bck86

Thanks for sharing the processing status link, I hadn’t seen it before. I now see they’re currently processing W-7s from April and seeing as how mine was delivered in May, I’m feeling better.

I calculate 5 weeks from your delivery to CP565. I’m currently waiting for my CP565, which was delivered on May 3. There’s no indication on the IRS website that they even received my tax return, I only have my delivery confirmation to indicate it was delivered on 5/3. I’m a little nervous about it.

As promised, I’m here to follow up on my situation. I filed for a tax extension in the first week of April, as suggested by members in this thread, though I was told both by tax professionals and during the process itself that if I don’t owe taxes, it wasn’t necessary. I did it anyway, and my online IRS account reflects my extension: “You have an extension to file your 2023 tax return.” I contacted an IRS CAA in Thailand who met with my husband to certify his passport so we could file the W-7. The CAA made the process extremely easy and once the proper documents were signed, he sent them to me by DHL. After I received the documents, I filed the W-7 along with my tax return (prepared by Turbo Tax online) on paper to the ITIN operation in Austin, TX. I did this all by the end of April, then made a copy of the entire tax packet to take to our interview and show that we had filed our taxes. Our interview was today (June 11), and though we were prepared with both 2022 tax return (the same that I submitted to the NVC back in January when we were DQ) and 2023 tax return (submitted last month, still processing), they did not ask us for any of the financial documents at all. We were approved and though it turns out we weren’t asked for them, I’m glad we had everything prepared on the chance they did ask.

It’s $675 if you file by paper (mail) or $625 if you file online which is the recommended way. But keep in mind, that is just the I-130 filing fee and there are several other costs and fees associated with this process.

After nearly 4 months, we've received our interview date for June. 😀

I know it's been a few weeks since you asked this, but thought I'd pop in to say that I've been DQ since Jan 2 and waiting on the Cambodia embassy for an interview going on 3 months this week. 😓

I’m not but my husband is so that might be helpful! What’s the name of the group?

Good luck to you @Hex123 and @Dataunavailable on your upcoming interviews. If you could please share how it went after they’re complete, or message me if that’s better, I would appreciate it. I’m still waiting on my interview date. 😭

Can you please elaborate on the “especially if you’re expecting a refund” part? Why is that riskier than if you owe taxes?

Thanks for this info! I think I’ll file for an extension so I can go with my Option 2 and hope that if they get to us before I get to Thailand in May-ish to file the taxes, they’ll accept that I have requested the extension. You’re right, it says there’s no penalty for not filing by April 15 if you don’t owe taxes. I was posting here to check my understanding. I appreciate your knowledge across these forums, and I think based on everyone’s answers here and my own understanding, I’m going to go with filing an extension and then Option 2 of filing MFJ at a CAA when I go to Cambodia and Thailand in a few months.

I do think (hope) he’ll be here before October 15. Been DQ since January 2. Already submitted DS-260 and definitely checked the box that we’d like to get his SSN. Amending is definitely something I’m not interested in, too much paperwork. But we are for sure owed a refund, we won’t owe taxes. Just waiting for the interview date now. A couple of people who were waiting for interviews in Cambodia got their interviews 5-6 months after DQ so I’m hoping mine is coming soon, been DQ for almost 3 months now. Do they require a filed tax return, even if you aren’t legally required to file it just yet? I can obviously provide W-2s for the past calendar year, make well over the financial threshold, and we have proof of joint finances (property ownership).

Ah I totally missed that. THANK YOU! That being said, the issue remains that all of his certified documents are in Cambodia and I have no way of getting them. I'm assuming certified copy means not a photocopy/PDF of said certified document. Do you happen to know, then, if I can do my Option 2 beyond the April 15 date once I go to Cambodia and get a certified copy of his birth certificate from him?

I appreciate your responses, and I am aware of these guidelines. I guess I could expand on why I'm not doing the ITIN approach to begin with. To file the Form W-7 for ITIN with my MFJ return, I'll need to include my spouse's physical passport, correct? But he is in Cambodia and currently waiting for his interview date, so I have no way of getting his passport, and we wouldn't want to send it anyway since he will need it for his interview and we don't want to risk him not having it. We're hoping our interview is coming soon. So I believe that means I cannot file the W-7 with my return by April 15. Therefore, I feel like I have two options: Option 1: Delay filing my tax return until he arrives in the U.S. At that point, he'll get his SSN soon after and we can file like regular. My understanding (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that this would be an okay solution because, since we are owed a refund, we actually have up until April 15, 2027 to file said return with no penalties (see here). Option 2: Delay filing my tax return until I go see him in Cambodia. We would actually then need to fly to Bangkok (no problem) to visit an IRS-approved CAA where he can present his passport in person, and we can file the tax return with W-7 without having to surrender his physical passport. Either option would require me to file after the April 15, 2024 filing deadline. I suppose my question is, is my understanding of the above correct? And if so, does it sound like a good idea?

Yes, I'm aware. My spouse has no income so this works out incredibly favorably if I file MFJ, which is why I'm pretty adamant about filing it that way.

I have read dozens of posts and see that the common advice is to file Married Filing Separately if your spouse is still abroad. In my case, there is a significant tax liability difference in filing MFS and MFJ. Here's my conundrum: If I file MFS, I will owe a couple thousand If I file MFJ, we will get a refund of several thousands My spouse is abroad, has never been to the US, and we are currently DQ and just waiting for our interview letter I read that if you are owed a refund, you can file your taxes up to three years after the filing deadline for the tax year. In this case, I would theoretically have until April 15, 2027 to file and get the refund. However, of course, if you owe, you must file by the regular deadline. There is obviously a risk in waiting until he comes to the US to file the taxes, but is it a legally viable option for me? Do I have a correct understanding of the rules? I'm really hoping for our interview letter any day now, and at least if we had that I'd feel more comfortable with the decision to wait. Am I being silly, and should I just file separately and pay the thousands, even knowing I should actually be owed several thousand more? The other thing is I'll be visiting him this summer, so an alternative option would be to file MFJ at a CAA when I see him, but it would be after April 15. Thanks in advance!