Jump to content

S2N

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    639

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

S2N last won the day on March 13

S2N had the most liked content!

Immigration Info

  • Immigration Status
    IR-1/CR-1 Visa
  • Country
    Chile

Immigration Timeline & Photos

S2N's Achievements

Community Regular

Community Regular (8/14)

  • One Year In
  • Posting Machine Rare
  • Very Popular Rare
  • Collaborator
  • One Month Later

Recent Badges

694

Reputation

Recent Profile Visitors

2,865 profile views
  1.    Dashinka reacted to a post in a topic: Online filing: Any difference between the guided system and simple upload of I-130?
  2.    TBoneTX reacted to a post in a topic: Online filing: Any difference between the guided system and simple upload of I-130?
  3. S2N
    We filed in January 2025 online and the “hybrid” method wasn’t a thing we could pick when I filed for my husband. The theoretical advantage of the purely online method is that agency checks are automatic so it saves you a week or two. That and there’s no room for error with OCR or data entry even if the form is glitchy (any glitches can be explained in the comments — we did it for my husbands Spanish last names with no comments.) It’s worth noting that multiple ISOs have commented there’s no such thing as paper I-130s anymore. They’re all either scanned or keyed in and the adjudicators won’t touch anything paper. Adds more risk to the mail-it-in method, so for those who aren’t comfortable with the glitchy form this is probably the best option. I’m still a pure online advocate, but glad there’s a middle ground now so people can avoid the inherent issues of mailing things to the government.
  4.    TBoneTX reacted to a post in a topic: MFJ with K-1 spouse who has SSN but foreign self-employment income
  5.    Crazy Cat reacted to a post in a topic: MFJ with K-1 spouse who has SSN but foreign self-employment income
  6. S2N
    Yep; and if you are like me and live in a marriage penalty jurisdiction you might get the fun of doing MFJ federally and MFS on paper single… Anything involving foreign merits paying a CPA at least the first year.
  7.    S2N reacted to a post in a topic: MFJ with K-1 spouse who has SSN but foreign self-employment income
  8. S2N
    At least for 6013(g) elections the FBAR requirements don’t kick in until after they would stop being an NRA on their own. Example: my husband lives in Chile and we make the election under 6013(g) to treat him as a tax resident. This does not make him a resident for FBAR reporting requirements. 6013(h) (the election you’re discussing) is a bit weirder as it requires FBAR reporting for the period they were residents of the US but not for the period they weren’t. In other words, you ignore the period you elect to treat as tax residents that they were not residents. A professional can help work this out. Typically there is never a tax reason to elect MFS over MFJ. There can be non-tax reasons and in rare cases there can be tax reasons. NRA/Dual status foreign spouse with partial year business income might be a rare case. Since we’re dealing with self-employment income from a foreign country where it may or may not have had taxes withheld or paid, a professional is all but certain to be needed to work out what qualifies for the foreign tax credit. Short of this is that you (OP), probably have one of the more complicated tax situations of people who come on here and really should hire a CPA who is experienced in this. Go ahead and file an extension for both of you now (also with the caveat that an extension to file is not an extension to pay.)
  9. S2N
    Yes, agreed on that. The easiest thing is always to give the government what they want.
  10.    S2N reacted to a post in a topic: I-864 Question: Using Only Primary Job Income When IRS Tax Transcript Shows Both Jobs. Will this cause an RFE?
  11.    appleblossom reacted to a post in a topic: CEAC IV Scheduling Status
  12.    RonMari reacted to a post in a topic: CEAC IV Scheduling Status
  13. S2N
    Yeah, if the income is the same or higher it definitely doesn’t hurt to include additional proof to preempt. I was more pointing out that the public adjudication guidelines operate under the assumption that W-2 income included in a tax return continues in the next year unless the CO has reason to believe otherwise. For a white collar job making over $100k, looking at the tax transcript on its own without additional proof would likely carry the day on its own, since those style jobs tend to be stable and the CO wouldn’t have reason to doubt. Doesn’t hurt to include a current paystub at all to preempt like you suggest. Just wanted to reassure OP that under the guidance they’re very likely going to be fine based on the transcript, and everything else is icing on the cake.
  14.    Edward and Jaycel reacted to a post in a topic: CEAC IV Scheduling Status
  15. S2N
    The tool is very accurate based on the reports online. They’re probably just in early October.
  16. S2N
    For what it’s worth, the Foreign Affairs Manual instructs the consular officer only to request paystubs and proof of current income if they have reason to doubt the income on the tax return continues beyond solely passage of time (9 FAM 601.14-6(3)) and specifically includes salary in that. Basically an engineer with $137,000 in wages on their transcript has a presumption of being a well qualified unless the CO discovers something else to raise doubt. Of course there’s zero harm in uploading recent paystubs and other proof of employment, and that’ll strengthen it, but want to reassure OP that they’re in decent standing based on the guidance in FAM. The CO if they’re following the guidance should approve based on the transcript and any recent paystub is even better. The main thing at this point is to accurately answer all the I-864 questions as written and as instructed by the instructions.
  17.    S2N reacted to a post in a topic: Question about foreign income
  18.    TBoneTX reacted to a post in a topic: Question about foreign income
  19. S2N
    3rd to recommend a CPA; also would suggest proactively filing for an extension given that it’s relatively late in individual tax season and you have a complex return where you probably want someone familiar with the foreign reporting rules, so giving yourself time to shop around is useful. An extension is free and automatic, but worth noting that its extension to file, not extension to pay. The reason it’s worth consulting a CPA on a foreign business is there’s all sorts of rules about what qualifies as a valid expense to deduct. They’re relatively straightforward for rental properties in the US, but when you throw in the foreign aspect it’s worth consulting a professional because that can change whether something qualifies or to what extent it qualifies. As a general example, foreign medical insurance paid is only deductible after the medical expense haircut is made. That means even if it was taken out tax free in a foreign paycheck, you need to pay tax on it in the US most of the time. Stuff like that is why you hire a CPA. Knowing the definitions of what qualifies is really important with foreign items.
  20. S2N
    Unlimited from a practical standpoint. You just have to log into CEAC once a year. Every log-in resets the clock for how long since you last contacted them. Recommendation is to also send NVC an email once a year saying you want the case to remain open so there’s a paper trail.
  21.    appleblossom reacted to a post in a topic: January 2025 I-130 Filers
  22.    appleblossom reacted to a post in a topic: January 2025 I-130 Filers
  23. S2N
    I’m not misleading anyone: the 40% “unprocessed” every month where almost always the more difficult cases for USCIS to process one reason or another. Almost every time anyone comes on here or another forum with a complaint about being significantly delayed past the other approvals around there date, there’s a reason. That graph doesn’t show what you think it does. It shows that USCIS prioritized the straightforward cases, and cases that took more processing time were deprioritized in favor of clearing more cases that were straightforward the next month. USCIS has now started going back through the deprioritized cases, which should be a positive for people who are in that group. It will also likely go slower and not be at the same pace we saw a few months ago, because yes, the cases that got skipped were the more difficult cases that take more time for USCIS to process.
  24. S2N
    The 40% that you’re referencing are the not straightforward cases… the ones that are more difficult for USCIS to process. ”Still pending adjudication” just means they haven’t made a decision yet. Not that it hasn’t seen an officer. You haven’t shared anything about your case, so we can’t give you much help, but in almost every case online of someone processing more than a month behind the same PD, there’s a complicating factor.
  25. S2N
    The standard response to these from USCIS when inquiries are given by Congress is pending background investigations. That can either mean they found something, there was a mismatch on a name, or they’re having difficulty with the background investigation. Others come from countries with higher fraud rates and get greater degrees of scrutiny even in the consular process. Your profiles doesn’t list a country, but your first post was on a thread about Nigeria. Nigeria is arguably the highest fraud risk country in the world for spousal visas. That essentially makes every case from there not straightforward. It’s also worth noting I don’t think there’s any reason to doubt the background check reasoning. From everything that has been publicly revealed by USCIS and/or leaked by IOs, pending background checks and resolving things that might come up in them is one of the most common delays.
  26. S2N
    Other piece of advice is that consular officers are reasonable people who live in or near the countries they’re assigned to process visas for. If it’s happened to to your wife, it’s probably happened to someone else, so they’ll recognize it.
  27.    S2N reacted to a post in a topic: Passport name vs I-130 name format mismatch – risk of RFE?
  28. S2N
    There’s been a slow down in new months being approved. They are now apparently prioritizing the difficult cases they put to the side when they were prioritizing speeding things along.
  29.    S2N reacted to a post in a topic: Is this possible?
  30. S2N
    Also, on FBAR, does she have a government sponsored retirement account? A format called AFPs is popular in a lot of Latin America and it does trigger FBAR reporting requirements (they’re the equivalent of mandatory 401(k)s.) We’ll have lifetime FBAR requirements because of the Chilean AFP my husband has and can’t touch until his 60s as it has more than $10,000 USD after the mandatory contributions for the time he’s been working. A lot of people only look at bank accounts and don’t think about how different retirement accounts impact it. In the case of Latin America, multiple countries have these government sponsored 401(k) equivalents that are mandatory and since the format is investments, it triggers FBAR. No one thinks of the mandatory account you can’t touch being reportable, but it can be.
×
×
  • Create New...