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S2N

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S2N last won the day on April 3

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    IR-1/CR-1 Visa
  • Country
    Chile

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  1. S2N
    I wouldn’t upload the remittances personally. Chile’s a very low fraud risk country with a stable economy. Remittances can be a double-edged sword on the fraud factor so no need the put them there when you have plenty of other evidence for a country where the consular officer isn’t likely to ask that many questions once it gets to the Santiago consulate stage. We upload plane tickets for every trip I take down there and his I-94 for every time he enters the U.S. with some photos. We filed taxes jointly so uploaded that as well as some additional estate planning stuff. Does your wife speak English or do you speak Spanish? Might be worth uploading some basic text messages showing you have a way to communicate since Chile has a very low English-speaking level. I uploaded some certifications I had in Spanish as well as a few WhatsApp discussions in Spanish (my husband has extremely basic English so we communicate in Spanish.)
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  7.    OldUser reacted to a post in a topic: Joint sponsor with 24 tax year- 37.5k help 🙏
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  10.    S2N reacted to a post in a topic: I-130 Tax, filed as single instead of married.
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  13. S2N
    Transcripts from the IRS are preferred, but if you need to send in W-2s the downloadable W-2 transcripts from the IRS reflect what the employer reported to them so should be fine.
  14.    S2N reacted to a post in a topic: I-130 Tax, filed as single instead of married.
  15. S2N
    It’s worth noting there are some cases where MFS vs. single would create a material underpayment when filing single. As an example the options I had were: Single: $50 refund MFS: $100 owed to the government MFJ: $4000 refund. We went with MFJ since Mr. S2N has an approved ESTA and we travel back and forth. All that to say: if someone files single and they live in a community property state or make more than $100,000 they actually need to amend to MFJ and not just forget to do it since in those cases single could lead to underpayment as MFS has some cases where they need to pay more.
  16.    S2N reacted to a post in a topic: I-130 Tax, filed as single instead of married.
  17. S2N
    At this stage it’d be too late for the transcripts to change; it’d have to be paper filed plus an ITIN if they want MFJ, so you’re looking February since 1040-X takes even longer than 1040. They’d submit the 1040-X plus W-2s and 1099s. For context, we filed MFJ in person applying for an ITIN on 4/26/25 and the transcripts generated on 8/28/25. Like I said, amendments would take longer.
  18.    pushbrk reacted to a post in a topic: Notice of Intent to Deny just received
  19. S2N
    USCIS isn’t populated by political people. ISOs tend to be clocking in for a job and not much more. Yah: the political appointees might change how they distribute cases or the policies, but they’re constrained people enforcing them don’t tend to care about the why behind any of that. Said another way, taking political feelings out on petitioners or beneficiaries takes more time than most ISOs care to devote. Usually the issues people face with USCIS have more to do with incompetence than politics.
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  23. S2N
    It doesn’t help that the guidance is contradictory as to what to do. An accountant that told you to do either would be right. Some states take a hard stance on this, though. My general view is that there are several ways to file things that are accepted by the IRS but not on the forms as written. All 9s, NRA, declaring 1 as interest income if you have 0 in order to file, etc. those are workarounds that the IRS permits as they don’t materially impact tax, but the standard is to follow the form as written. 99/100, this type of thing doesn’t matter, but we’re dealing with the 1/100 where it might. Rather than argue about the theoretical here, it’s best to look at what would help OP. An MFS filing as NRA wouldn’t help OP for immigration purposes as it doesn’t show joining of finances. It also could hurt them for tax purposes, and they’d need to amend again once their spouse is here to get MFJ. There’s really just no benefit to the MFS status for them at all at this point, and it’d be better just to wait to amend.
  24. S2N
    It’s an approved workaround, but it’s still a workaround. Like entering 1 in the interest income box if you want to file taxes when you have no income. I linked you to the policy on foreign spouses above. It clearly states it’s required on all returns, even MFS. That’s been the longstanding guidance. Just like the publication you linked to provides a way not to do that if the NRA spouse doesn’t have any tax ID. That makes it a sanctioned workaround. Its unfortunately an area where there’s tension in the IRS’ guidance on what people should do. If OP is being told they can’t just write “NRA” on a return or amendment, that’s in line with what the agency has published. Not taking a hard line on that particular issue would also be in line with what they’ve published. Sometimes it’s easier just to do what the government officials say than argue with them which of their multiple sets of instructions they should be following.
  25. S2N
    I think there’s pretty solid anecdotal evidence for the Texas Service Center processing an I-130 when it receives I-129F if it is already the service center assigned the I-130. Seen several cases in other sites that really have no other explanation than Texas trying to close two cases at once and letting someone “skip the line” by filing for K-3. I think what makes this case interesting is that 1) it’s a California assigned I-130 and 2) they called.
  26. S2N
    At the very least this is an interesting datapoint on K-3. My view has largely been aligned with yours that it’s a waste of time for virtually all cases. The fact they’re calling on K-3 for a December case suggests they are looking at them in some way. OP — keep us up to date on how it plays out.
  27.    S2N reacted to a post in a topic: Random Call from USCIS; What it means? Your experience?
  28. S2N
    It hasn’t changed but the turn a blind eye work around is to paper file with 999-99-9999 or write NRA. IRS is less stringent in enforcing its own rules on this than some states are. In OP’s case if the IRS is actually enforcing the policy that you can’t file MFS without an ITIN, which honestly wouldn’t shock me given that the current administration wants to use IRS records for immigration enforcement, there’s almost certainly no benefit to amending as MFS. They’d have to do the ITIN process with no monetary benefit and no additional evidence for the NOID. If they want to use tax returns for evidence they’d need to go to a CAA in Sweden before the deadline and have them refile as MFJ. I’m assuming that’s not really practical at this point, so they should focus on other types of evidence.
  29. S2N
    Reference from the IRS website on MFS: link If your spouse is neither a U.S. citizen nor a U.S. resident within the meaning of IRC section 7701(b)(1)(A) and you file a joint or separate return, your spouse must have either a Social Security Number (SSN) or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). Emphasis mine.
  30. S2N
    Technically need an ITIN for MFS since the 1040 requests it. This delayed us filing my state taxes this year as both of the states I file in don’t accept MFS with all 9s or NRA written in the spouse SSN/ITIN field. Though the IRS has been known to accept the 999-99-9999 trick for MFS spouses on paper. At this stage I wouldn’t bother with an amendment until she gets here unless they can amend with a CAA in Sweden for MFJ to get an ITIN. MFS wouldn’t help either the immigration case or the taxes. Easiest at this stage is to wait tor the NOID to be resolved and amend electronically in the U.S. after a SSN is issued.
  31. S2N
    Yep. The geographies I was referencing were northern South America, parts of Southeast Asia, and MENA. There’s a subculture in all of those areas of women looking for older American men. More related to OP, Central America doesn’t tend to have it for people in Central America looking for consular processing, but once they’re here trying to find a spouse and adjust is also a cultural thing for many — that even impacts gay Central Americans in the U.S., which isn’t usually a thing for consular processing. And then Nigeria is its own thing, but usually you don’t get many older men looking for wives there. The most common thing there is people paying for friends of people they know in the U.S. to marry them. All that to say, online dating is great, and there’s no issue doing it internationally. Worked for me. But people should be aware of what the culture surrounding it and immigration is if it’s something they’re going to do.
  32. S2N
    The issue is with the classification of foreign taxes paid and whether or not they’re eligible for the credit or other deductions. People also often screw up things like improperly deducting health care withholding/tax or retirement for foreign spouses. There’s just a lot of words that have technical meanings in the Internal Revenue Code that don’t really translate well to taxes where one of the couple lives overseas. TurboTax will guide you through it, but it won’t tell you what counts to put in the boxes for foreign items. Like all things with the government, people are free to DIY it, but just because you can doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to do it.
  33. S2N
    Re: your last paragraph, It’s a thing. Go to r/passportbros if you want to see the cringier side of international relationships. Not judging any particular relationship or people who find international love online I fall in that camp, so I’d be hypocritical if I was. But there’s a subculture both within the U.S. and in some specific countries of marriages where the older financially established male U.S. citizen marries a younger woman from one of a handful of countries who is madly in love with him. If a 25 year old woman wouldn’t fall in love with a 55 year old man from her own country, I doubt they’d fall in love with a 55 year old man from a foreign country. That’s my view at least.
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