Keeley

If you were considered married during the tax year, you can't file as Single or as Head of Household as both of those filing statuses are for people who were considered unmarried for the tax year. (Source: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/determining-your-correct-filing-status)
 
If your spouse doesn't have a SSN/ITIN, then you would select Married Filing Separately as your filing status and you have to paper file your return. This is because electronic filing platforms won't allow you to leave the spouse SSN/ITIN blank, but a paper form will. I don't know if it's strictly necessary, but I also attached an explanatory statement to my return when I filed noting that my husband is not subject to US taxes and doesn't have a SSN or ITIN and the return was accepted with no issue. 
 

There are other rules as well regarding the portion of expenses you pay (at least 50%) for the household and whether you are considered married for tax purposes (there are special rules on this point as @Sugarlegetiti and I were discussing yesterday  ).
 
This is a screenshot from IRS Pub 501, which details the current rules: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2017_publink1000220775


 
If you read through Publication 501 section on Head of Household, you can click through the relevant links to find which apply to your situation. Hope this helps!

Apologies accepted, thank you for sharing the update link.

Interesting. My apologies, I'm just quoting the general rules per the IRS website https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/correct-filing-status (this is a more up-to-date link than the one I previously shared). You must have qualified for one of the special rules they mention that allow for HoH filing. For anyone keen to dig into the detail, all the rules are laid out in Publication 501: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2017_publink1000220818.

Just FYI, I got case closed this morning, no issue, but just now they asked me to delete and resubmit my I-864 files (split into two PDFs) because they were not uploaded on the same day.  wouldn't be a huge issue except now the CEAC site is so slow and keeps giving me an application error!!!!

It depends every case is different also bit of lucky mine too six days hope you get your case number soon

Received our case number via email, took 3 weeks and 2 days (PIVOT case)

Same to you, hopefully the long wait is finished for us all come November-December!!

Same with Australia, not too many recently! Good luck with everything! Hopefully your wait is nearly over!

Thanks!

Thanks. My husband called yesterday, he was put on hold for 70 mins and when they eventually spoke to him they told him our son's case was entered into the system aug 4th and that mine hasn't been entered into the system. About one hour later we both received the welcome letter emails. 

thank you for replied, my US wife just call and they said please wait up 4-6week. hope to get good news sooner, we will still keep calling them.  

That's right. According to NVC, it can take up to 8 weeks to assign a case number (which is the same as putting it into their system). You can keep calling to check periodically if you like, though, because some people have been getting them sooner. For others, it can take the full 8 weeks, though. Good luck!

You too! 

I know!! It’s so true. I just keep reminding myself that this process will soon be just a distant memory! Good luck with everything!

Congrats on moving to the next step! The NVC website has the following guidance here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/collect-and-submit-forms-and-documents-to-the-nvc/step-4-collect-financial-documents.html  If you scroll down and expand the "Obtain financial evidence" section, the first part talks about IRS Tax Transcripts. It says: 
"Extensions: If you filed an extension for the most recent tax year, submit a photocopy of your IRS Form 4868 (PDF - 509 KB) or write and sign a statement indicating you filed an extension."
 
So it looks like they will accept either a copy of the extension form filed or a signed statement. I would guess then you would just need to make sure you have other evidence of your joint sponsor's income for that tax year (paystubs, employer letter, etc).
 
Good luck! We're waiting for our case number now, so hopefully it won't be too long and we'll be ready to submit our documents, too!

I don't think so but it won't cost you much to wait until you get the welcome letter before signing and dating the i864.

TBH I called a few times but it was not of much help. I also submitted questions via 'Ask NVC' but it was also not very useful. I would suggest just wait the current time lines and if it goes beyond that then perhaps call. You can view my specific timelines in this post - page 1 to help gauge - Good luck!

Yes, I recommend you calling them as frequently as you can. I have called them at least twice a week over the period of 2 months! I got my welcome email with case number today.

Congratulations! At what stage did you request the expedited processing? Sounds like before you received your case number?

Congratulations! At what stage did you request the expedited processing? Sounds like before you received your case number?

Thanks for the responses! Got my I-130 approval today, so their ears must have been burning!  One step down at least!

Thanks for the responses! Got my I-130 approval today, so their ears must have been burning!  One step down at least!

Thanks for the responses! Got my I-130 approval today, so their ears must have been burning!  One step down at least!