Be Excellent To Each Other

Bit of a long shot, but does anyone here know one?

Edit -- for immigration into the UK.

I know you won't listen to me or take any advice I give you but WTH I shall try any way.

DON'T.

Do your research and do it yourself. I did that here and everything was fine. I went to the USA and they lost all of my paperwork. It took three years to get it sorted out. In the end out of desperation I went to an immigration lawyer that told me he knew all of the officers personally (being in a building 50 feet away sort of reassured me). So I ended up paying him $1000 for him to come back and tell me what they already had.

Fucking vermin of the highest order. Looking around confirmed my suspicions. They are there to pray on the desperate.

Of course old JC knows fuck all but obviously the one to go for is the K1 visa. It means getting married but that's just another piece of paper. K1 is the easiest quickest (unless they utterly fuck it all up) way to get into the US and stay there. IIRC after a few years you can go for citizenship which is pretty much a given so long as you can answer a few simple questions about their history.

However it's not needed. With K1 you will get a full LPR (lawful permanent residency) so unless you want welfare and state benefits (hint, you don't they make you sweep the roads for them) then you'll be good to go with an LPR card.

I think he means in the UK, JC. I don't know of any personally, but do know of a firm in Aylesbury that does things like that.

From memory it went like this.

Phone the embassy in London @ £1.50 a minute. Ask to file for a K1 visa (fiancee visa).

Get the papers fill them in. Wait about 6 months. Get more paperwork asking for a sponsor (incase you fall ill who will pay all of the hospital bills and house you should you be out of work for TEN YEARS - sorry that sounds muddy.. you need some one with more than $60k or something like that in the bank to sponsor you for ten years. I think you can also use an employer should you have one out there.). Then you must get them to provide proof of address, proof of income, bank statements for a year ETC.

Send all that back wait another 90 days.

Get an appointment for a medical where they poke you, bruise you, talk to you like shit and herd you like cattle. At the end of that you have to walk to the embassy where they interrogate you asking about your intentions toward the USA and your fiancee. At which point they try to catch you out by asking questions like "would you work illegally" ETC ETC. They basically make you feel about 2cm tall.

After which they stick a sheet in your passport labelled K1.

You then get 90 days to get to the states and marry at which point you fill out a bumload more paperwork and send it to your local office there. At which point you can file for a temporary work permit in the interim however, you are not allowed to contact them at any time they will contact you. This means that you could wait years only to find out that they have lost all your paperwork and the medical (which is done through their doctors and costs nearly $1000) and have to start all over again.

They actually turned up to deport me but thankfully I had copies of everything and postal reciepts. So I had to refile which meant doing everything (inc the medical) again. And of course, none of it was their fault it's all yours.

After five years I was given my LPR card. BTW, you're also not allowed to drive whilst in pergatory unless you have either an LPR card or temporary work permit. Those are one of the things you MUST HAVE when you go to the MVC to file for a driving license. My work permit expired (obviously) and they revoked my license leaving me grounded for another two years.

Mal. Lawyers are lawyers the world over. You can get free advice by phoning them. As I said though the only real way to get into the USA and stay there is to marry. Otherwise you're opening a world of hurt (well, unless you're only going for a few months of course).

You're the wrong way around, I want immigration, not emigration. This is for her to come here, not me move to the US. Your point stands though.

I have half a dozen stories of people who had good immigration lawyers who have the exact opposite experience. For example, a guy I know was moving to Canada. He sent his paperwork to his lawyer for proofreading and she said "no, don't do this; tell them you are already in the county on a visitor's permit". This put the application into a different queue and made the whole process take weeks rather than months. For this and other pieces of sage advice, he paid a few hundred dollars in total.

Good lawyers are hard to come by, just like good mechanics and good plumbers. I'd do it myself rather than pick a name out of the phone book because I think you're right -- your odds of any random one being useful aren't that great. But if someone I trust has a recommendation, that's worth considering.

http://www.pickupandscott.co.uk/immigration.php

Cannot comment on how useful they are, but given their proximity to the asylum detention center....

Also.. Sorry man it's been a while and there's so much of it. You will be out of work when you get there for a matter of months. Until you get the temporary work permit back from them you are not allowed to work and you cannot file for that until you arrive there. I was fine with that and went over there with about £6k. Before long between waiting and all the other fees and payments it was gone. IIRC the medical alone was about $700. Then there are filing fees and god knows what else. Those add up to about $500.

Oh crap. Sorry Doc

Honestly mate she's better off here. The US is a seriously harsh place for us lot. They treat you like terrorists.

I'll never forget the time my father in law blew up in my face and ended up dragging me to NY to the main office to complain. I tried over and over and over to tell him not to bother as they told me you can't contact them.

Got there, queued for two hours (it was a 120 mile drive) and they said "go away, we will contact you when we contact you"

And that was it.

If everything goes smoothly then yes, I can see how they will help you. Basically they just file for you saving you all the stress. When forms are needed you sit down with them and they fill them out with you and go over everything. However, the clock is ticking and their fees are outrageous.

What got me was that my lawyer knew I was fucked and up shit creek. He screwed me for the cash any way, knowing I was already broke and in dire straits. Thing is mate lawyers for that stuff only do what is out there that you can do.

Fuck me he charged me $25 an email to read it. And the fucking cunt always finished his email unfinished and said "reply when you get this and let me know etc".

Silly Mali! How short is your memory?

I've dropped an email to my friend. He got married out in the states and his wife and him returned to the UK. She did work, so I've asked him if he used such service. I'll drop you a PM or something if he gets back to me.

I don't myself, however a friend who works in immigration for the Home Office may. I have just texted him to ask.

Well, there's your problem right there.

Alas, I am afraid my friend cannot help.


I will have him replaced, naturally.

Not really my area of expertise (Chaos Daemons and metul, if you must know), but when she's filling out the "Occupation:" bit of the form, don't let her write "I do drugs" there.

'Superhero that can turn bad people into butter' would probably be fine though.

I never used a lawyer, did it all myself. Just keep phoning until you get one of the helpful people - they are there - who tell you clearly and simply exactly what forms and documentation you need and then get it.

Not sure how it is here but for god's sake don't let her screw the dates up.

I had absolutely no idea when I got to Yankland that they put the date down M D Y. So all of my forms ended up coming back with a letter saying "Your date of entry is wrong"

He or a member of his team would be pretty spenny, but I know a business immigration lawyer (basically - immigration lawyer for people with skills and money) in London who I used to work with. PM if interested.

Yeah that's what I did. They were wonderful here on this side. It was when I got off the boat at the other end it all went tits up. The info line was £1.50 a minute but man, they really get it sorted fast. And it was a darn sight cheaper than paying a lawyer.

He didn't use a lawyer.

Ah well. Thanks for asking, MaliA.

I know a couple of Americans living here who are basically illegal immigrants. Their visas or whatever ran out a long time ago. The guy works remotely for a US company and the girl does cash-in-hand waitressing jobs and things like that.
They don't seem even slightly concerned about it

#NickCleggsfault

They wouldn't be Kalmar. There's so much under the table work in the USA it's almost normal. It wasn't until Wally World got caught and EFFED UP a few years back that things changed.

You seem to be really struggling with who's in which country in this thread, JC.

They're American so that may well seem normal to them (working under the table and not paying tax).

SHE GOT IT

But haven't you moved to Canada? You guys didn't plan this very well....

Really pleased for you matey!

No, Canada became Plan B (and is now Plan Not Happening).

I'm so fucking hyper right now.

Awesome.

Great news. Let's go and pavement a spammer!

No ta. One a day is my limit.

FannyStupid - officially more valuable to the UK than MaliA...

Do we have to deport him now?

MrsA says that is a bit mean.

I say "heh".

The Home Office never lies. Be gone with you, blaggard.

That is fucking great news, mate. Congratulations.

I think someone broke MaliA.

Just added it up; from the visa processing centre in Chicago receiving her hundred-ish-page application (pic) to sending her the "visa approved" email took three hours and five minutes. I had no idea the civil service could work that fast, even if she did pay for "priority service".

Tory government now, I think it's one-in, one-out. Sorry Mali.

Pesky immigrants.. coming over here and stealing our dwarves.

I....just wanted to quote this as the best post this forum has ever had.

Oh an unfeasably large amount of bananas...

Congratulations Doc. Seriously I'm stoked for you both.

YEAH BABY SHE GOT IT

Fantastic!

that is great. Malia i will miss you..