait times with the US app I don't have to worry about not getting documents in time and can look over the paperwork thoroughly.

I will be applying for citizenship in a little over a month. If you can, wait until you are eligible for citizenship. Everyone here highly recommends you do, as there could be a chance you would not be let back into the UK if you needed to be here and didn't meet the ever-stricter visa req.

This is all hugely helpful! Thanks Robyn for the website & thanks again, Danielle, for your helpful advice! Best of luck to you in your application for citizenship & your eventual move to the US!