Mike E

Nothing to do now

I don’t know if there was a warning or not. You can give it a try. As their step parent, you’ve no legal standing to get their BCs. Your spouse might (depends on where they were born). Since you are applying under the 5 year rule so I cannot see USCIS giving you an RFE nor do I see USCIS having grounds to deny / delay your naturalization.

Fwiw my wife didn’t upload the BCs of her step children (my biological children) and she is scheduled to take oath of citizenship. However her step children were all over 18 and all U.S. citizens when she married me. If your step children were under age 18 at the time of marriage, I can see why USCIS might have a narrow interest in the BCs especially if they were not U.S. citizens. As to your obligation to provide financial support for your step children, I believe that can vary by state.

I wonder what would happen if it was a PLA-AF bomber flying? Would we not shoot it down for the same reason. World record skydive is 130,000 ft. This threat is at 63,000 feet. Ok more of a space dive than sky dive. Drop some parachuters on it. Make some pin pricks so that it slowly leaks. There is a camera on it now tracking it live. The camera can follow it down and people in the affected area can be ordered to shelter in their basements. Cuz Montana has basements. Can you imagine any other president tolerating this? You are what you tolerate Joe: a big empty gas bag. I give PLA credit for the genius behind this. Now the USA has to invest in making high altitude drones with robotics that can safely deflate high altitude balloons. Or USAF / USSF / USN already has this capability but don’t want to reveal it to a live YouTube feed.

Congratulations. While I think the Duty to Report charge is unfair, everything is reduced to civil infraction and as your attorney says no bar to naturalize on your pending application. Consider the unfair charge a lesson and move on.

So you meet the substantial presence test. This is my take: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/exempt-individual-who-is-a-student When a Student is Not Exempt You will not be an exempt individual as a student if you have been exempt as a teacher, trainee, student, Exchange Visitor, or Cultural Exchange Visitor on an "F, " "J, " "M, " or "Q " visa for any part of more than 5 calendar years, unless you establish to the satisfaction of the IRS that you do not intend to reside permanently in the United States While you are correct F-1 is a single intent non immigrant status normally exempt from the substantial presence test, you did however file I-485. So it is impossible for you to establish that you do not intend to reside permanently here. So for tax purposes * your I-485 broke your exemption from the substantial presence test * you are a resident alien * there is no election to declare yourself a resident alien; it is involuntary Since there is no election there is no way to submit a statement that you are electing to be resident alien. File jointly and you are permitted to e-file. It is fortunate that your paychecks have been deducting SS and Medicare. Getting an employer to fix that is messy.

You need this evidence at their visa interviews If you become a U.S. citizen before they reach 18, and they are living with you as LPRs, you will need the legal custody evidence. This is because they will be automatically U.S. citizens. The legal custody evidence will needed when you apply for their passport and passport cards and when you file N-600. Ideally you will have a certified copy of the custody evidence for you and for each child. That’s unfortunate. I hope you have a quality copy of it. Perhaps you can download a copy from USCIS.gov . I hope it isn’t illegal under HK law for you to possess this copy. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/HongKong.html Says: “Certified Copies Available: All are entitled "Certified True Copy of Certificate of Marriage” I suggest you obtain at least one certified copy for yourself and each child.

I agree it is likely.

I’m sure OP has had an address in the U.S. since 2021. That doesn’t mean OP has the physical presence.

You haven’t answered the above question. While I am 99 percent you were a resident for tax purposes in 2022, until you disclose that answer, this is not a discussion that will produce a a 100 percent certain result for you. In the document you linked (which appears to be a training program for so called tax professionals and is so poorly written that it now explains the weekly HR Block disasters that are reported here) it says, What is the substantial presence test? This test is based on a formula of days and years a person is physically present in the United States. Individuals who do not have green cards may still be considered resident aliens if they meet the requirements of the substantial presence test for the calendar year. Yes. As I wrote before, my wife: The IRS doesn’t have the capacity to handle paper filings of I-485 applicants

Until your divorce is final you are married as far as USCIS is concerned. Upload a divorce decree when you have it. 1. Will you have custody of your children? 2. Are you a U.S. citizen? 3. So they came to your home and physically took it?

How many days were you present in the U.S. in 2022? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Do you have a link? When my wife and I filed our first joint return she was in the USA for over 11 months without a green card. That was enough presence. She did not make an explicit declaration. If there was such a requirement, I’m certain TurboTax would have said so. Perhaps buried in our electronic return there was such a declaration. I do know that if you file jointly as a resident, you must declare your world wide income. You also are subject to FBAR if the highest balance across all your financial accounts abroad exceeded $10,000 USD on any day. I agree that if aren’t sure hire a tax professional but you should also lower your expectations on the competence of these so called professionals.

File jointly E-filing is recommended.

Not knowing the income and assets, generally W-2 income is best.

Give them noise canceling head phones. Number of whales killed by nuclear fission power plants: zero

1. Do you have an SSN? 2. Are social security and Medicare taxes being taken out of your paycheck?

I suggest the petitioner call USCIS, say “info pass”, and request a tier 2 officer contact the petitioner regarding your case

It it wasn’t I would not have suggested it. That would be evil of me. USCIS and the State department require that you both of you be in the same room during the marriage service. If not in the same room during the marriage service, the marriage is still valid, but USCIS and State require that you meet in person before filing I-130.

Get there and get married with Utah county web service. https://www.utahcounty.gov/dept/clerkaud/PassMarr/RemoteAppearanceFAQ.asp

and Biden won’t shoot it down. Ridiculous

Lies, damned lies, statistics

I see too many married couples with too little money. Most posts on VJ for example Marriage and kids are affluent people.

Because my VJ timeline is broken and not editable by me, and requests to fix this have been without effect, I will briefly summarize our timeline: 7/1985 - I became a Resident Alien which is the same as an LPR in 21st century terms 1/2018 - I took oath of U.S. citizenship 2/2018 - filed I-129F for my fiancée Iris 12/2018 - K-1 interview 1/2019 - POE 1/2019 - Marriage 3/2019 - I-485 filed 1/2020 - I-485 interview and approval 10/2021 - I-751 filed 10/2022 - I-751 approved (no interview) 11/2023 - N-400 filed based on 3 year rule 12/2023 - interview scheduled for Jan 31. We went to the Tucson field office on January 31, 2023. This is the smallest field office I’ve seen (my other experiences being Chicago, Denver, San Jose). Rather than over a 100 people in the waiting room as we are accustomed to, there were zero when we arrived 11:45 am. It doesn’t add up to me: less than 70 miles from the border in a metropolis with 400,000 Latino people. There should have been a line out the door. After clearing the security check point, the receptionist took new biometrics. Photo + plus each pinkie fingerprinted. We then waited for the ISO to call Iris. He would not let me join her in her marriage based interview. Iris took the normal pre-interview oath in the interview room. Then whule setting up the phone call with Iris’s attorney (San Jose based) he made small talk with her, asking her where we met and about her travels. When we mentioned this to her lawyer after a quick debrief, the lawyer asked us, in a perturbed tone: “the officer asked her questions on the record before calling me?”. So that was a no no by the ISO. After her lawyer joined the meeting, the officer first did the reading / writing tests: Reading: ”Who lives in the White House?” Writing: “The president lives in the White House.” Iris got the first 6 civics questions right. Fortunately she wasn’t asked to name her Senator (Sinema) or Representative (Ciscomani) as she was having trouble with pronunciation of those. She was asked to name the VPOTUS and a territory (PR). No questions about dates in history. She doesn’t recall the other 4 questions. Then the ISO: * reviewed the questions on her N-400 form * asked about travel history prior to January 16, 2020 (the “resident since” date on her gc). Our lawyer shut that line of questioning down. Had we done DIY and not included history from prior to becoming an LPR, that might have delayed the case. * Asked her more questions about her travels, including: + Asked where will she travel next after taking oath of citizen. + When he asked Iris how many times her husband had been to Burma (7) he expressed surprise and asked her to confirm. * Asked to see her AZ drivers license (recommended by her lawyer to bring and not listed on the interview letter) * Asked to see her green card * The ISO did not ask for the following evidence that Iris brought per the interview letter and/or lawyer’s advice: + marriage certificate + her passports, + my passport (not submitted with N-400) + my naturalization certificate + my divorce decree (not submitted with N-400) + evidence of joint accounts since filing N-400 + social security card + travel history since filing N-400 * The ISO did not ask for the following which was a good because we didn’t bring: + tax transcripts (submitted with N-400) + 2022 tax return, not filed yet. + passport photos (I was blind sided for these at my own N-400 and it slipped my mind to have these ready for Iris) + birth certificates of my kids (all adults at the time Iris and I married) which were not submitted with N-400 After 15 minutes, the interview concluded with a written recommendation for approval. 30 minutes from check point to parking lot. Today her oath was scheduled for Friday February 24, at a federal court house in Tucson in a “special proceedings” court room. Note that there is no name change being requested. I plan to attend. Her passport appointment is scheduled for Monday February 27. “But that’s illegally claiming to be a US citizen!” That’s ok. We neither agree nor care. She will apply for both a passport and passport card. A passport card is handy when you live 64 miles from the border and have a foreign accent.

So 4-5 months in the USA between July 1 and May 31 in 11 months. Plus a history of ESTA extensions. High risk. Some people claims the worst case is being allowed to withdraw your application to enter the USA and returned home, and thus your IR-1 visa won’t be at risk. That’s not accurate. The worst case is expedited removal which carries a 5 year ban. It rarely happens. So do plane crashes. I still wear my seat belt on planes even when the fasten seat belt sign is off. To me this isn’t worth the risk.

No because you were admitted as a returning resident. You should stop dwelling on it. You have mine. I can’t promise you that USCIS will show any. So you should file your tax returns, whether another contributor says I am silly or not; due to which I am out. Best wishes.