Pat2021

Thank you Both, that's what I figured but wanted to confirm!

Hi All, My wife and I recently bought a property but before we move there's some work that needs to be done - so it will be around a month or so before we move over there permanently. Now I know we need to notify USCIS of a "change of address" within 10 days. Is there any specific information as what they consider "change of address"? We already received mail over at the new property (mostly just spam, but also home-insurance docs and utilities) but currently we still reside (and have our bank accounts etc.) at our original address. Do we need to let USCIS know now or only once we physically relocate? Thank you in advance.

Thank you all again, very good insights here. My degree, and work experience, is from the UK, from one of the top universities (Ivy league equivalent) so should be accepted here without too many issues. The idea with temp jobs might not be a bad one - how / what is the best way to look for them? Indeed and LinkedIn don't seem to list them from what I've seen. I did that, but so far nothing. No one even looked at my LinkedIn profile within the last two months... I used the LinkedIn Premium Trial to message a few, but not one has read my message or even looked on my profile. I'll look into recruiting agencies though, thank you. I also tried applying / looking for internships, but at least around LA they require you to be enrolled in a university program and have proof of such.

Thank you everyone for those suggestions and ideas. I'll take them into account and let you know how it goes

I do agree with that, however I am applying across the spectrum, from tiny companies all the way to giants like Boeing. Just to get in somewhere, after that I'll have more leverage (and at least income).

Hmm fair enough but the only degrees above what I have would be MBA or PhD, both of which I don't believe would qualify for this?

Thank you both for the good advice. The ideas, especially #2 sounds very good. For #1 I've noticed for the big companies it's usually "faceless" and difficult to find out who department head / hiring manager is. For city, I live near LA, so looking for jobs in LA, there's no shortage of postings thankfully. Most companies I've applied for ask for that during the automatic profile creation thing, but I can double-down on the resume if that's helpful.

I immigrated at the beginning of the year to the US on IR1 and have since been looking for work. However, so far, after 2 months of trying, I have not had a single call-back, job interview, or even invite. Just a few rejections and mostly radio silence. I've finished an MEng degree, which doesn't seem to be known here, so wondering if that's an issue? I also have 3.5 years of work experience, but with nearly a year gap due to COVID lay-offs in 2020/21 and then I quit my job in Dec. 2022 to move to the US and no work since - is that an issue? Furthermore, the jobs I had, I was being rotated through various departments on an as-needed basis, so I don't have technical skills in a specific area but rather a wide variety of skills in lots of areas. I did look at how to tailor resumes for the US market, how to apply, and had my resume looked at by multiple people that said it's strong, but even so, nothing as of yet. I am wondering if either the MEng or the gaps are red flags and if so how can I overcome them? From what I've seen MEng is pretty much equivalent to MS, just more engineering focused, so when the online portal only lets me choose between BS, MS and PhD, I choose MS. I've seen it's now a numbers game, and I'm applying to a big number of jobs, so that should not be it. Could it also be that recruiters think my resume is fake, as the companies on it are based in the UK?

I don't remember the exact wording as we've now filed MFS for her and not filed for me, using TaxAct. Seemed more straightforward than TurboTax. Going to file for me next year. It could've been "resident alien".

Thank you. Yeah, hindsight is 20/20 as they say, originally she just went to the UK to study, didn't expect to have a job there. Oh well. She's (we're) now back in CA, so for 2023 definitely have to file state taxes!

Ah that's good, I wasn't sure if safe harbor only applies if the work is from a US company that sends you abroad, or also from living abroad and getting a job there through a local employer / company. So looks like she's in the clear, both safe harbor wise and income wise

She was a resident of the UK from 2017 to 2023 (moved back Jan '23), but domiciled in CA. It seems in CA it is nearly impossible to sever ties, so you're always domiciled unless you take specific actions (moving to other states for example) before leaving to go abroad. As she was registered to vote, had driving license, bank accounts, etc. all in CA.

Yeah it seems CA is one of those states that requires you to file state taxes even if you are a resident abroad, as long as you are domiciled in CA which she is / was. However, looking at the income on https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/personal/residency-status/index.html, the income was below the requirement to file, so I think we're in the clear by not filing? We just filed the federal ones as MFS though, and next year we'll switch to MFJ for 2023, which makes sense. Then I can wait until we submit the return for 2025 and file N400 then

Thank you, but there doesn't seem to be any benefit in doing so, as the income is below any tax threshold anyway.

Yeah that's probably it, last year I was not a resident, neither for tax purposes nor an LPR. So MFS it is!

Thank you both. I think for simplicity we'll file MFS. Playing with TaxAct now, and the Federal return looks good - same as last year's. But CA apparently does not allow to exclude foreign income so it's telling me my spouse owes CA $$$. However, apparently there is a "safe harbor" rule if you've been out of the country for 570 days. Which my spouse has been (UK resident since 2017). But I don't see how / where to enter this on the website. Anyone able to help? I don't want to E-File wrong and have to pay. Thank you.

Hi, so I moved to the US on IR1 Visa on the 11th of Jan 2023. Before that my wife and I lived and worked in the UK. My wife always filed as married, filing separately, as I didn't have ITIN / SSN / Green Card. She always claimed foreign income exclusion, as her income was from UK employer and she paid taxes there. She's done that with a CPA through her parents. Now, since we want to "take matters into our own hands", I started filing taxes using TurboTax, as that seems to be the recommended place to file both State (CA) and Federal taxes for "newbies". Trying to fill this out, we thought going down the married filing jointly route - is that correct? Even though I was not a LPR nor had an SSN in 2022? If so, we've come to a weird TurboTax thing - the foreign income for her she can exclude no problem. For me, it asks if I'm US Citizen - No, so then it asks if I was LPR in 2022 - again No. It then says "since XXX was a nonresident Alien in 2022, XXX must file form 1040NR, ..., unless XXX was married to a US Resident" (now the last part is a Yes). "We don't include form 1040NR on TurboTax". It then tells us that we owe quite a bit in taxes - because my foreign income did not get excluded. However, I believe this to be incorrect as a foreigner with no green card in 2022 I don't owe the IRS anything, right? So my question is - should we proceed with this, and file this form 1040NR somehow separately, or is it not worth the hassle and for 2022 she should still file as married filing separately and I'll only start filing for 2023, the year I actually became resident? If the latter, will this provide a hurdle for N400 3-year rule down the line? What does VJ recommend? Thank you!

Just spoke to a DMV agent and they said all permanent residents, regardless of expiration date, have to have "limited-term" printed on it. Maybe it's a new thing to be real-id compliant?

They asked me to confirm the address during my interview and then once again during immigration. You should also be able to change it at any time via AR11 before card gets dispatched. As to the delivery, it was just standard USPS mail into the mailbox, no signature or anything like that.

Great, thank you It is already a Real-ID, I made sure to apply as Real-ID, so that won't change anything... I'm wondering maybe because my birthday was in Dec., so the expiration date is Dec. 2027, so maybe that's why it's "limited-term"?\ Otherwise, can I just leave it until Dec. 2027 and then when renewal comes around hopefully they'll fix?

My timeline: 21 November 2022 - Paid IV fees 11 January 2023 - Entered via LAX 2 February 2023 - Card is being produced 6 February 2023 - Card is being mailed / USPS picked it up 9 February 2023 - Received Card in the mail Seems they're speeding up green card production 🙂

I just got my physical driver's license in the mail and under Class: C it states "Limited-Term" - I found online that you usually get this when your Visa expires before your DL. But I came here on an IR1 Visa, so ten years. Should be full term then? Is it maybe because when I applied I did not have the physical green card and used the 1 year IR1 stamp in my passport? Is it something that needs "fixing" or can I leave it as is until renewal time in 5 years? Thank you

Austria does not really maintain a driving license record that much, as the car is insured, not the person, and all citations go through the police. So if anything, they would be recorded on a police certificate, which I have due to the visa, but when I offered it to AAA they said they won't take a police certificate, it has to be from a driving magistrate... All in all it seems like AAA is just being crappy, so yeah, I think I'm going with another insurance for myself. Thank you everyone.

Thank you, yeah it seemed dumb. Even the insurance agent stated he'd rather me drive with ten years experience rather than some of the people he insured previously. But then again, he also stated that I should just drive the car if I need to go somewhere, as its a "legal grey area and there are plenty of uninsured drivers anyway"...

Yeah, we quadruple checked with them. They expect new drivers to be under 25, and then they can be added as "permissible driver" for a year and then be added as a permanent driver. Over 25, they don't insure unless you've had your license for over 12 months, or 18 if you're a foreigner. Which seems ridiculous to me but that's what they said over and over and even a supervisor concurred. So probably I'm going to "buy" one of the two cars and just take out an insurance in my name. I already found Progressive for example has no issue with my foreign license or how long I've held my CA license. AAA just seems incompetent.