NorthByNorthwest

Yeah, it was hit or miss for me - the actual interaction with the officer in secondary (in airports) never took more than a minute or two, it was waiting for my turn that tended to take time if many international flights came in at the same time. Entering on AP at the Canada/US land border were the only times I've ever had bad experiences with CBP staff. It happened more than once that they were outright rude about having to go through the extra steps related to admitting me on AP and being overall snarky about it like "AP is not for leisure travel, you know, we might not let you in next time". I stuck with "I'll keep that in mind sir" and never had any issues beyond that, I estimate I entered about 10 times while on AP.

When you enter on AP you could technically be denied, in practice the only real risk of getting refused entry is if you're stayed outside the country for an extended period and was found to have abandoned your I-485 while you were away, for example if you missed an appointment for biometrics or interview, or if you did not respond to an RFE. As long as you're only away for a few weeks at most you should be fine. It is also worth noting that when you enter the US on AP you will most likely end up in secondary inspection every single time, so allow extra time when booking connecting flights. Personally I'd allocate a minimum of 4 hours for connections while on AP.

Expect questions on how you met, how you got married and how you're living together since getting married. You may also get asked personal details about each other and extended families to show that you have a real relationship.

Since the approvals tend to get done pretty quickly now, don't get caught off guard if you have international travel plans around the April-June time frame - the second you take the oath you hand in your green card and you then need a US passport to be able to leave and reenter the country. That can take months if you apply using the slowest route, but the good news is you can also get one the next day if you have urgent travel and live close to a passport agency.

Just to clarify - depreciation is something you claim yearly against the income from the rental, so this can't wait until you sell them. Your tax advisor will help you use the correct depreciation schedule and apply it yearly, it is complicated enough for US rental income, and worse for foreign...

If you get a CPA they'll help, but don't forget to take the proper depreciation on the rental properties - the day he sells the properties IRS will automatically assume he's taken the depreciations and assess the depreciation recapture accordingly even if he never claimed any depreciations.

My ceremony had people in jeans and shirt, suits, sweaters, the whole spectrum. Totally up to you. If you have traveled outside the US since you filed the N-400 you may want to bring the details of those trips. I had two trips, but the officer already saw those on her computer and added them as we were speaking.

Is this a trip for them to enter the US on K-1? If it is it could either be smooth sailing where the initial officer handles everything, or she could end up sent to secondary screening even if the entry is just a formality. That can easily eat up an hour or more in the morning when many APAC flights get in. Personally, 2 hours is the shortest layover I'd consider for myself even traveling in business class (getting off the plane first) with Global Entry, knowing the layout of the airport, and being familiar with the process of retrieving and rechecking luggage. I would not recommend it for inexperienced travelers.

I visited the US on ESTA (for work) the week before my scheduled K-1 interview in Tokyo, zero issues. If anything, having that interview scheduled was a pretty compelling reason for me to go back, but it didn't even come up. By then I had a total of 20+ visits to the US on ESTA, they might have more questions for a beneficiary with very few or no prior US visits, but I don't see why they'd throw up roadblocks for someone that has gone through the hoops up to that point.

I should correct myself - I wrote "after petition is approved" above but the priority date starts as soon as your I-130 petition is properly filed/accepted. The timer for visa availability will run concurrently with the petition approval. However... The processing tool only shows how long it takes for the petition to get approved, but it's really the visa bulletin that tells the story of when a visa will be available. I also forgot to mention that the dates in the bulletin have not moved much in recent years. For example in the three years between January 2021 and January 2024 the F1 Priority Date for all chargability areas has only moved from 15 Sep 2014 to 01 Jan 2015, and in the same time F4 PD has only moved from 08 Oct 2006 to 22 May 2007 so there's a huge backlog - that's why there's so much uncertainty with the timelines. You have to look at the bulletins over time to get a sense for how the categories are getting processed.

Unmarried child over 21 = F1 - at least 9 years once petition is approved, will she stay unmarried that long? If she marries she moves to F3 which adds 6+ years. Sibling = F4 - at least 17 years once petition is approved. Dates from latest visa bulletin: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2024/visa-bulletin-for-january-2024.html In other words - your mother petitioning will most likely be faster. Hopefully your mother is in good health but a lot can happen in the 10+ years the process will take - safest bet would be for the both of you to petition. There is no issue having multiple petitions for the same person.

I don't have any personal experience with the domicile part, but I'm sure there are others on the forums that do. At the end of the day, the domicile requirement is only there to qualify you as an I-864 sponsor. As long as you meet the income requirements and can show you'll have your primary residence in the US by the time the beneficiary enters the country your background looks pretty solid. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition/i-864-affidavit-faqs.html#aos18

Interviewing in a country she has a long-term visa for is not a problem, but as the petitioner you will be required to show that you have either established domicile in the US by the time of the interview, or show that you will re-establish it. Otherwise you will need an affidavit of support from someone in the US.

When I went through the process last year my interview notice showed up in my online account about 6 weeks before the interview date, but it took almost two weeks until the paper notice showed up. I did hear some folks getting the notice as late as 2 weeks before the interview, so it will definitely vary. For maximum early warning be sure to check your online account at least weekly - I got no notification that my case had been updated so I would not have seen it without logging in regularly.

I would venture a guess that this is related to the REAL ID act assuming his current DL is not REAL ID compliant? https://www.tn.gov/content/tn/tnrealid/requirements.html

To add to what the others already noted, in addition to the US federal income tax you will also owe state income tax living in California - this gets complicated real fast, especially with pensions and other tax-deferred savings down the line. Definitely talk to professionals and consider what your long-term plans are, including where you will retire. Health care certainly also comes into play, does your wife already have an insurance that you can join or would you sign up for a new one? These days many insurance plans are high-deductible which qualifies for an HSA (Health Savings Account) that has multiple tax benefits - participating in that will be difficult if all your income is in the UK.

Any income from rentals worldwide will be taxed as income in the US, but as long as there is a tax treaty in place you get to deduct taxes paid in the UK from what you owe in the US. It gets more complicated though, since you'll be expected to show a depreciation plan and take depreciations accordingly, which will further impact how you calculate capital gains the day you sell it. Not taking depreciation is not an option since IRS will asses the depreciation recapture tax whether you actually took the depreciation or not. In short - get professional advice...

You won't know which service center handles the case until you get your NOA though. Also, don't forget to include the fee, that one-line omission just cost you $465 in filing fee for the I-824...

Looks like you didn't fill out the section on the I-130 asking in which country the beneficiary will apply for the immigrant visa. You need to fill in either item 61 or item 62, if you fill in neither, or both, you get this notice and nothing else happens until you file I-824. Per the instructions for I-824 only you (the petitioner) can file I-824 for this scenario of sending the approved petition to NVC, so your mother will not be the one signing it. Only the petitioner of the previously approved immigrant visa petition may file Form I-824, if action in Part 2., Item Number 1.d. or Item Number 1.e. is requested. You must provide the A-Number (in Part 1., Item Number 6. of the application) or the Receipt Number of the previously approved petition (in Part 3., Item Number 1.b. of this application), and complete and sign this application.

No harm in updating your W-4 as soon as possible - then you'll get more money in your pocket each paycheck instead of having to wait for tax refund season to get it back. The most common debate on these forums on how to file the actual taxes relate to the immigrant not yet having a SSN which sometimes becomes an issue trying to file jointly. If your spouse does not yet have an SSN I'd suggest taking care of that ASAP so you have it in place in time for tax season. Then just use TurboTax or similar and you'll be guided through the whole process, unless you already have someone do your taxes for you. IRS won't bug you for giving them too much money, and I don't think USCIS would have any issue either unless you file your actual return as single, that would be a red flag.

Nothing to worry about, the W-4 is essentially just between you and your employer and you can update it as many times as you want to. What matters is what you select when you file your tax return for 2023 next year. For an interview before then you won't have any meaningful transcripts to bring. Worst case if you leave your W-4 as-is your employer will withhold too much tax and you'll get a larger refund when you actually file your return as married filing jointly. The biggest difference is that the tax brackets are different filing jointly + the standard deduction is double, if your spouse does not work you basically give away a $14k deduction if you were to file separately instead of jointly. Any tax filing software will tell you about this when you put the numbers in.

Not sure why anyone would recommend that since you'll end up paying more tax filing separately when your wife is not working. The only time it makes sense to file separately is if you are both working making similar amounts of money and filing jointly puts you in a higher tax bracket than if you had filed separately.

My case was a bit different as it was K-1 and I was living in Japan at the time, but I still visited the US multiple time (on ESTA) while the petition was in progress - never had any issues. My final visit on ESTA was two weeks before my K-1 interview at the US embassy in Tokyo, no issues. In my case I had the visa in hand the day after the interview, but processing obviously differs depending on embassy. I'm not sure what situation requires him to be in the US in the specific time frame and if you consider it worth even a minimal risk to the process. My visits on ESTA during the petition period were mostly work-related with plenty of paperwork to support that (never needed it) but a few were only to visit the petitioner and I was always honest about that and never had issues. Timelines are unpredictable and through the process we always made all our plans around getting it done with as little friction as possible since any rescheduling can add months to the timeline. Your case is simpler since you're already married and your husband will be free to travel immediately so I'd definitely recommend not delaying unless absolutely necessary.

Sponsoring siblings take a very long time - you can expect it to be at least a 20 year wait depending on where you are from - your sister's son would likely age out as dependent during that time unless he was just born. If you are not living in the US when the visa becomes available there needs to be an additional sponsor for the affidavit of support. If your sister wants to travel to the US in the meantime she can always apply for a B2 visa which has nothing to do with you at all, but with a pending petition for F4 showing immigration intent her B2 would face harsh scrutiny.

To add to this, the various I-9 instructions specifically mention that even conditional permanent residents are NOT subject to reverification: Employers should not reverify: U.S. citizens and noncitizen nationals; Lawful permanent residents who presented a Form I-551, Permanent Resident or Alien Registration Receipt card for Section 2, including conditional residents; or List B documents