Consular interview - proof of financial support

[Tar Kenkari]

Hi all,

I am a New Zealand citizen married to a US citizen. My wife has lived in New Zealand for 10 years+ now. We met, got married, had a child and currently continue to live in New Zealand. We now want to immigrate to the US and have started the process to get me a greencard (Filed the I-130 petition)

I earn the main income for our family, I work in IT and command a good income. My wife works part time as a nurse. The catch is that her registration does not transfer to the US. So once we immigrate I intend to begin working as soon as possible and will be supporting my family while my wife sits the state exams to practice as a nurse.

It seems that we need to demonstrate that our family income would be greater than the 125% above the poverty line. Once I have employment I will exceed this easily.

My question for the forum is that it appears that I cannot apply for most jobs until I have work authorization; yet to get the IR1 visa for the greencard I need to prove I can support my family? It seems like a chicken and egg situation. Has anyone else faced this and what advice can you give?

I'm in a situation where my wife is entited to work but cannot work in her profession, yet I am able to work in my profession (and would find work easily) but am not entitled to work.

Thanks

[NettieL]

As someone who has gone through this process, I would advise your wife to start the process to get her US nursing licensing done before you go to the US. If she was educated in the US, she should be able to apply for licensing in most states. She can start to look on the different state board's websites to see what the licensing requirements are and the proceed to meet those requirements.

Educated in US:
- Apply for a license
- Provide documentation (This may include 1. Proof of education 2. SSN 3. Proof of hours in the last two years 4. Verification of licenses in all territories/states/provinces where she has previously been licensed, including initial license.)
- She should then get permission to write the NCLEX
- Write the NCLEX (she should be able to do this in NZ- It is computer based)
- Submit proof of NCLEX pass score
- Get licensed

Educated outside of the US:
- start the VisaScreen process.
- Apply for a license in the state of your choice; or
- Apply for a license in the state which fit her situation best and after that apply in the state of your choice through endorsement.

The nursing license application process in most cases take around 8 weeks, BUT there is a catch. It takes +-8 weeks (or less in some states) after they have received all the required documentation. So depending which situation you are in, this could take around 3 months to a year to complete the whole process.

You are fortunate that both of you are in career fields where you can probably choose where to work.

Best of luck.