Another E2 visa question

Lots of great info available on this site. Thanks to all for your postings......

My question though is this:-
We have been told that to apply for the E2 we have to go through the US embassy London, because we are British. We have also been told that we have to be able to prove residency in the UK before we can apply. This is where our problem is, as we have not lived in the UK for over ten years.
Does anyone have any insight on this subject? Is there any way 'around' the problem and if not, how long does it take to establish residency for the purposes of applying for the E2 visa?
Many thanks,
Lucy

Hi Lucy

Welcome to the forum!

According to the US Embassy, a UK applicant must prove residency in the UK and actually reside in the UK, which doesn't sound like good news for you if you live somewhere else! The relevant section is here http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/visa/niv/e.htm and is about two thirds down the page.

At the moment, all I can tell you is that for tax purposes, residency is usually 183 days.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Lucy Lastic
Lots of great info available on this site. Thanks to all for your postings......

My question though is this:-
We have been told that to apply for the E2 we have to go through the US embassy London, because we are British. We have also been told that we have to be able to prove residency in the UK before we can apply. This is where our problem is, as we have not lived in the UK for over ten years.
Does anyone have any insight on this subject? Is there any way "around" the problem and if not, how long does it take to establish residency for the purposes of applying for the E2 visa?
Many thanks,
Lucy
[/quote]

Where are you residing right now ?

It's 90 days now Blott, and is a major pain if you are trying to stay non-resident; although if you visit good old Blighty they don't count your arrival and departure days in the total so that helps a bit.

Lucy - the 'residency' area is a really fiddly one. I would guess that you will either find it really easy or really difficult with there being no middle ground. My first bit of advice would be to ask the US embassy exactly what they will accept as proof of residency in the UK, so that you know exactly what you are dealing with. If you have lived in another European country for 10 years you might also try asking the US embassy in that country for advice as well. It might also be worth considering the services of a specialist immigration attorney, especially as your circumstances are somewhat non-standard.

If you are lucky you might be able to satisfy this by a combination of a UK passport and a listing on the electoral register. If you haven't switched nationality (still British) but you do not live in England or have any residence there (which you might rent out) I believe that you can have yourself added to an electoral register of your choice.

If it gets really really thorney you may end up needing to rent a place in the UK for 3 or 4 months. You would then technically go resident (and ordinarily resident) on your 91st day.

Thanks to you all for your replies.....lots to think about and more research is obviously needed.
We all have UK passports but no property in the UK and are not on the electoral register anywhere.
We have been living in Spain for the past three years, and as Spain is on the "list" of E2 visa countries we were hoping to apply through the US embassy in Madrid[msnscared]

Lucy

Can I ask why you want to leave a country with sunshine where you have a perfect right to reside for a country with sunshine where you dont and on a visa where you have no rights when the clever money in Florida seems to be moving in the opposite direction at the moment?

Hi Julie,
Well you are right, life is pretty good here in Spain. Things are becoming (slowly) better in terms of red tape and the "hoop jumping" which we also were made to do in order that we could live here.
I have read with interest most of your posts here and thank you for what is obviously a well meant reality check. Our love for all things American comes from the mid 1990's, when we were out in California for three years. My husband got a J1 visa to train and work in his profession. It was an amazing experience for all of us (we have two young children) and we were sad when we realised we could not stay on beyond the life of the visa. We always said that if there was a way to move back there then we would take it. Now it seems that there may not be one for us, unless we move the whole family back to the UK[msncry]until the embassy are satisfied that we are residents once more, and even then there would be no gaurentee of our sucess in applying for E2 status. I would be extremely grateful if anyone could point me towards information on the L1 visa as this is an avenue which we have not explored and at first glance at least, looks better than the E2.
Many thanks,
Lucy.