The U.S. Immigration Process (Ask A Brit | Vol. 58)

[Music] you still look like a toy you've got to fix that hi and welcome to the latest volume of ask a brick this is volume 58 as you can tell by the number in the title it's a big giveaway and another giveaway is that this particular episode is about the u.s. immigration process and that's something of course that I know a little bit about but I don't I'm not the all-seeing purveyor of of you know immigration expertise as it were I mean you know I get questions quite a lot I think from from you fine folks about certain tenets of the immigration process I know a very specific portion of it and that happens to me kind of the marriage portion of it and how you acquire your green card through that and and most of my answers today may have a sort of bias toward that particular part of the immigration process but we will look at some other sort of specific things that have come up on this as well before we get underway here I just want to let you know or rather bring to your attention something that's quite important I think when thinking about the immigration process and if you are somebody who's very particularly looking to move to the United States you're not really sure if you are a candidate for it if you are eligible for it the best place to go is to the USCIS website and they have an explore my options page and I will link to that below and what that allows you to do is basically take you through a bunch of scenarios to see if you are eligible and if you are eligible what you need to do to well to emigrate here and the forms that you would need to fill out in order to make that move it's a very important tool I think and it tells you far more than I could I wouldn't come to me for this advice generally speaking but like I said I do want to talk about some of the things that I experienced moving here so hopefully that can be of some use and without further ado we are gonna get underway with questions surrounding us residency the first question today comes from Instagram Instagram stories and of course anybody that's new to this format we put out the topic for each a separate episode across social media but before we do that we actually put it out on patreon or beginning to a few of the questions that came from our patrons later on but if you would like your question to be guaranteed to be answered here on ask a Brit then I would highly recommend becoming one of our patrons because one of the quirks is that we do prioritize the questions that we get through on there like I said we will get to some of those questions or all of those questions that came from patreon here in just a moment but the first one as I said today comes from Instagram this is from the user of an on Instagram 31b kw2 that's a mouthful or a postcode can't decide which and they asked is the process the same for everybody or does it depend well it absolutely depends of course I mean I came here as I said through marriage and that is something that quite a lot of expats moving here do and it is in fact I think one of the leading reasons that immigrants move to the United States it is to marry usually a US citizen so that they can be here and that is exactly what I did but there are other reasons that you might move here one of the other leading reasons of course is that people move here to work they're often sponsored perhaps by a company and they might move here on a temporary visa to do that they may move here on a more long-term visa to do that by which time it wouldn't so much be a visa but would become a permanent resident card like the one I have but just for a different reason and then you've got things like refugee status asylum status I believe there's even sort of residency for widows of US citizens and you can get a residency and citizenship I should say for all manner of different things and once again back at the USCIS website you can you can look at all of those and all of those scenarios if you happen to fit into those categories and follow through each other steps so so yes to answer your question enough she´ll 31 BK w2 it is by no means the same for everybody and that's why I couldn't just sort of answer blanketly a question about immigration in most cases because most cases are quite unique and quite specific so the next question today comes from Jamie this is on Facebook and Jamie asks I think specifically of my scenario how much did it cost how long did it take and were there any hiccups along the way so the cost for me applying for what is you know known I think sort of more broadly as a green card but is is is actually known by its name permanent resident card the the cost for that just alone and to this very day it seems is about one thousand one hundred and forty dollars as part of that you also have to pay for a sort of biometric services fee and that is where they take your thumbprint I think I even had retinas scans or something along those lines it's been so long now that I can't quite recall but but you have to pay a fee for them to do that and then and that's all part of the process and then once they've done that they go through all of the other stuff that you've sent them which we'll talk about here a little bit in just a moment my cat's decided to enter the picture and then once you've made those payments and you've sent away all the necessary forms etc then of course you go through the waiting period where they'll either deny or hopefully approve your your bid for residency so yes there is a cost involved and I think often people aren't aware of that you know I think I was my assumption actually before I move to the US that you know once you marry a US citizen then you're guaranteed the right for free to move here and that there would be some paperwork but no more than just paperwork paperwork of the green variety although of course we mostly use direct deposit now so that doesn't make much sense as part of Jamie's question they also ask him do you think your choice made the immigration process faster than it might have had you chosen a different way to immigrate and there is an argument for saying yes to that because USCIS actually does prioritize those those applications that come through in cases where somebody has married a United States citizen it is something that you know is is top of the list for them when when making approvals and so it may have but I haven't been down the other routes obviously and I perhaps never will that shouldn't really ever be a reason for me to have to do this cats walking all over me with nothing else new there is back just sit down your little now when I say easier and quicker then you still looking at a nine month waiting period from the point of application to action being approved and and in fact sort of tied to that question Melissa on Facebook asks is it better to be married before you apply for the marriage visa or should you make use of the fiance visa first say is being married already which is was the case for us I was married when I moved here and then we started applying I think that the process was fairly smooth I will say that I can't speak to the sort of fiance visa version of it if anything I would say that it's possibly slightly harder to do the fiance visa first and then do the marriage visa once you're married because it's just double the work isn't it's more paperwork that you have to go through in order to do that oh sure that could yeah I mean that could definitely be I'd have to look more into actually Melissa but that could definitely be one of the benefits of doing the fiance visa first is that it might afford you certain rights such as being able to work and things like that but again I'll I'll take a look at that and I'll make maybe a comment below if that is untrue or if it is true and I'll try to confirm it another question that Melissa has here though and this is to do with the final meeting that you have with the Department of Homeland Security she asks you know in that meeting do they really take each of you into different rooms and then ask you questions like what what type of shampoo does the other use that was not my experience in fact my experience is or was we were in the same room at the same time and honestly it was a fairly straightforward process that was the least cumbersome or scary part of the the entire application process I thought now I may have got somewhat fortunate I have heard horror stories in which you know people are severely grilled on specific aspects of the relationship and their their reason for moving to the United States I must have been lucky that day and I've got a very nice human being they were nice but the next question comes from Ian and this is on YouTube and Ian asks was there anything surprisingly easy or surprisingly hard about the process I will say and again to reiterate I would say that the surprisingly easy thing was the sit-down interview at the very end of the process before I was you know ultimately given the right to live and work here that was far easier than I was expecting it to be the things that were hardest you know outside of the cost of paying for residency I think was just the the application itself it's very cumbersome you have to go through multiple forms that you have to fill out send back but that's not the only thing you have to have multiple affidavits completed by presumably members of your family and those have to be signed by a notary public so you have to go through that process as well and then you have to send them off to the the relevant place on top of that you have to provide things like bills to say that yes we've lived together for this amount of time and you have to also provide if you can photographs of you having a good time not like that you you you have to show them that you are indeed a couple that this isn't just a green card marriage as it were you know that you are serious about living together and that this is a long-term thing so in all I would say the most surprisingly difficult part was the application process and like I said it can take 9 to 15 months for that to be resolved so yeah that's surprising the money is surprising and that is the coffee's nice I'm gonna have coffee I found how many to do everything by mail surprising yeah that was certainly the case when we moved here now when I was doing a bit of research for this very episode I did notice that looks like you can carry out most of your application online nowadays I think but I haven't been through it to test that so again I might I might leave a comment below to see just how thorough that is and let you know how thorough that potentially is because that would be that would certainly be an improvement on our situation so long as the online application system works let's our next question as promised comes from one of our patrons on patreon this is Edward and Edward asks is it necessary to give up your British citizenship as part of the process certainly not for applying for residency as I did I am still a British citizen I am NOT a US citizen yet but even if I were to become a u.s. citizen it is very much the case that dual citizenship is allowed here so I would still be able to keep my British citizenship and yes in theory it is indeed possible and our final question around residency here today this is a very specific question it comes from Jonathan on Facebook and Jonathan says I'm currently applying for academic teaching positions in the US my concern is that I don't only have to be the best candidate but the best by far for a university to sponsor my visa would it potentially be better to come out to the US with a shitty job his words not mine and pay for the visa myself and apply from there so this is one of those specific questions that I alluded to at the top of the show to which I don't have a direct answer I can't say necessarily either way whether you know you should move here and get a job that is outside of the realm of academia and then try to work your way in or if it is best just to try to be the very best academically as you can and hope you get that that gig it does sound like a hard road I have to say trying to get sponsorship through the university in order to move here tyre you've worked in in teaching at least well what would you yell across the room about that really unlikely that unless you have a very specific goal in mind and that University matches your goal that they're going to be interested in bringing you over via sponsorship that's my thought having worked with British teachers and also again having worked in academia myself but a word quickly on sort of the British teachers that she worked with I mean Tara worked at an international school and there were lots of British Nationals coming over and getting those teaching positions there are specific situations in which that's going to be possible and I know this portion doesn't really answer your question Jonathan but certainly if you are thinking of entering teaching in the United States there may be some options if you're looking at biggest cities that have the likes of international schools that we have here in Chicago I understand you have them in New York Washington DC and other places like that perhaps the answer may lie on USCIS is website so once again go through those those steps on the website to see if you can get any answers there but a lot of these answers are gonna be with the the academic institution in question rather than USCIS I would imagine and that then brings us on then to something else that through experience anyway I can't answer too much about but I can in terms of the knowledge that I've acquired and that citizenship itself okay so the the first question today is an interesting one this comes from patreon and it's from Matara not this star at Tara Joe from patreon and Tara Joe asks how long did it take you personally to become a citizen now I'm glad you've asked that Tara Joe because you know I think that it's important for me to sort of draw that line between residency and citizenship I'm not a US citizen as I've said yet I am just a permanent resident but in a theoretical world to answer that question it would have in fact only taken me about three years if you marry a US citizen then you can actually apply for citizenship after three years so long as you've shown yourself to have lived in the United States during that time so by that reckoning in theory I could have applied for citizenship as early as 2012 but another question around citizenship and this comes again from Facebook this is from Nancy on Facebook who who says you know you've toyed around with the thought of dual citizenship it's true I've talked about this before and have you made it into any decisions yet and I haven't yet you know I think at first and this was a belief for a long time until I did more research into this I was under the believe the inaccurate belief that if I became a US citizen I would have to relinquish my British citizenship that's not true you can be as I said dual citizen so that that was honestly the naive reason as to why I didn't originally apply for citizenship and then a number of other things just sort of came up over the years the cost of applying for citizenship and having already applied for residency sort of put me off especially when our income was not quite as as good as it is now so money was a factor and then sort of relevance and importance you know what what is the the reason that I would get citizenship well of course it does afford you the right to vote and that would be quite a strong motivation but on the other side of the coin it does mean I can no longer get out of jury duty if I were to become a citizen so there are small downsides like that although part of me has always thought it might be quite interesting to do jury duty because I'd have no other opportunity I think to passed judgment on a criminal you know maybe I won't put it off for much longer it is something that is is definitely in my thoughts quite regularly especially as as I do this channel and speaking of going for citizenship a great question here from Jeff on patreon Jeff asks in your opinion how valuable is the US citizenship test and this is a test I took back on YouTube back in in vlogmas where I tested myself would I be able to pass a US citizenship test here's a practice version of it and I I did okay I think I got three questions wrong or something like that but I did ultimately pass the test and Jeff asks you know taking this test how valuable is it in determining whether someone should be a citizen what would you change about it and what would you leave alone so I think it's probably a pretty good sort of marker that I would be at least able to pass that written test so it gives you that confidence you'd be able to do at least that portion of it and as far as I can tell the test that I took is quite in line with the types of tests you would be asked to take on on the road to citizenship so I think in that sense it would it would fill me with confidence what would I change about it not sure really I suppose a lot of the questions were sort of historically slanted which it kind of makes sense you want to be able to know a bit about the country's history I wonder if it might have been useful to have more questions about the present day and specifically about how the United States works politically the work quite a few questions like that but it just sort of seemed like if I took a general history quiz I might well pass this so maybe I would find a greater balance in that area okay and the next question comes from Twitter this is definitely the name of the week it comes from gift horse dentist and gift horse dentist asks if you become a US citizen and have dual citizenship do you have to pay taxes to the UK for your US earnings well I should preface this answer by saying that I'm by no means a tax expert and if you are seeking to move here and get dual citizenship and you want to know the ins and outs of this I would definitely seek tax expert advice I can't really offer that but I did do a little research into this I I couldn't find anything that said that I would have to pay taxes to the UK for the US earnings there is something where you know if I'm living in the UK but I'm a US citizen then I still have to submit a tax return to the IRS it was very difficult for me to fathom whether my earnings should be taxed back to the UK it didn't seem so though it does appear though that there are certain scenarios that you have to be aware of very aware of if you are to take dual citizenship that the IRS and the equivalent back in in the UK the Inland Revenue would take into account but again I'm no expert on this I did find what seemed to be quite a useful article around taxation as a dual citizen the UK and us actually have a tax treaty that goes back to 2001 and this article which I'll again link to below covers a lot of the scenarios in that and hopefully that will help to answer your question okay and the final two questions question here that's very sort of time dependent here this comes from Wyatt you couldn't get a more American sounding name if you tried on YouTube and Wyatt asks what did 21 savage do wrong and for those of you not in the know 21 Savage is a hip-hop artist from Georgia or so it seemed but it turns out that mr. savage having moved here and gained a temporary visa in 2005 at the age of 12 didn't seem like I mean I don't know if his parents were involved here but that temporary visa expired in 2006 now all of this time it seems to be the accusation seems to be that he's made the claim that he was born and raised in Georgia but but his birth certificate which was unearthed and seems to suggest otherwise he was born in fact in London in the early 90s and so now he's in pretty big trouble pretty hot water with US Immigration and and rightly so I think you know as somebody who who moved here legally in a state he illegally I advise anybody who's trying to move here not to move here legally I have some sympathy with the reasons as to why some may if they are from a war-torn country or if they are facing some kind of violence in their homeland and they just want a freer life but they can't afford to move here legally that said you know in his case he outstayed his visa there are many many cases the majority of cases of illegal immigrants actually in this country is that very thing of people out staying their visa and then not renewing and - they're all men of reasons as to why that might be sometimes it could just be laziness which is sad in itself I've encountered one or two where there has been the case and a lot of the time it could be down to cost like I said the cost is quite quite high my real thought on it is I mean this is somebody who was a successful artist you would imagine that he could probably afford those costs don't know about other people can't speak to individual cases wouldn't want to but that is definitely something I would say but if you want more information on that and and if you are in a situation where you are here and you have overstayed the terms of your your visa lemon or I should say your your green card or whatever the form is or the card is that you're using to stay here and you fear that you can't afford it or you or you're procrastinating you're putting it off I know that people do this inform yourself I think remain informed go to the USCIS website and just work out what it is you have to do ahead of time I know that I have to renew in 2022 so I will be going there ahead of time and know exactly what it is I have to do so that I am ready for that and the final question today this comes from will on patreon and will asks which is easier becoming an American or becoming a Brit and the way that's worded will I I'm guessing you mean a citizen because of course to become an American you have to become a citizen I'm not an American I'm still a Brit not really answer that from a citizenship point of view necessarily I think by the looks of it it seems that both are sort of similarly weighted in many ways like I said for me though if I'm married to a u.s. citizen it takes only three years before I can apply for that but in terms of residency I would say marginally applying for residency is marginally easier in the in the United States because in the UK if Tara were to apply over there you have to meet a wage threshold or a salary threshold of a minimum of eighteen thousand pounds between us and you know there would have been times in our life where that would have been kind of tricky actually I think and especially when you consider that if we're moving over there together but but Tara can't work immediately and I think that given that the minimum wage in the UK is sort of seven pounds and so many pence you know not everyone gets up to that salary so it isn't necessarily the the easiest amount to to reach especially when it is just one of you that will be earning initially and so yeah I would say that from an immigration standpoint looking at the numbers anyway moving to the u.s. is probably marginally easier and so that is it for this volume of ask a Brit thank you everybody for your questions as ever we took questions first on patreon we allowed people on patreon to ask us their questions a week ahead of time and that's one of the perks you get for becoming a patron of ours on patreon and if you would be interested in doing so though you can do so at patreon.com slash lost in the pond but those of you who are willing to wait those questions are still posted across social media you can follow us on Instagram Twitter and Facebook and we also post it right here on YouTube in the community section but you know I hope this was an informative episode of ask a Brit until next time have a wonderful week and say hello on social media and in the comments bye thank you for watching this episode of don't forget to hit my stupid little face to subscribe and please share this video with the world hit me up on Twitter Instagram and Facebook and if you'd like to support this channel please do so patreon.com slash lost in the pond [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Lost in the Pond

Views: 12,894

Keywords: US Travel, Laurence Brown, Ask A Brit, U.S. Immigration Process

Id: vVQwGcA286U

Length: 25min 41sec (1541 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 17 2019