Jason and May

As pushbrk mentioned, a tax return transcript is the most complete form of proof of taxable income that will always (as far as I'm aware) be accepted--at least in light of the interviewer, who is basically the final boss, being incredibly difficult. If you choose to submit your W2s or Form 1040s, then the rules require you to submit a "complete" return, which includes all schedules and 1099s. Which many of us may not have for various reasons. In lieu of this, you may submit an IRS tax return transcript, which shows all your taxable income in a very complete, very brief, and easy-to-read format. I realize you have an attorney doing this for you, but if you are interested (so you know and understand), here is the verbiage from USCIS on this issue (from the I864 instructions, which your attorney is probably referencing in telling you your documentation is not enough): "You must provide either an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) transcript or a photocopy from your own records of your Federal individual income tax return for the most recent tax year." "If you provide a photocopy of your Federal individual income tax returns, you must include a copy of each and every Form W-2 and Form 1099 that relates to your returns. Do not include copies of these forms if you provide an IRS transcript of your Federal individual income tax returns rather than a photocopy unless you filed a joint income tax return with your spouse and are qualifying using only your income." And, finally: "If you selected Part 6., Item Number 2. that you are self-employed, you should have completed one of the following forms with your Federal income tax return: Schedule C (Profit or Loss from Business), Schedule D (Capital Gains), Schedule E (Supplemental Income or Loss), or Schedule F (Profit or Loss from Farming). You must include each and every Form 1040 Schedule, if any, that you filed with your Federal income tax return." The language of this last sentence applies if you are not submitting a tax transcript, which is why for many of us who are self-employed, retired, or living on investment income, it is easier to just provide tax return transcripts. It avoids unnecessary hassles and potential delays. You may request your tax return transcript from the IRS online, by using IRS Form 4506-T, or you may use your tax account portal to print one (it is the exact same form the IRS sends you when you request it from them, only it's available at will). To order your transcript from the IRS, you would go here: How To Order Tax Return Transcript. If you want to sign into your tax account (or set up your portal), you would go here, and then everything is in the dashboard on your homepage: IRS Tax Account Homepage. I hope this helps.

It's frustrating they added a tool that's supposed to be helpful for people but generally causes more problems than not..... 😕 Thank you for responding, my friend. Best of luck in your journey!

There's no need to apologize: Your response was super helpful. It helps to know what others have experienced. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Hi Mike, I was aware of the 2-year-from-date-of-marriage RoC workaround, but I hadn't thought about a timeline or anything of the sort. Given anticipated fee increases, avoiding it is helpful, where possible. I appreciate your thoughts, Mike. Thank you for sharing that!

I've read that summer is the earliest anticipated date for publication of the final rule. (Hopefully AOS will come down a bit in the final rule, but save those extra bananas just in case....)

Hey all, I recently logged in to see if the estimated processing time for my wife's visa has changed since it's a new month (I haven't checked it in a while), and I see under the processing time, it has changed to "Your case is taking longer than expected to process. You do not need to take any action at this time." I've read a number of posts in VJ forums about this, but I've not seen a post with any outcome; the ones I read just seem to fizzle out. Has anyone experienced this with an outcome who might chime in? I'm not overly concerned. May and I are prepared for a long wait, and I'll just keep going to visit when I can as we work our way through the process. I just thought perhaps by 12 months from NOA 1 we might be getting into territory of NOA 2, and VJ still estimates sometime in July (USCIS jumped from 3 months to 5 months about a month ago). Anyway, any thoughts are appreciated. Warmest wishes, all.

If you've been a 1099 employee or earned self-employed income and have no 1099, then you can either request your IRS tax transcript for each tax year you want to submit, or go to the IRS.gov tax account (My Tax Account), and you can print them off (they will be the exact copies the IRS would send you). The tax transcripts have all your schedules and self-employed income listed, so then there is no need for a 1099 (and they are not required if you submit tax transcripts in lieu of complete schedules, W-2s, and 1099s). The website for My Tax Account through the IRS is here: IRS My Tax Account.

I have a Tunnel Bear subscription for my wife, which works well for her; no issues to note. When I'm in the Philippines, particularly working, I use BitDefender VPN (it's also my antivirus). Geoblocking and server issues haven't been a problem for me with my VPN.

When my now wife and I were going to meet in Thailand for the first time and she needed her CFO, we gathered all the documents either she knew other couples had been requested to produce or that we thought might be needed. One of these was akin to a police clearance; what I actually produced was a statewide CIB (Crime Information Bureau) report run by my sheriff's department for me. For us, that document was sufficient for the CFO and immigration at NAIA. That said, our situation was different than yours: She didn't have a K visa to come to the U.S. We were just meeting in person for the first time, so the scrutiny at that point was much greater. Good luck with your journey!

I'm glad things worked out for you! Take care.

I'm sorry for the member who has been laughing at your posts. Most of the contributors who comment here regularly are i) very knowledgable and ii) very kind. Even the ones who are pretty blunt...they are just being kind by sharing their knowledge and giving you information. It doesn't mean they aren't empathetic to your situation. I feel your frustration. I've been tracking adjudication times for the Nebraska Service Center for spousal visa petitions, and I've seen a few cases submitted around the time as ours or even after, and they have their NOA 2 already. It is very frustrating. But, as others have said, while we are supposed to be queued by date of receipt, everyone's case is different. Some of those petitioners filed expedite requests and were approved; others...I don't know why they were adjudicated ahead of us. Our projected wait time for potential adjudication has just jumped from 4 months to 6 months now. I don't know why. It's frustrating, but there is very little we can do about it, at least until after that initial wait time has passed. And even then, it's just a game of cat and mouse, move and wait. Patience is key. Not allowing the mind games of waiting and wondering to mess with you is key. Maintaining hope...is key. One day it will all come together. Maybe not as quickly as we would like. But one day. It's a process. And until we have pretty clear and convincing evidence that some egregious error has occurred, we just wait in queue. If we end up too far past the generalized 12 month wait period, we'll start inquiring. Best of luck on your journey, my friend.

SmallPDF is a pretty decent online site with free options I have used at times to compress PDF files. https://smallpdf.com/compress-pdf

You're welcome. ☺️🤙🏾

No worries! I'm happy to help if I can! This is how I filled out the one we submitted. I hope this helps.

Our USCIS processing time was on track with about 4 months left, estimated by USCIS. It recently jumped to 6 months again now. Cogs in the wheel; the virtue of patience, all that. But by the time a year about rolls around, it does get a bit tiresome. I feel you.

I appreciate your feedback! That gives me a little peace of mind, and a better idea of timeline for commingling. Thank you.

Hi all, My wife and I are starting to get close to our NOA 2 (hopefully), and we are beginning to prepare for the NVC phase and eventual interview, where possible. I've read several threads about evidence of financial commingling and evidence of support, but many of those threads seem to be for married couples who are already living together. My wife and I live apart, as she is still living in the Philippines, and I live in the United States. So, I've read a few threads where experienced commenters warned against submitting evidence of money transfers without a specific request, as it could potentially look like a "bought" or arranged marriage. I've read others who had an RFE at interview for evidence of financial support. My wife and I have a 16-year age gap, where I'm 48 and she's 32. So, that's on my mind a bit. We have strong evidence of bonafides, with a trail of how we met, ongoing communication, me visiting her 3 times this past year, pictures with her family, my communication with her family, 2022 tax returns MFJ. This June we will be married for a year, together for nearly 2 years (about 20 months). I don't feel terribly concerned about that. But I'm a little unsure about what to eventually submit for further evidence of commingling. I did add her to a credit card, which she now has and uses sometimes for food and other things she wants or needs. And, since our marriage, I do send her money regularly every two weeks via MoneyGram, direct to her bank account, for bills, gym membership, and pocket money. We do not have a joint bank account because she does not yet have an ITIN and is not here to sign documents, and I don't have an account in the Philippines. So, I could potentially submit the credit card statements and MoneyGram records (which will correspond to my bank account anyway with my account showing debits from MoneyGram every two weeks). But I also don't want to inadvertently give an appearance of a purchased marriage. Any thoughts or advice from experienced VJ folks?

Hi all, I've read through several posts on the topic of married filing jointly status while my spouse is still abroad, without a current SSN or ITIN. After reading through the IRS instructions for the W-7, I think I have this figured out, but I wanted to check with some of the members who are more experienced in this. I received my CAF from the IRS and was granted POA for signing documents for my wife. The W-7 instructions indicate a spouse cannot sign for a spouse w/out POA, which I have now been assigned. So, I think I should be good to: Print our tax documents Attach the 2848 Attach the W-7 (signed by me as designee with my CAF number included) Attach the original document of my wife's certified true copy of her passport Attach a copy of our marriage certificate Is this accurate, or am I missing something? (Or misunderstanding?) Thanks for the help!

Hi all, I just have a question I thought I'd see if someone might have had experience with and can answer. My wife and I are in the process of her CR1 visa. She is from the Philippines and is residing there currently, while we await her visa. She was an overseas filipino worker, and she lived and worked in several countries over the years. So, we have started the process of gathering her PCCs so we are prepared when she ultimately gets to her interview. The one PCC we've run into some issues with is Qatar. We checked with the Qatar embassy in Manila, and we received from them instructions on how to apply for her PCC from Qatar. Qatar, however, requires as part of the application process a sundry fingerprint card. When my wife went to the Manila DFA to obtain her fingerprint card, she was told by staff she has to get an "endorsement letter" from the US Embassy in order to get her fingerprint card. OR wait for her "NVC" because her "visa hasn't been approved yet." The NVC thing doesn't make sense to me. I believe what they meant was she has her NOA 1--and she took that with her to the DFA--but her case is still processing and has not yet been transferred to the National Visa Center...? I've googled the endorsement letter issue. I've tried to reach the Philippine embassy in Chicago to ask about it and was unable to get an answer. If you've had any experience with this, could you please share with me how she should go about obtaining the endorsement letter from the US embassy or what the Manila DFA staff meant by her "NVC?" Thanks, all. Warmly, Jason