jkstark

I believe that this is referring to the latest occupation/job - ie in your case it would be the current employment situation...  First to last is chronological - the last is the most recent or current.

That would at least be the logical language based determination - you'll also see that when asking for more than one, most forms will ask for them in reverse chronological - ie. the most recent first, the next recent second and so on..

I may be off the mark here completely, but my impression would be that if you had income outside of the US *prior* to your immigrating to the US, and prior to you being considered an immigrant, then you are not liable for US taxes on that income.

Ie. you are liable for taxes on all income once you are considered an immigrant or citizen of the US - but until you have arrived in the US as an immigrant, you cannot be held liable for taxes on income at that time.  Once you are a resident or citizen, you are liable for US taxes on worldwide income.

Again - don't take this as official legal advise, but my understanding is that the law is set up that way...

Congrats!

That actually seems like a rather fast process to get to the interview, though each case and each field office is different.

Now that they have scheduled an interview, there is no guarantee yet as to when that interview will be.  You will simply have to wait for the notice to arrive in the mail to get the actual interview date.  Depending on the office, it could be very soon or it could be quite some time in the future.  I would not pin any hopes for it to be in December though - if I recall right, they like to give more notice than that...

However - your case may vary...

You can always point them to this page as well:  https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/temporary-i-551-stamps-and-mrivs

I'll concur that a lawyer is not necessary, but I would make sure to go over all your paperwork with a fine tooth comb so to speak to make sure you have everything that is asked for, and that everything is filled out correctly. 

Essentially, you want to make sure that you do no become a blip on the radar and then have something go horribly wrong because of a paperwork error...  Otherwise, this should be straight forward; somewhat similar to what I went through, for other reasons...

Good luck!

If you are using a VPN, or even at times something like the Chrome web accelerator, you might see this kind of a message even if you have not been on the site.

Essentially, the site can only see the address that you are coming from, and VPNs and accelerators will potentially change this as the traffic is routed.  As a result, it is not difficult to have multiple people end up with the same "originating" address, which then causes the server to block some access.

If you are not using anything like that, it is also possible that your ISP is using a shared IP address for multiple households, causing a similar thing to occur.

Lastly, it is possible that your machine is infected causing traffic, though that would be highly unlikely to be traffic going to a USCIS portal such as that one, so I am going to say that the chances of an infection causing this are close enough to zero to be ignored.

You should be able to fill the form using Acrobat Reader; the full version of Acrobat and the Typewriter tool is not necessary to fill in documents that have FORM FIELDS defined within the document.

To me, your image looks like the font that was used was not actually installed correctly on your computer for some reason...

Interestingly, Finland has a large number of Somalis who have immigrated to there - so it is not just Minnesota....  Then again, there are a lot of similarities between Minnesota and the Nordics...

Just now, Going through said:

This is not accurate.  People can apply for citizenship even if the GC expires the next day after filing.  One does not need an application in process to renew it either.  Many people live decades on a GC only.

At one point when I was going through that, I thought I had seen something about the 6 month requirement, but may well have been looking at something wrong.  However, I did not (at least intentionally) say anything about having to have any other application in process to renew a GC - other than the renewal application for the GC itself if you needed to renew that...  (I was here for about 17 or so years on a GC before naturalizing myself...)

You can apply for citizenship as long as you still have 6 months on your GC AFAIK.  If during that process your card expires or comes up to the point of where you need to apply to get it renewed then that will be the something you'll have to handle at that time - I believe that you still have to have a valid card or an application in process to renew it.

Remember that the card validity does not indicate the validity of your status as a LPR - it is only the evidence of that status.  When you apply for a renewal, you can get an extension letter or a stamp in your passport, so that in and of itself should not be the deciding point.  Instead, go for naturalization if you feel that is the right direction for you, and thus stop the need to regularly pay USCIS for renewals, but be aware that you might still need to renew your card one more time unless your local office moves quickly on the N400.

Others can elaborate more - I'm not absolutely certain that you need to have a valid card at the time of naturalization as long as you have started the process more than 6 months prior to the expiration of the card.

I'll add on as a comment to the idea of a boarding school, be it in the US or elsewhere... 

I was in boarding school for most of my school years, and with it being an international school, the experience was incredible.  I can't speak more highly about the friendships that have stood the test of time till now, even though my classmates are spread across the globe.  The concept of living and studying with people from all around the world is something that I think that everybody should have an opportunity to do - it expands on tolerance and understanding of everybody in ways that nothing else can.  With everybody speaking english, the immersiveness is immediate and lasting when it comes to language abilities.

I know that the school I was at has exchange programs as well, that are available on a sliding scale financially. 

If you need and/or want more info, PM me...

Pictures are pictures, no matter what they are printed on - if you are submitting them just make sure that they look reasonable and look like what the image is intended to be.  At some point at an interview you'll want to have photos with you as well, and even in that case I don't think it matters, though those will not be left behind, so you can bring "photo realistic" ones with you.

I hesitate to even think of what is a "real" photographic print these days - I spent years as a photographer and working with actual photographs - what you get now are good, but generally no longer true photographic prints in any case, but that is a different issue entirely...

Send whatever you can come up with easiest and go with that...

Don't know the Florida rules directly, but in most cases to get to the appointment you typically need a licensed driver to go with you...  You don't have a license there yet, so you can't drive yourself alone...

I did drive to the test when I took it many years ago, but I had my father-in-law with me.  Even if you would be permitted based on the timeline to use your out-of-country license for a time, I would not attempt to show up for a test without another licensed driver with you - the examiner would probably look at it unkindly...

I managed to get my original license in Finland in a similar way; we had been living in southeast asia for a while, and got my first license there.  When I moved back to Finland, I showed up at the license office and put my car keys on the counter when I went to turn in the paperwork and got a funny look from the clerk - showed them that I was licensed and was permitted to drive on the foreign license for the short amount of time that I had been back, and all went OK, but the look was priceless when they saw the keys and asked me how I got there... 

Pretty thin information that you are providing here, but...

You would need to ask why there is a delay, and possibly consider firing your lawyer if you don't get an answer that meets your approval.  A good question around here will be do you have circumstances going on that really call for having a lawyer in the first place - the vast majority of people here who have gone the CR1 route have done it themselves.

In any case, if the lawyer is not doing their job, then why have a lawyer or at least that lawyer at all?

Can you both travel to the US as tourists?  If so, you could make the trip, get married, and then return to continue with the DCF.

Bear in mind that this still leaves the question about the DC marrriage, and making absolutely sure that it is considered null and void, or you can dig yourself into an even deeper hole...

On a completely immigration un-related item, but something that came to mind...  My parents lived in France for the better part of 20 years, and though my mother had reasonable French language skills from her years in school that she was able to hone to be able to live comfortably, my father had never learned the language.  At one point, he enrolled in a week long immersive French language course that was held at a "resort" somewhere, and where they were prohibited from speaking anything but French.  Surprisingly, especially considering his age at the time, he came back from there speaking reasonable French, and was able to continue learning just from daily interactions.

I don't think that it was quite the level of an immersive experience that the Légion étrangère puts recruits through, but still very effective...

Good luck!

You can always get a notice of disposition from the court that was handling your tickets that will show what the offense was, and what the outcome of the process was. 

The recommendation is solid - disclose everything.  Tickets under approximately $500-600 will have no bearing on the outcome, as per the agent reviewing my case, but they do need to be disclosed so as to prevent any complications later on...

I used an attorney for my initial AOS many many moons ago - but the circumstances were a bit different...  I had a situation during my AOS that I wanted to get some clarification and reassurances after we got married, and the attorney was helpful and made sure that there was going to be no issue.  He was present in the office during my interview as well, which was very comforting.

At ROC, no attorney was needed, though he had mentioned that he would check over the paperwork at the time at no additional cost just to make sure everything was up to snuff, and I think that we may have sent them off to him to verify, or then again, might not have.

When I finally started my naturalization steps, I did ask him to take a quick look at the N400 to make sure that I had not missed anything, or done something stupid along the way in the forms, and got to speak with him personally as he was going over the forms with me (by telephone, but still with the attorney).  I believe that cost me about $150...  I didn't necessarily feel the need to have that step done by him, but my wife wanted to make sure that everything t was crossed and every i dotted, so to speak, and for the cost, it was not a big deal.

So yes - there are some good ones out there; this one was in Buffalo NY, just a few blocks from the USCIS office there...

All IMMIGRANT visa residents must file (based on age). 

There are certain business visas that may or may not require you to file taxes, but those are non-immigrant visas.

Once you are admitted as a permanent resident, you are liable for US taxes regardless of where you reside as long as either your permanent resident status is valid, or you are a citizen.  All LPRs and Citizens of the US *must* file US taxes, though in certain circumstances you will not have any tax liability.

I suppose that by land it might be the toughest one... 

Thinking of how the system works when traveling by car, there is only one checkpoint and that data is then shared - ie. when you enter Canada from the US, the Canadian immigration side will inform the US that person XYZ departed the US and entered Canada.  Since you are required to enter and exit through immigration controls in the US using a US passport if you are a citizen, I'm not entirely sure what the procedure should be on land borders.  However, when traveling by air, when you are checking in at a US airport, you should probably use your US passport, since that is your "immigration" checkpoint at departure.  When checking in for a flight in Canada, use your Canadian passport, and then use your US one at US immigration.

The key is to use your US passport at all US immigration checkpoints...

1 hour ago, SusieQQQ said:

Maybe it’s jist the religion and culture I was brought up in, but I’ve been reading this thread for pages and still can’t wrap my head around the thought of piggybacking a universal trip onto a funeral. It seems distasteful and disrespectful. I wonder what an immigration officer would think on being told the reason for visit is “funeral, very sick parent, theme park visit”. If a visa is granted it will be multiple entry, personally I’d go on my own to fetch mom, and take son another time for a fun-filled vacation. I realize this is not what was being asked and I’ll probably get flamed, but so be it.

There is sense to that, but at the same time I see the flip side of that...

First - making a long trip, you want to take advantage of everything that is available since who knows when you'll have the opportunity to do so again. 

Second - especially with kids, you don't necessarily want the trip to be completely a negative experience - let them have some fun too and give them an opportunity to grieve in their own way.  They had an aunt pass, which is not a good experience, but we don't know how well they knew each other either - that would have a huge impact on how they would view the trip.

I had to make some long distance trips to see my mother on what I expected to be one of the last times I would meet her, but still made sure to find something enjoyable to do during the trip - even if it meant only trekking around a city that I had called home for a little bit and seeing what all was happening there.  There has to be some mix of activities to counter the overall negative impact of such a trip to keep memories alive and not allow everything to draw you down a deep dark well...

If all you can manage is a very quick "turn and burn" type of trip, then yes - go to the funeral and call it that, but if you have the luxury of some time, mix in some positive reinforcement with the bad - even if it is just for your own sake and not just your kids...

I have to wonder if some of those questions that were asked in London were simply questions to verify that the interview had not been rehearsed with extreme details - ie. far more than would be in a normal relationship, but rather as the basis of a scam of sorts.  It almost sounds like the kind of information that somebody in "deep cover" would memorize...

I don't recall Newark being that horrible as an international arrival - far better than some of the terminals at JFK...  Coming into Newark was a joy compared to most others, to be honest.

I recall one arrival at JFK where we were stuck in a narrow, dark, dank hallway for about 30-40 minutes till somebody came along and clarified that citizens/LPR should not wait in line but rather go on through to the open lanes.  Big signs warning against photography too, and I can understand why just based on the conditions.  Quite a shock after going through customs/immigration in any European airport...

That said, though Wilmington is advertised as an international airport, there are currently no international commercial flights through there - so it is a moot point unless they are flying in on general aviation aircraft.  Remember that in the US you clear customs and immigration at the first landfall...

Hopefully somebody will be able to chime in on that here - I'm not certain if that complicates things or not...