cl4677

Checked CEAC this morning and status is now updated to issued. If they didn't mail it out yesterday it will probably go out today. Thanks again everyone. Will update again after POE in Houston next week.

Just Say Visa Approved US Embassy Dhaka..........WOOOWWWWWWWW

Approved this morning in Tokyo. In and out in 70 minutes. Interview took all of five minutes. Thanks everyone!

Interview in 5 days. Just got an email to bring additional documents to the interview. For anyone else interviewing in Tokyo prepare this stuff too.

Your wife is considered a nonresident alien (NRA) for tax purposes. Hence, you have the following options:
1. NRA spouse + Filing Separately You can file a paper return via mail as Married Filing Separately (MFS) and write "NRA" in the SSN/ITIN field for the NRA spouse. You do not need to report anything for your NRA spouse since you are filing separately. Generally speaking, MFS is the least favorable filing status. SSN/ITIN not needed. 2. NRA spouse + Filing Separately + Spousal Exemption You can also file Married Filing Separately (MFS) AND claim an exemption for your NRA spouse ONLY IF the NRA spouse has no U.S. source income. Although MFS is generally the least favorable filing status, this option at least allows you to claim the spousal exemption. SSN/ITIN is needed. 3. NRA spouse + Filing Jointly You can choose to treat your NRA spouse as a resident alien (RA) for tax purposes for the entire tax year in question. This option allows you to file a joint return (MFJ) and you are eligible for all deductions/credits available to a U.S. Citizen/Resident. You would be required to report BOTH spouse's worldwide income. A special election statement needs to be attached to your return indicating this choice. See this link for the election statement to write: https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Nonresident-Spouse-Treated-as-a-Resident SSN/ITIN is needed. The question of what choice to make depends on which method produces less tax. Generally speaking, MFJ where foreign income is present (or not) should compute to be the most favorable option. Where foreign income is present, you can apply the more common foreign earned income (FEI) exclusion or foreign earned income (FEI) tax credit to not pay tax twice on the foreign income. 2015 FEI Exclusion: up to $100,800 As for the ITIN application if you go that route, you may be able to avoid having to send in the passport for your foreign spouse but please read the requirements for the Identity/Foreign Status docs. You may be able to send in a certified/notarized copy of the passport but double check. See this link for the instructions on the W-7 and ID requirements: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw7.pdf Maria

I submitted barely anything - photos (certainly less than a dozen, and most from the wedding), two affidavits from family and friends, and an itinerary from my husband's visit to meet my family in the US. I just didn't have anything else... no life insurance, no kids, no mingling of finances etc. We were living together but I didn't have any real proof of that because the property belonged to his grandparents. Still, our application was approved with no RFEs.
I say get and do whatever you can that you think will help (and my experience was the affidavits were not worthless), but don't stress out about it too much.
I used that book in conjunction with the forums and forum guides here. The book is useful because it has examples of forms filled out, and the forum is helpful because you can get tips about common mistakes and how to avoid them.

My replies are in bold. I am but a simple creature and am not sure how to quote specific parts of a text as you did.

I have no way to vouch for the book, but if you've read through the guides on this forum you're in good hands.

Affidavits of support are considered more or less worthless, but if you feel better about including them in your case, go for it. My husband and I did. My boss wrote one for me, and my husband's coworker wrote one for him.

Photographs and any receipts you might have kept are likely your best proof. I get all of my boarding passes sent to my email address; is it possible you have some still lurking around? Any photographs of you together are very important to include with your application. On the back of each of mine I wrote the approximate date taken, and the significance of each photo. I think your photograph about opposite ends of the table could work with an explanation -- during one of our visits my husband and I got matching tattoos, and so I included separate pictures of the both of us getting tatted. You could see the same design, the same artist, etc.

The family thing shouldn't be so bad. I didn't have any pictures of me with his family included in our petition, but we did include some of him with my family. Make sure you include wedding photos, even if you're just going to court to sign some documents. If you didn't get traditionally married with a ceremony etc. it might be in your best interest to explain why.

For chat logs, my husband and I took a sampling of our more lovey conversations from the years we'd been in contact. What you need to prove is that you've been having ongoing contact for a while. We used three primary sources: IM (oldschool AIM represent), facebook messenger, and Skype. It'd be a good idea to print screen it so you can show you haven't tampered with the dates sent/received. Some people send in hundreds of pages, but for low fraud countries (I think Japan is low fraud) maybe six to twelve pages should be more than enough. Make sure to cover a wide variety of dates.

After you are married, can you list your wife as the beneficiary to your life insurance? Can you list her as an authorized user on your credit card? Can she do the same for you? Providing evidence of this might help prove a sort of comingling of finances. My husband and I included this in our petition. We were approved without RFE at USCIS.

Good luck! Take lots of pictures and have fun.