Joanne82

@JessieABC

If it is someone else (like a parent or friend) then no, spousal status doesn't affect this.

If it is you sending the money and you are not yet married then you could send it to your fiance from the UK prior to your going over to the US. 

If you are already over there but not married, then I don't know, I guess you would be in a bit more of a complicated situation in terms of your citizenship. Potentially you could still be classed as a UK citizen on a visa, as you haven't yet done your adjustment of status and could send money from a UK bank account. However the company I used said you had to be domiciled in the UK to send the money so it's probably not going to work.

If you are over there and married, then as far as I can tell you would be subject to the marriage gift tax thing of $15,000.

As it's currently tax season I wasn't able to get anyone local to my fiance in Virigina to see him, however I got some sound advice from this accountant on Just Answer surprisingly http://my.justanswer.com/request/TaxRobin?source=EmailSharing

On 03/04/2017 at 6:06 AM, Wuozopo said:

There will be no tax implications to the American receiving the money. He can receive a gift from a foreign person in any amount. If he receives over $100,000 then there is a report (information return) to fill out. It is not part of the tax return but is due by the same date. That's form 3520. Your transfer would not trigger a report requirement by your fiancé because it is below the threshold.

 

The $14,000 you are tossing about applies to Americans who want to give money to individuals. Since you are not a citizen yet or a permanent resident, it doesn't apply to you right now. There is a limit on how much American's can give away to individuals each year, right now it is $14,000. They can give up to that much to any number of people. But if the American tax payer wanted to give $15,000 to one person, he  (the giver) would pay a gift tax. The exception would be if he gave to his spouse. Then there is no limit or gift tax.  There is also a form the American taxpayer who is giving away excess money fills out. It keeps a record of his lifetime cumulative gifts. That is simply to thwart that person from giving away millions to avoid an inheritance tax to his heirs. if he kept all his money until his death, there could be a tax if his estate was over something like 5 million. Rich people problems. 

Thanks. I contacted a tax specialist in the end to clear up confusion (like that in the previous post from JessieABC) and they told me the same thing you did. The inheritance tax thing is something my parent's had to take into consideration on this side with regards to tax but hopefully they've got at least 7 more years left in them.

11 hours ago, JessieABC said:

Just a note:

 

Gifts in excess of $14,000 will be taxed if you are not legally married yet.

I would suggest waiting until after you officially tie the knot or get a joint account.

 

• https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/frequently-asked-questions-on-gift-taxes#2
• http://onlinefx.westernunion.com/Learning-Center/Personal/tax-considerations-when-sending-money-overseas-to-family

See this im has now caused further confusion as I was advised that I could give a gift to anyone as a foreign citizen and that over $14000 required declaration but would not be taxed if they were under $100,000. That's what it said on the IRS website too. I read that gifts to a spouse are taxable, so I wanted to make sure it was done before I became a spouse.

so now with the info on this post I'm really stressed out again.

Thank you so much everyone for all your helpful advice (too many to reply to individually!).

I honestly didn't think I would be allowed my SSN until I was married and that by applying for it sooner (although many places said I could), would actually be fraudulent or would make it harder for me to get my EAD once I was married. So glad I posted here now. I will get my butt down to the office as soon as I arrive and print off the pages saying I am entitled to it thanks as I was advised to do on this thread.

I'll keep you posted on how it works out. If anyone has any questions, we've been through so so many problems so I hope I can return the favour and answer any queries.

As for the money, I bought the dollars yesterday and that are holding the funds until I can open a bank account there or have it as dollars in my HSBC account. 

Hi. 

I will be flying to the US on 4th April on my K1 visa. I will be getting married in 2 weeks after I arrive and my fiance is in the US military so I will be covered by his health insurance immediately.

I have travel health insurance with my bank, but they say it is only for holidays (trips of no more than 31 days), which this trip is not.

I have been looking into temporary, short term medical insurance in the US but they all seem to be for a year are £100 a month and require 30% of the medical costs to be paid for by me. Ouch. It is also unclear about how I would be covered while I was travelling from the UK to the US, so if my plane crashed, what would happen to me while I am in this no-man's land of citizenship and insurance.

What has everyone else done? Or do most people just chance it. I just want to be sure as I really couldn't afford medical bills or want my parents to have to pay for repatriation of my body.

Hi. 

So I have read a tonne of conflicting information about obtaining a Social Security Number and opening a bank account. As soon as I find an answer somewhere, I see a different answer somewhere else.

I am coming over to the US on my K1 visa (finally, only 2 years!) and my fiance is in the military and given how long this took to get sorted, we will now have to move in June just a couple of months after my arrival. We will be getting married as soon as possible and pushing for a speedy adjustment of status so that we are not apart for too long. We will need to do renovations on our home asap so that it is rentable before we go. This will be funded by my savings.

Many sources say that you can apply for your SSN as soon as you arrive in the US and it takes 14 days. Others say that you should wait until you are married to apply for your SSN and do it all in one go with your adjustment paperwork.

Does anyone know for definite what the position is with SSN for K1 visa fiancees and how long it takes? Also does anyone have experience with opening a bank account over there on your own or whether you have to have a joint one with your spouse? Does anyone know if it's possible to just add a K1fiance or wife to the US citizen fiancee/ husband's bank account?

Either way I will be waiting for a good few weeks or potentially months, before I can have my own bank account. I bank with HSBC and there aren't any in Virginia where I will be moving to.

I would like to transfer £30,000 to my fiance before the exchange rate gets any worse and soon enough for us to do the work on the house. Does anyone know if there would be any tax implications for this cash if it was just being sent to someone who wasn't my husband yet and whether I would do better to wait until we were married and just take the hit of the reduced exchange rate predicted over the next month? Has anyone else had any experience with sending money to their fiance over there?

Thanks. 

@boiler I previously visited on my ESTA. The question about convictions on there says crimes of 'moral turpitude' and I looked that up and my crime didn't seem to be one.

@boiler I previously visited on my ESTA. The question about convictions on there says crimes of 'moral turpitude' and I looked that up and my crime didn't seem to be one.

Hello.

I have been rejected for my K1 fiancé visa as I had a criminal caution 15 years ago. It was previoulsy approved by USCIS but at the interview they rejected me and told me to apply for the waiver. This is going to take about 8 months.

My problem is that my fiance is deploying on 1st June and I need to get to the US to get all my stuff back from all my previously holiday visits where I took clothes etc over and also to get the house sorted so we can rent it out while my fiance is away as we bought it for me to live there.

Does anyone know if it would hurt my i-601 waiver application if I applied for a visitor visa and whether there is any chance that they would grant it, and grant it in time?

Thank you.

Thanks for your replies everyone.

Unfortunately staying in the uk is not an attractive option as we already bought a house together. I sold my house and my business here as it was coming up for renewal of everything for another year. I have been in the US on my holiday visa for the last 6 weeks as I wanted to spend 3 of those with my partner as we really wanted to spend some quality time together before he left.

We already put in expedited requests on account of his deployment twice and they were ignored by USCS. That and the fact they kept losing paperwork and requesting the same thing, meant we had this huge delay.

I came back for my medical and visa appointment. Unfortunately my visa was rejected on the grounds I had a criminal caution 15 years ago when I was a minor, something that previously had been approved by USCIS and on my estas. The clerk told me he was almost certain my waver would be granted as it was so minor and a long time ago but for procedural purposes I had to do an i-601. I am waiting to hear if my expedited request to file this form in London will be accepted. If it is, we could be talking weeks but if it isn't then up to 8 months.

If it does come through in the next month then we will miss the wedding so that is why I was hoping to do it on the ship or base. As one of you pointed out, I won't be able to go back to my home in the states once were married as I will be a spouse, so that's no good. It was just an idea but clearly a pipe dream. Ah well.

Thanks

Hi.

I am a uk citizen and my fiancé is a US citizen in the US navy.

My fiancé and I are a year an a half in to our visa journey. We are due to receive my K1 visa in the next few weeks.

Unfortunately owing to the delays, many of which were last minute and unexpected, we will now most likely miss our wedding. My fiancé will be deployed for 7 months by the end of the month and we are unlikely to be able to marry before he leaves. Apart from the obvious awfulness of waiting another year, it also means that my visa we paid all this money for and waited all this time for will be invalid by the time he gets back. Even if we could afford to reapply to get things started now ready for next year, we couldn't as they insist on him filling out and receiving all the forms, doing any chasing up over the phone and they won't send them to the ship. He has restricted Internet and phone only late in the evening and it causes huge problems. Also for some reason we had 5 months of 'lost in the post' nonsense last time.

I am clutching at straws here but I was hoping that when he has a port visit in Italy, we could get married on the ship or the base as it's still classed as America. The navy Chaplin said this is fine. The problem is what to do with the sealed packet of passport/ visa documents. These are opened by US immigration on entry. How could I fly to Italy with sealed documents? Who would open them?

I can't get any advice on this from the embassy or USCIS. I have thought about contacting an immigration lawyer but I am reluctant to pay out a tonne of money only for them to not really know either or to just do what I could do anyway. When I called to enquiry about it, they didn't give anything at all away. Perhaps this is just to avoid people getting any free advice but I'm just not that convinced they could help.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Or recommendations for online good quality advice.

Thank you.