Moving Abroad

[Lirpa11]

Have any of you moved abroad? Do you have any tips to provide?

I am from USA and DH is from Western Australia. We met here when I was 17, and were married at 23. We are now 26 and living in Western Australia.

We have a house here. We have discussed thr idea of moving to USA for a few years to see how we like it (maybe stay, maybe come back). Recently while on holidays we decided to make a timeframe for the move which is the end of the year. We plan on being on a plane to USA between Janaury - March next year.

We're thinking of selling this house and buying a smaller investment. Then renting the house out in Australia while w live in USA. This allows us to have a house here in case we want to come back. We would rent in USA for at least a year or so, and then decide if we wanted to buy a place.

There is so much to think about, so I would like any tips for anyone who has perhaps done something similar?

Thanks!

 

[holly2234]

I moved to the USA almost 2 years ago with my ex husband.

We lived in the UK together for 2 years, then here in the USA together for 1 year. Been separated from him for a year now though, but i have made the move!

 

[Nut_Shake]

We moved nearly a year ago from London, UK to Dallas, Texas. There was so much to organise with visas, paperwork, immigration lawyers, packing up and organizing the move with the shipping company, selling all our stuff (we've kept all our properties but sold literally everything else, we came here with not much at all and have started again).

I can try help as much as I can if you have any specific questions xx

 

[Lirpa11]

Thanks for the reply! What sort of visa did you move over on? I've started looking into it and I need to start filing now in order to move in 9-10 months and even that is pushing it!

We have a house here in Australia but are considering selling it and buying a smaller more rentable house in case we want to come back.

Did you have interviews with the us government? Were they ok?

 

[Moomette]

I met my DH, who's a Kiwi, in London and after years of talking about it we moved to NZ three years ago. The immigration process was pretty quick and painless (I had to get a medical and chest x-rays done and we both needed police certificates from all countries we'd lived in, and had to register DD1 as an NZ citizen by decent), but otherwise it was very quick as NZ are rather happy for their citizens to return home and bring spouses with them. Although it could've been a lot longer and more complicated had I had any medical or character issues.

We didn't own any properties at the time, so didn't need to consider that, but did ship all our belongings over in a 20ft container.

If there's anything I can help you with (though obviously won't know about things specific to the US), then just let me know.

 

[Nut_Shake]

Thanks for the reply! What sort of visa did you move over on? I've started looking into it and I need to start filing now in order to move in 9-10 months and even that is pushing it!

We have a house here in Australia but are considering selling it and buying a smaller more rentable house in case we want to come back.

Did you have interviews with the us government? Were they ok?

We came on an E2 visa as my husband brought some business out here. A lot of paperwork and a lot of organizing and to-ing and fro-ing with our immigration lawyer. We also had to go for an interview at the us immigration office. I was absolutely shitting myself! They were so finicky about every tiny little thing, thank goodness our immigration lawyer had prepped us and made sure we had our mountain of papers and documents with us. But all went to plan and it ended up taking from start to end just over a year to finally move out here.

With your house what you're saying def makes sense, if you can it's good to keep a property rather than sell up completely. We have a few properties in the uk which we've not sold and are renting, here in the USA we are renting for the first 2 years (can't believe it's been a year since we moved here already!) before even considering buying. I would say it takes a good 2/3 years to find your feet once you've made such a big move, only after that time would you know if the move is working for you long term or not xx

 

[holly2234]

If you two have been married for over 2 years, you will get an IR-1. Less than two years, CR-1. Its pretty simple and since you, the US Citizen live in Australia too, you can probably do Direct Consular filing, which is a little quicker, you miss out the National Visa Center in the US which is where the time wasting happens.

You need to look into your options for the I-864 (Affidavit of support) to see how you guys will qualify or if you will need a joint sponsor.