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Filed: Country:
Timeline
Posted

Doesn't CBP require ID when you cross the border into the US? I'd bet your visits are logged and if they see the pattern of coming & going where you're spending 90% of your time in the US then how dos that support your claim that you're just visiting & not living in the US?

The lawyer is correct then when you claim to be only visiting at the border but intend to live here then technically you are committing Immigration Fraud. The question is, "Can USCIS prove this?". I wonder how far your border crossing record would go towards that end? Remember that you will have to declare where you've been living all this time. If you are honest and admit to living in the US while the overstay would be overlooked I don't know anyone can say the same of your border crossing record as it is obvious you have to misrepresent to the CBP officer to get admitted to the US. So, would they need more than that to flag you as inadmissible for Material Misrepresentation?

Filed: Timeline
Posted

In the past, a record wasn't really kept at the Canadian and US borders. They've only recently started swiping the ID's at both borders. In other words, when you leave the US there was no way for the CBP to know that you had because Canada wasn't swiping the ID's. In fact, sometimes they didn't even ask you for an ID. They do now, though.

iagree.gif
Filed: Country:
Timeline
Posted
In the past, a record wasn't really kept at the Canadian and US borders. They've only recently started swiping the ID's at both borders. In other words, when you leave the US there was no way for the CBP to know that you had because Canada wasn't swiping the ID's. In fact, sometimes they didn't even ask you for an ID. They do now, though.

How recently was this change? If it was a few years ago then "DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!" but if it was just a few months ago then I guess this one wouldn't be of concern to the OP.

I do know that as far back as 5 - 6 years ago a Canadian friend of mine who lived just over the bridge from Detroit was warned that she was visiting too often.

Filed: Timeline
Posted

How recently was this change? If it was a few years ago then "DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!" but if it was just a few months ago then I guess this one wouldn't be of concern to the OP.

It's only been within the past few months at the Ontario border.

I do know that as far back as 5 - 6 years ago a Canadian friend of mine who lived just over the bridge from Detroit was warned that she was visiting too often.

Yeah, some tend to do that if they see you crossing often. The missing piece was that the CBP didn't know how long you were staying because there was no official "exit" at the land borders.

iagree.gif
Filed: Other Timeline
Posted

Allrighty,

so you don't have a visa (you stated in your initial post that you did!), and you have not been interrogated in secondary inspection.

Hence, you are good to go in regard to AOS, as soon as you have your tax returns at hand.

Understand that everybody who resides in the US, legal, illegal, drug dealer, hooker . . . anybody who has some form of income, has to file an annual tax return. That has nothing to do with immigration law, it's a tax law issue. Not filing taxes at all when making money is tax evasion, and that's a felony. Imagine getting your Green Card and a few weeks later you find yourself in handcuffs. Not cool.

USCIS knows, because you are smart enough to tell 'em honestly, that you worked. They are somewhat ignorant, but not that stupid. Whether you worked on payroll or under the table doesn't matter; what matters is that YOU tell Uncle Sam that you made some money. How much money or how little money you made is also not important; what's important is that you filed a tax return and when the I.O. asks you at the AOS interview if you worked you can say "yes" and if he or she asks you if you filed a tax return you can also say "yes, it's in the file."

That's what you need to do.

If there's anything that would want you to leave the person employing you out of this, file income via 1099, even if you never received a 1099 form from your "employer." Been there, done that.

You state how much money you made, and if it's not a lot, you basically only pay 14.7% (?) "self employment tax" into Social Security, which means you don't pay any real taxes at all. But you'll get your tax return, and you'll put it into the AOS file of your "USCIS" folder, which you will need to feed until you become a US citizen, perhaps a couple of years longer.

An added benefit of this peace of mind move is that you need to pay 10 years into SS anyway, in order to fully benefit from it. So here's your first year or two already done. Eight to go.

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all . . . . The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic . . . . There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.

President Teddy Roosevelt on Columbus Day 1915

Filed: AOS (apr) Country: Canada
Timeline
Posted

Allrighty,

so you don't have a visa (you stated in your initial post that you did!), and you have not been interrogated in secondary inspection.

Hence, you are good to go in regard to AOS, as soon as you have your tax returns at hand.

Understand that everybody who resides in the US, legal, illegal, drug dealer, hooker . . . anybody who has some form of income, has to file an annual tax return. That has nothing to do with immigration law, it's a tax law issue. Not filing taxes at all when making money is tax evasion, and that's a felony. Imagine getting your Green Card and a few weeks later you find yourself in handcuffs. Not cool.

USCIS knows, because you are smart enough to tell 'em honestly, that you worked. They are somewhat ignorant, but not that stupid. Whether you worked on payroll or under the table doesn't matter; what matters is that YOU tell Uncle Sam that you made some money. How much money or how little money you made is also not important; what's important is that you filed a tax return and when the I.O. asks you at the AOS interview if you worked you can say "yes" and if he or she asks you if you filed a tax return you can also say "yes, it's in the file."

That's what you need to do.

If there's anything that would want you to leave the person employing you out of this, file income via 1099, even if you never received a 1099 form from your "employer." Been there, done that.

You state how much money you made, and if it's not a lot, you basically only pay 14.7% (?) "self employment tax" into Social Security, which means you don't pay any real taxes at all. But you'll get your tax return, and you'll put it into the AOS file of your "USCIS" folder, which you will need to feed until you become a US citizen, perhaps a couple of years longer.

An added benefit of this peace of mind move is that you need to pay 10 years into SS anyway, in order to fully benefit from it. So here's your first year or two already done. Eight to go.

Thank you so much for your reply. No I don't have an actual visa. I just assumed that being here as a Canadian tourist; that my six months permission to stay is a visa in itself...Ok, the 1099 form asks for my employer's tax ID and my SSN number which I do not have. Can I leave those fields blank? Or what should I write there instead? Can I say I am self employed? After filing I send in a copy of my tax return with my AOS application?

Filed: Timeline
Posted

Thank you so much for your reply. No I don't have an actual visa. I just assumed that being here as a Canadian tourist; that my six months permission to stay is a visa in itself...Ok, the 1099 form asks for my employer's tax ID and my SSN number which I do not have. Can I leave those fields blank? Or what should I write there instead? Can I say I am self employed? After filing I send in a copy of my tax return with my AOS application?

You can follow the advise of your lawyer whom you will be paying to be there for you if you make a mistake that needs legal counsel. But I will say this all of the US government employees are not stupid as most on the site tends to want people to believe.

Why not do it the right way and be safe.

Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: Canada
Timeline
Posted

In fact, sometimes they didn't even ask you for an ID. They do now, though.

Ummm don't know about that. I work 5 minutes from the US border. I cross often. Coming into Canada I have had several occasions where they did not swipe my passport, always shocked, but that's the way it is!!

Feb 14, 2010 - Engaged :-)
Apr 17, 2010 - Married
May 24, 2010 - I-130 Sent to USCIS
Oct 20, 2010 - : I-130 NOA2 APPROVED..GOD IS GOOD!!!!! smile.png
Oct 26, 2010 : NVC Received
Dec 06, 2010 - Case Complete at NVC
Jan 24, 2011 - Medical exam
Feb 24, 2011 - Passed, welcome to USA
Mar 04, 2011 - POE - Detroit, MI
Mar 14, 2011 - SSN# Rec'd
Mar 24, 2011 - smile.png GC and Welcome Letter
Sept 19, 2011- Filed I-130 for my son (his step son)
June 14, 2013-APPROVED, 10 YR GC IN THE MAIL

Mar 3, 2014- N-400

May 12, 2014 Interview for Citizenship- PASSED!

June 12th, USA citizen - Oath Ceremony...all done here!!

Filed: Other Timeline
Posted

The 1099 basically is "self-employed" on sub contractor basis. If you do dog walking or baby sitting and get paid, you can report that on 1099 basis as no SS payments have been made by the "employer" (which is why you do that).

If you do not have a SSN, apply online for an Individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) and use that number to file a 2009 tax return. Should the AOS appointment roll over to the next year, you may even want to file your 2010 tax return first thing in January.

Thank you so much for your reply. No I don't have an actual visa. I just assumed that being here as a Canadian tourist; that my six months permission to stay is a visa in itself...Ok, the 1099 form asks for my employer's tax ID and my SSN number which I do not have. Can I leave those fields blank? Or what should I write there instead? Can I say I am self employed? After filing I send in a copy of my tax return with my AOS application?

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all . . . . The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic . . . . There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.

President Teddy Roosevelt on Columbus Day 1915

 
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