US Immigration from Scotland

Context: My wife filed an I-130 on my behalf online in October 2020. We received notice online then via mail that it was received. We scanned and copied the 797c that we received in the mail for the I-130. A copy of this 797c was mailed along with our I-485 package later in October. After submitting all of these forms, we put the box containing all of our extra evidence, forms, etc. away and haven't touched it since.

Problem: We are moving and decided to organize/consolidate all of our immigration documents. We realized we can't find the original 797c that we received as receipt of our I-130 petition. We have the 797c for my I-485 and related petitions. My wife is very stressed about this as she has been very careful about keeping everything organized and cannot think of where the form could be. How likely is it that we will need the original copy of this form at any point in time?

Thank you!

To those of you who have already been naturalized, did you skip out the SSA visit while most of them are not doing in person right now? I wanted to update my DL with DMV as my understanding is that they want us to do so once we are citizens. My local office is doing online only and want you to print and sign the form and mail in all your original documents. The reviews on their site for people actually getting them back or managing to contact anyone by phone to find out where their certificate and license is ... well let's just say I'm not willing to go that route. I see there are some offices a few hours away that will do in person by appointment only, which would be fine with me. Do you have to go to the office nearest you, or can you go to any office? I know people do name changes and things too so I assume someone here has some info. Thanks

Hi everyone,

I was a 4-year F-1 student at Stevenson University in Maryland. I am doing my Optional Practical Training (OPT) year and would like to stay in the U.S. past its' expiration at the end of July. It seems as if my best option is to get a job that sponsors an H1-B. However, due to the current pandemic (and employers' reluctance to hire applicants requiring sponsorship), it is extremely difficult to find or secure such a position.

Another restriction for me personally is that my Bachelor's degree is in Business Administration. This is a very general field of study that makes it hard for me to prove more value or a specialized skill set compared to the average American employee.

My current position is in management consulting, and the jobs I have been applying to are all in the business field (consulting, sales, marketing, operations, etc). My dream is to have a career in fitness - possibly personal training - but I realise that this may not be the most realistic path for me in the short term, especially if I am looking to secure a U.S. work visa.

If anyone has any advice on potential employers, resources, or other options, I would be extremely grateful.

Cameron Harris

I would get a pretty good tax break if I can file jointly with my spouse. Unfortunately he doesn't have a SSN number yet and the ITIN route seems too complicated. We're waiting on the EAD. I'm thinking to just file a 6 month extension, and then once he (hopefully) gets his SSN this summer, I can use that to file jointly. Is there any issue in filing for 2020 taxes with a SSN issues in 2021? Or is it better to get ITIN? He arrived here in August and we applied for AOS and EAD in November. Thanks.

Some context: I have been working at a university in the US for almost 5 years on a J1 visa. I married my wife, a US citizen, in September of last year and filed for AOS in October. My J1 status does not expire until March. In previous years, my wife and I have used TurboTax to file our taxes (individually as we weren't married yet). We are kind of confused about how to go about filing our taxes this year.

Our understanding is that we should file jointly with my tax status being "resident alien." Can we just do this on TurboTax as we have in the past? We are happy to hire someone if needed, but I don't know if I trust the people at companies like H&R Block to be experienced in handling this kind of situation. We have family connections to a tax lawyer and to an immigration lawyer, but I'm not sure who would be more helpful to consult.

Finally, to complicate things more, a few months ago my wife finished her PhD at the university I work at and moved to another state for a job. I will be moving there in March, but with our various addresses and state residencies, I am a little concerned about how complicated our taxes may be. We are both pretty capable people, but is it too risky to try to do our taxes ourselves (with help from TurboTax of course)?