Wuozopo

Everything you have written is correct. The statement you write and both sign is an election for her to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes. There is nowhere in any of the tax softwares to include such a signed statement electronically, thus you print out a paper return and include the election statement and mail it if you want to follow IRS rules. To be a resident alien for tax purposes she has to have a greencard or enough days present in the US. Had she arrived earlier in 2022, she would have enough days. But an August arrival doesn’t have enough days left in the year. If she visited for some long periods in 2020 and 2021, there is a formula that counts some of those days which might give her enough days present. Regardless of her days present, the IRS has a perk for those married to a USC where you can elect for her to be treated as a resident alien by writing the statement choosing for her to be. You can find all of that in Publication 519 on the IRS website. You mentioned she has no taxable income. Did she have any income in Germany (2022) prior to her August arrival? If so that is reportable on you joint tax return. It must include “worldwide income” for the joint filers. That income can be excluded so she wouldn’t pay taxes on the same money twice. Turbo Tax asks about foreign income in “Less Common Income” Toward the end of their Income walk-thru. I said earlier that the signed statement has to be included if you want to follow IRS rules. If you want to cheat, then just e-file and pretend you wife qualified. The IRS doesn’t know when she arrived. When I was a new immigrant (October arrival) we paper filed with a statement because we wanted to follow the precise written IRS tax law. Publication 519 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf 2021 version is the latest they have. Chapter 1 covers resident or non resident as well as the statement.

@DaryaDel She took a tax credit from the marketplace to lower her insurance premium and now the IRS wants to see her actual income for 2022 to verify that she qualified for the credit. If not, she has to repay it. She will have to get an ITIN and file a return as single. Her foreign retirement income is reportable as income, even though she has not transferred it to the US.

Go back in this thread and read it. This question is asked often and people answer with speculative guesses. There’s some data charts just a few pages back.

Well you have the ones you like to take to the interview to be on your visa. The medical photos don’t get shown around or seem by you again. At the interview they take one photo, from you, scan it, and hand it back. I took my own photos and my wife and I have done our own passport photos. You can take lots until you’re happy. There is an online tool to use provided by the US Dept of State. It sizes them properly.

Are you asking about photos for the medical? It was my understanding that they were taking digital photos at the exam and attaching them digitally with your file. @Icedgem Did they take a digital photo of you at the medical? When everybody had paper files sent to the embassy by courier, the 4 photos requested were stapled to the four pages of the paper report. At that time either US or UK were okay because they were for ID purposes on the report. You might give Visa Medicals a call and ask about photos for the medical and what they want. At the interview, they need US size for the visa.

Spouse visas went digital a while back. K1 fiancés still get the big white envelope. So if you read a post mentioning it, look at what kind of visa they got.

Your interview is about YOUR civil documents. They will look at your original passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, police certificate, and some people have military, name changes, adoption papers, divorce decrees, etc. Anything from your spouse is already uploaded to NVC and the interviewer can view it. They do not want paper copies. They do all digital now. Your original civil documents will be viewed and handed back to you. When your visa/passport are delivered to you, there is no longer a “big white envelope” of paper files for you to turn over at POE. All digital now so don’t print a pile of documents photocopies for your interview. The NVC reviewed that you have submitted all the right stuff and your I-864 was properly done and documented. That’s how you got DQed. About having an interview letter for the medical. They don’t care when your interview date is. They use the letter to verify your new case number (LNDXXXXXXXXX). You have that number from NVC in your DQ notice and that is enough for them. For major medical conditions or surgery, the visa doctor wants to hear more than your version. If you have high blood pressure for example, a short report from your GP saying you were diagnosed on [date] and take [Medication name and dosage] and you hypertension is well under control now. It’s not pages and pages of doctor records. It may be just a paragraph he writes telling when, how treated,, meds, if cured or still ongoing. If you went to a specialist for treatment, they can do the brief report.

An IRA is a perk for taxpayers—-for someone who is employed, has taxable income, and is filing a tax return. I don’t see how your wife can establish an IRA when she will have no association with the IRS nor reporting taxable income.

If you were a married person on the last day of 2022, you file married—- Married Filing Jointly, or Married Filing Separately Head of Household is more for single moms, which are not for 2022. based on IRS rules.

I looked briefly at the two links above at two January interviews. From petition start to interview London- 1 year, 2 months Montreal - 1 year, 9 months But those are 2 isolated cases and there are so many variables. Could speed up or slow down in the coming year. We never know. Best to just carry on with life and forget about timeline obsession because anything you count on may be way off by your time to interview.

Correct. It is a report and it does not even go on to the IRS on your tax return. It is a separate online submission to FinCEN (US Treasury) giving the bank(s) info, account number and highest balance during the year, No worries. That money you hold is not “income” so no income tax. If it earns interest during the tax year, the interest should be reported just like interest you might earn on you US bank account. The full balance is not taxed whether you move some to US or back the other way.

SSA and USCIS are different agencies. The real reason for a SSN is to apply your work credits for retirement and Medicare. It’s not really a National ID number like you have in the UK, even though every place uses it as an ID. I don’t really know if SSA would change your name from what USCIS has named you because you are an immigrant. I don’t think a hyphen or space is really going to be an issue in your daily life.. My wife has various versions of her name at different places like financial accounts, voting, driver licence, stock certificates. (Example: first, middle, married name or first, maiden, married name or sometimes using just an initial in the middle. When you apply for citizenship, you have the option to pick a whole new name (or just add a hyphen). Fix it then if needed. What your SS card says does not define what you have to use in day to day life except for places that have to verify with USCIS’s S.A.V.E database like SSA and in my state the DMV.

You have to do all the NVC processing…apply for the visa, pay fees, upload civil documents and get all that qualified which takes some time and you can stall completing that. Then NVC will issue a interview date in London. You will have to schedule a medical appointment prior to the interview date. I don’t think you’ll finish everything before the trip. You can also reschedule the interview if it is too soon. Until he has a visa in his passport, he can travel on ESTA.

As an immigrant, social security has to use the name that was on your entry visa so that seems to be what they did. As a citizen, your wife has more flexibility to change her name. You will want your work credits to pay into social security with the name they have for you. I don’t think credit card names have to match exactly. Have you been into a SSA office to try to change your name with them? I have had a huge hassle trying to get an appointment with them, but if you have the patience, maybe a walk-in could fix the name issue.

The interview will be scheduled by NVC at whichever consulate they put on their petition. They can’t schedule their own interview.

@elgrandedoodel The above information is spot on. A few things that may not have been directly addressed— It sounds like she may be employed half year and self-employed half year. She may have to check both boxes. Did she get a W2 (employed) or a 1099 (self-employed contractor) statements of wages for 2022? Or both? If you wait until the 2022 tax return is filed, you may have a better idea. There is no deadline to get this uploaded to NVC. Until April 18, 2022 (filing deadline) the most recent tax return is 2021 if she signs/submits the I -864 before then and before filing 2022. However, if she submits the I-864 after filing her 2022 return, the most recent return is 2022. If she can show current income is over the threshold, the assets are of no advantage. It won’t get you “more approved”. However, if you the immigrant have that level of assets, you can self-sponsor in London. The problem is the NVC will review everything before sending the case to London and the workers often don’t understand anything but the boilerplate tax return and a job exceeding the threshold. They could be a sticking point to qualify you ready for interview because they don’t understand self-sponsorship is a thing in London. If she can do a traditional I-864 proving current income, it will likely go faster. She can add your assets with proof on her I-864 in part 7 under “Assets of the intending immigrant” but I would keep it simple and just use her income. I would go with the USD value on the date on your last financial statement proving each asset. And repeating previously mentioned to you—- Skip her bank statements. Not needed. The I-130 is a petition to USCIS and the I-864 is not on it. Your approved petition is handed off to the Dept of State at the National Visa Center. New people, new part of the government. They are the ones wanting I-864.

If you have sufficient proof of income/salary, that would be the bulk of your I-134 proof needs. Bank info is more for those who are having to make up a lack of salary with assets. Some embassies may be stricter on what they wish to see so it would be helpful if you would do a profile showing the country and embassy of your fiancé to get more specific answers. I can answer for London: You don’t need it if you have a job. Make a profile. EDIT: I see it’s in your timeline. The profile shows in you post so one doesn’t have to dig for it. Good job having a timeline! Here’s what Warsaw embassy says for fiancés Financial Documents The Affidavit of Support form I-864 is not required for K visas. However, petitioners must provide proof of adequate financial support once in the United States to ensure the applicant will not become public charges. Documentation regarding financial support can be in any form so long as it contains enough detail and information for the consular officer to conclude that the beneficiary will not become a public charge. Petitioners may submit the form I-134 if they wish.

@hoangminh Firstly you can only file a joint return with a resident alien. Nonresident aliens file a different return (1040NR) and those can’t be joint. So your wife can meet the substantia presence requirement in the US based on enough days present to be considered a resident alien for tax purposes. (She does), OR Meet the greencard test (she doesn’t) She qualifies on #1 so you are free to file a joint return with her and go by the resident alien rules which are the same as when two citizens file a joint return. This is for tax purposes only with the IRS. It doesn’t change her USCIS immigration status.

Just a personal opinion— I think I would ignore the error because that USCIS process is approved and over..Next process is applying for the visa (DS260) with the Dept of State. Do that correctly. If you want to proactively bring up any errors, do so in person at your London interview. I would however ignore it unless specifically asked. No you do not need an original I-130a at a London interview. The interview is all about your civil documents which are already submitted in the file, but you will show originals at the interview….birth certificate, police certificate(s), marriage certificate, military record(?), name change deed poll(?), adoption(?)…things like that. The embassy has a list on their website. No proof of relationship will be asked for in London.

Yes I agree. Professional tax preparers are required to efile and have software that seems to enable it. They don’t typically use consumer tax software.. It costs more is why consumers are drawn to do it themselves. Did you file MFS with no SSN for the spouse?

And I need to remember from last year. Not even sure if handwriting NRA is a thing anymore. But I know you can’t efile unless the IRS changed all their coding for that which I doubt because it is such a minor number of people who need that. I am busy at the moment but will look at my new Turbo desktop for 2022 and make screenshots. And can you tell me where your wife is? It is possible to get her an ITIN and file jointly aa a “resident for tax purposes”. That’s a little complicated and still a paper filing but likely a tax advantage. And another topic entirely.

I always install the desktop version and am not too familiar with the online screens. We just bought a disk version of TurboTax Deluxe from Amazon for $ 36.99 (because I don’t need State filing). With state is more. You don’t need fancier versions or audit defense or things they try to upsell. My wife has used Turbo over 20 years and has paper filed on occasion. Yes you complete the tax return. Check and complete any errors they bring up like missing info. When you have done all except the error you will get for spouse SSN , which you just ignore. Go to the print section and choose print for filing to get just the forms to be mailed without all the worksheets and such. Then write in NRA yourself and mail. Do save the complete file with all the worksheets for your records and maybe just the filing version too for your records. My wife says to mail with some kind of tracking of proof of mailing at USPS. I can do a screenshot of the print choices later on my computer. On hold waiting for Social .security to take my call (34 minutes so far. Ugh)

Turbo tax will generate a page telling you where to mail when you say no to efiling and proceed to filing by mail. Those “Thank you for using TurboTax” print outs of course are not mailed. Just the forms with the attachment sequence. Some forms could be multiple pages so include the whole form, even though the attachment sequence only appears on the first page.

You will have to wait out all the intervals for three shots and that might delay you some months. They give adult Hep B at the visa clinic. (£50-80) Or get one elsewhere less than 4 weeks from you appointment to get the insufficient time interval waiver. They try to tell K1s to just go back to your doctor and get it there. You may have to insist to them you want it at the clinic so you can get signed off on everything at your visit. Waiting on finishing immunisations is going to cause you hassle and money in the US.

The sprintax you are interested in is not for US citizens. It is only for Non-resident aliens working in the US, like on a work visa. Paper filing is easy but takes longer to process. Do you use software for doing tax returns? I know TurboTax guides you. There is a print option for only forms needed for filing and instructions where to mail specific to your address. Also anything that goes to the IRS will have an “attachment sequence” box in the top corner. You only mail forms or schedules that have this in the corner. Arrange in numerical order. Everything else is just worksheets or things to keep for your records.