theresaL

I think Nebraska has shut down for the year. Doesn't seem to be much movement on the spreadsheet since that flurry of approvals in Sept. A few in Oct. but basically nothing has changed for a month. sigh.

3 minutes ago, SAT said:

Shaken, not stirred?

Of course.

3 hours ago, SAT said:

I like olives...

Me too. Especially the green ones stuffed with blue cheese marinated in a nice dirty dry vodka martini. 🍸 yummmmmmmm

12 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Texas teams in World Serious, one man

Nueva York teams in World Serious, zero man

Texas Many, Nueva York zero man.

Well, since my team only makes to the WS every 100 +/- 8 years, I'm not watching this year. Let me know when spring training begins.

This might help.  https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10137.pdf

I just looked at your SS link. This is only 1/2 of the equation. You also need to look at eligibility for payments if the surviving no-citizen spouse is living outside of the US.

For your last question, that I'm not certain about that. I suppose it depends on the amount of taxable income and which country has jurisdiction. Maybe someone on VJ that has more tax knowledge than I do can weigh in. this likely wont be an issue for us.

It's good you are thinking about this now and are in a position to plan for the future. All of our situations are different and so many people fail to or it never occurs to them to ask questions. Fortunately there are good expat services available who can advise you once you decide where you might want to live later.

I think you are forgetting that some countries have tax treaties that prevent double taxation on income. France is one of them. We are planning to live in France when we retire and I have looked into this. We also maintain a bank account in France. Also, the exemptions on foreign earned income for 2018 was $104,100 double that if both are US citizens filing jointly.

Since our future income will be a combination of US and French retirement accounts we will not have any US tax liability since it is considered after tax (US) and exempt as Foreign Income (French) on our US taxes. Now my French husband will be required to pay income taxes to the French gov. on his French retirement income, but I won't on my US retirement because of the tax treaty. It depends on which country you decide to live in and of course the amount of money you're expecting to have. LOL for us it won't come close to being an issue.

One thing you might want to look into is eligibility of a non-US citizen spouse to receive Social Security Survivor benefits if he/she is living outside of the US. Most countries are restricted, but here again France is an exception. This was one of the reasons why we were considering him obtaining dual citizenship.

All of this is predicated on laws/treaties remaining unchanged. They may, they may not, so we remain flexible with our decision.

1 hour ago, birch2013 said:

Thanks for all the good input everyone. I really do appreciate the information.

 

The sad thing is that the US government has weaponized US citizenship. They'll use it against you, though having it will benefit you too.

 

For us, the green card is the best fit. I'm an owner of multiple businesses, so my financial IQ is pretty high. It's mainly financial reasons that push me in this direction.

In what way(s) can you explain what you mean by this? 

7 minutes ago, birch2013 said:

I updated the immigration timeline on my profile, TheresaL, if that helps.

 

No, we have not filed the N-400 petition and we don't intend to. I've talked it over with my wife. We don't see any major benefit to her becoming a US citizen. And there are significant long-term financial reasons for her not to become a US citizen. So we don't intend to file an N-400 at this time.

The citizenship matter is definitely an individual decision. My husband is not (at this time) planning to do it either due to our long term plans. For us there is really no reason for him to, but there is for me to obtain dual US/French citizenship. You (wife) will need to go thru this process every 10 years to renew her GC, so one advantage to becoming a citizen is you don't need to do it again. 

As frustrating as it may be, there's really not much you can do but keep track of your status online and wait. 

How much does he have to pay??

Fill in your timeline.

Are you eligible to file N-400 yet? Without your timeline filled in it will be difficult for the people here to help you.

5 minutes ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

Unfortunately that is what it takes to get through to people sometimes.

And even then it doesn't work all the time.

15 minutes ago, cdneh said:

Rogers AR, a man was killed when a tree fell on his house

I was up late anyway,  the weather radio kept going off with tornado warnings and it seemed silly to go to bed.  It was almost 0100 when it began , and massive gusts of wind and rain started pelting the house. The lightening was  pretty intense, and after recent events I find it makes me a bit worried. Himself and his dog went to sleep.

Sometime after 0230 I got a notice on the phone app the storms were ending. Of course, we all slept well in this morning. No power outage, and only a few bitsy branches down in the yard.  We didn't have to go out in it to the shelter. Lucky here.

I see Dallas got the worst of it. It looks terrible there, but nobody killed. That in itself is amazing, given the number of people living in the areas  where it struck.

Glad you didn't have to go out in it. I don't know how anyone could with the type of rain and wind we had. I heard the first thunder at 12:00, phone and alerts went off at 1:00 went to the shelter and all clear was sounded at 1:20. That was a very fast moving storm. No damage, only the garden fence blown over, but it wasn't braced very well.

I haven't seen the photos of Dallas yet. I need to check with my cousin and see about her lake house. It's just outside Rogers, AR.

Glad everyone here on VJ is safe.

It was pretty rough here too. This is within 2 miles of us. Yes, that's a power pole.

6 hours ago, cdneh said:

New bed sleeps like a dream. Himself is usually up and down half a dozen times in a night, and I no longer wake up when he starts moving around. Herself was suspicious at first, even with her doggy steps and her bed of choice in there, but has come to terms with the move.  It's on a quieter side of the house, not that there is any noise at all at the moment, the neighbors are all still in jail.

 

I'll have to open up the shelter today, and put some stuff in there, we have some heavy weather for late tonight. I wish these storm systems came through in the daylight.

Yay, new bed!!1

What weather is coming in?? I'm not current on the forecast been outside all day burning garden detritus.

1 hour ago, SAT said:

Is the Ted Kaczynski cabin for sale?

Not sure about that, but I have a cousin who has a log house and 100 acres surrounded on 3 sides by national forest for sale. It's about 50 miles outside of Jackson Hole.

2 hours ago, N-o-l-a said:

 

I'm not sure if it was the property owner or the painter. No details, no letter, no return address,  just a bank check.

 

I have access to my mother's accounts, but I'd never withdraw money unless she expressly asked me to because she was disabled or needed something for her second house or whatever. I did used to have a credit card that she paid when I was younger. She told me to use it for our anniversary dinner a few weeks ago. I politely declined. 

 

Are they "married" just so they can live together and be intimate without getting into religious trouble? 

 

Not sure since they did it while they were in Morocco on vacation with his family. She didn't tell us anything until 2 weeks ago. As far as I know she hasn't converted, but I could be wrong. She will do anything just so long as she gets the ring on her finger and it's done legally in France.

They've been seeing each other for 7 years and his mother was well aware. Their last big drama breakup was after his mother got in the middle of one of their arguments, called her a dirty (removed) among other things and threw her out of the house. Mother said she would find a decent girl for her son to marry. We were hoping that she would move on after that. If Frenchie tries to talk to her about it she just screams at him and he ends up with a sick migraine afterwards. It's a long story and a complicated relationship and not one that will end well. I give it 2 years tops.

16 minutes ago, N-o-l-a said:

 

It was embarrassing when I was still doing that in my early 20s.  I can't imagine expecting my parent(s) to pay my bills at that age.

 

So, random check appeared in my mailbox this afternoon for the full amount of the court judgment.

 

After my day at work yesterday, that was a welcome surprise. 

Congrats on the check. Was it from the property owner or their insurance??

I never and I mean NEVER had access to my parents CC's or bank account in my entire life.

Plus, she was Islamicaly married in August and lives with her "husband" but not having the French civil ceremony until March. I think it's her "husband's" responsibility to either driver her or pay for her Ubers and she's been really hateful to her father lately, which I don't like.

Still teaching. Still consumed with thoughts about wedding disorganization.

Step-daughter didn't come thru on the promised hairdresser to do my hair for other step-daughters wedding in Nov. No surprise here. I already made my own arrangements. She wonders why all her business attempts fail. I can tell her, she over promises and under delivers, if at all. She now owes us over 600 euros (sorry TB no P-math today) for her Uber bill. Lucky for us the card number she is using expires in Dec. and Frenchie is under strict instructions to not give her the new one. She's 30 yrs old and still thinks her father should provide her with a CC to use with the promise of "I'll pay you back".

Second step-daughter (the one getting married in Nov.) still hasn't sent the invitations out yet. I don't think they are even printed. smh.

My dress finally came in, still not what I wanted, still look fat in it (probably because I am) sigh.

Did find a place that sells natural soaps that you can have scented to your liking. Bought a bottle of shampoo scented with mint and rosemary. Love it. Their store concept is you bring your own plastic bottle to re-use and buy soaps in bulk, scented to your choice with essential oils, then pay by the oz. Reduces single use plastic waste.

That's all I got.

2 hours ago, HeatDeath said:

I was thinking of posting this yesterday but I got busy. Nothing about this story as presented by that hack at the WP passes the sniff test.

 

A really interesting wrinkle to the NYT version of this story that the WP completely failed to mention was that Canada refused to readmit them.

 

Like, say what? That's kinda relevant. It might even be the whole d*mn story.

 

It's pretty freakin' sad when the NY freakin' T is the balanced reasonable coverage. Every other paper on the planet just reprinted the WP hack job verbatim.

Yes they do, but what's worse is that they still consider WaPo to be a reliable source and people still accept it unquestioningly. Journalism is truly dead, propaganda is alive and well.

16 minutes ago, JFH said:

My husband has done time in prison here in the US. In fact, he has been in a few jails and prisons as they tend to get moved around. Every single one was kept at a cold temperature, he always tells me. Apparently people are less aggressive when they are cold. Also they are big rooms with little furniture and no carpet. Move all the furniture and carpets out of your house and you’ll think it’s cold. 

 

So this is the only part of their story that I actually believe. 

Nah, my mother would just turn up the furnace to 90 or something. Came home the other day it was 74 degrees outside and she had the heat on 78 in the house and was wearing summer capris, tee shirt and sandals. I'll check with a friend of mine, retired Fed corrects officer to  ask what the temps were in the facilities he worked at.

Edit: friend said usually 70 in winter and 68 in summer if the facility has AC.