Need advice: I'm Marrying my American Fiance.?

Question

Im From the UK and im getting married in october and we discussed the fact she wants me to move there.

Now im a little confused, i dont know exactly what i have to do.

I agreed to it but is a case of getting married and eveything is taken care of or do i think things like blood tests, and such.

(i heard they need blood tests as well as all my other documents you'd expect) which is scary for me since i have a phobia of needles.

But yeah i need advice as to what i need and if theres anything i will need to do after the marriage takes place..

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

Please do your homework before you rush into anything. I am originally from the UK and married my american husband 7 years ago. For me to be able to stay here and work legally after our wedding involved a lengthy process. We had the help of a specialist immigration attorney, and it still took close to a year before I got a green card and social security number which allowed me to work and to travel freely. Even after that, there'll be a period of a couple of years where you'll be back and forth with the immigration office getting status adjustments etc.

What you need to do depends on where you plan to marry. We married on US soil first to get the paperwork moving - just us and a judge and a couple of witnesses. In order to do that, I had to apply to the US Embassy for a fiance visa, which involved providing lots of paperwork to support our relationship (letters, phone bills, bank statements etc.), obtaining a letter from my local police constabulary to prove I had no criminal record, a certified program of immunizations, a medical examination with an embassy doctor in London, and an interview at the US Embassy in London. Once you get your fiance visa, I believe you have 60 days to marry, then you apply for an adjustment of status. Until that is granted, you are not allowed to work in the US or leave the country. Our attorney got us some paperwork which allowed me to return to the UK to work while we waited for the green card to be granted.

Things may have changed since 9/11... but it's only going to have gotten tighter. In short, you should have no trouble entering the US, but if you want to work here or be able to return to the UK and get back into the US again, you'll need to go through a procedure like this. I have friends who've tried to do it on their own and still don't have green cards after several years, so I would advise you to seek the help of a specialist immigration lawyer. It'll cost you, but it'll be worth it in the long run.

By the way, I believe the requirement for blood tests varies state-by-state, so you'd have to check what Hawaii requires, or whichever state you decide to marry in, since that is who issues the marriage license. Good luck!

Answer 2

You have to apply for an immigrant visa in order to move here.  Find out the details about that right now, because those take time to process.  As far as any blood tests, marriage is about sacrifice.  I'm sure you will close your eyes and look away and it will be all done.

Answer 3

This is really a question you should have dealt with BEFORE you proposed to her...in fact you should have been thinking about it as soon as your relationship started to get serious.  If getting shots is the only thing you're worried about, just deal with it and move to America.  You're going to have to get your blood drawn and get shots throughout your life whether you like it or not, its not a good enough reason not to move somewhere.  However, I'm sure that's not the main reason you're worried about moving, since there are plenty of reasons to be anxious about moving halfway around the world.  You need to talk to her about it and maybe even with a relationship counselor.  If you're not completely OK with moving, its going to cause a lot of frustration that will end up affecting the relationship.

Answer 4

The blood tests have gone by the wayside - you might not have to worry about that.  If you know where she lives, the requirements might be on the county courthouse's website, and would apply to courthouse and church weddings.  

My fiance's mom came over to this country to get married - she had a marriage Visa, and they gave her only 30 days to get married from the date she arrived.  All of that stuff you'll have to work out the long hard red tape way.  Good luck with that!

Congrats!

Answer 5

All of those questions are questions on how to get a marriage license.  You don't do any of that after you get married.  It would depend on the state you are getting married in because each state gets to make its own laws.

But you don't have to do blood tests to move to the US.  Moving is the easy part.  Contact your embassy to find out more details as to how to retain your citizenship, or get dual citizenship.  You'll also want to know the procedure for getting a work visa.