CAMama3

Yes, at times in the past, EAD/AP came faster (and other times, took longer). Regardless though, your interview date depends on your local office. Some offices are quick to interview (2-3 months) while others can take over a year to get a date. We had to wait 8 1/2 months for an interview in Seattle. So for anyone who is at an office with a longer wait time or the people who get NPIW, yes, there is a point to filing for an EAD/AP.

Great thanks! Finally got Turbo Tax to just do FTC instead and we are back down to what we thought we were going to owe. And now, I'm quitting looking at taxes for the night to end on a good note!

We have pretty much spent the last week reading loads of tax posts on here and Serbinski and probably have less of a grasp on taxes than we thought.

Our situation:

Me: USC, stay at home mom, no income (was living in Canada with now-husband and kids, we all moved in Feb 2015)

Husband: K1 entered in Feb 2015, EAD July 2015, GC Dec 2015

We will be filing MFJ with letter saying husband wants to be treated as a resident alien.

Husband worked in Canada up until we left. Then later also worked for a few months remotely for the Canadian company (paid into Canadian bank account, paid in CAD, paid Canadian taxes).

We thought we should use the foreign earned income exclusion, but since we moved in Feb 2105, I think Turbo Tax is only giving us 1/6 of the $100,000 exclusion, resulting in $$$ of taxes owed.

Is the "tax home" of the post-move Canadian work Canada? Does that make a difference? Confused since on similiar posts on Serbinski, Nelson has said that no Canadian taxes should be paid and my husband should have been a contractor and set aside money for US self employment taxes. If so, I'm guessing we are just going to have to take the hit and pay double on those few months...

I've seen that people who work remotely or work in Canada and live in the US, use the foreign income tax credit instead of the foreign earned income exclusion? Is that what we should be doing instead for all the Canadian work (pre and post move)?

We have only started plugging numbers into Turbo Tax, so if I am royally confusing things, please let me know.

Someone else mentioned that we have titles in Canada but that is not true for Ontario. Just registration which is your little green slip.

That was me. I should have said Canadian vehicles can have "titles"... or perhaps more accurately, proof of ownership. I only know about BC and how ownership and holding title is shown by a few lines on the registration (not a separate document like most states) so I mentioned that in case OP's registration was similar. Now i see that Ontario is not.

Anyway, agree with all of the above about the steps OP needs to take. Hope it all works out.

Canadian vehicles have titles-- BC's is on the registration, not sure where you are from. When you say you "bought" the car, you mean you paid for it in full and own it, right? No liens? Did you import it at the border?

If you live that close to the border, have you tried pulling in any Canadian stations with an antenna? In Vancouver, we could get all sorts of Seattle channels over the air, don't see why that couldn't work the other way round?

Also, CBC seems to post shows online the same day the air... Looking at the list of tv shows, both the ones you've mentioned are on there already-- full length.

This has happened to us in the past. As I recall, I'm pretty sure you can look up the info on your my CRA page or if you call CRA, they will tell you the amount. If your employer didn't file on time, CRA tells you to estimate... this is not an excuse to not file your taxes.

Just give them a call about it if you are really stressing.

FYI and something for you to add to your research-- Pretty sure CA is about 16-18 weeks of paid, job protected leave... providing you work for a company over 50 employees, etc. You combine FMLA and all the CA parental leave/disability acts (some are for job protection and the others are for pay-- you get something like half of your weekly income each week). Unless it's changed, but I have friends that just had babies in CA and they all took 4 months off...

Super, thanks!

Interview scheduled for Dec. 29. We had planned a trip to my family out of state for the holidays. Looks like my husband and I are going to have to fly back for the interview. Not sure if we are going to need to bring our kids (USC), there are 3 of them and it would cost us another $1000 to do so. So that's a bummer, but glad our interview is scheduled!

I was pretty positive that our interview wouldn't be scheduled during the holidays (between Christmas and New Year's) since I didn't see any in the AOS timelines last year. Turns out I was wrong. We just got a notification that our interview is scheduled for Dec. 29. My husband (beneficiary) and I (USC) have 3 kids together. They were born in Canada, but have their consular reports of birth abroad and are USC. We planned a trip out of state to be with my family over the holidays. We are going to fly back for the interview. Should we also plan on bringing the kids too or is that unnecessary? It would be an extra $1000 to fly them back as well.

Frustrating to see people filing after you, but getting approved before you

Congratulations to all of you

We're still waiting too. Doesn't look like our interview will be scheduled before the holidays either. Oh well.

Anyone else?

Thanks. Definitely signed up for those updates. I am wondering if I can add a secondary email and phone to the account just so we both can get it. My only concern is lets say they did schedule something, and sent out the letter. You said these alerts/emails/etc. will have the date, but if I recall correctly, we had to bring the appointment letter to the Biometrics appointment. So would we need to come back to our home to retrieve it or go straight to the appointment? I ask because Our office is 2-2.5 hours away, and traveling back from my parents' home, the office is actually on the way. But if I had to go retrieve the letter, it would add 5 hours to a trip, if that makes any sense.

Yes, you would need to go home and get the letter and everything else they have listed to take to the interview.

You would get your interview notice letter in the mail a month before your actual interview. The online/text update would/should happen and then you'd get the actual letter and instructions a few days later. That means if you were to have an interview when you were away for the holidays (Dec. 17-28), you would be receiving that letter in the next week or so. IMO, it would be extremely rare for you to get an interview notice in the mail, like the day before you were supposed to interview. And if you got your notice in the mail when you were away, your interview would not be until a month later.

There are no reasons for who gets an interview vs waiver when it comes to K1. Though, some people have pointed out that some offices never give them out (Seattle, where we are, hasn't done so in over a year, another poster noticed) and other offices almost always give them out. If you sort by Milwaukee in the AOS timelines, it doesn't look like any K1s have had interviews in the past year. Of course, it's a small sample and they can change procedures...

In the end, in order to get a low mortgage rate, 30 year fixed, with a 20% downpayment, we used a family member as a non-occupant co-borrower/co-signer. It was the only way, in our case. Our mortgage guy said that if I was the only one that made the payments, that after a couple of years, we can probably take my family member off the mortgage and add my husband instead without too much hassle. We'll see.

Only one of the Canadian banks did it, TD maybe?, but the rate wasn't good and they didn't do 30 year fixed. Something like that. I think BMO Harris was going to be like dealing with any other US bank, so they were out too. Someone on another board pointed me to the United Nations Federal Credit Union as a lead (still needed two years of self employment (could be international, I believe) which my husband did not have at that time, so that was out, but might work for you?)

We bought a house before moving, if you are doing it after, some places will let you get a mortgage after a year.

HTH!

Sometimes I just wish we had a little power over scheduling these interviews (if we even had one), or at least a month's notice minimum.

Almost everyone I have seen on here gets a month's notice for the interview.

Searching through past interview dates (using the AOS immigration timelines above), I haven't seen any that are between Christmas and New Year's. People who are getting their interview dates right now are being scheduled for those few days before Christmas. We are expecting an interview notice soon, but are deducing that we will be in the clear for an interview before the holidays if we haven't heard anything by next week. The fastest way to know your interview date is to check online/sign up for updates. Let's say you did get your interview notice while you were away, it would be okay because you would know the date anyway from checking your status online.

And if you did get an NPIW while you were away, it wouldn't really matter since there's nothing for you do with it. The letter just says you are a potential interview waiver case and processing will take 6 more months.

The instructions address this. http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864instr.pdf

It says "Make sure you do not count any individual more than once. In some cases the same person could fit into two categories. For example, your spouse, whom you would enter in Item Number 3., might also be a lawful permanent resident for whom you have already sponsored using Form I-864 (Item Number 6.). If you included your spouse on Item Number 3., do not include him or her again on Item Number 6."

In your son's case, if I'm following correctly, his wife is counted on 5(1), so he should put 0 for 5(3), so she is not counted twice.

Mine was also updated July 4th, and I'm still waiting at 'ready for interview'. Based on the approximated Seattle times on their website, mine with also be March or April...

Early March Seattle filers have been getting their interview dates recently (for interviews in November). Hopefully that means us April Seattle filers will be getting our dates next month. We'll see!

Hey guys,

I haven't been in here for a while, my job is keeping me busy lol. I'm not up to date anymore.

Just wanted to let you all know that I received my greencard this week!! I didn't even expect it, it was soo surprising! I got an interview waiver letter the end of July and I thought it would at least take another 6 months like they mentioned in the letter. I still can't believe it went so fast!

So there is hope for all the people that are getting interview waiver letters!

Have a great evening!

That's awesome! Congrats!

I filled April 7th and recieved A NPIW, the letter stated that it will be 6 months from the effective date on the latter which is the 24 of july. The processing time for.my case seems March/April next year. based on USCIS processing times... So...

A handful of people from March who got NPIW were approved a couple of weeks ago, in case you hadn't seen. I think people are saying they are speeding up the NPIW... hopefully!

We are still waiting for an interview date. Seattle is busy... I had thought we'd hear by October, but I saw people from Dec and Jan just get dates, so we probably have a lot more waiting to do too.

Good luck to the rest of us! And congrats to everyone who's been approved.

My husband was approved on 6/30. Just got the EAD/AP card today, a whole month later.

He put in a service request early last week since it had been so long, but ended up calling USCIS Tier 2 on Friday when the service request had not been touched. They said his card had not been sent to be produced until the 19th... but then there was nothing about it actually being produced or mailed. They put in another service request. Yesterday, he got the email/text/website update about the card being mailed and it finally arrived today. I presume that him calling (just as you called the congressman) is what jump started the card actually being produced?

It is crazy (and frustrating) that some people get it within days and ours took a month.

Did you get your card yet since it says it was being produced? If not, probably worth calling Tier 2 to see if it has actually been produced and mailed. Good luck! Sorry you are also one of the unlucky to take so long to get it.

Also questions 2 and 3 will depend on your embassy. Check the embassy reviews and your regional forum on here to see if you would have to do anything out of the ordinary... Good luck!

Yes, definitely call and have them connect you to a Tier 2 (even if they try to dissuade you). I'd like to think that calling is what jump started it all, but who really knows. LOL. Good luck!

We are all just giving our opinions because there is no concrete answer yet, like Flames said. The point is at what point can you be seen as doing a US job. Working for a Canadian company with no US offices, being paid CAD into a Candian account... that's fine (IMO), there is no way to be seen as a US job. But then as you add in more ties to the US, it gets riskier (again IMO). Working physically at the US office seems to slide past the "grey area" to me and one would need work authorization for that. Good luck with your decision.

Would you work at the US office? Like physically go in there to do you Canadian job?

I think you are getting into less grey area when the company has US based offices... even if you are working remotely (not at their office, like from your house) doing your Canadian job, being paid CAD into a Canadian account.