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Moving to America from the UK?
Mr_Grinch
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A friend wants to move from the UK to the States, I'm a little dubious about if he can actually legally manage it or not. At 25 he has no real work experience to speak of short of a couple of weeks at a bar and money comes from benefits. He's visited and belives he could start his life anew there.
I'm just curious how he could go about getting a greencard, I've never really looked in to it myself but from what I can see it goes on your current job and it looks that even I (with a decent job) would probably struggle to get in.
Any help about how the process works?
I'm just curious how he could go about getting a greencard, I've never really looked in to it myself but from what I can see it goes on your current job and it looks that even I (with a decent job) would probably struggle to get in.
Any help about how the process works?
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Also, is the process alot easier if you're spouse is an American citizen. (Just out of interest, not planning on popping any questions yet >.>).
Apologies for hijacking the thread, OP.
In the brief information I found it doesn't seem to be important if your SO is over there, unless you are planning on marrying.
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Moving from the UK to the US can be difficult. I've just got my green card after seven years over here.
Option one: L1 status inter-company transfer visa. You work for a British company, that transfers you to a US based section of the company. They need to prove you have skills (usually company knowledge) that no American has that they could hire. This visa only allows you to work for the company that transfered you, if you want to work for anyone else you have to start an H1B application with a specific company.
Option two: H1B status visa. You have to have at least a degree, and professional skills. Oh, and a company in the US willing to sponsor your application, and again prove they need you, not a US citizen. Not many of these available each year, I think it's around 80K total, but those numbers may have changed. This visa only allows you to work for the company that sponsored you, if you want to work for another company they have re-sponsor you and you start pretty much over.
Option three: Marry a US citizen, you can then apply directly for a green card on a fast track. Green cards are permanent residence status, you can work anywhere you want. The interview with the INS where you have to prove you are really married, and it is real, and legit is a surreal experience I can tell you...
Option four: Student visa, if independent you have to apply to US universities with everyone else, and pay all tuition (expensive!), or you can do an exchange from a UK university, which may come with some fees paid / scholarships etc. This is a good lead into finding a US employer at the completion of your studies and getting an H1B.
Option five: Tourist visa, three months, but you can't work.
Option six: Artists (many musicans and actors) have another kind of visa, but I don't know anything about that one, could just be for 'touring' the US, but I'm not sure.
From the UK there are no visa lotteries (just apply and hope they pull your name out), or political visas. So unless you have skills a US employer really wants it is very hard to get legal status. However, the best course of action is to find a job in the US, where the employer knows how the immigration systems work, and go for the H1B. The best time to do that is around March / April of each year, as the H1B's are issued in early October I believe, and you can put in your application for one around May / June. So find a job, and have the employer ready to file paperwork around this time of year for the best chance of getting the H1B.
I moved to the US (California) in late 2000 on a L1 visa when the company I worked for in the UK transfered me over. "Would you like to go work in the California office? With a monumental pay rise?"... "hmm let me think about that... yes.". I love it over here, suits my lifestyle much better, the people are nice, the location is great, the weather is great, so is the money etc. Second best decision ever for me (wife is number one lol).
::edit for clarity:: From the UK you can't go directly to the green card without the marriage option - you have to do the work visa (L1 / H1B) then once here you start the green card application while you work on your visa. An L1A visa is good for three years, then you can renew it twice for two years each time, for a total of seven years. The "A" version of this visa is for company "executives". An L1B visa is good for three years, then you can renew it once for two additional years, for a total of five years. The "B" version is for skilled professionals. An H1B visa is good for three years, then you can renew it for another three years.
Being as currently the green card application procedure takes 5-10 years to complete, you can see it's going to be tight on any of the visas. If you have a green card application in process, and your L / H visa expires you can still stay and work legally, but if you leave the US for any reason after your visa expires and your green card is complete, your green card application is considered abandoned and you have to start over from the beginning. This is why the first thing you do on arrival on your shiney new visa is to start the green card application. Also if your company won't provide one (rare) hire an immigration lawyer to do all the paperwork, one mistake on your green card application can get it kicked out and you have to start over. I've seen it happen, six years into an application it gets rejected due to a mistake, and that person had to start over... Not good.
Basically, your mate is screwed.
I went to study in California for a year from the UK, met my current girlfriend, had to go back to the UK to finish my degree, then we both came to New Zealand because I couldn't get a visa to go to the US. And because of our lovely reciprocal arrangement, she couldn't come to the UK either.
I'm not ready to marry her yet... so I'm SOL on going back to the US. I'm applying for a PhD program though... it won't pay well, but at least it will pay... and it comes with a visa attached.
Who do you work for Ryak?
Im sure that if your friend has a degree its almost a certainty he will get there somehow. I knew a guy who moved to the US right after uni. Companies over there sponsor people all the time provided you actually contact em. afaik the low numbers of people passed for green cards is less to do with the difficulty and more to do with the base amount of people who immigrate.
If you have a degree and/or some professional skills then it is a case of finding an employer, which can be a little tough, what with an ocean in between you and said employer, but not impossible. The hard-cap on the number of H1B's can be a problem though, it's probably going to change sometime in the future, but who knows when. A lot of the large tech and pharma companies are lobbying to get the cap raised. Once they are all issued for the year, then they are gone and you have to wait until next years are released.
There are no caps on L1's that I can find through research, so that is also an option, but not many UK companies are going to recruit in the UK for their US based operations, given all the extra cost and paperwork, it makes sense to hire in the US. Of course if you've worked somewhere for some time and have some experience in the field that they need overseas then you have a good chance for a transfer.
Recently a friend of mine just got a job with a big pharma company in Boston, he's in the UK and if all goes well he'll have his H1B in the 3rd quarter and be moving to Boston with his wife. His phd means the H1B should be almost guaranteed. I helped him research is options as I have some experience with the INS (or whatever it's called these days), and that's how we figured out that find a job in the spring, with the H1B application going in early summer was an optimal situation.
To answer Lewisham's question.. well I'm not going to say who I work for, but I'm the global Art Director for a large manufacturing company. Sorry to hear about your situation - I've known people in similar situations. I think there are provisions if you are engaged, as in she could bring you into the US on a fiance visa (I think, not too sure) but that doesn't come with a work permit, so unless she can support you your out of luck. Just in case you ever do get married and move back over here with her I would recommend you start documenting your lives together now, will help with the immigration if you do make the move. Just simple things like proof you've lived together overseas, airline tickets showing you traveled a lot together, vacation receipts - make sure you keep hold of all that kind of paperwork, it will be like gold if you need it later on - can mean the difference between being approved, or going into investigation (which is where immigration don't believe you are married for any other reason than getting immigration status). When we got married the amount of paperwork we pulled together showing our relationship over the years was staggering and hard work to gather and keep organized, but because of that the process was smooth sailing.
I did a quick search and it looks like it's a temporary status (short) visa. The designation is P-type.
http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/visa_p.html
Yeah, tell me about it.
I don't keep paper documents of anything, but fortunately I do keep online records of everything, so I can get bank statements and stuff as a proof of address.
Plus: Digital cameras are great. They timestamp then and there!
But yeah, we'll have been living together for over two years, I've been to Hawaii to see her when we were apart (they cna check The Big Evil Immigration Database for proof of that... she was even listed as the address I was staying at) and such.
It's not the proof I'm worried about, just the concept of getting married at all
The Fiancee visa doesn't come with a permit as you say, and it's limited to three months, and you have to get married in that time. It's little more than a holiday visa with a provision for staying longer IF YOU CHANGE YOUR WHOLE LIFE
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:^: to Ryak, awesome post, it's getting C&P'd and saved for reference.
There are all kinds of immigration reform bills being debated over here at the moment, mainly to deal with the illegal immigration problems - 12 million people and rising I believe was the last number I heard on the news, how accurate that is I have no idea being as they are counting undocumented immigrants... So the processes for legal immigration are sure to be effected by any new legislation - keep an eye on the government websites.
Recently they have been streamlining some of the green card processing centers, LA is one of the test sites for that and I can vouch that the test system has significantly speeded up some of the processing time recently. But it's case by case depending on how they assign your petition for status, but it's definitely a move in the right direction. In this process significantly can mean chopping six months to a year off the processing time, but we're talking about a process that still takes 5-10 years.
Tip #1 is hire an immigration lawyer, the fees are not as high as you would think, and it is money very, very well spent. Filling out the reams of forms is one thing - yeah you can do that yourself if you are very very careful to get everything right, what the lawyers bring to the table is ensuring no mistakes are made, and making sure additional documentation is supplied at the right stages to cover any areas that can be problematic and slow down your petition. The difference between filling in a form and sending it in and then waiting for them to process it then request additional information and you sending that, compared to sending the form in with the additional information the lawyer knows they will ask for in the first place can save you months / years in processing time.
Of course you need a good competent lawyer, I can't speak highly enough of the one my company hired for me, no names on the forums, but if anyone needs an immigration lawyer in the LA area PM me.
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This is the official UK Home Office website seems a little lacking in information, or I can't find it, or it's a much more streamlined process.
Yes.
My girlfriend and I did investigate going the other way, and it is just as hard. Now, the UK likes America, so I am guessing that the reasoning is that the arrangement is reciprocal; so by the US making it hard, the UK did too.
Unless you are a member of the EU (in which case you're free to come in and out), or the Commonwealth (in which case there are a range of reciprocal agreements for things like backpacking visas and stuff), you're going to need a wife or an employer to sponsor you.
UK immigration appear to be no more helpful than US immigration either. I think the phrase they used was "You'll have to marry her, sir".
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk is the site you need.