U.S.A Emmigration

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avinalarf

Original Poster:

6,438 posts

141 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
My daughter wants to live and work in the USA.
I have done some research and even considered helping her buy a business there,one of the criteria,but not something at this stage I think she's ready for.
She has a degree and is very talented ,has travelled extensively,and speaks Spanish.
Will anyone with experience in this field please offer advice on this.
Which types of visa would be suitable and a recommendation for a very good emmigration lawyer and an idea of costs involved .

davepoth

29,395 posts

198 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
Two ways of doing it really. Either get a job offer from the US, or buy a business as you have suggested.

To get a job offer from the USA can be tricky as the company would have to prove that her skills weren't available in the USA. However, there is an exemption for transfers within a company.

So IMO the best thing to do is to get a job with a company that has its HQ in the USA, and then hit the internal job board relentlessly after a few months.



burritoNinja

690 posts

99 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
I hold a permenant residence card for the US. My Wife and kids are American but we are living in the UK for now but moving back to the states in the future. For me it was slightly different. My Wife had been living for several years in the UK and we lived here for several years after getting married. I was on a marriage visa and we got ourselves an immigration lawer as from what I have seen, they are critical to the process and seem to give extra credibility to your claim for residence.
You need a sponsor regardless. Either a company or individual. For an individual to be a sponsor they must be a US citizen and earn a minimum of $17,500. If the sponsor is married with kids then it is a higher base line. I believe around $24,000.
You need a medical as part of the immigration process. I paid around $300 for this. The actual government paperwork was about $2,000 or so and our lawyer fee's were just over $2,300 for the whole process. You will be sent to a processing station where they take all your information and biometrics. Mine took maybe a year. After 6 weeks of application you get a temporary work permit and social security number. The SS# will be yours for life. Mine is still valid even after 10 years. There is a final interview with Homeland security and that will determine if you can or cannot remain living there. This part seems to be were having a lawyer present is critical. Immigration lawyers will know the interviewers and if you do fail you can resubmit an appeal to the courts.
My interview lasted maybe 45 minutes and the girl was very nice. We did have to provide references in the UK who could confirm we had been dating and we had to show photos of us from that time period. What went in my favour was that I had a full time job and that my Wife had lived in the UK for those years before hand and our reason for moving to the States was due to how ill her Father was. He passwed away a year later. I know my situation is a tad different to your daughters but the immigration process of paperwork and medical then interview etc is the same for everybody. My permenant residence card needs renewed / reapplied for when we do go back and I would never do it without a lawyer. I served in the US military and still kick myself for not taking US citizenship when I was offered it. Knew a good few expats who did it on their own to save money and it just kept backfiring with the government sending their forms back stating it was filled out wrong / contained X amount of errors. It is a serious amount of paperwork at it.
Hope even a little bit of my experience is of some help.

avinalarf

Original Poster:

6,438 posts

141 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
Thank you both for your helpful comments.
Ninja ...a very comprehensive reply,thank you.
It's more or less as I have researched.
I was looking for an angle but there isn't one.

GCH

3,984 posts

201 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
What does she do now?

Broadly the main options are usually:

E2 - investor visa, by buying or setting up a company that employs US citizens. It has a lot of requirements, has to be renewed (they can be extremely stringent on renewal) and requires a significant amount of committed funds.
L1 - intracompany transfer, if she has been employed by a company outside the US for more than 1 year that has or is setting up a branch in the US.
H1 - for skilled workers with a job offer and company willing to sponsor. Being a spanish speaker could help her significantly in this regard.
O1 - if she has a special skill and could be deemed as having exceptional/extraordinary ability in her field
K1 - fiancé visa when engaged to a US citizen. PR (green card) a couple of months after marrying within the US after entry.
CR1/IR1 - Marriage visa when married to a US citizen which gives instant PR (green card) upon entry and citizenship 3 years later.
Green card lottery - British citizens not eligible, although Irish citizens are.

Each have their own hurdles, pros and cons. Visajourney.com is a great resource full of real world experiences of people.


burritoNinja said:
I was on a marriage visa and we got ourselves an immigration lawyer as from what I have seen, they are critical to the process and seem to give extra credibility to your claim for residence.
Not really....CR1/IR1 is very straightforward as an immediate relative of US citizen, usually very quick, and usually no immigration lawyer needed, unless perhaps a waiver is required for something. Ditto for K1 - a little longer, and a few more hurdles to go through but still reasonably straightforward in most cases.
For employment based visas the company will usually have lawyers who file on their behalf anyway.

burritoNinja said:
I served in the US military and still kick myself for not taking US citizenship when I was offered it.
Thank you for your service beer
When did you serve? Was it since 9/11 until now, or at any time during the (first) Gulf war?
As a veteran with qualifying service during Periods of Hostilities - even for one day - you would be eligible to naturalize now and crucially because of that clause you would be exempt from the current residence and physical presence requirements (which as you are living outside the US right now I would assume you wouldn't meet).
See INA 329 here: https://www.uscis.gov/military/citizenship-militar... -
and here: https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManu...


Edited by GCH on Wednesday 27th July 17:07

burritoNinja

690 posts

99 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
GCH said:
Thank you for your service beer
When did you serve? Was it since 9/11 until now, or at any time during the (first) Gulf war?
As a veteran with qualifying service during Periods of Hostilities - even for one day - you would be eligible to naturalize now and crucially because of that clause you would be exempt from the current residence and physical presence requirements (which as you are living outside the US right now I would assume you wouldn't meet).
See INA 329 here: https://www.uscis.gov/military/citizenship-militar... -
and here: https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManu...


Edited by GCH on Wednesday 27th July 17:07
I would not get called back up for in time of national need as I was medically discharged. 2009 - 2011. We are heading to the embassy to renew my wife's and the kids passports so will be having a talk with them over my situation. We went with the lawyer route as it just seemed best for us. Worked out good. We are heading back in about ten years time. Working towards buying a house there first.

Jefferson Steelflex

1,428 posts

98 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Best route is being sponsored by an employer (L1 or L2) as it's the quickest from my experience, and you can agree for the employer to sponsor the Green Card if you got the L1 visa I think. If you buy a business that works really well but what if she can't make it last?

As an aside....
The US is a large country - in fact it's practically 50 different countries and I guarantee there are many states where she wouldn't want to live.

My advice is to ask why she wants to live there, which state(s) she wants to be in, etc. and then look at the State Gov website for information on opportunities. Basing the decision to move there on a holiday in Florida when you were 12, or watching TV shows set in New York is not representative of living in a suburb of Houston or Seattle.

I had a job offer in Houston, went out there for 3 months on pre-assignment, and came back having changed my mind. That said, I did take a trip to San Diego mid-way through and that was a completely different story.

As a Brit, you'll have to get your head around the bonkers healthcare, almost apocalyptic levels of bureaucracy, gun laws (very state specific), tax legislation (state specific), etc. Lots to consider.

Edited by Jefferson Steelflex on Thursday 28th July 09:09

burritoNinja

690 posts

99 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Jefferson Steelflex said:
Best route is being sponsored by an employer (L1 or L2) as it's the quickest from my experience, and you can agree for the employer to sponsor the Green Card if you got the L1 visa I think. If you buy a business that works really well but what if she can't make it last?

As an aside....
The US is a large country - in fact it's practically 50 different countries and I guarantee there are many states where she wouldn't want to live.

My advice is to ask why she wants to live there, which state(s) she wants to be in, etc. and then look at the State Gov website for information on opportunities. Basing the decision to move there on a holiday in Florida when you were 12, or watching TV shows set in New York is not representative of living in a suburb of Houston or Seattle.

I had a job offer in Houston, went out there for 3 months on pre-assignment, and came back having changed my mind. That said, I did take a trip to San Diego mid-way through and that was a completely different story.

As a Brit, you'll have to get your head around the bonkers healthcare, almost apocalyptic levels of bureaucracy, gun laws (very state specific), tax legislation (state specific), etc. Lots to consider.

Edited by Jefferson Steelflex on Thursday 28th July 09:09
100% agree. America is nothing like the movies or TV. I always get asked why we came back to the UK. My Wife is American and the fantasy view of the states that many have is astounding. Many she talks to really believe we all live in huge houses and everybody goes to university and life is just super duper. So so far away from the truth. Another aspect of having a permanent residence card is that you can't get health care provided by the state if your become ill. You must be a US citizen to get help. During the recession when I had lost my job, my Wife and child were covered for health via the county but I was excluded for everything. So expect zero help if things turn bad.
Life in big cities is very very expensive. We lived in rural area and I would say that the racism I went through from a good few for being an "outsider" was one of the many reasons I returned. Constant comments about my accent. Pretending they could not understand me. I have even been asked to show my green card to prove I was not an illegal by some red neck school teacher. Though there were many who were lovely people. I would avoid living in the likes of Missouri, Arkansas, OK and the likes. Based on my own experience of having been there long enough.

avinalarf

Original Poster:

6,438 posts

141 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Thank you all for her comments.
To answer some of your questions as to her motives and life experiences....
After leaving Uni she got a 4 month work permit and worked in retail at Catalina Island,a boating community off the coast of Los Angeles.
She then spent 4 years travelling. One year working in Australia, and 2 years teaching English in schools in Spain.
She came home last year and is now working in PR .
She wants to live in California.
She loves the outdoor life and is a gymnast and excellent swimmer,having competed in competition at both.

Sheepshanks

32,530 posts

118 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
burritoNinja said:
Constant comments about my accent. Pretending they could not understand me.
They might not be pretending. I go quite a bit for work and holiday. Business people seem to be able to understand me OK, but waitresses and bartenders etc it's absolutely hopeless - I've given up and let my wife talk to them. Yet everyone says I have pretty much no accent. I have colleague who has exactly the same experience.

davepoth

29,395 posts

198 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
They might not be pretending. I go quite a bit for work and holiday. Business people seem to be able to understand me OK, but waitresses and bartenders etc it's absolutely hopeless - I've given up and let my wife talk to them. Yet everyone says I have pretty much no accent. I have colleague who has exactly the same experience.
There are a couple of things in British speech that cause a lack of understanding. The biggest one is the glottal stop - where you make a funny sort of throat noise (common in Arabic) instead of pronouncing the letter "t" in words. It's characteristic of estuary English (which is normally considered "no accent" these days) but because of the way it's used so extensively and when talking quickly it does tend to cause a problem.

There's also "Th-fronting" - "Fing" instead of "Thing" for example, which is becoming more common here in the UK.

Anyway, the easiest thing to do is to practice your BBC announcer voice, and use that.

Olivero

2,152 posts

208 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
I moved to the US 8 years ago and lived in NYC the whole time.
For the first 18 months I would come for 90 days at a time on a tourist visa, untill immigration pulled me into a windowless room at JFK. They let me stat but said I had to get my visa situation sorted out. I ended up getting an O1 visa thanks to my background.
Later on I got married and now have a green card.

I used Mr Frenkel for my visa work. He really knows his stuff.
There are many different approaches and having someone who does this all the time really helps.

Frenkel, Hershkowitz & Shafran LLP
49 West 37th Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10018
(212) 679-4666 Ext. 222

Tell him Oliver Christie sent you and I am sure he will look after you.

avinalarf

Original Poster:

6,438 posts

141 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Thank you very much Oliver.
I'll give that a try.
An 01 visa,did you have a special skill or did you wing it ?

Edited by avinalarf on Thursday 28th July 15:28

bga

8,134 posts

250 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Jefferson Steelflex said:
almost apocalyptic levels of bureaucracy, gun laws (very state specific), tax legislation (state specific), etc. Lots to consider.
When people say there is a lot of red-tape for businesses in the UK I can only assume that the haven't/don't run a business in the US. Bureaucracy seems to be there to force job creation.

avinalarf

Original Poster:

6,438 posts

141 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
bga said:
Jefferson Steelflex said:
almost apocalyptic levels of bureaucracy, gun laws (very state specific), tax legislation (state specific), etc. Lots to consider.
When people say there is a lot of red-tape for businesses in the UK I can only assume that the haven't/don't run a business in the US. Bureaucracy seems to be there to force job creation.
That's very interesting to know.
Through a contact who happens to be a business broker in California she was offered to buy a Gym,what seemed a perfect opportunity for her and she was very interested,but it was just a step to far at this stage.
We both think that she needed to spend time living and working there before taking such a huge step.
There lies the catch22 situation.

Olivero

2,152 posts

208 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
avinalarf said:
Thank you very much Oliver.
I'll give that a try.
An 01 visa,did you have a special skill or did you wing it ?

Edited by avinalarf on Thursday 28th July 15:28
I was a fashion photographer in Argentina before I moved to the US. That apparently counted as special...
Now work with Artificial Intelligence and am based in NYC.

Your daughter should deffinatly take a couple of 90 day US vacations to get a better idea of where she might want to end up.
It is also a much better idea to do all the legal stuff through a US based lawyer.

avinalarf

Original Poster:

6,438 posts

141 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Olivero said:
I was a fashion photographer in Argentina before I moved to the US. That apparently counted as special...
Now work with Artificial Intelligence and am based in NYC.

Your daughter should deffinatly take a couple of 90 day US vacations to get a better idea of where she might want to end up.
It is also a much better idea to do all the legal stuff through a US based lawyer.
I took the liberty at looking at your profile ,that's a very nice pic of a lady on a motorbike ,I like your style.
AI,that's a very interesting subject, bit of a change from photography,how did that come about ?
I've already emailed the lawyer you recommended,awaiting a reply.

GCH

3,984 posts

201 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
burritoNinja said:
Constant comments about my accent. Pretending they could not understand me.
They might not be pretending. I go quite a bit for work and holiday. Business people seem to be able to understand me OK, but waitresses and bartenders etc it's absolutely hopeless - I've given up and let my wife talk to them. Yet everyone says I have pretty much no accent. I have colleague who has exactly the same experience.
Very true, and it is a daily occurrence for me - I have now just given up at starbucks and just nod with whatever they reply with.

98elise

26,376 posts

160 months

Friday 29th July 2016
quotequote all
davepoth said:
Sheepshanks said:
They might not be pretending. I go quite a bit for work and holiday. Business people seem to be able to understand me OK, but waitresses and bartenders etc it's absolutely hopeless - I've given up and let my wife talk to them. Yet everyone says I have pretty much no accent. I have colleague who has exactly the same experience.
There are a couple of things in British speech that cause a lack of understanding. The biggest one is the glottal stop - where you make a funny sort of throat noise (common in Arabic) instead of pronouncing the letter "t" in words. It's characteristic of estuary English (which is normally considered "no accent" these days) but because of the way it's used so extensively and when talking quickly it does tend to cause a problem.

There's also "Th-fronting" - "Fing" instead of "Thing" for example, which is becoming more common here in the UK.

Anyway, the easiest thing to do is to practice your BBC announcer voice, and use that.
Agreed. Regional variances across the UK are hard enough. Now imagine how hard that is for someone who may have lived their entire life in one US state.

Estuary English is awful. Its my native accent and I try to curb it as much as possible.

burritoNinja

690 posts

99 months

Friday 29th July 2016
quotequote all
When I mentioned that some pretended to not understand me was out of racism. It was within the mannerism in which it was conducted and also the racist comments made to other members of staff made behind my back that was later relayed to me. One of the managers whom I was friendly with told me that there was prejudice against me by those particular people.There was a fellow British person who had a stronger accent than mine whom was fully understood by these people. She happened to be popular with them and was in their "click".

One story that nearly came to violence was in a local Mexican cafe. The guy thought I was putting on an accent to mock his accent. He nearly get physical and my wife was trying to resolve the situation too and explain that I was British. I took out my "green card" to show him my nationality. He felt really bad and we got free shirts. He later explained that he had been subjected to so much racism in the town we lived.

I served in the US Army and only encountered maybe 3 people being racist towards me. One was from a stupid little girl who said I would not understand "their" jokes as I was not one of "them". I was rather maused at how many British people were in the US Army. We had a Geordie in a different unit and next to nobody understood him.

Small town America is what I would avoid based on my own experiences.