CL1125

Hello, We recently got our interview letter and have booked the medical. We are now trying to to schedule the new VAC Biometrics step in Manila on the USVisaScheduling site (hope we are correct in doing this). We've created a profile and started but once we get to the step where it asks for the NVC Case number we put the case number and it comes back as invalid so we cannot continue. Have seen a couple of other posts on social media that have had this same issue but haven't seen a solution yet. Also just to clarify, is the new USVisaScheduling site in lieu of the old PortalUSTravelDocs site? When we try to login at the old site it just redirects to the login screen. Thanks!

I did try a couple others unfortunately same error. It appears this is an IRS rule instead of an E-File provider rule. Thank you for replying!

Hi everyone. I have a bit of a unique situation for taxes. I live abroad for the entire year. Work for a US Employer. I claim FEIE on my taxes and did so with no issues for the 2022 tax year. This year for the 2023 year I ran into a bit of an issue. If I use Jan-Dec 2023 as my qualifying period for the Physical Presence test, all of my income is excluded. This leaves my final taxable income at only around $1000 (some small interest I made). However, when I went to E-File this year. I got the error message that my return is not eligible for E-Filing because the IRS does not allow for your sum of taxable income to be less than your federal tax withheld amount throughout the year. So it says I must file by mail which is difficult due to my being abroad. There is one way I found to do it. If I change my qualifying period to be partly the year before (in 2022) then going into 2023, not all of the income can be included in the FEIE, thus I would show as having enough income to E-File (didn’t matter in the end because of the standard deduction which brings it to zero either way). I’ve read the rules about the physical presence test/qualifying period and it seems you can chose any period you want as long as some of it falls within the tax year and is a consecutive 12 months. Either way I was abroad for both 2022 AND 2023 so I think I could chose any period I’d wanna use. Has anybody else run into this issue? It seems like people would if they are abroad and filing FEIE. It would basically prevent anyone doing this to E-file which is the easier option when abroad. Do you think I am ok to do my qualifying dates this way to be allowed to E-File? Looking for opinions on E-Filing not just jumping to the file by mail option as that is difficult from here.

I will do just that. Thank you!

Hello, Today we received our DQ email from NVC! We are happy but also received this message: "The income reported as stated on form I-864 is insufficient to overcome the public charge grounds of inadmissibility for visa issuance. To avoid delays, an additional Affidavit of Support Form I-864 from a joint sponsor may be submitted. For more information visit https://nvc.state.gov/aos and https://www.uscis.gov/i-864p. A consular officer will decide if you meet these requirements at the time of the interview. Note: You, as the sponsor, and any other sponsors household members and joint sponsors, must provide updated or additional evidence for the applicant to present at the time of their interview such as: * Other income * Assets * Proof of current employment Note: You submitted documentation to the National Visa Center through the Consular Electronic Application Center CEAC. You can continue to upload documents to CEAC up until the date of your visa interview." I believe this is because during my 2022 Tax Year I filed for FEIE (live abroad) which made my 1040 total income very low. However, I put my Current Income (more than enough) on the I-864 and also uploaded pay slips and a letter from my US employer stating my income and that it would continue when I return to the US. Does NVC not consider these at this point? I'm just surprised because I was under the impression that "Current Income" is a lot more important than previous years income. I would really prefer not to have to find a joint sponsor but will we be rejected at interview for not getting one? I've seen a couple of other posts about this here, but am looking for someone who's had this message and been through interview stage without getting the sponsor, if possible. Thanks!

Thanks for the responses everyone. Luckily ID.me support got back and verified my account after 2 weeks of waiting, so was able to get my transcripts. Issue solved. Note for other readers: Don't use a VPN when verifying with ID.me. They will suspend your account.

I will be submitting a copy of my tax return with my I-864 as well as my W-2 and any other forms pertaining to the return as I dont have access to my Tax Transcipt (ID.me issue😡). The copy of my tax return that I have is an e-filed copy downloaded from TaxAct and is not signed. Is this OK to submit or do I need to sign it and if so what date do I put on it as I filed back in April but will be signing it now.

Thanks for all the responses. Another question, I will be submitting my tax return from 2022 as the ID.me/IRS site to request tax transcripts has locked me out and has poor support. I use TaxAct to prepare my returns, is a downloaded return OK to submit? These are just copies and are unsigned. Or do I need to sign it?

Noted, thanks for all the help!

Thanks pushbrk. Will do all of these. One other question as you seem very knowledgeable based on other posts of yours I've seen. During the interview stage, do you suggest I attend? Am I required to attend? I believe I will be interviewed as well if I do, and does this just leave us another opportunity to be scrutinized that we normally wouldn't if I weren't there?

Interesting to hear. Congrats!

Hello Everyone, A couple of questions, but first background. We are at the NVC stage and am filling out the I-864. I am a US Citizen living abroad in the Philippines with my wife. I have been assigned here for 10 years by my US Employer to run operations here. Now, I am being requested to return to the US to work permanently. For the previous tax year I filed using FEIE which allowed me to exclude nearly all of my income on my return. Thus, the total income field from the return on my I-864 is well below the requirement. I plan to submit a letter from my employer stating my income as well as the fact that it will continue once I return to the US. I will also submit the last 6 months of pay slips and last years W-2. Is this enough to qualify me for the income requirement? Since I have been living abroad, I must also meet the domicile requirement. I plan to put my place of domicile as the US and submit bank statements, a letter of explanation and a letter from my employer stating my temporary assignment abroad and requesting me to return to the USA. Unfortunately I do not own property in the US and we will be staying with my parents when we return (address where I receive most of my mail). My question is, is this sufficient to prove US domicile? Or should I be proving that I INTEND to make the US my domicile? And if this is the case should I put Philippines as my place of domicile on the I-864? I tend to believe it’s the former as I maintain bank accounts, work for US employer and file taxes (although I use FEIE under the physical presence test not the domicile test.) One last note is that my employer is a family business and my father will be the one writing the letters. I know technically this should not matter at all, but if mentioned at interview might? If you read this much, thank you! This community has been so great throughout this whole process.

Hello, I am filling out the I-864 and like others noticed the electronic form has many limitations such as not being able to write “N/A” in fields or “none” in numerical fields as instructed. It also apparently needs to be signed with your real signature, not the digital one where you just type your name like on other PDF forms (such as when E-filing taxes). Instead of printing, physically writing in/signing and re-scanning the form, has anyone had any experience with filling out the form with a digital pen/stylus (you are essentially drawing on the pdf)? This way it would show your actual handwriting and signature. Using the first method since it is scanned im not sure someone would even be able to tell the difference between the two? Wondering if NVC would allow this. Any help greatly appreciated!

Hi. I used TaxAct. It allows you to put NRA under the SSN for your spouse.

Hi TBoneTX, deepest apologies for the violation before, am still getting used to using a forum. This new topic was about Filing Separately with no ITIN/SSN, and the previous was about filing Jointly with no ITIN/SSN. Would these still be considered the same topic? If so, very sorry again, it will not happen again. Just wanted to clairfy. Thanks!

Thanks for everyone's response. Just to update I ended up filing MFS with "NRA" as my wifes SSN.This was much easier as I was able to e-file and meet the deadline (live abroad). Also, since I claimed FEIE it didn't make a difference financially which status we chose for the return. Applying for the ITIN seemed like it would be a very lengthy process and didn't want to sit in the dark for that long not knowing about our joint return.

Hello! I am newly married last year so doing taxes this year as Married was new to me. For immigration, we are in the early stages having only filed I-130 4 months ago. I ended up filing Married Filing Separately and claiming FEIE on Form 2555 as I live and work with my wife in the Philippines. My Wife has no SSN/ITIN and has never been to the US. She works for a Philippine employer and made very little last year. This may be a novice question but is she required to file a return? If not is there some exemption or something she needs to apply for? For the income requirement it says that MFS is only $5 which is very low compared to all others. Other info, I e-filed my return and put her name with NRA in the SSN field (yes I was able to find software that allowed me to do so and still e-file). Thanks in advance!

I sent an email to the Embassy attached with a letter from my employer. They gave me a cookie cutter answer that DCF was only for exceptional circumstances (even though mine fell under the definition of that on their site?). So we ended up filing through USCIS. This is with the US Embassy in the Philippines. Other Embassies may be different.

Does anyone here have experience claiming the Automatic 2 month extension if you are abroad? From what I've read you do not need to file an extension, just attach a statement when you do actually file stating you were abroad to get it. I will send this to Austin as well.

Thanks so much for responding. We do expect a refund if filing jointly, which is why we are doing it, if not jointly would actually owe a little bit. For number 3, I have seen the Part Year resident form, maybe thats what I need to do to file jointly with MA. I was just using the standard full year resident one.

Thanks for your thorough response. For question 2, I wonder if there is a way to check with the IRS if you've filed with them or if they notify you at all. I would hate to wait a year not knowing if my taxes have been filed or not.

Thanks for all your answers!

Hello I'm newly married last year with I-130 in process. I am looking to file Married Filing Jointly and will send my return with the W-7 to Austin. I have a couple of questions for this super kind community: On my 1040 I have Married Filing Jointly. What should I put for my Wife's SSN in the SSN field? I've read things like leaving it blank, NRA or all 9's (as advised by 1040.com where I prepared my 1040) but I'm not sure which is correct. I also read that for her first name I should put NRA as well? Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I know I'm so late! (5 days from deadline). However my wife and I are both abroad and read about an automatic 2 month extension if youre not in the US. Now, if I send my return and W-7 to Austin next month and it takes them 2 or 3 months to get back the ITIN, that would be past the 2 month extension deadline. Would I be penalized for filing late as the ITIN was released later? Or does the IRS consider my return filed when I send in the return and W-7 to Austin? Last question, does anyone know if it is OK to file separate filing status' for Federal and State. For Federal we will file jointly as my Wife made very little income last year. But I am from Massachusetts and there is a rule on their gov site (https://www.mass.gov/service-details/learn-about-filing-status-on-massachusetts-personal-income-tax) that states that if both spouses are not residents of MA they cannot file a joint return and must file Married Filing Separately. I am prepared to do this as I prepared my return with two different Tax software, but just wondering if anyone ran into the same thing: Sorry for so many questions, I appreciate everyone and everything I've read on here. Thanks!

Hello, I am new here. I'm thankful I've found this site as the amount of information here is very helpful. I am a domiciled American citizen living here in the Philippines with my Filipina wife. I am employed by an American company and have been assigned here for work for several years. Due to a staffing shortage, my employer is now urgently requesting for me to return to the United States. After research it seems we may qualify as an exceptional circumstance to directly file here in Manila. Has anyone had any recent experience with filing directly with the US Embassy in Manila, mainly after field offices were closed I believe in 2019? Other notable information to our case is that I hold dual citizenship (reason I am able to stay here) and we are recently married.