devusr

We got married in Bahamas. She came the long route from Colombo to Grand Bahama transiting through Dubai, Brazil, Panama, and finally Nassau. There is a flight route from IST (Turkey) to PTY (Panama) to NAS (Bahamas). It is important to check flight routes and transit without visa requirements. For an example, PTY has transit without visa for my spouse but she must depart PTY within 12 hours and must show the onward ticket. When she arrived in PTY, while rushing to the next gate (1 hour layover), she asked a airport official for directions. They signaled to Panama Immigration Officials and they came and questioned her on the spot. She quickly showed that she is leaving and showed the onward ticket from PTY to Nassau. Check the passport and visa requirements from https://www.emirates.com/us/english/before-you-fly/visa-passport-information/ Make sure to enter all the countries she would be transiting through and carefully read through the exemptions. You can also use https://www.flightconnections.com to see other routes that might be available from IST to NAS.

Hi. My wife is from Sri Lanka and we met in Bahamas. She went from CMB (Colombo, Sri Lanka) to DXB (Dubai) to GRU (Brazil) to PTY (Panama) to NAS (Nassau) to FPO (Grand Bahama, Bahamas). On the return trip back, she went from FPO (Grand Bahama, Bahamas) to NAS (Nassau) to PTY (Panama) to IST (Turkey) to MLE (Maldives) to CMB (Colombo, Sri Lanka). The reason for the very long trip across many countries was that she probably wouldn't be able to get a VISA or Transit Visa and I wasn't able to fly to Sri Lanka. So we choose route that allowed Transit without Visa (had many limitations) to get married in a another country. I used https://www.flightconnections.com to find flight routes. I used https://www.emirates.com/us/english/before-you-fly/visa-passport-information/ to find the passport/visa information/transit without visa information. I used https://www.passportindex.org/ to check the visa free destinations for Kenya citizens. I did a quick check of the potential routes from flightconnections for Kenya to the Caribbean and I didn't see a possible route with "Transit without Visa". There are 2 potential ones to BGI and PAP but it requires more than the transit without visa time limit (PTY has a limit of 12 hours where you must leave the country if you're using transit without visa). PTY is a main flight hub for South America and Carribean.

Meaning when I filed my taxes in 2022, it was for Tax Year 2021. When I filed my taxes in 2023, it was for Tax Year 2022. When I filed my taxes in 2024 (last week), it was for Tax Year 2023. It doesn't let me file it electronically...I think IRS doesn't allowed that (or maybe because I mailed the original, the amendment needs to be mailed as well).

Sorry, I meant to say 2021 Tax Year as in 2022 Calendar Year. 2022 Tax Year as in 2023 Calendar Year.

We got married in April, 2021 and after the CR1 process, my wife immigrated in 2023. She got her SSN in 2023. For 2021 and 2022 Tax Years, I filed Married Filing Separately. I want to go back and amend those years filing status to Married Filing Jointly. Turbo Tax says that I'm eligible for the Recovery Rebate Credit (Economic Impact Payment??). I've read online that you had to have an SSN by 2021 to qualify. However, I also see in the IRS website that they went back and changed the rule so that only one of the spouses needed to have an SSN. Do I qualify for this Recovery Rebate Credit or not? I wonder why Turbo Tax keeps saying I do.

Ok great. On her return back to the US, will the US border agents make any issue?

We are planning to drive to Canada for 2 days to visit relatives of my wife. I'm a US Citizen and my wife is a permanent resident (Green Card and Sri Lankan Passport with US Visa stamp). She arrived t We've never gone to Canada before. 1) How is the border crossing? 2) How long is the wait? Do we just wait in the card and present our documents when we pull up to the gate? 3) Will my wife only need her passport and green card? 4) Will there be any immigration related problems on entry to Canada or the return back to the US?

We submitted all the required 221g documents mid March and they approved and issued the Visa on first week of June.

Our POE was on June 9th and we received the SSN 06/26. When I filed the DS-260, I selected the option to automatically receive the SSN after POE.

Yeah the status was changed from Refused to AP and then to Issued within the first week of June.

Went to the IAD deferred inspection site. They were friendly, took her passport and stamped it. They stamped it 4 times, 2 with the correct date and 2 with the wrong date. Now there are 4 stamps, 2 on the VISA itself and 2 on the blank page: 1) The correct one on the blank page has the alien number hand written. 2) The wrong one on the blank page is crossed out and there is no hand written alien number (just the stamp only and then crossed out with a pen). 3) Then there is 2 more stamps on the VISA: the correct one and the wrong one on the VISA page. Will this be a problem?

She entered through Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

Will this affect her green card or SSN?? Will those be automatically processed normally even without the cpb stamp?

My wife came to US on Friday on IR1 visa but they did not stamp her passport. She came through IAD airport. We went to the deferred inspection site at a different airport (BWI) and the CPB officer there said they do not stamp IR1. He said that the I-94 is for non immigrants and not IR1. He also said they cannot stamp as the stamp is from BWI and I would have to goto the IAD deferred site. I told him there is no deferred inspection site at IAD and he was very rude. I told him I cannnot get insurance for my wife without the I-94 and he got very very angry and was very rude. how do I fix this????

She didn't get any customs form, they didn't check anything, immigration just took a photo and verified some details and let her go. She went through 2 checkpoints, 1 immigration and then through customs.

Sorry, bit confused. I'm the petitioner and I have a USCIS account. Do I use my account to track it OR should I create a brand new account for her?

Ok will do, thanks. One more question, is there a way to track the green card status? whether it's in processing or already mailed etc?

Thank you for the information. We will go there on Tuesday. Do you think fixing this will be easy at the office?

According to USCIS, below is a "Here is an example of an immigrant visa with the CBP endorsement:" Is the endorsement the 0000 numbers in RED on the bottom right? If so, my wife's VISA already had that when they printed it in the embassy.

The immigration agent took a photo of her and asked her to verify the address of stay. So why did they do that? Does this mean she won't get the green card in 60 days if we do not get the endorsement from Baltimore?

It looks like they don't stamp it anymore: https://www.swlaw.com/publications/legal-alerts/immigration-alert-cbp-eliminates-passport-entry-stamps How do I check my I-94 record online?

WOWWW! We're in Maryland, are you sure we needed to get it stamp? She asked several times from the immigration officer and they said they do not stamp any more.

My wife arrived yesterday and they did not stamp her US Visa on her passport. When she asked the immigration agent, they said that they do not stamp it anymore. Is this normal?

I just did a calculation according and based on that it's about $10,600 worth of jewelry. So at 6.3 percent, my wife has to pay $668.80 dollars on her own personal jewelry?!?!? Wow. She only has $300 cash on her and her debit card might not work. Is there a way I can pay it?

When you say price paid as USD, do you mean convert the rupees into USD based on the time each piece of jewelry was brought OR the currency exchange rate?