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On 7/26/2022 at 5:23 AM, powerpuff said:

The discussion so far has been when the woman is significantly older than the man.  When the man is older it almost always presents no issues. That is not so when the woman is older, hence why they stated that CR-1 is better in that case and they’re right 

I missed that detail, yes more than 5 years age difference on the side of the woman could be regarded as a red flag as sexist as that is.

On 7/18/2022 at 7:47 AM, carmel34 said:

My husband and I have a big age difference (27 years), so we didn't even bother with a K-1.

My wife and I had a 20 year age difference and we got approved with no issues. We had first met over a decade earlier and then reunited which probably helped a bit combined with the fact that she was in her mid 30's and I was in my mid 50's which may have made it seem less out of place.

Neither my wife nor son were required to sign their naturalization certificates when they took their oaths. Now we want to apply for US passports for them and there is some question about how to sign the name. The general advice is to sign with the full name as printed on the certificate but its also advised that it has to match the signature on the photograph which in this case not the full name for either of them. We are planning on using the same signature as on the photo unless someone talks us out of it. What have others done?

On 3/11/2022 at 5:37 PM, Mike20090622 said:

we are talking today to meet at Istanbul for two weeks and I will carry 5000$ with me and let her bring to Russia, maybe apply for Schengen visas and leave her mom good money and she will take her kids and fly to Mexico and we live together there until we get the visa,

FYI you can't give her US banknotes, that is now illegal as of 3/11/21. You will need to convert it into either Rubles or some other currency before you give it to her.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/03/11/executive-order-on-prohibiting-certain-imports-exports-and-new-investment-with-respect-to-continued-russian-federation-aggression/

On 9/22/2021 at 7:40 AM, Lyndaa said:

However, I've been checking everyday and it has not said anything about having to take any vaccinations if you do not want to right now. It does state that you would have to though when applying for AOS, Which I'm fine with because that buys me some time. However, reading everything online makes it seem like there aren't ways, which is not true. No one should be forced to put anything into their body if they do not want it, we have rights. 

The US Supreme Court ruled in 1905 that the US Government can require people to get a vaccination. This has since been clarified to have exemptions for religious and medical reasons but besides those it is still the law of the land despite being challenged on multiple occasions. There are various cases working through the courts to challenge it but I would not expect any resolution soon.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/09/08/vaccine-mandate-strong-supreme-court-precedent-510280

It should also be noted that until you are inside the jurisdiction of the United States you really don't have any rights under US law. The extreme example of this are the prisoners at Guantanamo but there have been many, many other examples over the last 120 years since the subject was first adjudicated (The Insular Cases in 1901). my thoughts to you if you don't want to get vaccinated is to have your fiancé immigrate to the UK and for you to live there or for you to wait and try again in a few years once the pandemic has passed (assuming the UK doesn't force vaccinations which could happen), I think trying to carve out an exception to this new rule is going to be fruitless and expensive. However I am not a lawyer and haven't even played one on TV so take my advice with a grain of salt.

One important thing is that if you want to create an account to print your taxes using the online option you need a credit card (not a debit card), student loan, mortgage or home equity loan, home equity line of credit or an auto loan as a way to verify your identity. If you have none of these you will have to request that your tax transcripts be mailed to you.

We sent in the application for my wife and son on January 16th and yesterday (August 9th) their new 10-year green cards came in the mail, no interview needed! :-) So this part of our long journey has ended and hopefully their citizenship applications this December will go as smoothly!

My step-son will soon be turning 17. Because of our concern that he could be conscripted this year we are staying in the USA and not traveling to Russia on holiday like last year. However my wife has found information online that he still needs to register somehow with the army to prove that he is still in school and has a US green card. Is anyone familiar with this requirement? Is this something that can be done by mail or through the local consulate or embassy? Obviously he could do that by returning to Russia but that would involve some risk, however small, of conscription. Any experience any VJ members have with children this age and the military draft would be much appreciated! Thanks!

USCIS will care for only joint account. Both partners need to use it for common expenses such as utlity bill payment, grocery shopping etc.. Rest of the money you can keep in individual accounts.

We use the joint account for groceries and household expenses and the Visa card for clothes and other larger expenses. All of the utility payments, the house payment and such come out of my account. At this point I cant change the past so now what? Its obvious since Ive spent lots of money on dental work, cars for both my wife and son, etc. that were not trying to pull a fast one but Im afraid they will just concentrate on the one thing and will leave us in limbo.

I downloaded and filled out the I-751 form just before the new one was posted. Most everything in the packet is ready to go but now Im wondering that perhaps we should switch? I can see from the I-751 web page that the old form will be accepted up to 2/28/16 but I dont want to through a flag unnecessarily either. I see most folks are now using the new form. If can ask why is that? Given how confusing the new form is it seems like it would make sense to keep using the old one wouldnt it?

Its not appearing in her statement probably because she is secondary user and you are primary. I had same problem and I had to change it. As for statements do not take risk of sending quarterly ones. Recently there have been posts that USCIS even check transactions in staements. So send for all months. Financial comingling is very important for them. Do not take the risk.

It appears until recently the CU had no way to do this at all. I've asked them several times over the last couple of years and they have mostly wondered why it mattered and told me it was impossible. I've found someone that thinks they can set it up so we can have three accounts with only one joint and have the names display right but I'll believe it when I see it.

So what happens if they aren't satisfied? The pattern of our spending should prove we are a family even if the accounts aren't organized correctly but I'm concerned that they can somehow put us into some sort of purgatory where we can't produce enough paperwork to make them happy. What happens then?

My wife and I have both separate and joint accounts at our credit union but our joint accounts only appear on my PDF statement, not hers, even though she can see the joint accounts from her web login (the credit union has pretty much ditched paper). My plan is to send in both statements with an explanation plus a notarized statement of joint accounts from the credit union. Am I going to get any grief with this?

Also as we were never sent anything on paper we have to print it ourselves (the CU wants $0.40 per page to do it). As a result I'm planning on sending in the statements for the last 3 months and then every 3rd month before that. Is that ok? At 10 pages per statement having to send in everything would kill a whole forest.

Ok, thanks! You cant be too careful when it comes to the IRS. So I assume that also means that we can file electronically rather than having to do so on paper like we did last year?

We got the stamp and were advised that the backlog is so bad now it could be 10-11 months before he gets his card back, just in time to get a new card with conditions removed. We did get the passport stamp (which was a quick and easy procedule) with a one-year expiration so we should be set now.

My understanding from reading what I have found online is that since her tax home has changed from Russia to the USA this year that we are required to revoke the exclusion since she would not qualify even if she did have some foreign income. But then the specific K-1 case of using the exclusion in the first place is fairly rare and I have found nothing online referring to this exact situation. Have you actually been through this exact situation?

Last year on our 2013 taxes we added a Nonresident Souse Treated as Resident statment to claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion on my wifes wages before she came to America in September. This year we dont need it as she had no foreign income. If I read the rules correctly we need to revoke the exclusion this year but the TurboTax generared form 2555 is confusing and we arent quite sure what to say in the statement we are supposed to attach requesting the revokation. Can someone advise us on the particulars of what we need to do and perhaps give an example of what to say in the revokation statement? Thanks!

So now its one year later and my wife has no foreign income. Do I just remoke the examption on Form 2555 or do I need to attach a separate statement requesting to revoke it? If it makes any difference my wife had no income in 2014.

We did exactly what Dave suggested with our 2013 taxes (we married in November 2013) and we claimed my wife as s NRA and thus was able to exclude all of my wife's income that year. The only gotcha is that you have to submit a sworn statement that you are claiming such which means you have to file on paper, you can't do it electronically.

Ok, that sounds like a good plan. With the ridiculous cost of airfares these days it makes no sense to risk not being able to travel because the green card is late arriving.

After nearly 9 months and two trips out of the county my wife noticed that her son's green card has "F" under gender. Obviously we want to fix this but we also want to take a trip outside the country in April. What with the holidays I'm very concerned that if we use the standard I-90 route that we might not get the card back by April. Will they truely get it done in 90 days or would be smarter to wait until after our vacation and risk an issue returning?

http://www.uscis.gov/i-90

Thanks a bunch, Timatic is great, all of your questions answered in one place! :-)

How long will her passport have to expire when she actually travels?

About a week if she sticks to her desired schedule.

And she shouldn't have a problem. I work for an airline, just checked the passport and visa requirements for a person departing from US, transfering in Oslo and arriving in Russia. Only thing mentioned in the Finland tranfer section is that she allowed to transfer without a visa only through Oslo airport and her next travel must be within the same date from hours 6am till 11pm.

I assume you mean Helsinki airport? Her connection would be 1 1/2 hours during the late morning so it qualifies visa-wise.

Why not call all the airlines you may want to use and ask?

We've only ever used singair. singapore airlines. Much nicer planes and service. Is that an option for her?

The real question is which airlines will carry her on a nearly expired passport. Would Singapore do that? She could route on Singapore via Houston to Moscow and then the rest of the way on S7 but thats kind of going the long way out of your way when St Petersburg is your destination and is $400 more than Aeroflot.

Im still not sure that Finnair would really deny her boarding, Im just going on what the reservations agent said. It might be better to call Finland and ask directly, I might try that tomorrow and see if I get the same answer.

can't she renew it at the consulate? saves her a trip and you don't have to worry about the expiration date.

It takes 2-5 months to renew a passport at the consulate vs a month at home. Neither of us knew this, it was a surprise when she went to the consulate and found this out. So she decided it would be better to renew at home but that also presents a problem if the airline wont accept the passport.