MNers living in the USA

[MrsFrumble]

There used to be a brilliant, long running thread about 10 years ago; a little community of mostly immigrant Brits (but some native to the US) who just chatted about our day-to-day lives. I moved back to the UK in 2016 so stopped reading and posting.

I’m now back the US for the foreseeable future and was wondering if any of the original gang were still around, or anyone else would like to chat about life here. Election madness? The weather? Missing Marmite and decent cheese? Sadly I can’t remember anyone’s usernames or I’d try summoning…

Thank you @MissConductUSthat’s super helpful advice. I’m loving NYC in every aspect except work - my team is diabolical, although I may be moving internally to another team so things could improve there. Can’t resign/change jobs due to being on the L1, but hopefully I can apply for a Green Card after DP and I get married, which will give me options.

That's how I got my green card. However, I was not in the US and neither was my American ex when we met, dated, and got engaged.

This meant I had to get a fiance/e visa to go to the US where we got married. I then applied for my green card.

There's a lot of info on the USCIS website. There are regulations to cover pretty much all situations. I think you would need to file an adjustment of status form, along with a petition form that your spouse would file, and send documentation of your marriage, birth cert, current visa, and more.

Processing takes a year or more. You cannot leave the country without filing a specific form during this time. You are free to continue working under the terms of your original visa while the application is pending.

USCIS will interview you and your spouse separately to determine if the marriage is genuine, so stuff like your first date, info on his wider family and yours, etc needs to be off by heart.

Yeah I’ve heard it can take a while, although some Reddit threads suggest it can take less than a year. We’re not in a rush per se, it’s just the work situation and wanting to be able to leave my job if things got ‘that bad’. I also want the security of a GC before we start TTC, and given my age we can’t put that off too long.

Thanks for the advice.

@Crushed23 - I'm so pleased you're revived this lovely thread! Sorry to hear your work situation is challenging.

I hope everyone on the East Coast has come through this awful winter alright.

I switched from a visa to a green card (via adjustment of status) when I married my US citizen DH. We got married in September, filed paperwork a few weeks later, I had my interview in mid January and the (2 year) green card in hand a few weeks later. This was in 2012, so I suspect it takes a bit longer now. The process was fairly easy, we didn’t use an attorney, just make sure you have lots of evidence about your relationship - I submitted more than we needed and brought things like our wedding album to the interview.
I found the britexpats site useful for tips on what to include etc
Good luck!

Oh and you probably need a medical - I remember that being the piece that took longest, and I was surprised by some of the things (if you had TB vaccine as child it can come up positive and then they will send you for a lung xray!). Again, this may have changed since 2012!

I'm currently in the process of applying for my greencard. I have my medical next week. The chest x-ray is mandatory, with no waivers, but that may be location dependent. I'm applying through the Frankfurt consulate so the process may be slightly different.

Thanks for this! Super helpful. Yeah I’m hearing it can take a few months but to be prepared for it to take much longer. Like I say, we’re not in a rush, and I believe one has the right to work in the US while waiting for the GC which should enable me to leave my L1-visa-job if I needed to?

Are you a citizen now? Did you go on to have children in the US? Whereabouts do you live?

Yes, survived the brutal NY winter but only by taking a record 5 winter sun breaks between November and early March 😅

Super excited for spring 🥰 We missed the couple of warm days last week as we were on vacation, but this Sunday is supposed to be quite nice, so looking forward to that!

I did become a citizen eventually, mostly so I could vote! I had both of my kids here, I still occasionally marvel at how American they are, but they can’t imagine living anywhere else (for now anyway!). We live in the close-in Maryland suburbs of Washington DC. The kids are both in public school here and having a great experience, we are lucky to have very good schools in our area.

Is everyone having a good spring break? Do all the states even have spring break at the same time?

We had our first big storm of the season last week. No tornadoes touched down thank goodness - the kids and I hunkered down in the basement while the rotation spun right over the city - but it was a little too close to comfort. And now we’ve apparently jumped straight to summer as it’s 30 degrees C right now (still can’t get with Fahrenheit…)

I was in DC this week for work! Great place, although I still haven’t had chance to properly explore as I’ve only ever been there for work. Must do a weekend away there with DP sometime. I was early for my train back to NYC yesterday so I sat outside at an Irish pub near Union station (The Dubliner, I think it was called?) and had a beer. It was glorious. ☀️

Spring Break for us not until 6-10 April so fortnight to go. Weather beautiful today after windy Sunday and snow on Monday so rollercoaster of a spring so far!

we are in GC process submitted end Nov 2025, this week 3/5 got work authorisation i765 but myself and DS still waiting. This is only first approval so will need to wait on i485 AOS for next GC steps. So. Slow!

Yes, I’ve heard it’s painfully slow. Is yours a family-based GC through marriage? Or employment-based / another route?

Not even all districts have the same spring break, not to mention states. Where I live it was last week. The county north of me has spring break next week.