Step One - Hiring a Lawyer

Hello everyone,

After several weeks of waiting to hear from the lawyer at Masliah and Soloway, we finally had our consultation last night!

As you may recall, their company was the ones who helped set up the DOMA Project, which was designed by the firm's lawyers to challenge DOMA.

After DOMA was overturned, they began offering initial consultations for free.

We applied for this, but only last night did we finally get ours.

Anyway, we spent an hour or so talking via Skype to Lavi Soloway, having a detailed discussion about what happened next, what we should do and the immigration process.

Overall it was very useful. He was able to clarify for us a few questions we had, and we have decided to go ahead and hire them as our representatives through this process.

Their fees seem quite reasonable, and are a flat fee rather than ongoing costs that they bill us for. It allows you to know exactly where you stand.

Lavi informed us that they are very flexible with payments, and will always try to figure out what is best for the clients.

So, to begin with the fee for the filing of the first round of paperwork will cost $1500, which we are paying as three $500 instalments.

For this fee, they sent us a list of everything we need to gather.

We send it all to them, and then they will file the forms on our behalf.

We also have to pay them the fees as required for the I-130 petition. These are currently set at $420.

This is the list and instructions sent to us:

For the U.S. Citizen Spouse - Petitioner:

*Marriage Certificate
*Birth Certificate
*Biographical Page of U.S. Passport

*U.S. Naturalization Certificate (if applicable)

*Document Evidencing Termination of Prior Marriage (if applicable)

*One Passport-style Photograph (requirements: <http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/visaphotoreq/visaphotoreq_5334.html> )

For the Foreign National Spouse - Beneficiary:

*Birth Certificate (with certified translation if document is not in English)
*Passport(s) (a copy of each page of each passport, including cover)

*Document Evidencing Termination of Prior Marriage (if applicable)
One Passport-style Photograph (requirements for this linked above)

All documents not in English must be accompanied by certified translations. Upon request, we can have any documents translated on your behalf for a small fee. Each translation must include a statement signed by the translator that states that the:

*Translation is accurate, and,
*Translator is competent to translate from that language into English.

Of course, only a select few things on that list apply to us, but it is worth noting here for people reading this that it does affect.

So, when I am with Jon this week, we will fill out the forms that were attached to the email, get our photos taken, and send both with the fees and copies of our birth certificates to them.

Once we are married we will forward them our marriage certificate.

The lawyers will then send everything needed to the USCIS, and step one will be completed!

Once we have the forms in hand, and we are filling them out, I will document more accurately what you have to do exactly, as so that others can benefit from our experience.

I had mentioned that there was a second fee for the lawyers.

This is the only only other fee we pay them, besides and US government fees which they pay on our behalf when we send them the money.

It just takes away the stress of us doing it, and potentially getting it wrong. They ask, we provide, and we know it'll get done properly!

Anyway, the second fee I believe was $2500.

This will be for all assistance and forms etc after the I-130 has been sent, basically until the end of the process.

So, to recap, here's what we've had to do so far/about to do if not already:

*Hire a good immigration lawyer (Masliah and Soloway are immigration experts, and founders of the DOMA Project).

*Order any copies of birth certificates we don't hold.

*Send copies of these, plus passport photos, all our passport information, and travel information about my visits to the US.

*Provide personal biographical information to the lawyer, such as home addresses, work, Jon's income etc.

*File the lawyer fee and USCIS fee with the lawyers.

*Get married so that the lawyers can file the I-130 petition with the USCIS.

You may have noticed that "get married" was on the list. You may also recall that we haven't done this yet, as I was looking into venues etc.

Well, I am going to update about that probably tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Overall so far hasn't been too painful. Just a lot of waiting. And there'll be a lot more of that over the next year!

I'm actually typing this on my iPhone right now, but when I'm back at my desk I am going to make another update about getting married, what we have done to get that started, and I also will attach the forms we have had to fill out so far, so that you can all see the process exactly as it is (blank copies of course, which then you can print and use as a practice model if you want).

Dan.

Birth Certificate Arrived!

Hello everyone,

As you can tell from the title of this entry, my full UK birth certificate that I ordered 3 weeks ago from the General Register Office (GRO) finally came today!
I am documenting this here so that I have a record of how long this entire process is taking!
Also, others might be wondering where theirs is, or how long it will take, so now we know!
Standard service - expect it to be 3 weeks!

Dan.

Food for Thought - Lawyers, Birth Certificates and Working

Hello everyone,

Just some food for thought this afternoon.

First off, I am still waiting for my full UK birth certificate to arrive. Apparently it is being sent out today! I'll be glad to finally have it in my hands!

Second, I want to mention our experience with the lawyers so far.
As you may recall, Jon and I decided to take up the free offer from Masliah-Soloway. Unfortunately they haven't really proven themselves to be very helpful or efficient so far.
I assume their offer was not only to help same sex bi-national couples, but of course to also drum up business. I mean, a company offers a free consultation, and if you're impressed, you'd hire them, right?
Well, according to their Facebook page so far they have helped over 200 couples on this "offer" and filed over 100 immigration petitions.
I emailed them within the hour they posted about their offer way back after DOMA was struck down.
All we have had so far is some rather vague emails asking if we can Skype during the evenings. And that was well over a week ago.
If anyone has had a better experience with them, please feel free to share it with me, but thus far we are probably going to ditch them and hire a more reliable lawyer.
A shame since Masliah-Soloway are meant to be experts in same sex immigration. Oh well, c'est la vie.

The last thing I wanted to mention was something just bugged me in a conversation I saw online, and actually made me think about my own situation.
When I come to the US I'll probably lose a lot of the benefits that I get now in my adult working life.

Workers in the UK are entitled by law to 5.6 weeks paid annual leave per year (equivalent to 28 days full time; pro-rata for part time). Armed forces get 38 days. Our minimum wage for working adults is £6.19, rising to £6.31 on 1st October this year (that's just under US $10).

As a comparison, the US Federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 ($2 less than the UK), and companies are NOT required to pay you for time off, according to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
That's not to say whoever I end up working for won't be more generous, and I know some companies are fairly decent, but it's the fact that there is nothing that binds them in law to give me those benefits, whereas here in the UK it's my right.

Like I said, some food for thought for you today.

Dan.

Birth Certificate Ordered! Important info for those who need theirs!

Hello everyone,

Well I said I was going to document every step of the way, and here we are!
This evening I ordered the long/full version of my birth certificate from the UK General Register Office.
When you are born in the UK your parents do not necessarily have to take a copy of the "long certificate" (for what ever reason), but instead get a smaller one, that does not have their names on it.

When you apply for a visa for the US, your birth certificate has to be the long version. If your parents did not collect this, and only have the small one, this is not valid proof for the US visa.

Anyway, it's fairly easy to apply for. You fill in your details as required, and make the card payment online.
There isn't an option for the long or hort version, so don't worry about ordering the wrong thing - they will always send you the long version.

It costs GBP 9.25 (sorry, I don't have a UK pound sign!).

The next thing I'll need to order online is my Police Certificate for the US visa... Although these have limited validity, so I will do that nearer the time as required. They cost GBP 45.

Dan.