garebear397

Not that I recommend doing it exactly in the timing we did it....but we planned a larger wedding in my wife's home country, that was going to be our "second" wedding. Basically the idea was she would arrive in the US on K1, do a quick small ceremony, apply for the GC and AP right away, get her AP or GC before we needed to go back down for the big ceremony. We were planning our wedding out probably a year in advance, and just tried to build in plenty of buffer time if things got delayed -- and we ended up using most of the buffer time. So my wife arrived in the US in August, we got married a day later in my parents house with like 5 other people there, applied for GC and AP right away, and luckily got her GC in time in December, because we had the wedding planned for January in Chile. Like I said....I wouldn't recommend doing it with such tight timing, if you want to plan a big ceremony just build in lots and lots of buffer time, and know that you also basically have 9 months of time once you get the visa (6 months validity of K-1 visa, and have to marry in 3 months).

I mean I think @dd2024dd should obviously talk with a tax accountant that is an expert on filing for "expats" (I have used MyExpatTaxes many times myself for both FEIE and Foreign Tax Credits), besides just trusting anyone one of us. But I am not seeing anywhere on the IRS page where having a W-2 means you can't claim FEIE? Feel free to point it out if I am missing something. Actually here it explicitly says where or how you get paid has nothing to do with it: The source of your earned income is the place where you perform the services for which you receive the income. Foreign earned income is income you receive for performing personal services in a foreign country. Where or how you are paid has no effect on the source of the income. For example, income you receive for work done in France is income from a foreign source even if the income is paid directly to your bank account in the United States and your employer is in New York City. You can absolutely still be taxed in a foreign country if you are earning US income with a W2 while living in that foreign country. Many countries have rules that tax "worldwide earned income" that if you are living in that country, you can be taxed on any income earned while living there, regardless of where that company is located or where you are paid. Now, it is very up to the individual to report that income, but you can and usually will be subject to foreign tax. Just as an example, because I know Chilean tax law the best, from PWC: Chile taxes its individuals resident or domiciled in Chile on worldwide income. Foreigners working in Chile are subject to taxation only on their Chilean-source income during the first three years in Chile, after which worldwide income is taxed.

This thread (utah-online-marriage) has @Simplytex 's experience quite detailed.

It has been a while since I have done the K-1 visa, but don't you even have to submit the I-134 (Affidavit of support) during the K-1 consulate interview? I think it has lower requirement (100% of poverty limit, instead of 125% for I-864) -- but if MarioandMaria, you all can't satisfy that (and as others have mentioned, assets are a difficult way to prove it) you won't even get the K-1 visa for the foreign fiancé to enter. And say you do get the visa, the I-864 for the green card is an even higher limit, and probably more scrutinized since they are applying to be a resident (and not a temporary K-1 holder) -- honestly the worst case scenario is that you DO get the K-1 visa, but do NOT get the green card because of the I-864, because now the foreign fiancé has to leave the country or risk being out of status, and its a whole mess. You need to figure out a joint sponsor, or a job before the K-1 interview. Or put off the move, get married, wait until the sponsor is done with med school, and has sufficient income to sponsor a CR1 visa.

To make sure everything is abundantly clear here: The CR1/IR1 page in your passport is a valid VISA (even before stamped), it is your legal status for being able to enter the US (not as a visitor, not with your ESTA, not with anything else). If anyone asks for your visa number or have to fill it out on the form, that IR1/CR1 visa page and number is what you need to provide You are not a LPR/resident until you have entered the US for the first time with your IR1/CR1 visa, so especially if you are traveling alone the default line should be the "foreigner" line, because you are not a LPR yet. Now if you are traveling with your US citizen spouse, you can ask the workers and they may direct you to the US citizen/resident line (this has happened to us and my non-citizen wife, even when she was traveling with her B2 visa), but if any doubts just use the foreigner line. Now, once you enter for the first time with your CR1/IR1 and get your temporary I-551 stamp, you are now a LPR! If you travel again before you get your physical green card, you can use your IR1/CR1 visa with the stamp, and use the resident line during immigration. And it is still your visa, and you can use that number for any forms or questions until you get your physical green card -- though if there is ever an option to select "resident" you can now select it. Hopefully that is clear for everyone, @pushbrk feel free to correct if I missed something.

While I agree and think she is fine to take a call or make a payment -- I do want to be clear (for other people that stumble upon this thread too), just because your work or business is outside of the US does not mean it is always allowed with B1/B2 visa. Like you can't work your 9-5 remotely for a company located outside the US, while in the US on a tourist visa -- especially if you visiting the US has nothing to do with your job. The B1 visa is for a specific temporary work obligation, like meeting with a client, attending a conference, closing a negotiation, or like your example.

No yeah, we are very clear how much time for her to spend here, we are not trying to abuse ESTA at all, she will spend at least double the time away that she will spend in the US, etc. Ok yeah I thought in general she should be fine on the work front, especially since she has a property manager. And that also helps if they question at the border, that she explain that she can be away so long because she has someone that manages the property.

This might be getting into the weeds, but just want to know exactly what would count as "work" in regards to visiting on ESTA. My mother-in-law (from Chile) will be visiting us probably quite frequently once we move back to the US. She is a widow, retired, and lives off of her pension and income from her beach rental property. It just occurred to me, that management of her property remotely potentially could count as work and would not be permitted while she was visiting the US -- anyone have advice or more detailed reference of what is permitted and not on a ESTA? Just for details, she has someone that manages probably 95% of the work of the property (booking, managing guests, cleaning, supplies, etc.). But my MIL every once and a while has to talk to a guest, or reimburse her property manager for some expense or something.

Ahh wow, yeah that is annoying (UK banks not liking US citizen customers). Never had an issue with that while living in Chile -- a couple times I have had to fill out some forms etc. when they asked due to US reporting, but nothing crazy. And yeah the US taxing worldwide income no matter where you live...really sucks, and like you said not at all the precedent of almost any other country. Good luck with everything!

Again really just to understand -- but are the UK banks having an issue about your US citizenship? I can't imagine dual UK / US citizens is that rare. I mean yeah you have to file FBARs and such, but again its more of an annoyance than an actual problem. Not even trying to continue to question your decision, you have received lots of opinions and will have to do whatever is best for you all -- just trying to understand how other countries treat it. I haven't necessarily done extensive research, but there is no law that says previous US citizens can't visit or live again in the US -- you are correct. But visas are not a "right", so there doesn't need to be a law that prohibits it, if the CO has reasonable suspicion they can just deny. ESTA asks about previous citizenship, which means you might get an automatic rejection (since they will want to know more information about why you used to be a US citizen), and then if you have to go to B2 route, you obviously have increased suspicion of trying to immigrate to the US, since you have done it before. Not to say you will get denied, but it is an increased risk. And then if you try to move back to the US, they will definitely question what happened -- and they might have suspicion that you did it for tax reasons (even if that wasn't the main motivator).

As a US citizen that has lived significant time overseas, if the main reason is tax related, you should really think hard about it. While it is annoying filing taxes, you can exclude or credit (1:1 based on income tax paid to other countries) quite a bit if not all of any US tax burden. Like others have pointed out the benefit really may not be worth the cost, which could be not being able to even visit the US, let alone live in the US again. If its for other ideological / political reasons, same thing...think long and hard about your decision. There is nothing stopping you from moving, settling in for a several years, and if you still feel strongly about it you can proceed.

Yeah that is why I shared our experience, just to reinforce and show that if you lived previously in the US you do not need a background check.

Hey everyone, just wanted to make a post about our experience since it was a question we had going into my wife's IR1 visa interview, and there weren't a ton of previous posts about it -- so just sharing if helpful to someone else. So one of the requirements to bring to the CR1/IR1 interview is a police certificate, specifically: "The original police certificate from your country of current residence and countries of previous residence." My wife had previously lived in the US (with her green card) for 2 years, so we didn't know if she needed to bring in a police certificate from the US since it was a previous country of residence. From what we could find it seemed like the answer was NO, and even some other counties embassy instructions specifically state that background checks from the US aren't necessary (presumably because they already do a background check during the USCIS stage) -- those reasons plus by the time we even considered it we didn't have time to get a FBI background check (mailing fingerprints and all), my wife only went with her local Chilean police certificate. And just wanted to report that they did not need the US one, and it was zero issue.

In my embassy's visa interview checklist they say original documents for: applicant birth certificate, any children birth certificate, marriage certificate, police reports, divorce certificates. Nothing about original certificates for petitioner, even explicitly says copies of passport or citizenship documents. I glanced quickly at the Albanian Embassy checklist and it seems to be the same.

Already plenty of information has been shared for you to consider, and I think most experienced members (including myself) would say that I-130 is better overall (cheaper, no "limbo" type situation once fiancé is in the US, easier to plan a wedding etc.), BUT I will say that K-1 has returned to become significantly quicker for the couple to be living together vs IR1/CR1 (not necessarily faster to green card, but faster to being able to live in the US). During pandemic times and until recently both the K-1 and IR1/CR1 were taking a year + to process at USCIS, maybe with the K-1 a couple months quicker, so it was even more obvious that the IR1/CR1 was better. But now K-1 visas seem to be taking only around 6 months at USICS, and IR1/CR1's taking 12-15 months. And, depending on the country, the embassy processing time can also be faster for the K-1. Just for example, my wife just completed her IR1 interview after we initially applied for her I-130 in June of 2023, and she met someone that same day that was doing their K-1 interview after they initially applied for their I-129f in March of 2024 (10 months quicker). Still plenty of pros and cons for both, but for you to consider.

Hey everyone -- just sharing that my wife had her interview today and was approved! Overall it took 2 hours from her entering the building until leaving. They mostly asked about my (the US citizen) work situation and domicile requirements. We expected that, since I have been living in Chile for the past 5 years, but I started a new job in the US back in August and have been going back and forth since then, so between my new salary and having a contract in hand for buying a house, they were good with my I-864 (though we did have my father's joint sponsor I864 ready to go if needed). They didn't ask much about our relationship, I imagine because we have been married 7 years and have two kids, so idk what else could be more proof of legitimacy than that. They said it could take 4 weeks to get the passport back. But we are very glad to be done with this step!

Admitting to it once, even if granted a green card or extension or whatever afterwards, doesn't some how make it not relevant or mean that you can omit it in the future. My wife overstated a tourist visa by two weeks when she was a teen, she has admitted it about a half dozen times now in different interviews and border crossing and it has never been much of an issue -- but that doesn't mean she can now omit it in future green card renewals or citizenship.

Could you send in a I-407 now? And mark that you no longer have the physical green card. I know in theory it has already been submitted, but maybe doing it again will get you a confirmation. I am not sure if you will get a response in time for your trip or not, but when we sent in my wife's they received the form on the 11th and we got an email on the 14th that it was received and confirmed abandoned...so it only took a couple days. She has used that email a couple times since for B-2 visas or when entering the US.

We were notified today by NVC that our interview is scheduled -- for February 5th!

Great news! We had just emailed our representative that was able to contact the NVC and said they were assigning interviews with people DQ in August (we were DQ August 30th) so hopefully we get an interview date soon.

Ahh ok, good to know. Only have seen some second-hand experiences, didn't know it was so risky.

Did they overstay? Or did they get an extension? Those are two very different things. If they received an extension, and were always in status while in the US it shouldn't have much impact on future visa applications. Maybe could impact future tourist visa applications or US entries if it looks like they are trying to abuse their tourist visa (spend too much time in the US). Now if they overstayed (past their i-94 date without an extension), yes that could impact future visa applications for them and their family. But each case is unique. My wife overstayed on accident by a couple weeks when she was a teenager, and then she received several tourist visas afterwards, and a green card later on. They would always ask about it, but after her explanation there wasn't an issue. But like I said each case is unique and will depend on many different variables.

Strongly seconded on all points. I would add if you do continue to pursue I would not add sending her money as part of your "evidence" of a relationship. It actually works to opposite effect as it appears that the marriage could be more of a financial transaction rather than a genuine "love" marriage.

Agreed. That there shouldn't really be much of an issue, they admitted him every time with the ESTA and there is no reason to question his intent now, since he clearly has immigrant intent with the correct visa. The one question that could be an issue, that others mentioned, is if they question how he could stay for so long previously with the ESTA -- how could he afford or take so much time off work. If he worked while in the US on ESTA (even remotely for a non-US company) that is not permitted and could still be an issue now and potentially an issue for his AOS interview as well. Again....I think its very unlikely that this will come up when entering the country right now. But he should be prepared for whatever.

Anyone who has completed the NVC DQ step? How long is it taking for the embassy to contact you after?