Concerns on DCF Forms and Status of Child

[Steve Johnson 0]

Hello all,

I'm new to posting here but have read these forums from time to time. I'm going to be filing the I-130 Petition soon for my wife to come live in the states with me and have some questions/concerns I hope someone can advise on.

Family background:

I'm a US Citizen living in the UK Currently (since Jan 8 2005) and have ILR status stamped in my US Passport.

My wife is a UK Citizen living in the UK.

My wife and I married in Nov 2004 and moved to the UK on Jan 8 2005. On December 20 2005 our son Robbie was born here in the UK, so he is a UK citizen, but we have also gone through the steps to get him a US Passport and registered as a US citizen.

We are planning to move back to the states soon and will be applying the DCF way hopefully to save some time in making the move.

Now onto the questions:

1. Will I need to file a seperate petition for my 2 year old son who is a registered US Citizen and posesses a US Passport?

2. On the form I-130 (Number 10) it asks for an Alien Registration Number for my wife...is that her National Insurance Number or something else she does not have yet?

3. On the I-130 Petition Checklist is says "Petitioner's email address: Indicate a contact email address at the bottom of page 1." Does this mean in the blank space under/next to the barcode at the bottom of the form?

4. On form G-325A, should my wife put "UK" or "BRITISH" as Citizenship/Nationality?

5. On form G-325A, it asks what the form is being submitted in connection with, so seeing as I'm petitioning for her to move back to the states with me, would that me "naturalization" or "other"?

6. This is the most worrying for me now and may be a big problem. When moving here to the UK just under 3 years ago, I was never told by any authorities that I would be responsible for filing tax forms in the US each year, so I have failed to do so. I feel like a fool for not looking into this now, but I've never been good with taxes seeing as my mother has always filed them for me ever since my first job, hehe. Can anyone offer any advice on this or should I just ring the IRS and confess to my ignorance and beg for forgiveness?

Many thanks to anyone who can lend advice, it's all really appreciated.

Steve Johnson

[MargotDarko 0]

Hello all,

I'm new to posting here but have read these forums from time to time. I'm going to be filing the I-130 Petition soon for my wife to come live in the states with me and have some questions/concerns I hope someone can advise on.

Family background:

I'm a US Citizen living in the UK Currently (since Jan 8 2005) and have ILR status stamped in my US Passport.

My wife is a UK Citizen living in the UK.

My wife and I married in Nov 2004 and moved to the UK on Jan 8 2005. On December 20 2005 our son Robbie was born here in the UK, so he is a UK citizen, but we have also gone through the steps to get him a US Passport and registered as a US citizen.

We are planning to move back to the states soon and will be applying the DCF way hopefully to save some time in making the move.

Now onto the questions:

1. Will I need to file a seperate petition for my 2 year old son who is a registered US Citizen and posesses a US Passport?

2. On the form I-130 (Number 10) it asks for an Alien Registration Number for my wife...is that her National Insurance Number or something else she does not have yet?

3. On the I-130 Petition Checklist is says "Petitioner's email address: Indicate a contact email address at the bottom of page 1." Does this mean in the blank space under/next to the barcode at the bottom of the form?

4. On form G-325A, should my wife put "UK" or "BRITISH" as Citizenship/Nationality?

5. On form G-325A, it asks what the form is being submitted in connection with, so seeing as I'm petitioning for her to move back to the states with me, would that me "naturalization" or "other"?

6. This is the most worrying for me now and may be a big problem. When moving here to the UK just under 3 years ago, I was never told by any authorities that I would be responsible for filing tax forms in the US each year, so I have failed to do so. I feel like a fool for not looking into this now, but I've never been good with taxes seeing as my mother has always filed them for me ever since my first job, hehe. Can anyone offer any advice on this or should I just ring the IRS and confess to my ignorance and beg for forgiveness?

Many thanks to anyone who can lend advice, it's all really appreciated.

Steve Johnson

Hello there! No forms need to be filled out for your son as he is a USC. He should just be mentioned whenever the forms ask you to list children. If she has never had a visa for the US before, she does not have an Alien Registration Number so put "N/A" in that space. Yes, it should be fine to write your e-mail address there, but you could also just put it in a covering letter. I am quite sure UK or BRITISH would be acceptable for citizenship. I believe we put British for my hubby. For the question about what the G-325A is being submitted in connection with, you should tick "Other" and write in "I-130 petition for spouse". She won't be eligible for naturalisation until she's lived in the US as a permanent resident for 3 years as your spouse.

It will not be a big deal to backfile taxes now. Definitely get it sorted soon though. You will need your 2006 return at the interview (actually, it will probably be after April, so you would need the 2007 one then). And I am quite sure they will see whether or not you filed for the two previous years as well. You can ring the IRS and ask for help and as long as there's nothing complicated aside from the 2555 foreign income exclusion form, you can probably fill out the forms on your own. The easiest thing would be file as "married, filing separately" so that you do not have to obtain an Individual Tax ID for your wife. You would just write N/A in the space for your wife's SSN.

If you're not too far from London, you might want to consider making an appt with an IRS agent there at the US embassy who could help you with all the forms and I believe even file them for you. You'll need payslips and things so that you know your actual UK income, but the nice thing is that they don't require you to send them as proof. As long as you've made less than about $82,000 USD each US tax year in the UK, then you won't owe any US taxes on your UK income. If there was any year where you spent 29 days or more in the US, that may be a complication, but the IRS people can help you figure it out.

Edited January 7, 2008 by MargotDarko

[Steve Johnson 0]

Hello all,

I'm new to posting here but have read these forums from time to time. I'm going to be filing the I-130 Petition soon for my wife to come live in the states with me and have some questions/concerns I hope someone can advise on.

Family background:

I'm a US Citizen living in the UK Currently (since Jan 8 2005) and have ILR status stamped in my US Passport.

My wife is a UK Citizen living in the UK.

My wife and I married in Nov 2004 and moved to the UK on Jan 8 2005. On December 20 2005 our son Robbie was born here in the UK, so he is a UK citizen, but we have also gone through the steps to get him a US Passport and registered as a US citizen.

We are planning to move back to the states soon and will be applying the DCF way hopefully to save some time in making the move.

Now onto the questions:

1. Will I need to file a seperate petition for my 2 year old son who is a registered US Citizen and posesses a US Passport?

2. On the form I-130 (Number 10) it asks for an Alien Registration Number for my wife...is that her National Insurance Number or something else she does not have yet?

3. On the I-130 Petition Checklist is says "Petitioner's email address: Indicate a contact email address at the bottom of page 1." Does this mean in the blank space under/next to the barcode at the bottom of the form?

4. On form G-325A, should my wife put "UK" or "BRITISH" as Citizenship/Nationality?

5. On form G-325A, it asks what the form is being submitted in connection with, so seeing as I'm petitioning for her to move back to the states with me, would that me "naturalization" or "other"?

6. This is the most worrying for me now and may be a big problem. When moving here to the UK just under 3 years ago, I was never told by any authorities that I would be responsible for filing tax forms in the US each year, so I have failed to do so. I feel like a fool for not looking into this now, but I've never been good with taxes seeing as my mother has always filed them for me ever since my first job, hehe. Can anyone offer any advice on this or should I just ring the IRS and confess to my ignorance and beg for forgiveness?

Many thanks to anyone who can lend advice, it's all really appreciated.

Steve Johnson

Hello there! No forms need to be filled out for your son as he is a USC. He should just be mentioned whenever the forms ask you to list children. If she has never had a visa for the US before, she does not have an Alien Registration Number so put "N/A" in that space. Yes, it should be fine to write your e-mail address there, but you could also just put it in a covering letter. I am quite sure UK or BRITISH would be acceptable for citizenship. I believe we put British for my hubby. For the question about what the G-325A is being submitted in connection with, you should tick "Other" and write in "I-130 petition for spouse". She won't be eligible for naturalisation until she's lived in the US as a permanent resident for 3 years as your spouse.

It will not be a big deal to backfile taxes now. Definitely get it sorted soon though. You will need your 2006 return at the interview (actually, it will probably be after April, so you would need the 2007 one then). And I am quite sure they will see whether or not you filed for the two previous years as well. You can ring the IRS and ask for help and as long as there's nothing complicated aside from the 2555 foreign income exclusion form, you can probably fill out the forms on your own. The easiest thing would be file as "married, filing separately" so that you do not have to obtain an Individual Tax ID for your wife. You would just write N/A in the space for your wife's SSN.

If you're not too far from London, you might want to consider making an appt with an IRS agent there at the US embassy who could help you with all the forms and I believe even file them for you. You'll need payslips and things so that you know your actual UK income, but the nice thing is that they don't require you to send them as proof. As long as you've made less than about $82,000 USD each US tax year in the UK, then you won't owe any US taxes on your UK income. If there was any year where you spent 29 days or more in the US, that may be a complication, but the IRS people can help you figure it out.

Thanks so much for your advice, it really is a big help! I'll give the IRS in London a ring and sort out my tax info and then the only thing we'll need to do is get our recent photos made up and send the petition in.

Thanks again and I'll try and start my date list soon to keep everyone informed of our progress.

Steve

[MargotDarko 0]

No problem. I'm glad to help.

Also, the pictures for the I-130 petition when you send it directly to the embassy in London do not have to fit the US passport requirements. We had pictures done at a passport booth in Tescos and they were accepted without a problem. My husband had a US style one done for the medical and for the interview, but as he did it on the morning of the medical in London at one of the recommended places, it was easy and not too expensive. I believe he paid something like 10 GBP for 4 pictures.

[Steve Johnson 0]

No problem. I'm glad to help.

Also, the pictures for the I-130 petition when you send it directly to the embassy in London do not have to fit the US passport requirements. We had pictures done at a passport booth in Tescos and they were accepted without a problem. My husband had a US style one done for the medical and for the interview, but as he did it on the morning of the medical in London at one of the recommended places, it was easy and not too expensive. I believe he paid something like 10 GBP for 4 pictures.

Sorry, I thought I knew all I needed to know about filing now but I have one more question if anyone can help.

On the checklist for the Petition for Alien Spouse in the G-325A(Biographical Information) section "Only one form to be completed by the petitioner and one form by his/her spouse. Do not submit multiple copies (even though you might see instructions elsewhere to do so)."

Being that the G-325A consists of 5 pages (4 requesting the same in and 1 instruction sheet), do the checklist instructions mean to only fill out page 1 of the 5 or does it mean something else? I would hate to only fill in page 1 of the G-325A and leave the rest blank and the consequently have my application rejected, so if anyone can advise, that would be great.

Many thanks,

Steve

[MargotDarko 0]

Sorry, I thought I knew all I needed to know about filing now but I have one more question if anyone can help.

On the checklist for the Petition for Alien Spouse in the G-325A(Biographical Information) section "Only one form to be completed by the petitioner and one form by his/her spouse. Do not submit multiple copies (even though you might see instructions elsewhere to do so)."

Being that the G-325A consists of 5 pages (4 requesting the same in and 1 instruction sheet), do the checklist instructions mean to only fill out page 1 of the 5 or does it mean something else? I would hate to only fill in page 1 of the G-325A and leave the rest blank and the consequently have my application rejected, so if anyone can advise, that would be great.

Many thanks,

Steve

You don't need to worry about a rejection just because of filling out the forms incorrectly. The worst that would happen is that there is a delay because they request you to send in more information or corrected forms.

The G325A is really one page of information duplicated four times with a different line at the bottom of each page. I believe this is for something they do at US service centers and therefore the USCIS office in London only needs one page. Does that make sense? However, there is no harm in sending all four pages of each. If you fill out the form on your computer, the information duplicates itself. I sent in the whole thing of each G325A when my hubby and I did DCF, and there was no problem.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

We both filled out and submitted only 1 page of the 4 pages, as per Embassy instructions (as this was in my pre-VJ days ) and had absolutely no problem. So apparently it's not an issue if you submit one or all four.