Mike-G

Hi everyone,

My wife (USC/UKC) and I (UKC) have been together 8 years and lived together in England for 6 of those years and now in America for the past 2.

We are aware that we are able to apply for me to become a USC in about a year, but are not sure if we will go through with it for a few reasons and are looking for stories, advice, regrets or anything else regarding this topic that may be of use. My wife has fallen in love with England after being there for many years and we are not sure if we would live here in America again permanently after this current period of time. With the US citizenship coming with a number of burdens we are leaning towards not going through with it but obviously having it would make things easier in the future if we did however, decide to return. We are both in our 30's if that is of use.......

Thanks

Hi everyone,

My wife has received a letter from the IRS which I am looking for some support regarding what they require us to send them to satisfy their demands.

My wife filed the last three tax years all at once a few months ago at the embassy in London. My wife was filing under the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedure. We now receive a letter requesting more information because "You did not provide an explanation of why you did not comply with your tax and financial account reporting obligations"

Are they simply asking us to complete the notes section of form 14653, which we left black because we were not informed to write anything by the IRS employee at the embassy

My wife has calculated that she does not owe any tax and zeros are entered on this previously mentioned form.

Thanks.

Mike

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to write a quick message as my wife and I filed our IR-1 at the embassy in London, yesterday.

Everything went really well and the staff were so nice and friendly, it was brilliant. All approved and we are soon to make our travel plans back to Florida. Having met in Florida where I was working for an American company we then moved together back to London with a couple of years in Spain in between. It has been 6 years in Europe together and we are very excited to go to America and also sad to be leaving parts of Europe that we love, as well as family.

This post was mainly to say a big thank you to all that have posted on here with valuable and insightful information regarding this detailed process. My wife and I thank all of you for taking the time to share your useful knowledge and it is great to see people helping each other in this way.

We also want to extend out thanks especially to Nich-Nick. We are both very grateful to all of your contributions and information regarding the questions I had, no matter how small or obvious in many cases. Thank you Nich-Nick, you are doing a great job here. You have saved me a great deal of time and worry.

Good luck to everyone and we wish you all well.

Mike

Hello,

My wife and I filing through London and are using a sponsor in the form of my father-in-law. We are required to submit his pay slips during our interview at the embassy and have encountered a problem. As my father-in-law is a US Government employee, working for the Department of Defense, his pay slips are classified information and not allowed to be taken or used for any purpose.

How do we then provide this information to the embassy in London?

Should I simply get him to contact the embassy direct?

Thanks,

Mike

Hi Nick,

Thank you so muck for the information, I have done some more research and you are absolutely right, physical presence is the way to go.

Thanks again.

Kathryn

That's exactly what I was thinking... that I should mainly fill it out for Spain. Do you think I should still fill out the bona fide residence section or physical presence?

If I use physical presence, do I have to use the Jan to Dec tax year or can I use the 12 month period I was in Spain full time (June 2011 - July 2012)?

Thanks

Oops, forgot to mention that Mike-G is my husband. I am his wife Kathryn (the USC). We just use the same username. Didn't want to confuse anyone

Hello,

I am a USC on Indefinite Leave to Remain (husband is UKC). We are in the final stages of the green card process to move back to the US. Like many people, I found out that I needed to file taxes for the past three years. 2014 and 2013 are pretty straight-forward for me, but I am having difficulty with 2012 as my husband and I lived in two foreign countries that year.

For 2012, I lived in Spain for the first half of the tax year as a resident (overall time period was June 2011 to July 2012). Then, we moved in July 2012 to the U.K. on the initial spouse visa (I now have ILR, which was granted in October 2014). I have filed and will file all tax returns as "married filing separately" as my husband was self-employed during most of that time and it really complicates things.

I only worked in Spain and I made 5,039 Euros, in the UK I was unemployed. I only went back to the US for a two week vacation to see family.

My question is... should I fill out the Bona Fide Residence section (and for which country as there is only space for one) or do the Physical Presence Test? It seems like the form is only designed for living in one country only. Although the instructions for the form says "country or countries," it doesn't tell you how to fill out the form if you had two foreign residences.

Should I fill out two 2555 forms or only one with an attached letter? Should I just write Spain as that is the only country where I worked?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am trying to get this all sorted soon so we can get an interview date.

Thank you

Nich-Nick,

Thank you (again) so much for the useful information.

Mike

Hello,

I require a police record from Spain as my wife and I both lived in the country for over 12 months and we are now filing through London where we have been for a few years.

Is it correct that we need to get the police record translated and notarised?

Also, will a notary in the UK notarise a document that is in a different language?

Thanks,

Mike

Aleful,

Thank you for such a rapid, informative and concise response. It is very much appreciated.

Mike

Hello,

We are filing through DCF London and are currently sorting out the affidavit of support. We need a joint sponsor to satisfy the financial requirements, which will be my wife's (USC) father who lives in the US. My wife alone does not meet the requirements. Does she still fill in an I 864? Also, does my father-in-law file an I 864 or I 864a as he will be the primary sponsor financially speaking? We will be living with my in-laws for the first few months in the US, so will my wife count as part of their household too? We are also considering using my mother-in-law's income to be safe. Would we fill out an I864a for her as she is a part of my father-in-law's household? Thanks for any help.

Mike-G

Hey Nich-Nick,

Thank you so much for the information and links.

Have a good day.

Mike

Hello all,

My wife and I have recently completed the DS-260 online and are now ready to begin the next stage of proceedings.

With regards to the supporting documents, do we take these to the interview or are we required to send them somewhere prior to the interview?

We are using DCF through London.

Thanks,

Mike

Hey mlh,

Thank you so much for the valuable information, it is very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

Hello all,

My wife and I are about to complete the online DS-260 and are wanting to establish if we have to complete the form in one single sitting or can we save and exit at any stage on numerous occasions and return at a later date to complete the rest of the form.

Thanks,

Mike

Hey Nick,

Thank you so much for all of the detailed and valuable information, I really appreciate you taking your time to do all of this. I will get on the case and get this process up and running again.

Thank you once again,

Mike

Hey,

Thanks for the information. I feel that I have been waiting for something that is never due to arrive! Never mind. We have received a notice of approval from the USCIS as well as a follow up letter from the Immigrant Visa Branch which begins as follows:

"We are pleased to inform you that we have received an approved petition in support of your immigrant visa application. The next step in the process is for you to complete the appropriate forms and collect the required documents."

Oh how silly, I assumed that they were going to send us the forms to complete. It's a good job that we are in no rush to get this all done.

So do I now download the forms, collect the relevant information and return a package to them?

Thanks

Mike

Hello,

My wife and I filed our I-130 last June (2013) in London and we have not received the DS-230 yet!

As we are not in a rush to get it all completed we simply left it but a year does seem a long time.

I have already tried

0203 606 6998

0207 499 9000

09042 450 100

These numbers simply offer no information at all. I also know that they have been filing these applications in 3-4weeks.

Any suggestions would be great.

Mike

Hi Merrytooth,

Thanks for the information, this is all really useful and I will get on the case with this next week.

Much appreciated.

Mike

Hi,

My wife and I have sent our completed I-130 to the embassy in London, as I am from here, and my wife has lived here with me for nearly 4 years now. We sent our package months ago and we have not heard a thing....

The embassy have taken our payment, and we have received the confirmation of application document, but no second packet to complete....What should we do?

We are in no rush at all to get this done, so we have left it thinking there has been some serious backlog, but it has been a good 8 months now.

Is there a number to call?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Hello everyone.

Thanks so much for all the great info on here this is really useful.

I am a UK citizen born and raised married to a US citizen born and raised. We have been married for 6 months and have lived together before that for 2 and a half years due to work contracts, tourist visas and living in Spain etc.

I am simply wondering how long the process will take as we currently live in Spain. Just some rough estimates really as we have huge amounts of evidence of relationship etc as we have lived together since the start of our relationship.

Thanks.

Mike.