MariaR323

Check out this link to the IRS page that shows when the transcript would be available.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/transcript-availability

3 minutes ago, Elle84 said:

He uses Turbotax to file taxes so we shall see tomorrow if it allows for that exclusion or we will have to file on paper. Thanks a lot!

Just a heads up... even though he "files" the taxes tomorrow they're not actually being submitted/sent over yet. The IRS system isn't open to accept e-Filing until Feb 12th and some forms aren't even finalized yet. He can certainly start it off though so you can see some estimates.

31 minutes ago, Elle84 said:

Hello wise people!

If anyone can enlighten me, I have the following situation: I am the LPR, hubby is USC. I entered the US on December 19, 2020. Before this, we lived together in my home country, Romania, where we were both employed by Romanian employers.

Hubby wants to file his 2020 taxes tomorrow so the questions are:

- since I entered on December 19, which means I started being an LPR on December 19, do I have to file US taxes for 2020? I obviously didn't get any income here yet as I don't yet have a job. My SSN was issued on December 22 and my SS card arrived on January 4.

- assuming I don't have to file US taxes, is it ok if hubby files Married Filing Separately, so I don't have to mess with my Romanian income? (My Romanian income was way below $10000 if this has any relevance). He filed Married Filing Separately for 2019 since we didn't want to get through the hurdles of me getting an ITIN from Romania and we had enough relationship proof for my CR1 anyway. Would it be better if he files Married Filing Jointly for 2020? Would I have to pay US taxes for my Romanian income if he files jointly? I know for the ROC it's best to show joint tax filing but we are planning to file jointly for 2021 and 2022 (ROC application will be due late 2022 and interview no sooner than 2023 so plenty of time to built joint everything).

Anyone can advice? Sorry if my questions are silly.

Thanks a bunch!

A fresh Texan

I don't know what income levels your hubby is in but it almost sounds like you'd benefit more from filing married filing jointly - again all depends on what income level your husband is in. All this especially because of the "stimulus money". I would highly recommend you get estimates done both separately and jointly and then make a decision.

If all else fails and you're still worried about receiving them by mail in time, you can always hire a tax pro and they can have IRS send it electronically to a secure mailbox. It's basically like a PDF download but only tax pros with an online account have this access.

25 minutes ago, Scandi said:

Congrats! Been following you guys and hoped you would hear something soon. Major relief for all of you now!

Thanks and yes, total relief!  

Update:

Literally moments ago we just got an email notifying of a case status update for my wife and (2) kids... "New Card Is Being Produced"!!!

I don't think anybody outside of this community even has an idea of the emotions running through you when you see that notification come in LOL 😂 Thank you to everyone on here who in one way or another has helped out even with just a simple response. After literally like two weeks shy of 2 years since the I-751 was received - THANK GOD WE ARE DONE.

Hang in there to those still waiting!

Update:

We received an RFE and so I finally put together the response packet. I mailed it yesterday via USPS Express and got delivery confirmation this morning.

To my UPMOST surprise, moments ago, I got an email notification that the case was updated. Went online to USCIS case status and sure enough the case was updated to reflect, "Response To USCIS' Request For Evidence Was Received".

Given all the backlog, I wasn't expecting a same-day as packet received case status update but I sure am glad! [Crossing our fingers now for an approval!]

1 minute ago, Linda999 said:

1 hour ago, MariaR323 said:

Finally some movement for us!! 

 

Received an email notification that the case was updated, checked online and got this: Request for Additional Evidence Was Sent.

Finally an update! Happy for you! I am in shock from USCIS activity. Easy cases without red flags they review around 2 years now.....

Agree, maybe they just leave these cases on the back-burner since there's no sense of urgency on their part I guess. However, with this COVID situation, an expired extension letter and not being able to get a passport stamp we did start having that uncomfortable feeling without any solid, hard proof of status in our hands.

I'm just glad we got some movement and I'll start preparing another full blown packet of what we originally sent plus all new and updated docs.

Finally some movement for us!! 

Received an email notification that the case was updated, checked online and got this: Request for Additional Evidence Was Sent.

3 hours ago, jxn said:

Thank you! In reviewing the N-400 instructions, it looks like the tax documents are to be brought to the interview and not part of the initial submission. Do you think she is good to submit soon without yet having the tax return transcripts (and wage and income transcripts for the appropriate years where she was below the income threshold), with the understanding that she has nearly a year to get them at current processing times?

I'm not familiar yet with the N-400 process but if the transcripts are not required for initial submission then, yes, sounds right to me 👍

13 hours ago, jxn said:

Hi everyone, I'm asking this on behalf of a friend. She moved earlier this year, changing states, and hasn't yet updated her driver license due to COVID-19 restrictions. I'm helping her prepare her N-400 and told her how to request her IRS tax transcripts. For 2019, her income was below the required threshold to file, and I'm seeing other posts on the forum like this one where people suggest requesting a wage and income transcript to demonstrate that the applicant wasn't required to file.

 

Per the IRS website:

 

Because she moved earlier this year, I'm assuming her new address isn't on file with the IRS. I'm wondering if it's still possible for her to request her normal tax return transcripts for prior years and wage and income transcript for 2019 to be sent to her new address.

 

Thanks for any insights you might have on this!

If her new address isn't on file yet with the IRS she has to get that updated first before ordering the transcript by mail because it won't get forwarded by mail. She needs to file her change of address using IRS Form 8822, which will take approximately 4 to 6 weeks to get processed (might be a bit longer during this COVID situation). Once the address is updated she can then request the transcripts.

4 hours ago, TheKT said:

I'm self employed. 

Ok so that does change it: You won't have a wage & income transcript available if you only had self-employment income and you did not have to file an income tax return if your net earnings from self-employment were less than $400.00 total.

2 minutes ago, TheKT said:

Ah, okay. But I just verified with my tax guy etc. that I did not have to file. So I didn't. Guess that one is not for me then. Still thank you for your insight. 

You won't have a tax transcript but you definitely have a wage & income transcript. It's just a suggestion as a precautionary measure though. Good luck!

6 minutes ago, TheKT said:

Thank you. But how would I get a wage and income transcript if I did not file, because I did not have to? 

The wage & income transcript is just that - wage & income. Since you said you did have income just that it was low, you're going to have an income transcript. It's completely different from a tax transcript - that's for when you actually file.

4 hours ago, TheKT said:

Hi everyone! I'm about to file my N-400. In my first years here my income was very low (2012 - 2015) and did not reach the minimum threshold in order to having to file taxes. I also confirmed this last week with my tax preparer, a tax lawyer (which he asked on the phone) as well as the IRS, which we called together that day. 

 

Now in the N-400 form they are asking if I always filed taxes since becoming a legal resident. So basically I would answer that with no and then explain why. Would there be any issues with that? I filed all the following years. Do I need to bring my tax returns to the interview or should I upload them right away? Some people say tax docs are of no interest for them but I feel it might be important. I don't want to run into any issues because of that. 

 

Has anyone been in a similar situation or can share anything I need to know?

 

Thank you!

Regarding the explanation to the "No" answer, I would suggest writing something like this...

• As per IRS law regarding Tax Year XXXX, an individual with income less than $XXX per year for XXX filing status is not required to file a tax return. My taxable income was $XXX, which is less than the amount required for filing a tax return.
   

And just to be on the safe side, in case you need to prove it, you can request a Verification of Non-filing Letter from the IRS and also request a Wage and Income Transcript. The transcript will show what your income was (to prove the amount below the filing requirement).

Quick Update: California Service Center - Los Angeles Local Office jurisdiction

Two failed attempts to get infopass appointment for a stamp in the passport since the extension letter expired last month (late July). I had previously called about 2 weeks before it expired and just called again today. At this point, we're literally almost a month away from the case being considered outside normal processing times and I'm sure glad we didn't apply for citizenship or else we'd probably have to wait even longer before they take action.

With the anticipated furlough though... who knows if they'll increase the processing times by next month. Keeping fingers crossed and just gonna have to wait it out one more month and hopefully file the Service Request or go thru Ombudsman/Senator. One month to gooooo... 🤞😅

For all us January 2019 filers at the CSC (Calif Service Center) who are still waiting and haven't received an update:

I just checked processing times and the receipt date for case inquiry right now is December 3, 2018. So we're about a month away from being able to start submitting the "case out of normal processing" service request.

14 hours ago, juliiev said:

Hey guys,

 

So two months ago, I got my EAD with my SSN and filed our taxes jointly after. My husband already got his stimulus prior to filing his 2019 taxes and just today, he got another Stimulus deposited to his account. Is it because we filed together and it was a follow up stimulus for me? Anyone else have the same situation?

Regarding the stimulus: It wasn't necessary for the 2019 tax return to have been filed to receive the stimulus since they were also able to base it on the 2018 tax filing. So here goes.. all on assumption basis since you didn't mention any amounts:

Your husband probably received a $1,200 stimulus based on his 2018 tax filing (assuming he filed single with no child dependents). Then, you filed a joint 2019 tax return and listed the same bank account for dir dep. IRS processed the 2019 tax return and now you're in the system and you haven't received your stimulus yet so the issued it using the same bank account listed on the tax return - assuming another $1,200 stimulus payment was received.

It's $1,200 each on a joint tax return.

17 minutes ago, thejusts said:

My husband's extension letter also expires in a few days. Do you know if they're giving out another extension letter?

As far as I know, they are not issuing another extension letter. If you want some kind of proof you have to go the stamp route by setting an infopass appointment.

20 minutes ago, Charming12 said:

so I went to USCIS Albany NY field office today to get a stamp on passport while doing it CO took my expired green card and put a stamp in my passport. Is that normal?I thought they will just stamped my passport and I can keep my expired greencard along with 18 month extension letter. Did it happen to someone else too?

Indeed that is normal. My wife's extension expires in a few days but we're going to hold out a bit longer on the stamp route just so we can hold onto the green cards for that exact reason that they take them away.

The CA service center processing timeline looks like got reduced a bit from last time I checked... so we're only about 2 month's out before we can submit the out of processing request.

17 hours ago, NMHayek said:

Thank you for the info! I definitely need to do a little more looking because we asked one accountant and he quoted us $250 to get them, which seemed really high. If you have any recommendation for a Tax Professional, please do share. 

 

Thank you so much!

$250 just to assist in obtaining tax transcripts is crazy! How many years worth of transcripts did you need?

The only problem I see is that you mention she won't do anything digitally... and right now with the COVID situation I doubt there is any tax pro offering in-person service. The virtual method would be something like this: She would have to provide her personal info including photo identification by submitting a copy via, for example, uploading to a secure client portal. The tax pro would then prepare the authorization form and send digitally to her for her signature. That signed form then gets sent back to the tax pro to start the process to obtain the transcripts.

As you can see, there's no way to avoid the digital process.

There is one option to avoid the digital process... I believe some IRS taxpayer assistance centers (TAC) are open now and she can call to get an appointment to go in person to one of their offices. At the office, she would obviously take photo identification, and they can print transcripts for her. I don't see any info in your profile so know what state your mom is in to check but here's the link to the webpage so you can check if a TAC is open near her: https://www.irs.gov/help/contact-your-local-irs-office

Hope this helps.

10 hours ago, NMHayek said:

Hello all, I am in the process of filling the paperwork for Joint Sponsor. My mom will be the joint sponsor for my husband. She is trying to get her tax transcripts online from the IRS. But there is a complication with the verification by phone number to set up her IRS account. Its just not working, we even tried to get another line under her name and still not working. Due to COVID, the IRS is not printing or mailing any tax transcript or the verification by mail form, so we are out of luck for that option. I know we can use Tax returns but the info is being mailed overseas and my mom is very uncomfortable sending her entire tax returns via mail overseas - the transcripts masks some personal data so she really wants to get them to send. I dont know if it would raise questions if she  blacked out her personal data like Social Security number on her tax return if she have to mail her tax returns, I dont want to end up in AP and have her have to resend the tax returns. (Oh and she also wont send me anything digitally, she just really worried about her personal data.)

 

I have read that a Tax Professional can access them from the IRS database and get them for me. Has anyone had a tax professional do this for you? Who did you use and how much did it cost? Any recommendation would be appreciated. 

 

Thank you!

Any tax pro can obtain the tax transcripts for a client. The client just needs to sign an authorization form. With this COVID situation, not sure if IRS is still accepting the authorization forms live on the phone. If not, the tax pro just faxes it in and waits approx. 2 weeks before they can access the transcripts online.

As for a fee... It all depends on the tax pro and their fee structure but I would probably say it's in the range of +/- $50.

5 hours ago, Chih said:

Does anyone know if USCIS will send out another extension letter after the current 16 months is expired?

From what I understand, they do not send another extension letter. Unless anything has changed due to COVID that is.

1 hour ago, MarlinCobon said:

Gotchu!

I will ask and thank you for the information!

They shouldn't charge as much either, it can totally be done for around $50 total (or less).

24 minutes ago, MarlinCobon said:

What kind of IRS account do you mean? because that's exactly my problem, I do not qualify to create an IRS account.

Every taxpayer has an IRS account. The account you're referring to is an online access account as an individual. A professional tax preparer can be authorized by you to access your IRS account.

You'll need to engage a professional tax preparer to help you obtain your tax transcripts. They'll know what to do.