seekingthetruth

Actually this is not correct. Do it both ways and compare. If you put Philippine residency, the rate is way higher because the insurance is mandatory and included.

Thanks, I'm going to the U.S. for a few weeks in May and I will need to rent a few times. Last trip to U.S. in 2017 I rented from Avis for a month and paid $421 for insurance. I remember that all the rental companies made the insurance mandatory when I put in PH residency. I've done a bit of shopping on sites like rental cars.com and rental car prices are very high. I will make sure to check the Avis website!

What is your top priority? A. Saving money on your taxes B. Getting taxes done ASAP If A is the priority, you should figure out which filing status saves you money. MFJ or MFS. Or course it depends on the incomes, income sources and status for both spouses, but I think MFJ is usually the money saver, generally speaking. It certainly does for me. I don't know how long it takes to actually get the ITIN card, but that does not exactly delay your filing. You can't file electronically if you file MFJ with the W7 application for ITIN. You mail everything to a special address and the ITIN will be assigned when processing your return. I use OLT and my wife has an ITIN. There is a tool in there to estimate which is better, MFJ or MFS. I think you can skip putting in the ITIN if you are just estimating. My taxes were very simple this year and all my 1099s, etc., were ready early. I filed using OLT on Jan. 21. IRS first acceptance day was the 23rd. I had my transcript a week later.

@flicks1998 Sent you an unrelated mail. We plan to move to the US this year. I will have only a Philippines DL, although I may get a Texas DL in a few months before we move. When we move, my wife and step daughter will also have Philippines DL. I'm 10 years out of touch with U.S. car insurance. I suspect that I will be looking for plan with me as the principal and the other two as secondary? Family plan? First time for buying insurance for a family. Hope this is not off-topic.

How dare you!

That seems clear to me. The evidence is in plain sight. There is plenty of evidence. Scroll down to see who opened the door...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Does your step-daughter live with you? Same for my step-daughter; she still has her birth father's name. I made a Word doc with the history of our relationship, with exhibits. School records that I paid, pictures of the family outings, travel records and family pictures where we traveled, etc. Things that prove I support her financially as well as emotionally. You might get by with the minimum you described, but it is best to add more.

Ah, yes, I forgot about the caregiver benefit for your wife. So you don't have to rush on having the second kid! 😆 There is a formula for the family maximum that I used when I was planning for SS. I did it and it was fairly close to what the actual ended up at. They used to put the family max on the social security statements but I can't find it any more.

Yes, so your child will be 7 when you are 62, and will be able to get SS until they are 18 or 19. However, you should do some analysis on what age is better to take the SS. Each kid can get 50% of you benefit. You only have (so far!) one kid. I have 2 so that basically doubled my age 62 benefit and made the "what age to take SS" decision a no brainer for me. You might want to get to work on the second kid as soon as possible! 😁

Yes, I forgot to mention Philhealth. Well worth the 17k and then you can supplement it with another plan. One other advantage of Philhealth is that they review all the hospital and doctor charges, and have some caps. So it is less likely that you can be overcharged.

Thanks Dave! Our priority date is 11/20/2020, so I wonder if that will help us get quick processing when I finish the NVC documents stage??? I have everything ready but need to go through it for any updates needed. Sounds like it might help, so if the interview is too early for us, that is when we might need to reschedule it.

Have there been unrequested expedites in Manila? I have not been following closely. Good to know if I need to try and expedite. I just put the house here in Subic Bay Freeport for sale today.

No, we are still at NVC. I have been postponing at NVC but now we are ready to move forward. Hoping to time things, again, to work with the kids schooling.

Yes, I meant before medical and if anyone had some tips on rescheduling. Thank you!

Just to be clear, don't use your credit card to get cash at ATMs. That will hit you with big fees. The exception would be that some banks / credit unions / brokerages will refund those feed. Unfortunately, permanent residents, like 13A, also have to pay the travel tax that Filipinos pay. Adult is p1620.

Address: I highly recommend AGAINST changing any U.S. addresses to a Philippines address, especially financial institutions. On the rare occasion that they mail you something through the postal system, you have about 10% chance of receiving it. I did receive a few Christmas cards, usually in late Feb or March. 😊 Been der, dun dat. There are many pitfalls. Changed my addresses to the Philippines before I knew better. Fidelity tried to shut me down. Schwab will too. Used my sister's address in California for a while. California came after me for state income tax every year. My sister was not very organized with my mail, so if you use a relative's address, make sure they are organized. So I ended up using Travelling Mailbox with a Florida address. I owned a house in Florida so I had a history there. I still vote there. I'm not sure of the legalities, but I think you can establish residency in one of the 7-8 state tax free states without visiting. You still have the HI condo, so that might complicate it. Visa - I have 13A. As mentioned, SRRV is a great deal for vets. Not so great for others but maybe for some. For those that require a huge deposit, nope. SRRV has more freedom and less fees when traveling. 13a must get an ECC-B when leaving the country. p2880 each time. Banking and transfers: No advisable to keep huge amounts in Philippine banks. The insurance is only up to p500,000. Keep larger amounts in the U.S. banks. Get yourself a dollar account in PH right away, if possible. Cheapest way to transfer money is to write yourself a check from your U.S. bank and deposit into your PH dollar account. The only cost is now a $5 check deposit fee at most banks. Then you decide when to exchange it. I have BPI accounts and for the last 6-12 months BPI has had fantastic exchange rates. Better than street rates and all the other banks. For small transfers, Wise is better than those others mentioned, I think. Plan ahead with your check writing and you should not need those long term. Health Insurance Many expats say they self insure. That can be good but you really need a good sized health egg set aside, never touched. A heart attack or stroke treatment can still cost a lot here at good hospitals. Many self insured expats never had a large enough health egg. I don't know anything about the Kaiser plan you mentioned, but it is probably much better than anything offered by PH companies. PH companies have lots of hidden rules, especially for pre-existing conditions, and the premiums rise rapidly as you get older. Credit Cards Capital One Mastercard has been great for me. I use my U.S. mailbox address. They don't have any problems with people living overseas. I have had it while living in Germany and Philippines. Get one with rebates or points of some sort. I have had my travel version for years but I think some of the rebates are better now. I just used $900 in travel credits on our trip to AU. Mastercard and Visa are a great way to transfer dollars. They both have a great exchange rate, about the same as the XE mid-market rate. I charge all my groceries, gas and other shopping on my card, then pay it in the U.S. in dollars. Make sure you tell the cashier to do it in pesos or they will charge it in dollars at a bad exchange rate. And make sure there are not any fee from your card or the retailer. BTW, looks like we are moving to the U.S. this year. Our house here in Subic Bay Freeport will have a For Sale sign up tomorrow.

A year or two ago, I was looking into that for my USC kids born in the Philippines, but we postponed. Now I need to start again. I think this is mostly at the state level, or maybe even at the school district level. I think they are more of recommendations, not strict requirements, for all but a few. This list was long for Texas, but I think only a few are mandatory. I would start at the bottom and call the school district.

Any recent experiences of postponing the interview in Manila?

Yes, working now.

Anybody else having issues logging into https://ceac.state.gov/iv

This is not really about getting U.S. visas, but it might help someone here. The U.S. Embassy Manila has finally restarted the outreach program, where Embassy employees travel to certain Philippine cities to offer American Citizen Services to U.S. citizens, their families and qualified Filipinos. Again, this is not for visa services, it is for passports, CRBAs, etc. Veterans Services are sometimes present, and sometimes SSA is there, but not at the one below. Saves a lot of time of money for those not near Manila, and they will have them in several cities. Follow the web site and/or you can sign up for alerts. https://ph.usembassy.gov/message-for-u-s-citizens-outreach-in-angeles-city-on-february-9-2023-and-olongapo-city-on-february-10-2023/

Darn, I wish I would have held onto my old vinyl collection, including that one! My Filipino BIL in New Zealand must have 500 albums, mostly from that era. Not much around these days that can touch CSNY vocals and style. However, I recently decided to cancel Neil Young. 😃 R.I.P. Mr. Crosby!

That was my reaction too! A BIG YES! Being an old fart daddy has it's benefits! https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10085.pdf

If your kids are younger, it might be the right choice to take it at 62. I have a spreadsheet that shows my breakeven with the kids and I taking it at 62 or waiting til 66.4, my full retirement age. In 2018 I would be would be 87 before taking it at 66.4 made sense. My kids were 2 and 4 (6 & 8 now) when they started getting SS, so they get it for many years until they are 18 or 19 if full time students. They each get about 1/2 my benefit, so basically our family benefit is doubled until that age. I did not know about the child benefits until 2016, 2 years before I turned 62, and it was a huge positive surprise for us! Hopefully for you too!