Moving back to the US

I am SO excited to say that my family and I will be moving back to the US soon. I'm a US citizen and I moved here 2.5 years ago to marry my husband who is a UK citizen. I love my husband very much, but I've never really adjusted to living here. I like it here, but I have a very close family and I miss them terribly. My husband's parents are no longer living and he's not as close with the rest of his family as I am with mine so we made this huge decision to relocate to the US. We'll come back here every couple of years to visit his family.

We've hired a lawyer and started the visa process this month. It's going to be a stressful road to get everything completed, but we have tons of help from my parents and having a lawyer really helps put my mind at ease.

We have a 19 month old son and I'm so glad he'll get to live near his grandparents soon! We've also got another baby on the way, I'm about 6 weeks pregnant now.

Anyway, most of you probably don't know me because I stay pretty quiet on here, but I just had to share my excitement! I really feel (and so does my husband, we've been debating the pros and cons of this for 2 years now) that this is the best thing for us. 

Good luck

Thank you!

Good luck to you!!! 

Good luck Jude's mom! Excited for you. I'm planning a move back to the US too, after my visa expires, as my husband has always wanted to move to America and our money will definitely stretch further. Will you please update us (me) and let us know how the process is going for those of us who are doing the same? I'm curious as to how long it's going to take to be approved and how much money is going to go into this. Are you hiring a lawyer just to make the process simpler?

Edited because I'm anal about punctuation. Lol.

Thank you! Good luck to you as well.

We're using a lawyer because my husband had a past conviction which prevented him from getting a visitor's visa a few years ago. We decided it would just be a lot easier for us to use a lawyer to handle it in case we run into problems because of that. Our lawyer doesn't think it will be a problem because the conviction was 11 years ago and it was pretty minor, but if it is he'll have to appeal the application and it just gets rather complicated. We know someone in America who used the same lawyer last year, he recommended him to us.

We haven't submitted anything yet, we've filled out most of the info our lawyer needs from us and we have to email it to him, then he'll fill out the application and email it back to us. We'll then have to check it over and make sure everything's correct, sign it, and mail it to him with all the hard copies of our supporting documents. Then he'll submit the application. We spoke to our lawyer for the first time the week after Christmas and he said the current processing time for that application is 7.5 months. He also said he's been doing this for 22 years and in his experience, the wait times are higher around the holidays and he was pretty sure it would go down before long. Whether it has or not, I'm not sure. 7.5 months is a good wait time for us because I'm 2 months pregnant and we want to have the baby here before we move back there.

He told us that towards the end of the process, my husband will have to go to the American Embassy for an interview where they'll ask him questions about me and our relationship and they'll decide then whether he gets the visa or not.

The visa he's granted then is basically just to enter the US as a spouse and then when we're there for 2 or 3 weeks we'll receive his green card in the mail.

The lawyer's fee is $1795 (he's based in California. We found one in London that was quite a bit more, but I don't remember the exact figure.) and the government fees are somewhere in the high $900 range. I think it was $972, but it's not right in front of me at the moment and I can't remember for sure. So I think if you were to do it on your own, you'd only have the $972 to pay. Don't hold me to that, obviously.

Hope something there helped! Sorry for the novel 

Just wanted to say good luck! There is a website similar to this one but for US VISA help. They are very friendly and very helpful.

I hope its ok to post a link.

http://www.visajourney.com/

There are also guides for the different types of visas, waivers, and such. Its a long process but you'll find some great help in those forums.

also see britishexpats.com

A more friendly website.

Wow no, definitely not a novel.  Interesting to read for sure. So the app is for a visa which turns into a green card eventually? Wow it sounds way more difficult than what I had to do to come here! But having to spend $1,000 isn't bad considering I assumed it was three times that! And I'm like you..l I want to have a baby here first before we move. Don't wanna have to worry about insurance, copy, etc. it seems so much easier to do it here. Obviously it will be up to God... But I'd prefer to have it here. Haha.

Well, keep us updated! Thanks for the reply and again, good luck.

Good luck to you! We're on the US visa journey too. Hubby had a green card that was good until 2018 but had to give it up when we moved back here, since he was going to be out of the country for an extended period of time.

Last time we hired an immigration attorney, because he came over and we ended up getting married (instead of our plan to marry here), then had to return to the UK due to a family death, before returning. We're doing it ourselves this time. It is quite a bit cheaper, but a bit more of a headache. Last time through we'd get a call or email when we needed to provide papers or sign something. We'd make a quick road trip to see him, have a nice lunch and head home.

Been here since December 2009 and heading back to the USA soon.  My UK husband filed for I130 on 26 October 2012.  Financially will be much better off in the states.  My salary is double there. 

Looking forward to it but will miss family and friends here.  My husband had 2 kids that will remain in the UK with his ex.  It will be tough but we are determined to make it work out.

I'm moving over first.  Visa expires 1 March and I really don't have £1380 to spend on and ILR that I really don't need.  Husband will stay here until his immigration process is complete.  We are hoping it won't be too much longer.

There is a good website - I think it's called diveintoamerica.com- something like that.

Best of luck with your upcoming move. 

So the app is for a visa which turns into a green card eventually? Wow it sounds way more difficult than what I had to do to come here!

Basically, yes. I don't think it's more difficult, just a longer waiting time. Plus the interview which I didn't have to do when I came here. He also has to get a medical exam, which I forgot to mention the first time.

Good luck to you! We're on the US visa journey too.

Good luck to you, too! I'm pretty sick of visa applications at this point, but luckily my husband's worth it Ha ha.

Been here since December 2009 and heading back to the USA soon.

Good luck, Lizzylou. That must be hard for your husband leaving his kids behind.

I think we'll be better off financially in America too. I have a degree there, plus my dad owns a few of his own businesses and I have an uncle with good connections with Chrysler. Between all of those factors, we should both be able to get decent paying jobs. I'm hoping my husband can get a well paying job somewhere with benefits so I can stay home with the kids until they start school, but another great thing about moving to the US is having a ton of people willing to help us out with things like babysitting! My husband's family is great, but they're too far for babysitting if we need it.

I had to apply for my ILR this month. I hates having to spend that extra money knowing that we'll probably be leaving soon, but like I said..I'm pregnant and planning to have our baby here. Plus, I don't think I could be away from him for however long it would take to get the visa (considering we aren't filing any paperwork until next week, so it'll still be quite awhile before we get any results).

Thanks for the link, and good luck to you as well!

Basically, yes. I don't think it's more difficult, just a longer waiting time. Plus the interview which I didn't have to do when I came here. He also has to get a medical exam, which I forgot to mention the first time.

Medical exam? Really? I wonder what they're looking for? :-/

Medical exam? Really? I wonder what they're looking for? :-/

Hubby had one for his first move to the US. It was a thorough physical, but nothing like a medical witch hunt where they look for any little thing to keep you out. I'd say it is just to make sure someone is in decent-ish health and they aren't going in with something wrong but not mentioning it.

Hubby had one for his first move to the US. It was a thorough physical, but nothing like a medical witch hunt where they look for any little thing to keep you out. I'd say it is just to make sure someone is in decent-ish health and they aren't going in with something wrong but not mentioning it.

My whole family had them when we moved to the US from Canada back in the '70s.