Company re-location

[carriesp]

Hi,
My husband has worked for a large American company for 27 years and they have asked us to re-locate over to the USA from the UK as his expertise is required. They will sort out our visas for us. It would be a long term move with us probably applying for residency in the future. The problem we have is that we have a 22 year old daughter who is living with, and being supported by us whilst finishing her studies. She has qualifications in media make up and beauty therapy. She now needs to take up 2 years work experience with a film/tv company. We understand that to be allowed to accompany us a child has to be under 21. Would there be any way we could take her with us for this work experience and if not, how long would she legally be allowed to visit us each year if we were to move without her?
I trawled the net for days before finding this site so am very happy to have found you
Thank you,
Kind regards,
Carrie ~

 

[GotPR?]

No, being over 21 years old, there is not much the parents can do. She must deal with immigration on her own to come to the US.

In general, most of the foreign workers(let's say white collars) works under H1 status. I'm not sure if your daughter is qualified for H1B, but she can try. You can search on internet with "H1" or "H-1B" and some keyword related to her work so that you may be able to find some story that H1 was obtained for said jobs. However, there are a few requirement to clear.
1. H1 requires at least bachelor degree in the related field to intended job.
2. H1 requires a employer. She can not apply H1 on her own. Employer needs to apply, which means she has to find an employer first.
3. H1 has annual quota which is 65000. Once H1 issued reached that quota, no more H1 will be issued til the next year. She(her employer in the US) can file H1 anytime after April 1, but I can tell you that they have to file it on April 1, because nowadays, there are so many H1 applicants and, in fact, all the quota was exhausted on april 1 last year.

Another option is student visa(F1 visa). She could get it if she got enrolled into college.
And I believe J1 has some trainee category and it may fit her.

I'm not familiar with F1 and J1, and you had better ask in F1 or J1 section.

If she did not get anything above for whatever reason, assuming she is UK citizen, she can visit the US under visa waiver program(no visa), which allows her to visit family for up to 90 days per visit. Or she can get B visa if she wants to stay a bit longer per visit.
It's difficult to say how many days in total per year is allowed to stay, but obviously too long is not good. 90 days per year should not be problem, 120 days may be fine, 180 days is quite questionable. It's up to the officer at the airport to decide to let her in based on her past visit history. If officer at passport control at the airport thinks she is spending too long time as visitor, they may reject her entry.

 

[carriesp]

Hi,
Thanks so much for the information.. pretty much what we thought but it does give us some ideas to look at. I will go and take a look at the F1 and J1 sections to see if there is anything in the FAQ and if not then post a message on them.
Thanks very much again for your help!
Kind regards,
Carrie ~

 

[simsd]

Carrie,

F1 is for students so she would have to be enrolled in in some sort of school - and because you will be classified as non-residents the tuition is generally five to ten times the normally cost. Your daughters profession is not just specialized but it's ultra-specialized.

If she came as a visitor, she might be able to look for work under an O visa which is for people in the performing arts.

What is O1 Visa?
A2 Definitions
Arts: This includes any field of creative activity or endeavor such as, but not limited to, fine arts, visual arts, culinary arts or performing arts. This, not only includes those who are the principal creators and performers, but also essential persons such as, but not limited to, directors, set designers, lighting designers, sound designers, choreographers, choreologists, conductors, orchestra conductors, coaches, arrangers, musical supervisors, costume designers, makeup artists, flight masters, stage technicians, and animal trainers.