Best option...

[USAkiwi]

Hi all, would appreciate some feedback on my best option for applying for US residence.

Background: Dual New Zealand/UK passport holder, Married to a US citizen for almost 10 years (married in the US). Currently in the US on VWP, helping family sort out Grandma's house/care etc. Have contract work I carry out in the UK, which I return to at least once every 3 months for 3-4 weeks at a time. Considering making the move more permanent & living over here instead with a view to getting work here once eligible.

I have 2 options as I see it: Apply in the US (I-130, I-485, I-765 [& I-131?] + evidence) or Apply in the UK (I-130 + evidence). It seems the US option is slower & pricier (on the face of it) but it seems there is a risk that I would be denied re-entry if I come in on VWP (even with a very clean history, evidence of ability to self support, return ticket out etc). The UK option requires regular journeys out of North America which somewhat negates the apparent cost savings.

Will probably apply using my UK passport (any benefits ether way?) as I typically use my NZ passport to travel anywhere outside Europe. In theory on the UK option I could come in on my other passport but, even though there's no rules against it, as they carry out biometric testing it just seems like it would look bad. As I would need the flexibility to travel outside the US if required, it seems I would need I-131 re-entry permit too.

I don't *need* to find full time work here in the US in the immediate future so that is not a major driver (& clearly not possible on the UK option), but if I was going to be here full time it seems that option is no additional hassle if applied for at the same time.

Interested in others' opinions in case I am missing something. Nothing in life is a foregone conclusion but I'm probably in a pretty strong position given how long we have been married & I don't have any skeletons that should make it a challenge. Just want to make sure we take the route that fits best for out situation.

Thanks very much!

[rayb]

Do it in the U.S. for $1,070 plus medical exam and wait about 6 months for completion.

Start it in the UK for $420, plus $120 and $325 NVC fees, plus medical exam, about 10 months for completion.

The UK option is safer, will take longer.

--Ray B

Hi all, would appreciate some feedback on my best option for applying for US residence.

Background: Dual New Zealand/UK passport holder, Married to a US citizen for almost 10 years (married in the US). Currently in the US on VWP, helping family sort out Grandma's house/care etc. Have contract work I carry out in the UK, which I return to at least once every 3 months for 3-4 weeks at a time. Considering making the move more permanent & living over here instead with a view to getting work here once eligible.

I have 2 options as I see it: Apply in the US (I-130, I-485, I-765 [& I-131?] + evidence) or Apply in the UK (I-130 + evidence). It seems the US option is slower & pricier (on the face of it) but it seems there is a risk that I would be denied re-entry if I come in on VWP (even with a very clean history, evidence of ability to self support, return ticket out etc). The UK option requires regular journeys out of North America which somewhat negates the apparent cost savings.

Will probably apply using my UK passport (any benefits ether way?) as I typically use my NZ passport to travel anywhere outside Europe. In theory on the UK option I could come in on my other passport but, even though there's no rules against it, as they carry out biometric testing it just seems like it would look bad. As I would need the flexibility to travel outside the US if required, it seems I would need I-131 re-entry permit too.

I don't *need* to find full time work here in the US in the immediate future so that is not a major driver (& clearly not possible on the UK option), but if I was going to be here full time it seems that option is no additional hassle if applied for at the same time.

Interested in others' opinions in case I am missing something. Nothing in life is a foregone conclusion but I'm probably in a pretty strong position given how long we have been married & I don't have any skeletons that should make it a challenge. Just want to make sure we take the route that fits best for out situation.

Thanks very much!

[USAkiwi]

Do it in the U.S. for $1,070 plus medical exam and wait about 6 months for completion.

Start it in the UK for $420, plus $120 and $325 NVC fees, plus medical exam, about 10 months for completion.

The UK option is safer, will take longer.

--Ray B

Hi Ray,

thanks for that. Interesting as a friend in the UK was looking at doing it in London & was told it was the much faster option.

Couple of questions:
1) Why do you say the UK option is safer & what do you see as the risks of applying from here (US)? My wife needs to be over here anyway to help out with Grandma, so I'd prefer not to have to be stuck in London longer than necessary.
2) Isn't the US option $420 for I-130, $1070 for I-485 (& I-765 & I-131 free if filed at the same time) = $1490? That's less than a return airfare difference. The USCIS website has so many different options as far as when you do/don't need to pay fees that it can be a little confusing.

Thanks,
Allan

[rayb]

You're getting mixed info.

A straight processing in the UK is faster ONLY if a Direct Consular Submittal (DCF) by petitioner, which is accepted by the Embassy on a discretionary basis. Otherwise, an I-130 submittal ending up at the UK US Embassy takes about 7-8 months just to get to the Embassy from USCIS in the States.

Doing the processing while abroad is safer, as you don't run the run of being challenged when trying to convert a Visa Waiver stay Stateside, though I don't think it's that much of a risk.

If processing from the U.S., you will pay $420 for the I-130 and $1,070 for the I-485 (which includes I-761 and I-131 options).

There are no different options or paying these fees. It's just as I described in the earlier message and above.

--Ray B

Hi Ray,

thanks for that. Interesting as a friend in the UK was looking at doing it in London & was told it was the much faster option.

Couple of questions:
1) Why do you say the UK option is safer & what do you see as the risks of applying from here (US)? My wife needs to be over here anyway to help out with Grandma, so I'd prefer not to have to be stuck in London longer than necessary.
2) Isn't the US option $420 for I-130, $1070 for I-485 (& I-765 & I-131 free if filed at the same time) = $1490? That's less than a return airfare difference. The USCIS website has so many different options as far as when you do/don't need to pay fees that it can be a little confusing.

Thanks,
Allan

[USAkiwi]

Ok thanks, that makes sense. At the time we were both living in London so the advice was based on going into the London Embassy.

If I applied from here, does the VWP border control discretion still apply even with the I-131 in place? Would I still need to fulfill the VWP requirements of leaving NA every 3 months until the application is accepted (assuming acceptance)? Touch wood but I've never had any issues at all coming in - generally it's been with my wife & we always go through the US queue, which may also help. We always leave NA (which is the rule although I have friends who have gone to Cancun for a weekend & been allowed back in) & I think the shortest I've been away is 2 weeks.

Off to London next week for most of Feb & hoping to have decided which approach to take before I return.

Thanks!

You're getting mixed info.

A straight processing in the UK is faster ONLY if a Direct Consular Submittal (DCF) by petitioner, which is accepted by the Embassy on a discretionary basis. Otherwise, an I-130 submittal ending up at the UK US Embassy takes about 7-8 months just to get to the Embassy from USCIS in the States.

Doing the processing while abroad is safer, as you don't run the run of being challenged when trying to convert a Visa Waiver stay Stateside, though I don't think it's that much of a risk.

If processing from the U.S., you will pay $420 for the I-130 and $1,070 for the I-485 (which includes I-761 and I-131 options).

There are no different options or paying these fees. It's just as I described in the earlier message and above.

--Ray B

[rayb]

If you applied for the visa conversion from the U.S., it takes about 3 months to get the Advance Parole, but I would not recommend leaving until you have the Green Card. Interpretation of misuse of the Visa Waiver option seems to vary at Ports of Entry.

My advice would be to decide which way to go, then plan on sitting it out in the U.S. until have the Green Card.

--Ray B

Ok thanks, that makes sense. At the time we were both living in London so the advice was based on going into the London Embassy.

If I applied from here, does the VWP border control discretion still apply even with the I-131 in place? Would I still need to fulfill the VWP requirements of leaving NA every 3 months until the application is accepted (assuming acceptance)? Touch wood but I've never had any issues at all coming in - generally it's been with my wife & we always go through the US queue, which may also help. We always leave NA (which is the rule although I have friends who have gone to Cancun for a weekend & been allowed back in) & I think the shortest I've been away is 2 weeks.

Off to London next week for most of Feb & hoping to have decided which approach to take before I return.

Thanks!

[USAkiwi]

Thanks, that makes it a difficult decision as I will probably need to be able to travel for work & responsibilities in the UK. Really only looking into the permanent resident option due to the family situation in the US and it gives stability over the VWP (i.e. I'd be confident of re entry). In my experience with getting residence for my wife elsewhere, timeframes can be quite a loose approximation - assuming everything is submitted correctly, is 6 months pretty much a realistic expectation for processing applications in the US? I guess this option gives me the ability to look for US based work, which is something I hadn't been considering this year, but it is very restrictive if I can't easily travel.

Alternatively if I applied in the UK & was granted a B-2 tourist visa in the interim, I would presumably have fewer travel restrictions but with the risk of being stuck outside the US if denied appropriate tourist visas...

I guess I shouldn't be complaining about having options when compared to others' situations.

Certainly gives us plenty to think about.

Thanks!

If you applied for the visa conversion from the U.S., it takes about 3 months to get the Advance Parole, but I would not recommend leaving until you have the Green Card. Interpretation of misuse of the Visa Waiver option seems to vary at Ports of Entry.

My advice would be to decide which way to go, then plan on sitting it out in the U.S. until have the Green Card.

--Ray B

[rayb]

A six-month timeframe for Adustment of Status in the U.S. is reasonable, but can be as long as 8 months, depends on workload of processing and interviewing locality.

--Ray B

Thanks, that makes it a difficult decision as I will probably need to be able to travel for work & responsibilities in the UK. Really only looking into the permanent resident option due to the family situation in the US and it gives stability over the VWP (i.e. I'd be confident of re entry). In my experience with getting residence for my wife elsewhere, timeframes can be quite a loose approximation - assuming everything is submitted correctly, is 6 months pretty much a realistic expectation for processing applications in the US? I guess this option gives me the ability to look for US based work, which is something I hadn't been considering this year, but it is very restrictive if I can't easily travel.

Alternatively if I applied in the UK & was granted a B-2 tourist visa in the interim, I would presumably have fewer travel restrictions but with the risk of being stuck outside the US if denied appropriate tourist visas...

I guess I shouldn't be complaining about having options when compared to others' situations.

Certainly gives us plenty to think about.

Thanks!

[USAkiwi]

A six-month timeframe for Adustment of Status in the U.S. is reasonable, but can be as long as 8 months, depends on workload of processing and interviewing locality.

--Ray B

Thanks, appreciate your assistance - I can see you've helped out a lot of people on this forum.

One thing that surprises me is how little they seem to want to know about the financial/educational background of the spouse (unless I've missed that section in the forms I've looked at so far). In New Zealand they look at education, experience etc but maybe that is covered in the interview process. I see I-864 covers the financial aspect to some extent but is there anywhere to provide information on specialty skills/higher education etc?

[rayb]

Kiwi guy,

For family-based procedures, the reviewing agencies have no particular interest in skills or educational background (except for very specific visa categories), and seem to deem them as irrelevant (my opinion).

Each of these English-speakng countries (Canada, U.S. New Zealand, Australia) have had very conspicuous immigration policies which may have seemed to favor (or disfavor) racial and national origins. The U.S. seems to have drilled down to country quotas based on percentages of various nations' contribution to our population at a particular point in tie (so I understand).

But I have been led to believe that Australia and NZ continue to put emphasis on skills and background that the U.S. hasn't even considered. I had a friend who went to a senior ultra-running competition in NZ a couple of decades ago and attempted some inquiries about obtaining landed status there. He claims that there were very specifc age barriers to his being able to obtain such status there (over age 50).

Our family-based immigration procedures include generous quotas for siblings and no quotas for parents of U.S. citizens, advantages here that are absent in many other countries.

--Ray B

Thanks, appreciate your assistance - I can see you've helped out a lot of people on this forum.

One thing that surprises me is how little they seem to want to know about the financial/educational background of the spouse (unless I've missed that section in the forms I've looked at so far). In New Zealand they look at education, experience etc but maybe that is covered in the interview process. I see I-864 covers the financial aspect to some extent but is there anywhere to provide information on specialty skills/higher education etc?

[USAkiwi]

NZ has a points based system so it depends on things like your age, education, skill-set, market sector etc. I was mistaken below though, for spouses it wasn't such a big factor now that I think back. Certainly more rigorous in proving your relationship compared to the UK where (at the time anyway) you just had to prove you were a) married & b) had met! My wife's first work visa in NZ took only 24 hours to turn around, whereas London took months.

Anyway, it's a bit off topic but just interesting how different countries deal with this whole process.

Regarding the country quotas - is there likely to be any benefit of applying using NZ passport over UK (or vice versa)? From reading the documentation it seems that for a spouse, nationality is generally not a consideration.

Kiwi guy,

For family-based procedures, the reviewing agencies have no particular interest in skills or educational background (except for very specific visa categories), and seem to deem them as irrelevant (my opinion).

Each of these English-speakng countries (Canada, U.S. New Zealand, Australia) have had very conspicuous immigration policies which may have seemed to favor (or disfavor) racial and national origins. The U.S. seems to have drilled down to country quotas based on percentages of various nations' contribution to our population at a particular point in tie (so I understand).

But I have been led to believe that Australia and NZ continue to put emphasis on skills and background that the U.S. hasn't even considered. I had a friend who went to a senior ultra-running competition in NZ a couple of decades ago and attempted some inquiries about obtaining landed status there. He claims that there were very specifc age barriers to his being able to obtain such status there (over age 50).

Our family-based immigration procedures include generous quotas for siblings and no quotas for parents of U.S. citizens, advantages here that are absent in many other countries.

--Ray B

[rayb]

Kiwi Guy,

For a spousal petition submitted by a U.S. citizen, country-specific quotas do not apply. Regardless of whether you use or are processed in U.K or NZ, there is no preference issue for either country of origin. My advice, however, is to use your UK passport if being processed in U.K., as nationals of countries other than the processing Embassy must have documentation for their legal right to be in the processing country.

-Ray B

NZ has a points based system so it depends on things like your age, education, skill-set, market sector etc. I was mistaken below though, for spouses it wasn't such a big factor now that I think back. Certainly more rigorous in proving your relationship compared to the UK where (at the time anyway) you just had to prove you were a) married & b) had met! My wife's first work visa in NZ took only 24 hours to turn around, whereas London took months.

Anyway, it's a bit off topic but just interesting how different countries deal with this whole process.

Regarding the country quotas - is there likely to be any benefit of applying using NZ passport over UK (or vice versa)? From reading the documentation it seems that for a spouse, nationality is generally not a consideration.

[USAkiwi]

Ok thanks, we're still in 2 minds about whether I should just continue coming in & out on the VWP (where there is no guarantee but friends have had no issues in the past) or if it's worth going through the resident process. The whole situation has been a bit left field, otherwise we would have just applied last year in London had we known. But some uncertainty is what makes life interesting

As for where to apply from, the risk of applying from the UK is that they then look differently at my entering on VWP in the interim & we have to spend most of the next 9 months apart (as my wife needs to be here to help with the family situation). With the US option I cannot travel for c. 6 months but at least I could legally work from here, which would probably be something the companies I do consulting for in London would be fine with. So really, the US option is the best one it seems if we decide to go down that path. Wouldn't be in a position to make that call until March anyway.

In the meantime, I'm going to fill out all the paperwork to make sure I have everything I need so I may have some questions but will check the forums first.

Thanks again for your assistance - it's helped clarify which option I should go for if we decided to apply.

Kiwi Guy,

For a spousal petition submitted by a U.S. citizen, country-specific quotas do not apply. Regardless of whether you use or are processed in U.K or NZ, there is no preference issue for either country of origin. My advice, however, is to use your UK passport if being processed in U.K., as nationals of countries other than the processing Embassy must have documentation for their legal right to be in the processing country.

-Ray B

[USAkiwi]

Ok, back from London & have discussed the situation with the family (in laws). We initially came over to assist with sorting out my wife's Grandma's place and so my wife could be closer to family for a bit. It's become clear that Grandma can't move back home so we've been asked if we want to buy the house. On this basis we've decided to proceed with the Green Card application (& I am now surrounded by paperwork!).

I have a couple of questions:

1) For some of the forms the instructions state that additional detail can be provided and attached. Assuming it is kept concise, is it worth providing as much information as possible at this point, or is the interview a better time to cover off any questions? I think most of our information is fairly straight forward apart from our living situation (see below)

2) This is probably simple for most but as a contract consultant I have moved around quite a lot. Several of the forms require residence address information and in G-325a it asks to list residences for the past 5 years. We've been back & forwards (roughly 4-6 months at a time) between New Zealand and England for the past 5 years (maintaining a house in New Zealand & the same address in England) so are we best to consider just the NZ address as our residence or list them both multiple times to correspond with the periods we were in either country?

Additionally although I'm not "resident" in the US, we've spent most of the past few months sorting things out at Grandma's house - for the purposes of this application would you consider this to be a residence or just visiting? We'll use it as a postal address but want to make sure we are consistent across forms.

Thanks very much.

[USAkiwi]

Consistency...

Down to the last few details of the process now - medical all done, have a small pile of passport pics, and am surrounded by paper! Probably being over cautious as far as providing detail but I figure it's easier to cover off questions now rather than leave doubt so have written up a "supporting information" sheet to explain a couple of details.

Currently going through to ensure consistency and one thing that stands out (to me) is around my wife's family name. Being of Dutch ancestry, her family name has a space in it. Unfortunately, due to technology limitations, on some documents (e.g. passport), the space is left out whereas on others (e.g. marriage license) there is a space. As it's impossible to be entirely consistent, I've stuck with the correct "space in" wherever the documents have not specifically stated the name must match passport. I'm sure those assessing the documents will be able to figure this out but is it worth including an explanation in a "supporting information" sheet?

Also, if there is a request for additional information does this generally come via physical mail or the registered email? We're going to be away for a few weeks (within the US) and will be putting our mail on hold so I may need to hold off for a week or so before submitting, just in case.

Thanks!