Moving back to America

ADTR

Hi all,

So I am an Irish citizen married to an American. We got married in America and we lived over there for 3 years. I had a residence card and everything, but I felt homesick and moved home allowing my case with US Immigration to lapse.

The plan was always to move back to the US. Has anybody been in this situation before? I know I need to go through the whole process again here with the Embassy in Dublin.

Does anyone know what forms I need to file and how much the cost will be? Also, any idea on how long it will take the Embassy here to process all the info?

Thanks for any help!

silja

Hi,
I know a couple of people who went over on a K1 (fiance visa), stayed a few years, then moved back because of jobs or having babies etc, and after a few years in ireland, moved back to the USA. It's not a problem, and the good thing is you know how to fill out some of the forms already

I did a spousal visa too, via the embassy as you will, last year. It cost me:
- 350 dolars for the petition (send bank draft or similar with the I-130 form, marriage cert etc, see the embassy ebsite for details).
- 317 euro for the medical (paid directly to the doctor)
- 400 dollars for the visa, to be paid when you go for your interview.
- There may be other costs for you such as travel to the embassy for the interview, getting certified copies of your birth cert and marriage cert, police certs from other countries if you have stayed there longer than 6 months etc.

It took about 6 weeks to get the visa, my timeline was as follows:
06/11/2008: Sent off I-130 and supporting docs to embassy, requested Swiss and Irish police certs.
06/19/2008: Received Swiss police cert.
06/27/2008: Instructions for DS-230 received from embassy (Combined NOA2/ Packet 3)
07/03/2008: Received Irish police cert.
07/07/2008: Sent off DS-230 Part1, hoping for a quick interview!
07/15/2008: Medical- easy!
07/18/2008: Packet 4 and interview notice received.
07/24/2008: Interview- passed but there is a mistake in my Irish police cert- wrong birth year- so needed to get it changed and then go back to the embassy, when I will get my visa in my passport right away according to the CO.
07/28/2008: Got amended Irish police cert. Rang embassy who said I could come in next day.
07/29/2008: Visa received!
10/13/2008: Moved to Arkansas- Newark is a very easy PoE!
11/04/2008: SSN received in the mail.
01/17/2009: Green card and welcome notice received in mail.

ADTR

Thanks so much for the detailed info! That's a great help. I'm actually surprised at how fast you got your visa. That's very encouraging! I'm sure there's a time limit on from when you receive your visa to when you have to move back to America by? If that makes sense!

silja

Yes it is much faster to get the visa via the embassy- if your US spouse were to live in the USA and you applied for a visa to join him, it takes 6-8months or more!

The visa is good for 6 months from the date of your interview.

InTheTrees

silja wrote: »

Yes it is much faster to get the visa via the embassy- if your US spouse were to live in the USA and you applied for a visa to join him, it takes 6-8months or more!

The visa is good for 6 months from the date of your interview.

But isnt ADTR asking about reinstatement of their US Residency permit or Green card rather than a Visa?

silja

InTheTrees wrote: »

But isnt ADTR asking about reinstatement of their US Residency permit or Green card rather than a Visa?

They need a visa as they stayed abroad for more than a year without a re-entry permit. The options are to file for a spousal visa as I suggested above, or for a returning resident visa (SB-1), but for the later, they need to show that they were prevented from moving back to the USA within a year for "reasons beyond their control and for which they were not responsible", which is difficult:
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_1333.html