OCTOBER AOS 2018 Filers

[LoveTakesOver 100]

35 minutes ago, ThomasNC1988 said:

Looks like you forgot something essential or maybe filed something in wrong. You will have to wait and see, shouldn't take too long. What was your status before the RFE?

Status before RFE was Fingerprint Fee Received since October 16, 2018.

[ThomasNC1988 762]

7 minutes ago, LoveTakesOver said:

Status before RFE was Fingerprint Fee Received since October 16, 2018.

Yeah, you will just have to wait and see. A lot of times its just something very simple.

[K1visaHopeful 2,701]

1 hour ago, ThomasNC1988 said:

You mean exemption. As in you don't have to pay taxes on $24000 dollars of your income rather than your tax bill is reduced by $24000. Still your point is valid, crazy not to file jointly when you get to add $12000 in exemption and don't have to add any income. Should reduce the tax bill by a couple thousand.

Yes that's what I meant. Thank you.

[NIR-NE17 2]

Hi everyone! 

 

So so I sent in my adjustment of status package on October 29th 2018. I received an RFE on November 14th 2018 and submitted the evidence (tax stuff for the petitioner) which was received on December 14th 2018. I haven’t heard anything back and it’s now 70+ days since the RFE was responded to. It was sent to lees summit, MO.

 

Has anyone any idea when a response could be due for the AOS RFE and get an EADcard issued? Or would it be worthwhile to call them?

 

i know some people have been waiting longer but others have gotten approved quickly from an RFE 

 

thanks as always VJ legends! 

 

 

[Yuilicious 65]

8 hours ago, ThomasNC1988 said:

Ridiculous not to file your taxes jointly in my opinion. The exemption you get is the same no matter his other circumstances. Is this an accountant or someone somewhere like H&R block or Jackson Hewitt. Doesn't sound like advice from an accountant, sounds like advice from someone who doesn't know what to do.

 

7 hours ago, K1visaHopeful said:

The tax credit for MFJ is $24000 for a cpl.

$12000 for MFS. So that's a HUGE tax credit to ignore. 

Did you make more than $100000 USD overseas in 2018 as the foreign spouse? 

 

7 hours ago, ThomasNC1988 said:

You mean exemption. As in you don't have to pay taxes on $24000 dollars of your income rather than your tax bill is reduced by $24000. Still your point is valid, crazy not to file jointly when you get to add $12000 in exemption and don't have to add any income. Should reduce the tax bill by a couple thousand.

 

6 hours ago, BrazilianInTexas said:

Refer to this post https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/584030-married-foreign-spouse-nra-vs-ra-how-to-file-taxes-the-first-year/

In my case when my wife files separately she gets a refund of about $1.2k, when we file jointly it goes up to $2.7k. Unless you made way over $104k abroad last year I think the best way is to file jointly.

 

6 hours ago, ThomasNC1988 said:

One more thing to add to the tax thing. If you were to file your on income taxes separately you could not get anything back because you did not pay anything in, unless you are eligible for some refundable tax credit which I don't think exists for any new immigrant. Where as you can reduce your husbands tax bill because presumably he paid taxes. Let me try to break it down.

 

MFJ:

Husband earned 48,000

Exemption for MFJ: -24,000

Husband owes taxes on 24,00.

Lets say your rate is 15 percent so his tax bill is $3600(this is just a made up rate, I didn't review the rates)

 

MFS:

Husband earned 48,000

Exemption for 1 is 12,000

Husband owes taxes on 36,000

Keep the 15 percent made up rate  and he owes $5,400

 

You file separately (which I don't believe you would be required to its just for the hypothetical)

All you income is exempt under 100k

Your taxable income is 0

You paid 0

You get back 0

 

That's an $1800 dollar different with my made up rate. The way marginal tax rates work the more he made the more it will help you because your exemption will be knocking off the highest taxed part of his income. So if he pays 15 percent on the first 24000 and 20 percent on dollars 24001 through 36000 you would knock off all the taxes at 20 percent. (again I made these numbers up and didn't review the rates or brackets.

 

I am not an accountant.

 

6 hours ago, DeepakChani said:

I filed my taxes MFJ recently. Have ~$10k coming back to me from the government. MFJ is the better choice! 

 

Thank you all for your advice on tax return!

First of all, I totally agree with all of you about saying that filing as MFJ gives better exemption aka saving money. That’s what we and our accountant discussed when we met up a few days ago as well. (Just FYI; our accountant isn’t a random accountant. He’s been filing my husband both business and personal tax as well as my brother in law’s business and personal tax for 2-3 years. He works for one of the known companies that do accounting, tax and advisory services in our area. He is not specialized for international/immigrant tax (sorry for my ignorance on tax related terms); however, since he works for a big company, there’s another person from international branch assisting him to do tax for my husband who has an immigrant spouse (me!). Also no I didn’t earn $100,000 last year in my country.

As I said before and above, I agree with all of you that it sounds absolutely better to file jointly. At our meeting, he is the one who told me that MFJ will give my husband more exemption. So he’s (of course) aware of that. I am still waiting for his response regarding to my question; the reason why my husband should file tax separately. But my guess is since we are also getting help from another person from another branch (specialized in international tax matter), my husband may have to pay two tax accountants which will be a quite a lot. Maybe more than what my husband would save money...? Again, this is all my guess. My husband has his own business for 3-4 years now, but it’s significantly growing this past year and it wouldn’t happen without our accountant help/advice. So my husband and I know that our accountant would like to help us as much as he can. 

So, I’m sorry for writing this looong post, but my original question was is there any other reasons we should file the tax jointly? Please ignore about the fact that he will get more exemption if tax was filed as MFJ.  I just want to make sure that I am not missing any other reason why my husband should file his tax jointly, not because paying tax less, but regarding to our green card interview and such.

I have made a mistake when I was applying for K1 visa because I didn't ask my doubt here, and I assumed what I understood was right. I did not want to make the same mistake again

Thank you again! I really appreciate all of you taking your time to educate me about tax matter!

I am going to wait for our accountant response and may come back here with more questions.. haha

Really thank you!

Edited February 26, 2019 by Yuilicious

[DeepakChani 738]

October Approvals where Y'all at? 

[Faith & Love 72]

Good news and hope for those who are waiting! Received mail with the interview date for green card (March 26, 2019 Denver, CO)

Normie (no expedite). I haven't received EAD/AP card even though I submitted applications, miracles happen! Don't lose hope.

[LukeU 413]

Deleted comment. Learnt to click  

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by LukeU

[Chochosun 27]

Filed mid Oct last year, i-485 status updated to Case is Ready to be scheduled for an interview on 2/25. Received courtesy letter in the mail 2/26 for medicals. The courtesy letter just means I can bring my medical in a sealed envelope at the interview right? Anyone have an idea of when the interview would actually be scheduled? My local office is Chicago.

 

No movement for EAD/AP.  Really hoping to get that soon #werkwerkwerk

 

[ThomasNC1988 762]

21 hours ago, Yuilicious said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you all for your advice on tax return!

First of all, I totally agree with all of you about saying that filing as MFJ gives better exemption aka saving money. That’s what we and our accountant discussed when we met up a few days ago as well. (Just FYI; our accountant isn’t a random accountant. He’s been filing my husband both business and personal tax as well as my brother in law’s business and personal tax for 2-3 years. He works for one of the known companies that do accounting, tax and advisory services in our area. He is not specialized for international/immigrant tax (sorry for my ignorance on tax related terms); however, since he works for a big company, there’s another person from international branch assisting him to do tax for my husband who has an immigrant spouse (me!). Also no I didn’t earn $100,000 last year in my country.

As I said before and above, I agree with all of you that it sounds absolutely better to file jointly. At our meeting, he is the one who told me that MFJ will give my husband more exemption. So he’s (of course) aware of that. I am still waiting for his response regarding to my question; the reason why my husband should file tax separately. But my guess is since we are also getting help from another person from another branch (specialized in international tax matter), my husband may have to pay two tax accountants which will be a quite a lot. Maybe more than what my husband would save money...? Again, this is all my guess. My husband has his own business for 3-4 years now, but it’s significantly growing this past year and it wouldn’t happen without our accountant help/advice. So my husband and I know that our accountant would like to help us as much as he can. 

So, I’m sorry for writing this looong post, but my original question was is there any other reasons we should file the tax jointly? Please ignore about the fact that he will get more exemption if tax was filed as MFJ.  I just want to make sure that I am not missing any other reason why my husband should file his tax jointly, not because paying tax less, but regarding to our green card interview and such.

I have made a mistake when I was applying for K1 visa because I didn't ask my doubt here, and I assumed what I understood was right. I did not want to make the same mistake again

Thank you again! I really appreciate all of you taking your time to educate me about tax matter!

I am going to wait for our accountant response and may come back here with more questions.. haha

Really thank you!

I don't think you would really have any issues with AOS, obviously ideally you would have filed together. I would really want a good explanation on the reasoning from the accountant still, I assume he knows more than I do, but I'd love to understand.

[K1visaHopeful 2,701]

30 minutes ago, Chochosun said:

Filed mid Oct last year, i-485 status updated to Case is Ready to be scheduled for an interview on 2/25. Received courtesy letter in the mail 2/26 for medicals. The courtesy letter just means I can bring my medical in a sealed envelope at the interview right?

As a H1B, yes.

 

Anyone have an idea of when the interview would actually be scheduled? "Ready to be scheduled" just means it has arrived at your local FO to sit in line for an interview. It doesn't mean you will get an interview anytime soon. You would have to check the estimated processing times for I485/Chicago/employment based on:

https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/

30 minutes ago, Chochosun said:

My local office is Chicago.

 

No movement for EAD/AP.  Really hoping to get that soon #werkwerkwerk

 

EAD/AP estimated timelines can be looked up there too for employment based AOS applications. You just need to know what Service Centre your EAD/AP is at.

[Chochosun 27]

21 minutes ago, K1visaHopeful said:

https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/

EAD/AP estimated timelines can be looked up there too for employment based AOS applications. You just need to know what Service Centre your EAD/AP is at.

Thanks!! So for chicago, it says it's a 13- 35 months wait for i-485 to be processed. Does that mean it's 13 months since the date we filed? Or since the application was moved to the local office?

 

Also what do you mean by "as an h1b yes"? Is it different if adjusting from H1B vs K1 in terms of time frame and process? I get that my documentation would be different, like i would need to prove my h1b etc, but the forms I filled out should be the same no? I-130, I-131, I-485, I-765 etc. I think despite the H1B, my EAD would still be family based, because this EAD is coming due to the marriage based greencard and not from an employer.

 

Thanks!

Edited February 27, 2019 by Chochosun

[K1visaHopeful 2,701]

5 minutes ago, Chochosun said:

Thanks!! So for chicago, it says it's a 13- 35 months wait for i-485 to be processed. Does that mean it's 13 months since the date we filed? Or since the application was moved to the local office?

It actually says 10.5 to 21 months for family based I485 applications in CHI (you need to scroll to the very bottom of the page). Not sure how it calculates the time it takes to be processed at the NBC in MO and then shipped to your LFO but it does. Date you filed. The numbers mean 50% of all will be completed in 10.5 months while 90% of all will be completed in 21 months.

 

Also what do you mean by "as an h1b yes"? Is it different if adjusting from H1B vs K1 in terms of time frame and process? I get that my documentation would be different, like i would need to prove my h1b etc, but the forms I filled out should be the same no? I-130, I-131, I-485, I-765 etc. I think despite the H1B, my EAD would still be family based, because this EAD is coming due to the marriage based greencard and not from an employer.

 

Thanks!

Unfortunately your timeline does not disclose that you are a marriage based AOS applicant and you did not mention that in your post so I could only answer based on what your time line says (an employment based H1B). 

So you are family based. 

[Chochosun 27]

8 minutes ago, K1visaHopeful said:

Unfortunately your timeline does not disclose that you are a marriage based AOS applicant and you did not mention that in your post so I could only answer based on what your time line says (an employment based H1B). 

So you are family based. 

Gotcha, i'm not sure how to disclose the marriage in the timeline, but yes family based. I didn't see another thread for non K-1 marriage based GCs so i posted in this one.

 

I was honestly so excited to see an update even though it doesn't mean much. It's been so long!! But i guess it's encouraging to know that at least they are working on it.

[K1visaHopeful 2,701]

28 minutes ago, Chochosun said:

Gotcha, i'm not sure how to disclose the marriage in the timeline, but yes family based. I didn't see another thread for non K-1 marriage based GCs so i posted in this one.

 

I was honestly so excited to see an update even though it doesn't mean much. It's been so long!! But i guess it's encouraging to know that at least they are working on it.

Yes! You are further ahead than me as I've had no updates so mine hasnt reached my LFO yet.