Money and immigration

[D.Ba 85]

1 minute ago, Alabamak1 said:

i completely agree with the part of closing accounts. an established account is better with small amount of money, than a new one with a lot of it. Banking laws have changed so much that making transfers later makes it difficult. I have dual citizenship and my native country made a huge deal when i opened an account later 

Exactly. I have a dual-citizen German friend living in US trying to open an account in Germany. Huge production! Keep your Swedish account and use it when you are visiting there. No need to close the door behind you. 

 

You can still transfer part of the money.

[Alabamak1 688]

i cut this from an attorneys example of a bona fide marriage

• make your spouse a beneficiary on your retirement account or other accounts that require or allow a payout to a beneficiary upon the holder’s death
• make sure that both spouses are covered under your health insurance policy (if possible, and if the other spouse doesn't have his or her own insurance)
• if you live together, add your spouse to your house deed, mortgage, or apartment lease
• if you live together, add your spouse’s name to your garbage, utility, cable, and other bills
• take out a joint credit card
• open a joint bank account
• file joint tax returns
• join a gym or club together, or
• buy a car or other major asset together.

[little immigrant 800]

59 minutes ago, D.Ba said:

I am keeping a chunk of my money in Germany, and the FBAR is nothing, it’s a form with about 3 lines that you hand in annually. Not a hassle. 

 

Think about the disadvantages before you close your accounts in your home country.

What's a disadvantage by closing your German account? I have closed mine after I transferred all my money to my US account. Haven't had a problem. Did you not de-register from the German offices? 

 

@Nemeseax transferring your money to your new joint account is not a problem.

Edited March 25, 2018 by little immigrant

[Londonergirl 133]

Hi.
I don't understand why there would be an issue at all. I transferred some money to my husbands account before I moved here. 

[Nemeseax 36]

38 minutes ago, Alabamak1 said:

i cut this from an attorneys example of a bona fide marriage

• make your spouse a beneficiary on your retirement account or other accounts that require or allow a payout to a beneficiary upon the holder’s death
• make sure that both spouses are covered under your health insurance policy (if possible, and if the other spouse doesn't have his or her own insurance)
• if you live together, add your spouse to your house deed, mortgage, or apartment lease
• if you live together, add your spouse’s name to your garbage, utility, cable, and other bills
• take out a joint credit card
• open a joint bank account
• file joint tax returns
• join a gym or club together, or
• buy a car or other major asset together.

Thankyou so much- almost all done except health insurance  ( not possible as my husband has VA) and gym ( not using) .According to buying a var together- we have few trucks and motorcycles together so no plans to buying anything more. 

Plus; so far have about 150 pics of us from wedding; after wedding, at trips, with friends,at home, with our pets, some about our specific hobby  ( which brought us together sonehow) ...will make more. 

Of course we will collect more proofs before our interview + we have started to learn all that questions  ( number of Windows; doors, color of toothbrush etc ).We hope the best. 

[Miss M 54]

If it helps any, we sold a lot of assets as we prepared to move to the U.S and both our foreign bank and U.S bank advised us to just make sure we kept a paper trail because of money laundering concerns etc. Other than that, we had no problems moving the huge sum of money and no one asked us about it (except for the forms we filled in to move the money).

[D.Ba 85]

9 hours ago, little immigrant said:

What's a disadvantage by closing your German account? I have closed mine after I transferred all my money to my US account. Haven't had a problem. Did you not de-register from the German offices? 

 

@Nemeseax transferring your money to your new joint account is not a problem.

Let me tell you what the advantage is: When I travel to Germany, I withdraw euros and pay with my German debit card. No worry about exchange rates or using a foreign credit card.

Also, my European customers can pay me in euros and transfer to my German account at no cost or via my German PayPal (don't worry, it's all declared for taxes).

 

The other thing is a German specialty: If you want to naturalize in the US you have to apply first to keep the German citizenship and become a dual citizen. Having bank accounts is one reason for them to allow you to keep German citizenship.

 

Certainly I "de-registered". I also told my bank I live in the US now so they do not deduct investment tax from my dividends.

Edited March 26, 2018 by D.Ba
addition

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

9 hours ago, Nemeseax said:

Thankyou so much- almost all done except health insurance  ( not possible as my husband has VA) and gym ( not using) .According to buying a var together- we have few trucks and motorcycles together so no plans to buying anything more. 

Plus; so far have about 150 pics of us from wedding; after wedding, at trips, with friends,at home, with our pets, some about our specific hobby  ( which brought us together sonehow) ...will make more. 

Of course we will collect more proofs before our interview + we have started to learn all that questions  ( number of Windows; doors, color of toothbrush etc ).We hope the best. 

 

You will be perfectly fine, no need to worry.  😀  I think you are probably over-preparing for an interview that is likely going to be a breeze.

 

I mean the only unusual thing would be not wanting to stay in the Faroe Islands.  My heart is over here breaking because had that been an option in our Denmark vs. America, I would have taken that any day.  

 

 

[NYCruiser 423]

11 hours ago, Nemeseax said:

I want to transfer all my saved money .A little bit more then just for every day expenses  ( not a millions lol).

But that might be suspicious as I will pay my husband for helping me for my Green Card ( they might think) .

Also; do they have legal right to check personal accounts? Seems kinda really " too much " to me.

Yes USCIS has the right (and you give that to them in you signed declaration) to check everything. 

If you transfer your money into a joint account with your Fiance or husband, then print out the account statements and keep in a file for presentation at the AOS interview. We did not have an AOS interview since he was grilled at the US Embassy in Nairobi, I suppose

 

Regards

David

[Mr_B 3]

Be careful with wiring big amounts from your personal account straight to your US spouse account as it might get scrutiny by the IRS (gift), especially if you haven't filed jointly (yet). Better to wire to joint account in SWE first, and then onwards.

Also, use a service like TransferWise to send the money, their xchange rates are much better than the big banks. 

 

As an aside, filing FBARs is not a huge inconvenience once you're used to it (it's just keeping track of balances) and if you keep the balance low you don't even have to. 

It's good to keep all options open in today's world.

[Nemeseax 36]

4 hours ago, N-o-l-a said:

 

You will be perfectly fine, no need to worry.  😀  I think you are probably over-preparing for an interview that is likely going to be a breeze.

 

I mean the only unusual thing would be not wanting to stay in the Faroe Islands.  My heart is over here breaking because had that been an option in our Denmark vs. America, I would have taken that any day.  

 

 

We will probably buy a little house there and occasionally spend some time, gather with my family etc. I was actually LPR of Sweden before have moved to Alaska. 

I hope that IO at interview will not see another red flag hahaha. 

Thank you!😊

[Little_Vixen 1,869]

15 hours ago, Longingfor said:

A word of advice. Always have your own personal account for your saving and then have a joint account that you both use to pay bills, buy groceries, buy gas.

This.

First of all it will be easier to transfer money to your own account as tax wise (it wont be looked at as a gift). Second, it wont look suspicious to the USCIS in any way cause you are transferring from your account to your account.

 

Personally I would keep my account in my home country as well. I will too. I won't have income on it, it's just to make some things easier (receiving money gifts from mom and dad, paying for trips ect).

[Paul & Mallory 1,398]

9 hours ago, D.Ba said:

Let me tell you what the advantage is: When I travel to Germany, I withdraw euros and pay with my German debit card. No worry about exchange rates or using a foreign credit card.

Also, my European customers can pay me in euros and transfer to my German account at no cost or via my German PayPal (don't worry, it's all declared for taxes).

 

The other thing is a German specialty: If you want to naturalize in the US you have to apply first to keep the German citizenship and become a dual citizen. Having bank accounts is one reason for them to allow you to keep German citizenship.

 

Certainly I "de-registered". I also told my bank I live in the US now so they do not deduct investment tax from my dividends.

There's several helpful posts on this thread, this being one of them. Thank you for sharing! My fiancé (who's Swedish) intends on eventually retaining dual citizenship between the states and Sweden, as we intend on traveling to Sweden often (his family is there obviously) and it's still home to him. This is a good thing to think about. Even without dual citizenship, traveling there often may benefit from maintaining accounts in Sweden. We hadn't even thought about this.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

1 hour ago, Paul & Mallory said:

There's several helpful posts on this thread, this being one of them. Thank you for sharing! My fiancé (who's Swedish) intends on eventually retaining dual citizenship between the states and Sweden, as we intend on traveling to Sweden often (his family is there obviously) and it's still home to him. This is a good thing to think about. Even without dual citizenship, traveling there often may benefit from maintaining accounts in Sweden. We hadn't even thought about this.

 

I don't know if whatever bank in Sweden works the same way, but my husband has his Danish bank account open... the problem is with getting the card renewals in a timely enough manner to activate them and then that list of access codes they send out.  

[RLA 323]

21 hours ago, Nemeseax said:

USCIS wants us to have join account as the proof of bona fide marriage , right? 

I think this particular question hasn't been answered yet, so I'll give it a try:  From what I understand a joint account would be helpful, but is not required.  Spouses are free to arrange their finances as they like, including keeping separate accounts or no accounts at all.  USCIS would probably be interested to hear how you handle your finances, but if you have a good explanation and sufficient evidence that shouldn't be a problem.  Is that right?