I-864 Form When Living Aborad

[Jasontnyc 9]

Sorry i cant help on this one. I find US taxes confusing enough at the best of times

If you need help with anything else though, just give me a shout.

Did a few hours of reading and it looks as simple as getting each years forms (1040, 1116, and 2555) here : , using the US dollar equivalent averaged over that year and then sending them in. They can use the Irish equivalent of my W-2 and copies of those forms at their interview.

Crossing fingures for no fines as I shouldn't owe any tax.

Dont mean to hijack my own thread - just wanted to add what I found for the next person that does a Google search.

Thanks,

Jason

[Jasontnyc 9]

Reading the forums for a few hours last night and found the following thread which has a lot of guidance on proving domicile (intent):

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/164618-proving-domicile-when-not-living-in-the-us/

Based on that, I am getting ready the following package. Any other suggestions to help my case or is this more than accurate?

Intent for Domicile:

NY State Drivers License

Proof of US Bank Account (Last 2 statements?)

Contract with moving company

Proof we have listed our house for sale in Ireland (I doubt there will be an offer at interview time)

Letter from my sister stating we intend to live with her upon arrival and worked out a payment arrangement - Including her contact details

Letter from my employer stating my employment will continue in the US and date they have for my move

Airline tickets???

Financial Sponsor Info:

My Last 3 years US Tax returns (1040, 2555, 1116)

Letter from my employer stating my continued employment

My kids are under three but we plan to enroll them in Little Gym (since they do it here) - Should I pre-enroll them and provide that as well or does it make no difference as it isn't actually school

Feeling a lot better after reading so many in similar situations - although it would be helpful to have a thread where people list the evidence they provided and whether they got the approval.

Thanks,

Jason

[Holly2234 66]

Sounds like you have all of the bases covered

My daughter is only 18 months so ive not done much as far as enrolling her in anything goes. I will find her a daycare (when i get a job!) and everything once i get there. Its not something i feel comfortable doing without seeing the place so it'll have to wait.

We have a NY State drivers licence (where in NY State will you be? We'll be there too!).

Bank account - we will just print off a few statements since theyre all online.

Job offer letter for open employment.

Voting registration card.

Letter to my landlord giving them notice of us moving.

So you have pretty much the same as we do. I can hopefully come back and give more accurate info about what they need in the next couple of months after my interview!

[LauraDP 10]

We are in a similar situation and will be taking a similar route but are very early on in the process as we are only now looking at filing the petition and are trying to get timescales sorted out in our heads before we begin any of the processes.

My husband is the USC. We have been married for 16 years and have four children so we are assuming that the kids and I should be approved without very much hassle in terms of our relationship. He cannot confer USC status on our children as he was just shy of the requirements for period of residency in the US (why did my in-laws have to move so much!?) so he will be having to file I-130s for all five of us.

As he has only ever been in employment in the UK and has been resident here since 1992, he has never filed a US tax return. It never crossed our minds to do so. I have to admit that we are fearful of being walloped with an extortionate tax bill or some sort of fine for not filing. Does anyone know if this is likely to be the case? Would it be a case that he could submit his UK tax returns to the IRS? The whole tax minefield makes me judder.

Chris has relatives in CA who I am sure would file I-864s for us but the problem is that we would be looking to settle in VA or MD so I don't know that they could really vouch for us and certainly I cannot imagine that they would work as an address for "intent to domicile". We have a friend who may be willing to do it but he would only ever be able to offer a guest spot for Chris in his home if and when Chris has to move in advance of us. Like you, we have a young family, with four boys ranging in age from 4-9. It is really neither feasible or desirable for Chris to move out the US more than a few months in advance of us as we could not financially support two households. I would have to sell the house here and effectively become homeless for a period while waiting on immigration approval for the kids and I. Even the fact I would be having to sell the house, all our other property, arrange shipping of our possessions, close banks accounts etc all on my own while single parenting four young children makes it a really horrible proposition.

Anyway, I have no advice to offer since you are further ahead in this process than I am but I wanted to respond after reading to let you know that I understand your predicament because it seems the system is not really geared up for the moving of families which makes it even more complicated - so I empathise with your confusion and frustration.

Laura

[Jasontnyc 9]

As he has only ever been in employment in the UK and has been resident here since 1992, he has never filed a US tax return. It never crossed our minds to do so. I have to admit that we are fearful of being walloped with an extortionate tax bill or some sort of fine for not filing. Does anyone know if this is likely to be the case? Would it be a case that he could submit his UK tax returns to the IRS? The whole tax minefield makes me judder.

Its unlikely to be heavily fined if you read the expat forums. As far as having a big tax bill, it depends on how much he makes as there are rpetty generous allowances for tax you have already paid and household expenses. For instance if he makes less than 90K US dollars, you are already covered. The amount of house allowance depends on the standard of living of where you are. The UK should be pretty reasonable (I think Guam was like 29K and Tokyo was a huge number.)

I've had to come to this point myself and you are going to need the tax returns so better to do them know then right before they are required.

Do more reading on the 1040, 1116, and 2555. They are all pretty easy forms and if you are below the allowances, you should be fine (again if you believe what others are saying).

I filed as Married Filing Separately but if you need more allowance, you can file jointly. Its slightly more complicated.

Thanks,

Jason

Sounds like you have all of the bases covered

My daughter is only 18 months so ive not done much as far as enrolling her in anything goes. I will find her a daycare (when i get a job!) and everything once i get there. Its not something i feel comfortable doing without seeing the place so it'll have to wait.

We have a NY State drivers licence (where in NY State will you be? We'll be there too!).

Bank account - we will just print off a few statements since theyre all online.

Job offer letter for open employment.

Voting registration card.

Letter to my landlord giving them notice of us moving.

So you have pretty much the same as we do. I can hopefully come back and give more accurate info about what they need in the next couple of months after my interview!

You are well ahead of us so please do update!! Little Gym isn't a daycare, its like a Gymboree but I see your point. You don't want to sign up for too much sight unseen just to improve your paperwork.

I was born in NY - Albany area (hence the NY driving license) but we are moving outside of Boston.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Jasontnyc

[Holly2234 66]

Yeah i figured thats the kind of thing it is. But yeah, that was my point, some things are better seen in advance before signing up.

[LauraDP 10]

Thanks for the reassurance about the tax returns. He earns less than $90K and he is a qualified Chartered Accountant - hoping to be employed as an Auditor in the US - so I am going to make Chris do all of the investigation into the tax thing. It makes my brain hurt. I am not in paid employment at the moment, have not been for 9 years since our oldest child was born, so would it be beneficial for us to file as a couple or just him as an individual? That is something we will need to figure out. Thanks, by the way, for providing the links to the relevant IRS pages. That was a useful shortcut and I have bookmarked both for my husband to look at.

So as I understand it he can use his salary and tax records from the UK to fill out the US tax returns? Are you filing for three years or just for this past year?

Your list of domicile evidence is interesting and useful as it helps me begin to fathom things out. A friend has said we can use his address and even bunk with him short-term if required so hopefully that would be enough before Chris obtains a job and can, therefore, secure a rental for us (we intend to buy once we are all over there). My husband is a registered voter in the US for Maryland though he is obviously registered as a postal voter. Is it your postal vote registration that you are using as evidence? We may not have a contract with a shipping company by the time we submit paperwork, depending on the timescales, but we are already obtaining quotes. It would be tricky for us to enrol the boys in school(s) before we know what job Chris has obtained as that would determine what area we will be looking to live. Again, depending on the timescales (which is what I am struggling to fathom) we may not have listed our house here for sale or it may be listed and not sold. My husband left the US before qualifying to drive so he has no US driver's license. We will have to sort that out at some stage.

Does anyone know if you can sit the DMV test to get a license without being resident in the US? It seems logical to me that you would not be permitted to do so but if you don't ask silly questions ...

Thanks again for sharing your experience with me. Since we are approaching this from similar situations, your experience is very useful.

Best wishes

Laura

[Anh map 2,098]

Thanks for the reassurance about the tax returns. He earns less than $90K and he is a qualified Chartered Accountant - hoping to be employed as an Auditor in the US - so I am going to make Chris do all of the investigation into the tax thing. It makes my brain hurt. I am not in paid employment at the moment, have not been for 9 years since our oldest child was born, so would it be beneficial for us to file as a couple or just him as an individual? That is something we will need to figure out. Thanks, by the way, for providing the links to the relevant IRS pages. That was a useful shortcut and I have bookmarked both for my husband to look at.

So as I understand it he can use his salary and tax records from the UK to fill out the US tax returns? Are you filing for three years or just for this past year?

Your list of domicile evidence is interesting and useful as it helps me begin to fathom things out. A friend has said we can use his address and even bunk with him short-term if required so hopefully that would be enough before Chris obtains a job and can, therefore, secure a rental for us (we intend to buy once we are all over there). My husband is a registered voter in the US for Maryland though he is obviously registered as a postal voter. Is it your postal vote registration that you are using as evidence? We may not have a contract with a shipping company by the time we submit paperwork, depending on the timescales, but we are already obtaining quotes. It would be tricky for us to enrol the boys in school(s) before we know what job Chris has obtained as that would determine what area we will be looking to live. Again, depending on the timescales (which is what I am struggling to fathom) we may not have listed our house here for sale or it may be listed and not sold. My husband left the US before qualifying to drive so he has no US driver's license. We will have to sort that out at some stage.

Does anyone know if you can sit the DMV test to get a license without being resident in the US? It seems logical to me that you would not be permitted to do so but if you don't ask silly questions ...

Thanks again for sharing your experience with me. Since we are approaching this from similar situations, your experience is very useful.

Best wishes

Laura

US Embassy London has an IRS desk. Find the contact info on the Embassy website.

[Jasontnyc 9]

so would it be beneficial for us to file as a couple or just him as an individual?

You will have to decide based on your own circumstances. If you want to file jointly, you will need an Individual Taxpayers Identification Number. I don't think filing jointly does anything for the Visa process.

So as I understand it he can use his salary and tax records from the UK to fill out the US tax returns? Are you filing for three years or just for this past year?

I have 10 years to catch up with -- Im doing the last 4 for now though which will give me what i need for the I-864.

My husband is a registered voter in the US for Maryland though he is obviously registered as a postal voter. Is it your postal vote registration that you are using as evidence?

Im not using a voters card but I see some people have. THere is no harm in having more backup than less.

We may not have a contract with a shipping company by the time we submit paperwork, depending on the timescales, but we are already obtaining quotes.

A lot of people seem to be using quotes. Again, that seems to show some intent so it is better than nothing.

Does anyone know if you can sit the DMV test to get a license without being resident in the US? It seems logical to me that you would not be permitted to do so but if you don't ask silly questions ...

You have to be a resident and prove it (Birth Cert or Resident Card) - most states actually require a SSN. You will also have to prove you live in that state so utility bills etc

Thanks again for sharing your experience with me. Since we are approaching this from similar situations, your experience is very useful.

Hoping to give a little back after so many have helped me.

Best wishes

Laura

The previous poster mentioned the London office...There is also a phone number specifically for overseas returns - I saw just that number somewhere but can only find this page now: http://www.irs.gov/localcontacts/article/0,,id=101292,00.html

I havent called them myself only because I am a little bit wary before I submit my paperwork. Unfounded worry Im sure but I want to show some progress towards making it right before contacting them. Thats not advice in any way, just my decision.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Jasontnyc