CA Girl Engaged to Midlands Boy :)

Hi everyone in the UK-Yankee forum 

My name is Kristin and I am an actress in Los Angeles. My fiancé is Neil, a salesman in Milton Keynes. We've been together almost 2 years now!

Hours of Skype time and thousands of SkyMiles later, we've decided to tie the knot, and are now in the preliminary phase of learning the complicated world of all the Visa rules & lingo.

Our main plan is to end up in So Cal because Neil likes the warm weather, but I love the British culture. Ultimately we both want Dual Citizenship so we can start our marriage here in The States, and possibly move to England to raise our family.

If anyone can point me in the right direction to find some useful information in the matter, I'd greatly appreciate it. Either way I definitely look forward to connecting here in the forums!

Thanks 

Congratulations on your engagement!

The immigration processes for both countries have pros and cons.

For the US, it's easier to qualify (if you do not meet the financial requirements - which are low, you are allowed a third party sponsor).  However, it takes 8 to 10 months to go through the process.  I believe the fees are also a decent amount less than the UK fees.  I'm not sure on the time frame, but I believe it's somewhere between three to five years until your fiance will qualify for US citizenship.

For the UK, there are very strict financial requirements that only your fiance can sponsor (no 3rd party sponsor).  This is especially hard to meet if your fiance lives in the US and moves back to the UK.  Your fiance will need to have made £18,600 in the previous 12 months in the US AND have a UK job offer starting within 3 months making at least £18,600.  The problem we see here often is the UK sponsor struggles to obtain a job offer without being physically present in the UK.  Unfortunately what happens is the UK citizen has to return to the UK, obtain employment, and work in that job for six months before your visa can be applied for.  However, if you meet the requirement, the visa is usually issued within a month.  The visa's for the UK (you'll need several before qualifying for citizenship) are very expensive.  It takes five years to qualify for ILR (free from immigration rules) before you can apply for UK citizenship.  I would plan on living in the UK for 6 years by the time you have it (as application processing will slow things down and not make it 5 years exactly).

You don't really need dual citizenship.  Just so long as one of you has permission to live and work in the other's country, you're good to go. 

LA to Milton Keynes will be quite the culture shock!   

Welcome, Kristin and also congratulations on your engagement! Very exciting for you two!

Your plans sound very logical to me! My British fiance has a need to stay for familial reasons, however ultimately in the long term I expect us to end up back in the states as well. He's not keen on the weather either.

We will also be going through the "fun" process of doing visa stuff in the near future as well. Although we wil be going the "work-visa" route first before the spousal. Good luck with the process and welcome to the forum!

This place has been a wealth of knowledge in every aspect on English culture you can think of. Driving for me was one of the biggest hurdles of adjustment, that and trying to integrate socially.

Keep an eye on the meet-up.co/uk site for some events you guys can go to, specifically geared toward meeting expats who are in a similar situation and have much knowledge on adjustment. Good luck!!

http://www.meetup.com/American-Expats-in-Hampshire-Winchester-Southampton-etc/events/139191932/ as an example

Thank you so much KFdancer and ilyse22tech for your replies and well wishes - such great information. I can tell you both put a lot of time and thought into your posts and I really appreciate that!

Sometimes I wish life had black and white answers instead of so many options! LOL

I just got off Skype with Neil and we're still 50/50 on both the pros & cons for either him moving to CA or me moving to the UK. He is making a very good income there and I wouldn't want him to leave it. But we both don't want me to give up my acting career in LA either, let alone the fabulous lifestyle.

Anywho, I could go on and on, but for now the info I've seen in this forum and your replies below has given me alot to think about. We plan to make our ultimate decision by the end of this year, so I'll keep you updated.

Please feel free to let me know if you hear of any changes within the system/process.

Thanks again