[LouiseR]

I would be extremely grateful for any advice anyone can give on my situation!

My fiance and I are moving to the US in June. I am a dual citizen (USA/UK) and he is a British citizen. We will be getting married in May before we move to the US. I am going over to work as a doctor and he is going to do an MBA- we both have already secured these positions.

A few questions regarding our status:
- Would it be ok for him to go over on a student visa and then, when we are over there, we can start applying for a Greencard for him?
- If not, are there other visa options that would make this possible?
- A student visa only allows the student to move to the US 30 days before enrollment. My job starts 3 months before his course. If his student visa would not allow us to go over at the same time, is there another option for him to enter the country until he obtains his student visa?

I find visa issues quite confusing and do not want to make any silly mistakes that would jeopardize his ability to eventually obtain permanent residency and a GC.

Thank you so much for any help you can provide!

 

[Fatbrit]

I would be extremely grateful for any advice anyone can give on my situation!

My fiance and I are moving to the US in June. I am a dual citizen (USA/UK) and he is a British citizen. We will be getting married in May before we move to the US. I am going over to work as a doctor and he is going to do an MBA- we both have already secured these positions.

A few questions regarding our status:
- Would it be ok for him to go over on a student visa and then, when we are over there, we can start applying for a Greencard for him?
- If not, are there other visa options that would make this possible?
- A student visa only allows the student to move to the US 30 days before enrollment. My job starts 3 months before his course. If his student visa would not allow us to go over at the same time, is there another option for him to enter the country until he obtains his student visa?

I find visa issues quite confusing and do not want to make any silly mistakes that would jeopardize his ability to eventually obtain permanent residency and a GC.

Thank you so much for any help you can provide!

You haven't left yourself enough time! The wheels grind slowly in American bureaucracy. And I don't see any easy solution, just ones where you pray it will not go wrong unless you go fir the first choice.

An immigrant visa (giving permenant residency on entry, aka green card) where the USC is resident in the UK takes around 6 months start to finish assuming no complications. If the USC is not resident in the UK, it takes around 10 months. You cannot file the initial petition until you are married. Your best bet would have been to apply for this, then he would have been good to go as soon as he hit the ground. But you haven't left yourself enough time unless he wants to delay a semester before starting -- something worth considering. Or even marry tomorrow and the time frame will just about make it.

The F1 is going to be dicey because of you -- shows immigrant intent on a non-immigrant visa. And he'd have to just visit for the 2 months beforehand on a VWP and then return to get the F1 visa closer to the date. The VWP entry is similarly dicey. However, if he managed to get the student visa, he could then adjust status in country to permenant resident. But there are a ton of ifs in there.

 

[LouiseR]

You haven't left yourself enough time! The wheels grind slowly in American bureaucracy. And I don't see any easy solution, just ones where you pray it will not go wrong unless you go fir the first choice.

An immigrant visa (giving permenant residency on entry, aka green card) where the USC is resident in the UK takes around 6 months start to finish assuming no complications. If the USC is not resident in the UK, it takes around 10 months. You cannot file the initial petition until you are married. Your best bet would have been to apply for this, then he would have been good to go as soon as he hit the ground. But you haven't left yourself enough time unless he wants to delay a semester before starting -- something worth considering. Or even marry tomorrow and the time frame will just about make it.

The F1 is going to be dicey because of you -- shows immigrant intent on a non-immigrant visa. And he'd have to just visit for the 2 months beforehand on a VWP and then return to get the F1 visa closer to the date. The VWP entry is similarly dicey. However, if he managed to get the student visa, he could then adjust status in country to permenant resident. But there are a ton of ifs in there.

Thanks for the advice. In hindsight maybe we should have kicked off the visa process earlier but I always thought you couldn't unless you were already married. Showing my ignorance towards a very complicated system!

What we really hope we can do is for him to be able to do his degree on his student visa (which he knows he can definitely get) and during that time we will put into action the application for permanent residency if it looks like we are going to remain in the US longterm. We just want to make sure this is a legitimate way to do things and doesn't land us in trouble further down the road.

 

[Fatbrit]

Thanks for the advice. In hindsight maybe we should have kicked off the visa process earlier but I always thought you couldn't unless you were already married. Showing my ignorance towards a very complicated system!

What we really hope we can do is for him to be able to do his degree on his student visa (which he knows he can definitely get) and during that time we will put into action the application for permanent residency if it looks like we are going to remain in the US longterm. We just want to make sure this is a legitimate way to do things and doesn't land us in trouble further down the road.

I'm not so sure he'll definitely get an F1 student visa. He needs to maintain a residence outside the US to return to. With his spouse already living in the US, this is evidence that he intends to reside in the US.

But if he does get an F1, it should be possible for him to adjust status to permanent residency within the US