Friend moving to USA with US citizen DH and US citizen baby on ESTA

[esta2024]

Asking all british spouses of US citizens.

My friend has decided to go to the USA with her American husband and baby on an ESTA (they were living abroad for years, baby born abroad), live with family while remote working for her current employer (not a US employer and money paid to overseas bank account), and on day 91 apply to adjust her status to a green card.

based on what i have read online, it is likely to succeed despite the fact that she would be overstaying on esta but it seems to have succeeded for many people as they are married to american citizens and in bona fide relationships and its difficult to establish intent to immigrate from the onset (as people say they are just visiting and then 'changed' their minds).

is this true, I can't quite get my head around this. Why doesn't everyone just do this and they wait 1-1.5 years for consular processing? I understand that by doing it this way, you give up all rights to appeal and if it goes wrong, you would be deported and banned from the USA.

His mum could absolutely help sponsor her DIL's visa. While the DIL waits outside the US like everyone else.

She doesn't work for a uk company. She doesn't live in the uk. She was just born here and she moved away years ago. And met her dh.. If she didn't leave the uk would never have met her dh or had the baby.

That company is not uk based and has a us based entity there too.

She could also get done for tax evasion

My dh pointed that out and got called stupid. Its quite frustrating really

This whole plan of theirs is giving me 3rd-hand stress! It's going to be an unmitigated disaster for that family. It also has a whiff of purposefully planning to separate mother from baby....

Yes, difficult to tell whether he's very dim or very cunning.

That doesn’t necessarily make it all ok, OP.

@Boopear clearly very knowledgeable on this and she has pointed out the situation for a UK company. There will be similar rules and regulations for other countries. It’s not just all ok because it isn’t the UK.

you also responded to my last post on this saying the company knows she’s working remotely- that’s fine. But do they know that means abroad? And does the person saying it’s fine know international taxation law? I can see US tax office taking a dim view of a company being laissez faire about this.

i actually think the fact they have a US company could make things tricky. They essentially have an employee with different employment rights working illegally. I’d be surprised if a company knowing all these facts still thought it was ok!

this is not my area, but I’ve had similar issues with a staff member wishing to follow a partner abroad and wfh- it’s a massive pain in the arse for the company and often relies on an understanding boss jumping through hoops.

I think that rather than countering these questions you are getting from lots of knowledgeable MNetters, you get your friend to raise these issues with an immigration lawyer.

What she is doing is incredibly stupid, and no US barred immigration attorney would give the advice she is stating. Yes, the immigration process is exhausing (mentally and financially), but if she does it wrong, they won't just give her a slap on the wrists, she will be deported. The US actively tracks ESTA overstays, and will reach out to contact, and will send agents to remove. I had a friend here get fired, lose visa status and they were essentially told to be gone by x date or be removed. This man has family in the US, it would be pretty easy for authorities to track her. Secondly, there are massive issues now where employees think that they can work anywhere in the world depending on what they want, without consulting their employers. Their employers find out when they are contacted by tax authorities in those countries who have tracked their IPs while working remote where the company is not paying tax. She could screw herself and her employer.

My acquaintance was refused entrance to the US because they looked at her diary and saw work appointments as she was due to be working remotely while there. UK passport.

Do not f* with USCIS. The consequences for her being found to have attempted to play the system far far outstrip any cost / time saving she hopes to make on the immigration process. This is not a cost benefit decision that anyone sane should make.

When i asked her dh whether they were doing the process using his mum's way, he said this was advised by an immigration attorney.

Bloody hell.

He's lying.

Eh, there are def shysters out there who will tell people what they want to hear. I saw a bit of it when we were going through the process. But it does seem very head-in-the-sand to not even google "what happens if I try to stay in the US on an ESTA" or similar. I don't envy you @esta2024, it's hard to see someone you care about headed for disaster and not be able to convince them of it.

Yes, my cousin got deported and a 3-year ban on entering the US for overstaying his ESTA, but he was young, single, having a good time in California, and knew he was taking a risk, but thought it was worth a punt. He’s not someone who could find herself on the opposite side of the Atlantic to her child because she’s trying to immigrate on the cheap.

Maybe she thinks the worst that can happen is her and her dh go back to the country they were living in.. Tbh i am not certain she has given up completely on that place. Its her dh who was concerned about their long term financial future i.e. Wanting to buy a house and put something aside for a rainy day which is apparently easier in the usa.

She is more of the 'live in the moment' kind of girl and i am almost certain that when she emigrated from the uk, she didn't foresee herself living in the usa.

That is probably true. But it will also mean that her husband and child will be able to go visit his family in the US and she will not be allowed in for 10 years. It's not the end of the world, in the sense that his family could still come to see them elsewhere, but it means missing weddings and funerals and new babies and just... holidaying with his family there. Maybe that doesn't matter to them. But it certainly could. It's hard to foresee what you might need to do in future. I had no plans to come back here at all, we were settled in the UK and had been for quite some time. Then my mom got terminal cancer and that changed everything.

I am a lawyer. WOW @ the op. Just WOW. I. Have. No.Words.

Have also travelled to the USA. Just WOW!

As for the DH, luckily I was familiar with an American party, which took a dim view at things such as these.

Are you 100% sure this is not a ploy by her husband and his family to take the child and stop her having any contact? Because this is what's likely to happen once she's deported

I am sure they would return as a family to the country they were living in before but with far less options than when they left.

Not sure what that has to do with this though?
That route is effectively now shut off since brexit. It was also a ridiculous thing where British people had a harder job of bringing a spouse to the U.K. compared to an EU citizen.
The rules now are getting even harder.

Well the dh is from a religion/cultural background where you have to marry people from the same religion. But he found it difficult to find suitable girls from that same religion in that low COL state his mother lives in. Thats why he emigrated. That was in his 20s, would not be easier in his 30s. 60% of American young men are single as it is and most of them don't have such requirements. Plus it's not like the dh is such a catch either, living with his mum and a baby daughter in tow.

Echoing others. Ex family solicitor. No chance I would risk going to live in any country that could mean my dh would have power over me to take my dcs. Not a chance in hell.

tbh she was living in a country where you needed both parties consent to divorce which in effect means the man's consent. theoretically the man can be put in jail if he keeps refusing. But putting someone in jail still doesn't mean he would divorce you if he was so pigheaded in the first place.

So maybe the risk of child being taken away is roughly equal to living in that jurisdiction.

So this man has form for misleading her, and yet she believes his blather about what an immigration lawyer said?

She will end up with many lonely years in which she can regret her decision to try to put one past USCIS if she goes ahead with this utterly crazy plan.

They both need to cool their heels, find another rental, and do this right. She has one chance.

She needs to apply for a spouse visa. This is the only way she can move to the US with her husband and child legally. All other ways are 99% guaranteed to result in deportation.