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My wife didn't do it in a completely different state but at another office closer to where we were staying temporarily....similar to your situation.  She had the appointment letter and asked if she could change the date of the appointment for the other office and they were very nice and told her there was no need because they could do it right there and right now !

It is unusual, though not impossible, that filing "married filing separately" would produce a more favorable outcome for married couples.  Be sure that if you file separately you each  are using the "married filing separately" status and not "single" or "head of household" designations...they are not the same.  If you are legally married and lived with your spouse you must use a "married" status.  You can not have one spouse file "single" and and the other file "single" or "head of household".

First of all, wait for your denial letter to find out what the problem really is. It sounds like you have been paying your taxes late every year. There is no such thing as an extension to pay your taxes, only an extension to file your tax return. If you do not remit your balance due by the 15th of April (or the 18th this year) then you are in arrears even it you have filed.

Think of it this way....would you grant citizenship to someone who is chronically late paying their taxes ?

Since there are no w4 for 2 years and no record for employment, or any proof of employment.

What stopping me from just writr that she was unemployed and only worked 2014

Hopefully your conscience would stop you. She owes payroll taxes for those years. I would hope that you would not start your life in the US by condoning tax fraud.

Aaron is correct....she will owe payroll taxes for social security and medicare taxes at 15.3% of her earnings. She will not actually owe any "income tax" but must reconcile the payroll taxes on an income tax return for each of those two years. In addition to the regular 1040 form she will need to file a Schedule SE form to pay the payroll taxes.

The law is that you must report ALL income when filing income tax. It does not matter whether paid in cash and whether any taxes were withheld by the employer, it is still taxable income. IMO claiming that your wife worked those years but did not file a tax return would be a red flag if it were to be noticed. However, if her income were below the filing threshold (the value of her standard deduction and her personal exemption) for the years in question, she may not have been required to file a return even though she did have earned income.

I am certainly no expert, but it would seem to me that since your wife has been outside of the US for almost 2 years her legal permanent resident status may be considered to have been abandoned.

Thanks for the reply but he does not file quarterly.

That's the point ! He is supposed to make quarterly estimated tax payments since he has no employer withholding taxes !

For 2013 he should already have made quarterly tax payments for the self employed periods of time. Submit copies of these.

Hello.

Ok, so my VWP expires on the 10th of this month (october) and I just got married to my USC wife. I'm looking to do consular processing over AOS. I need to fly back home (UK) in December for a very important family event. Im just wondering if we file for consular processing am I able to stay in the US till December? or do I have to leave right away? does my status change?

Also I know there is something that happens if I overstay my current vwp by more then 90 days right?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Let's keep this simple.

You two can't do DCF because your wife is not a legal resident of the UK. (I presume)

You are able to apply while in the US for AOS, IF you did not enter the US with the intent to marry and stay here. And if you chose this route, you most likely will be stuck here until well past December. You also will not be able to work legally for a while. So those are 3 problems to consider.

Correct procedure is for you to return to the UK before the 10th, and your wife should immediately file I-130 petition for a CR-1 visa. You may be able to come back to the US to visit, but not to live, until the CR-1 is granted. ....which could take some time. See the 'guides" tab for info on the procedures.

I don't think that you are wrong in assuming that a citizen of the DR can get a DR passport without the presence of a USC. Makes no sense. She may just be confused as you say, or ... ? Be careful.

My spouse and I were married 2 months ago while visiting the US. We are planning to visit the US again in February. At this time we would like to file for a green card. What are the complications in doing this? Thanks.

Need a little more info from you before you can get any good advice. One of you is a US Citizen, and the other has no US status ? You both live abroad now..legally in your country of residence ? US domicile ? Have income to support the beneficiary ? Been filing US tax returns ?

The problem with your plan is that you plan on misrepresenting your intentions to the CBP upon entry. Just tell the truth at the port of entry.

I submitted a copy of 1 page of my email "inbox" for each month, highlighting the emails between my wife and I. Not the actual emails, just the inbox showing a record of the communication. Not every page of my inbox, just 1 per month. I just brought up the inbox and hit "control/print". With Skype, I just took a picture with digital camera of the on screen record, 1 for each month. For fun I even sent a picture of my wife while on Skype !

We also submitted her phone records (since she can call me for much less than I can call her) for each month, highlighting my number in the US.

Never got an RFE and my wife had her interview last Thursday, was approved...never a mention of needing any thing more than what I had sent.

Firstly thank you so much for your help so far! I am indeed still in the US until 12 December. Forgive my ignorance on this topic but how do you 'adjust your status'? Is that not the same as filing for a visa? And will I be able to do this in the 2 months I have left here?

"adjust your status" is when you petition to change from your current status from "visitor" to "legal permanent resident".

It is not the same as filing for a visa....a visa is to gain entry and you are already here, no visa involved.

You must be married to apply to adjust your status on the basis of marriage to a US citizen. But if you marry now and petition for adjustment of status, you risk being denied because they will conclude that you misrepresented your original stated intent to just visit on your VWP. Why would they think that ? Because you quit your job, came here and got married. That adds up to immigrant intent in the eyes of the government. If you get denied you could be deported and banned from entry for a number of years. People come here all the time on visitor visas and get married and then petition for adjustment of status.....but they do not quit their jobs in their home country first...a big red flag for you if you consider taking this route.

I think the best route for you is to get married here now and then immediately get the CR-1 visa process started while you are here....but you must return to the UK before your current 90days are up. You may be able to come back to visit on your VWP, but not stay beyond its limitations and you would have to be in the UK to attend your eventual interview at the US Consulate.

My wife went for her interview yesterday, 10/3, at the US Embassy in Sofia and everything was working according to schedule. She was approved. Today her CEAC status was updated to "issued".

As you have now learned the hard way, simply maintaining a US address and a US bank account is not enough. Put yourself in the shoes of the US government...would such little evidence convince you of the intent of the applicant to re-establish domicile in the US ? Follow the advice of the posters here and get to work to establish or re-establish a legitimate US domicile if returning to the US permanently is your goal.

Sorry im new here whats a CO. since I dont live long enough in the philippines, I can not provide a document like apt or lease. I did live at her parents house for 40 days and i am sure i am able to get them to testify in paper that I lived in ther house for 40 days with their daughter. The bank account I dont have her in it but I have docs that I have been sending her money for support. I have tons of picture and I catogerized it as Pre wedding, Wedding and post Wedding. I heard 8-12 months on a CR-1 petition. I am in a process in gather all the necessary paper work. For I-130. can I send copies of everything

Jesse

Don't worry about joint apartment leases and bank accounts at this time. That will come 2 years down the road, when you two have been together in the US, to apply to remove the conditions of your wife's green card. Right now, since you live in 2 separate countries such evidence is not expected.

I did stay with my wife at her mother's house for a month after we were married in Bulgaria. I just listed this as the last place where we lived together on one of the forms (sorry...I forget now which it was). But the point is that you don't need your wife's parents to testify to this fact.

My wife just went for her interview at the US Embassy in Sofia today (Yes, she was approved !) and they did ask about financial support that I had supplied to her. She presented statements from a bank account of mine which show withdrawals made in Bulgaria, and my actual debit card (in my name) which I had allowed her to use to make the withdrawals. They seemed to have been impressed by this (her opinion). So I think that it is good that you have documentation that you have sent her money. But this is something that will come later, at the interview, and need not be included in your I-130 filing, but keep good records for later use at the interview.

With the USCIS I-130 petition I included pictures like you have suggested doing...pre-wedding, wedding, and post wedding. I think it helps if your pictures have a date stamp and if they are taken with an easily recognizable landmark in the background. (like the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia or the Chicago skyline in our case) I submitted the pictures with the I-130 as part of the "bona fides of marriage" evidence. I used a computer photo application to print out the pictures, 4 or 5 to page, on plain computer paper, each photo labeled with who was in them, where taken, etc. No need to submit actual photos or on photo quality paper.

CO is the Consular Officer, the guy/gal who eventually decides to approve/deny your wife's visa application at the eventual interview at the US Consulate/Embassy.

Good Luck !

Congratulation Michael I'm sooo glade to hear this good news !!

So can you plz tell me about the interview questions ??

I don't know all the questions that they asked her yet. I will ask her to write a complete review next week.

But they did ask her about my financials....because I didn't file a 2012 tax return. This was explained in my cover letter with the I-864...I did not earn enough taxable income in 2012 that would require me to file. (Most of my income is from non-taxable sources....Social Security and Roth IRA withdrawals) That was good enough explanation for the NVC but the Bulgarian staffer who does the opening interview did not understand this...but luckily the American CO did understand and it was no problem. Another question which I thought was strange....Does your adult daughter like you husband ? Why in the world would this even matter ? Her adult daughter is a Bulgarian National and doesn't have anything to do with the situation. Strange. I would think that it would have been more appropriate to ask if my adult USC son liked my wife, since she is coming here to live.

I'll post a more next week.

Thank you very much Michael and good luck for your wife tomorrow

Thanks for your good wishes !

My wife had her interview today and was approved ! She should have her visa in 3-4 days via DHL.

Thanks to all on VJ for the wonderful guidance through this whole procedure and good luck to all those still undergoing the process.

My wife had her interview today at the US Embassy in Sofia....approved !

Should have her visa in 3-4 days via DHL.

We will write a Consulate review in a few days when we get off of cloud nine !

I completely get that. We messed that one up bigtime!!! But we were not trying to mislead or lie, we were just trying to make our chances at success a little higher.

In 2011 your man went to the consulate to apply for a tourist visa and never mentioned you, even though visiting you was the reason for applying for the tourist visa. Doesn't matter why he did that...he misrepresented his intention to visit you.

Now in 2013 you apply for the K-1 visa and tell the Consulate that you were romantically involved since 2010, well before the time that the tourist visa was applied for.....and on that 2011 tourist visa application there is no mention of you.

In effect your man told the Consulate in 2011 that he did not know you. But now, in 2013, you tell the Consulate that you two did know each other, and were romantically involved since well before the 2011 tourist visa application. So the Consulate sees that contradiction. In 2011 he did not know you, but now, in 2013, you have been a "couple" since 2010. Does not compute.

I do not know how to fix this. I see that other posters are suggesting going for CR-1 visa and certainly that is an option, but I would consult a good immigration attorney first to find out how a previous misrepresentation (on the 2011 tourist visa application) would effect the chances of a success.

One the one hand the OP said that she started this relationship in 2010, and supplied the USCIS with evidence of this. Then one year later the fiancé applies for a visitor's visa and during this application he does not reveal that he is wishes to visit her, and instead says he is to visit someone else (in this case the USC's mother). Sounds to me like misrepresentation on the application for the fiance's visitor visa in 2011 is the main cause for denial of the K-1.

Congratulations and Good Luck !

I am one of the lucky ones. I first filed I-130 on Feb 19, 2013 and my wife has her interview on 10/03....about 7.5 months. BUT there are many others who have filed in February who still have had not even had initial petitions approved....so there is no way to predict. Hopefully things will start moving faster soon as the USCIS is opening a new processing center next week. But there is no way to predict at the moment. Check out the "progress" forum and the country specific portal for timelines on Italy.