Info and advice on immigration to the U.S.

The hubby and I are heading back to the U.S. but first we have to do all of the immigration stuff to get him a visa and then a green card. They say it can take like 6 months to get the visa. I am curious if any one out there who may have done this (U.S. citizen married to a German citizen) and how long it took for your spouse to get their visa and green card. Any info is greatly appreciated.

Why would you go back to the US. Germany is awesome.

I would say 6 months is the minimum amount of time it would take. Before we decided to move to Germany, we had been going through the Green Card process for 1 1/2 years and hadn't even had our first interview. I'm not sure if it matters where you were married, but we were married and living in the US. Best of luck.

Not sure if you can do this, but it is worth checking into. Since your husband is German, he can enter the US without a waiver. I believe he can then apply for a Change of Status, i.e., apply for permanent residency. He should get a work permit within 6-8 weeks after applying, but it will probably take at least 2 1/2 years to actually get his green card. The worst part about the wait is the annual renewal of the work permit and having to get advance parole to leave the US and return.

Damn, you should have gotten the ball rolling a couple months ago. As of August 1st, the fees tripled.

My husband (Aussie) doesn't have his work permit yet, and we submitted our forms at the end of July (to make the fee deadline). Fortunately, his J1 is good for another year.

There's an English guy at my work who recently got his green card the more difficult way (i.e. not through marriage), and I think it only took him somewhere around 6 months. He told me exactly how long it was, but I don't remember. It was definitely less than a year, though.

thanks everybody for the information. its the ol' (military saying) hurry up and wait game. we have all the paperwork and i have an appt with the consulate in frankfurt tomorrow morning to drop it off and we read that if you take the next batch of paperwork with you the first time you meet with them then it is supposed to speed up the process. we've heard of some people getting the visa in a month and others unfortunatley having to wait years. we did read about the change of status thing. apparently the law states that since we havn't been married at least two years we have to do this. the only thing that i can't wait to find out is if he can work when we get there (legally of course, lol) there are quite a few jobs in his field open and it would be great if once this was all settled he didn't have to wait forever to start working. that is the only thing he is worried about in leaving. finding a job that is like the one that he has here but maybe, hopefully better paying.

someone had stated earlier, "why would we want to leave here" well a lot of reasons. we can both work, have a decent house for less money and be closer to my family. i love germany but we want to make the big move before we get any older so we can settle in somewhere and start a family. and besides, home is where the heart is right. there are definately a ton of things i will miss here but ya know.

oh yeah, the fees "outrageous". i wish we had been more than just talking about moving back a couple months ago. its like $300 for each thing individually. crazy. ha, i wouldn't be suprised to find out there is a tax write off though for it. ha, doubt it, but its definately worth looking into. lol.

I am really surprised to hear that you can't do an Adjustment of Status when you and your spouse are already married. Used to be you could do it like this- spouse-to-be flies to the US and is admitted via Visa Waiver (for those who come from Visa Waiver countries). The couple gets married and applies for an Adjustment of Status for the foreign spouse along with applying for permanent residency, work permit, and advance parole. Maybe things have changed in the past couple of years. I would get an up-to-date book on this rather than only asking someone at an embassy or consulate if I were you.

EDIT: I would think the following would work- I would simply say to the US immigration authorities when he enters the US, yeah just visiting. Then if someone asks you about it later when you apply for Adjustment of Status, you could always say you changed your minds and decided to stay. By all means get expert advice, though. I just suggest this as a possibility that might work and is something to check into.

They still do that, Conquistador, when the couple is not married. My brother-in-law got his Chinese fiance in that way about a year ago. No idea if you can do that when you're already married.

so now we come to the next batch of paperwork ( we are trying to do stuff in advance). we are at the affidavit of support forms. now maybe someone can help with this. we are both here in germany and obviously i am not working in the u.s. the forms say that you have to show income from the states or that you can use assets (savings, house) to show the support. we have savings but no income in the states. although i have an appt with the consulate tomorrow to drop off the paperwork and i will ask him these questions then, i am curious to know if anyone else has info. one place says that the amount of assets must be 3x the amount you are missing above the poverty line. another says 5x. and then there is this whole joint sponsor thing. wuaahh!!! its freaking confusing. on another forum someone said that if the poverty line is 25k then you would have to have 75k in savings to qualify. well we have 70k and the poverty line is 17k. once again any information is greatly appreciated, thank god we only have to do this once. lol. i'll have a job when we get back but even if i go ahead (like they recommend) back to the states and start working they still aren't going to see the full years salary and my tax returns from last year won't work because i am not working in that job anymore. mind boggling i tell you.