Living in China for past 5 years and need your help!

[Alex and Olivia 20]

Hello all,

  I'll try to keep this short but apologies ahead of time.

 

I've been staying in and out of China since Nov. 2014. My fiance is Chinese from Jiangxi but we are both currently in Shenzhen, Guangdong, nearby Guangzhou. I came here in 2014 to visit my brother and his wife and was told about how simple it was to get a teaching job. I wasn't planning to stay long term however Long story short i got a job here in SZ where I met my now fiance.

 

Hooray so now comes the problem and I'm looking to be open and honest with hope of someone who has maybe had a similar situation, or could provide me with some helpful tips.

When i began working at the school, it was all "under the table" as i had only a tourist visa here. After 3 years working at the school , my fiance and i decided to start private teaching on our own which we have been doing for about 2 years.

So my fiance and i have lived together here for the past 3 years, she has been to America 4 times on a B-2 visa, i have met her family a number of times, but we are ready to start our own family and move to the states.

The first few years i thought it was great to be here, earn and save some extra money however now, i fear this will cause some complications in our visa journey.

I am still with her here in China and because of my visa i have not "worked" or  paid taxes in the past 5 years i have been here, nor have a job history i can show for my I-129f as well as for the future affidavit of support. MY address is still registered in the US because i have only a tourist visa for China. 

 

My plan is to send docs later this month with help from family in America. If all goes well, i am planning to move back to America a month or two prior to her interview ..... when she first arrives we will live with my parents for a few months before buying our own home.

From what i understand i can use my parents for the affidavit of support but my big worry is my work history as well as tax history because i have been ou of the country.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

- Alex and Olivia

[Ck207 35]

I don’t know how has it been since we got our K1 visa approved. My Husband and I were in the same situation back in 2014. We have a teaching business in Vietnam also. My husband  obviously did not have any working visa, it all was tourist visa.

You can still file tax with the US. I believe if you make under $80k you don’t have to pay tax. That was what we did. We also did not have any join sponsor. We still got the visa. Based on my experience, they care more about whether or not your relationship is real and will you become a social burden coming to the US.

We also had some saving in the bank at that time. 

Your fiancé has been to the US many times so that’s a plus. I think you should be fine. 

Still, my experience was in 5 years ago and it was in Vietnam. 

Best of luck!

[Darnell 8,478]

study the instructions and faqs about the I-864, as it's those rules on living abroad and re-establishing domicile that are evaluated when the I-134 is reviewed. 

[Ontarkie 13,902]

~~Moved to What Visa Do I Need, from K1 Progress Reports- The OP has not starting the process yet.~~

[Alex and Olivia 20]

19 hours ago, Ck207 said:

I don’t know how has it been since we got our K1 visa approved. My Husband and I were in the same situation back in 2014. We have a teaching business in Vietnam also. My husband  obviously did not have any working visa, it all was tourist visa.

You can still file tax with the US. I believe if you make under $80k you don’t have to pay tax. That was what we did. We also did not have any join sponsor. We still got the visa. Based on my experience, they care more about whether or not your relationship is real and will you become a social burden coming to the US.

We also had some saving in the bank at that time. 

Your fiancé has been to the US many times so that’s a plus. I think you should be fine. 

Still, my experience was in 5 years ago and it was in Vietnam. 

Best of luck!

Thanks for your reply! Yeah we shouldn't have any problem proving our relationship is genuine, just worried now they are more focused on the tax part, but from what i've read i should be alright, and we have a joint sponsor. OK, time to get some docs ready! thanks for your help!

[Alex and Olivia 20]

16 hours ago, Darnell said:

study the instructions and faqs about the I-864, as it's those rules on living abroad and re-establishing domicile that are evaluated when the I-134 is reviewed. 

will do, thanks for your reply... so if i understand correctly.... I-134 is more for the K1 then I-864 (legally binding) is used for the Adjustment of Status? 

[Alex and Olivia 20]

On 8/19/2019 at 6:56 PM, Ck207 said:

I don’t know how has it been since we got our K1 visa approved. My Husband and I were in the same situation back in 2014. We have a teaching business in Vietnam also. My husband  obviously did not have any working visa, it all was tourist visa.

You can still file tax with the US. I believe if you make under $80k you don’t have to pay tax. That was what we did. We also did not have any join sponsor. We still got the visa. Based on my experience, they care more about whether or not your relationship is real and will you become a social burden coming to the US.

We also had some saving in the bank at that time. 

Your fiancé has been to the US many times so that’s a plus. I think you should be fine. 

Still, my experience was in 5 years ago and it was in Vietnam. 

Best of luck!

Quick Question, because your husband was working on a tourist visa, do you remember if he/you listed the teaching business on the forms as previous employment? Because I've been doing it for 5 years so i wouldn't have any work history if i don't add it, and think that might raise questions...

[visafrompa 9]

You should have still filed your US taxes.  Did you?  If not once you marry and try to do anything stateside the system may catch up to you.

 

So YES:  you have file US tax retruns on income made outside of the US (although there is a fairly high exemption of like $60k)

And YES: even if you made $0, you still have to file US taxes.

 

So the answer is 'you screwed up' and you should have filed your taxes.  Short of that, the I-134 states (for self employed)

 

C. If self-employed:
(1) Copy of last income tax return filed; or
(2) Report of commercial rating concern.

 

You're not going to just say 'I worked in China' and get around the I-134 and I-864 without income being documented, somehow.  Technically you can't even get a bank account without a working visa (I couldn't) and mixing it with your GF does not prove YOUR income.

Edited August 21, 2019 by visafrompa

[samnrong 52]

2 hours ago, visafrompa said:

You should have still filed your US taxes.  Did you?  If not once you marry and try to do anything stateside the system may catch up to you.

 

So YES:  you have file US tax retruns on income made outside of the US (although there is a fairly high exemption of like $60k)

And YES: even if you made $0, you still have to file US taxes.

 

So the answer is 'you screwed up' and you should have filed your taxes.  Short of that, the I-134 states (for self employed)

 

C. If self-employed:
(1) Copy of last income tax return filed; or
(2) Report of commercial rating concern.

 

You're not going to just say 'I worked in China' and get around the I-134 and I-864 without income being documented, somehow.  Technically you can't even get a bank account without a working visa (I couldn't) and mixing it with your GF does not prove YOUR income.

To add on to this, as visafrompa states, you will need to file a US tax return for every year that you missed. The US taxes worldwide income and even if no tax is due, there is still a requirement to file a tax form with the IRS. So from the likes of it, it sounds that you have not filed for the past 5 years (2014 - 2018?) and will need to start by filing a Form 1040 for all of these years.

 

Keep in mind that the exemption the other posters are speaking of is the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. This is a tax law that excludes up to $103K of foreign earned income. However, in order to qualify for this exclusion you need to meet a number of qualifying tests: Bona fide resident test and physical presence test. Under the bona fide resident test the taxpayer must be a resident of the foreign country for a period that includes a full tax year. For the physical presence test, you must spend at least 330 days of the year outside of the US.

 

Now, based on what you have stated, you never declared residency in China as you were on a tourist visa and had no right to work in the country. You never paid taxes to the Chinese government nor did you inform them nor did they consider you a resident. You kept your address in the US and maintained the US as your country of residence. This will exclude you from meeting the bona fide resident test and you are not eligible for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.

 

There are also Foreign Tax Credits that reduce your US Income Tax Liability. Without going into too much detail, these essentially work as a reduction in your US taxes owed for taxes paid overseas in a country that the US has a valid tax treaty with (US does not have tax treaties with 100% of countries, so if you have income earned and pay taxes in one of these countries you end up getting taxed double as the US doesn't recognize the taxes paid). However, in your case, you mentioned that you NEVER paid taxes to China, nor did you claim the income with China, so you would not have any Foreign Tax Credits to offset your US liability. In short, since you never paid foreign income taxes you have nothing to reduce the US income taxes you would have owed and will therefore have to pay them to the US.

 

Now, since it sounds like you had taxable income, for which you never claimed and never paid taxes on, when you file you will also be subject to a penalty plus accrued interest from the IRS for failure to pay your taxes in a timely manner.

 

So to recap you need to do the following:

 

1) File Form 1040 with the IRS for every year that you did not file

2) Pay all taxes owed + penalties + interest

 

Strongly suggest doing this ahead of time. Technically you have committed tax evasion, which is punishable through fines and even jail time (see Wesley Snipes). Self reporting the missing years and paying all back taxes and penalties is much prerferable to the government catching this when you start filing your immigration forms. Due to the nature of the questions on your immigration forms, it's unlikley that this won't come up (since you need to explain why you have no work history for the past 5 years). The longer you wait, the larger the penalties and interest get on the back taxes owed so recommend to do this ASAP.

 

There's current talk that the administration will deny passports to citizens who owe back taxes as a means of enforcement. I can only imagine that something similar may impede your immigration journey. Best to get your tax situation taken care of prior to going the immigration route.

 

Edited August 21, 2019 by samnrong