moving to america

niallish

i plan to move to america with my gf who is a us citizen soon,
anyone know how the visa situation works ? ive checked online and far to confusing for me i will b living in a hostel type place that does volenteer work, and they said they can send me out a form which will help get me my visa, but anyne know wat else i need to fill out etc ? thx

Ruu_Old

I doubt hostel type work is enough to get you a working visa. They would basically have to sponsor you, there are different categories of work visas also.

cousin_borat

TBH you're taking a very lackadaisical attitude to the whole thing. You need to do alot of research youself or otherwise hire a good immigration lawyer in the states. Good source of knowledge on ins and outs is www.murthy.com (although there is a slight Indian slant here it's a good place to start)

Ajos

cousin_borat wrote:

TBH you're taking a very lackadaisical attitude to the whole thing. You need to do alot of research youself or otherwise hire a good immigration lawyer in the states. Good source of knowledge on ins and outs is www.murthy.com (although there is a slight Indian slant here it's a good place to start)

Absolutely. There's no "soon". In a nutshell:

Marry your girlfriend: A year of expensive lawyers and hell.
Get sponsored by a company: It's their problem. But you'll be tied to them and if you quit or get fired you have to leave the country.
Apply for a work visa without marrying your girlfriend or getting sponsored: A year of expensive lawyers and hell, and you won't get it.
Lottery: This is how I got it. Apply (in about nine months when it comes around again), wait six months to see if you got it, wait another three for your interview. You probably won't get it the first time.
Tourist Visa: Just show up at the airport for a three month tourist visa (I believe). But it'll be hard to find a decent job (as opposed to labouring/bar work) and if you overstay you might never be allowed back in.

OK, so those are some broad strokes. But unless you're a student this is going to be a lot harder than you seem to think it is.

niallish

hmm well thx for the advice, i dont understand the if we get married that it will need a year of lawyers and alot of money ??
dont understand why its so hard/complicated jus to get into a country to live/work r watever its stupid,

Ruu_Old

That is just the way the American immigration system works, there is a lot of paperwork involved and you cannot make any mistakes with this, otherwise you will be set back another year and still have to pay a lot of money. If you intend to marry then you have to get your partner to petition on your behalf.

Ajos

niallish wrote:

hmm well thx for the advice, i dont understand the if we get married that it will need a year of lawyers and alot of money ??
dont understand why its so hard/complicated jus to get into a country to live/work r watever its stupid,

It's actually just as hard or harder to get a work visa into Europe from outside. Life, eh?

And actually I think if you get married in the US while on holiday you can stay here and work while you're being processed. But it's still difficult, expensive and time consuming. Somebody who knows more about it than me could answer that better.

SoBe

Ajos wrote:

And actually I think if you get married in the US while on holiday you can stay here and work while you're being processed. But it's still difficult, expensive and time consuming. Somebody who knows more about it than me could answer that better.

im not sure about that,if you entered under the vwp for your holiday i dont think it can be extended after the 90 days,but im open to correction on this

Ajos

I have a friend here who did it. It was a while before he got a temporary work permit, and even longer before he got the green card, but he was able to stay. It was very stressful, though - they had to convince the DHS that he had entered without the intent to marry and it was a spur of the moment thing. They'd been engaged for a while.

Now that I think of it they may have closed that loophole since. I'm really not sure. This is why it's important to talk to a US immigration lawyer!

Ruu_Old

It used to be the case where you could apply for an extension to the 90 day limit, not anymore though. I read it on the USCIS webbie.

SoBe

i just remember someone telling me at us immigration in dublin airport that under no circumstances would an extension be entertained,hence me being back in ireland

cousin_borat

will soon find out myself. I'm currently working for a Biotech company on a contract. The contract runs a month over the 90 day period. Consulting with the companies HR/Immigration person so will update with what I'm required to do. Hopefully a trip back to Europe for a few days and back again