Mr. Data

Hi OP, I was in the exact same situation as you, just in China instead of Japan. I had been working in China for four years and hadn't been filing tax returns at all since I determined that my entire income was eligible for the foreign income tax inclusion by means of my passing the "bone fide resident" test. 

I consulted a tax lawyer in the U.S. and she said recommended that I just file returns for each of the years in question. Since I didn't own any taxes at all for those years, I wasn't subject to any fine or penalty for late filing. I filled out 1040 forms and 2555-EZ forms for each year, documenting my total income and clearly indicated that I had qualified for the exclusion and my gross adjusted income (i.e. taxable income) for each year was zero. I submitted the forms to the IRS and saved copies which I presented to the consulate as part of my Affidavit package. 

Because of this I did indeed need to find a joint sponsor, which I was fortunately able to do. My spouse told me they did check the forms carefully and ask her about it in her interview, but everything was deemed acceptable by the consular staff and our visa was issued. 

23 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

Yes.  Just more documentation to carry and more complications.  If you can work out how to do it all, great.  Most don't go to the trouble.  Your decision.

Ok, thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions! I will look into the process for changing her name in the Chinese passport too, just to keep everything "on the level". I've seen some other people were able to officially amend their Chinese passports with an 'English alias', so maybe that would be one route to explore. I appreciate your help, Merry Christmas!

18 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

Think big picture.  Until she is a US Citizen, her international travel MUST BE in her passport name, which will be Chinese, unless you are able to change it BEFORE the visa interview, and will remain Chinese until she has a US passport.

 

For example, if she has a Chinese name in passport and English name on green card, when she re-enters the US from abroad, she'll need documentation that the green card is for the same person the passport is for.  Carefully read the line in my signature that starts with "Facts are cheap...."

Yes of course, but wouldn't the official legal documentation of her name change serve that very purpose?

On 12/22/2018 at 6:57 AM, pushbrk said:

Changing names for Chinese people after immigrating is tricky.  Make sure you have all the bases covered including her new Chinese passport.  I mean make sure you know exactly HOW you are going to do all that.  THEN, look in to how to change the name on her green card.  You ARE going to pay a filing fee to do it.  Many Chinese wait until Naturalization to do the name change.  

Hmm ok, thanks for your reply, I will look in to that. Why is it difficult for Chinese people in particular? If her name is legally changed in the U.S., wouldn't that be enough to get a new green card in the new name? Do U.S. authorities care what her name in Chinese characters is? Thanks again! 

Layer up

13 hours ago, aaron2020 said:

Is your wife legally changing her first and last names?

Yes she is. She is changing her first name to her English first name and taking my last name. 

Hey all. Not sure if this is the right sub-forum for this question but here goes.

My wife just got her CR-1 visa and we are planning to move to the States early next year. Throughout the whole process she has been using her Chinese name, since that is her only legal name in China. So her conditional green card will have this name. However, she wants to legally change to her English name as soon as possible in America. After changing her name with the relevant local courthouse or other authority, do we just need to file an I-90 to replace her green card with a new one in her new name?

I have seen some conflicting comments about this type of situation online, with some people saying that it isn't advisable to apply to replace a conditional green card. Anyone here have any thoughts about this situation?

35 minutes ago, givionte said:

Hey, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions.  I'll be doing DCF later this year with my wife in Guangzhou.  Finding secondary evidence with our names on the same page is quite difficult, as our landlord refuses to put my name on the lease and only hers (so he can avoid paying the foreigner tax), and we don't have joint accounts of any kind.  What evidence did you submit that they accepted?

 

Also, what was the total timeline, from day of acceptance to interview, to visa in hand?

 

Lastly, did you run into any surprises or issues during the process I should be aware of?

Hey, my pleasure. I had the same issue you did, we didn’t have any official bank statements or joint leases or most of the other suggested documents listed as potential supporting evidence. I think many people, especially younger couples, are probably in the same boat. We found it helps to be “creative” and just provide any evidence that you can that speaks to the authenticity of the relationship. For us that focused on a visual record of our dating and marriage with images of us together spanning our entire ~3 year time together, including our travel together to the U.S., which I feel helped our case a lot. In addition, we also submitted some sample WeChat chat records from various points in time, photocopies of our passport stamps that indicated our travel together to Malaysia and Singapore, a physical copy of our wedding invitation, and photo copies of our marriage announcement that ran in my local newspaper back in the States. As long as your marriage and relationship are actually legit, you shouldn’t have any problem coming up with something or another to provide as evidence.

For the timeline, it was way faster than we ever expected. If we had done each of the three major steps back-to-back, we might have been able to get the whole process done in like a month. But we aren’t planning on moving until March or April of next year, so we waited for a few months after our I-130 was approved before proceeding with the process and submitting our DS-260. We were worried that if we went to fast, we would get our visa too early and it would expire before we were ready to move. We did the I-130 in June and it took five days from our submission at the consulate until notice of approval. We waited until November to do the DS-260 and it took 7 days from submission of the online from and supplemental materials at CITIC Bank until notice of approval. Then after taking a couple weeks to get all our materials together, we scheduled the interview for early December, did the Medical, passed the interview, and picked up the visa from the CITIC Bank about a week after that.

As to your last question, the I-130 and DS-260 stages are pretty straightforward. The main things to look out for in my opinion are all with the supplemental documents for the interview stage. You want to make sure you get proper notarized birth, marriage, and criminal background certificates from the local notary office of your spouse’s official place of residence. This can be hard to figure out at first. You also want to be sure all t’s are crossed and i’s dotted on your Affidavit of Support. If you are living in China now, a big part of that will be proving that you have maintained your domicile in the U.S. or else that you “genuinely intend” to re-establish your domicile in the U.S. before or with the intending immigrant. For me that was slightly tricky since I’ve been living in GZ for more than 5 years, but in the end the statement and evidence I prepared were enough, apparently.

2 hours ago, perks said:

Okay. So please i would love to know your timeline especially the documents you submitted with your first filling of te i130. Thanks

Sure, we submitted our I-130 to the consulate on June 8 and were approved on June 13. Here is the copy pasted list of documents from our cover letter:

1.   Form G-1145, e-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance

2.   Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative

3.   Form I-130A, Supplemental Information for Spouse Beneficiary

4.   Photos for petitioner and beneficiary 

5.   Copy of petitioner’s passport biodata page

6.   Copy of beneficiary’s passport biodata page

7.   Copy of Certificates of Marriage with official translations

8.   Secondary evidence of bona fide marriage (photo package)

In addition, I had to provide evidence that I (as the U.S. Citizen petitioner) was currently residing in China and qualified for DCF. I used photocopies of my current and previous residence permit. 

I just want to chime in to this thread to mention that I recently completed the DCF process at Guangzhou in full (visa in hand now) and I'd be happy to answer any questions that anyone has. I really relied on lurking here and other places online for guidance on the process, so I'm eager to help others as well. 

On 6/26/2018 at 11:26 AM, pushbrk said:

Sure.  The approval does not expire.  Just communicate with the Consular Immigrant Visa Unit about your intentions and they will respond accordingly.

15 hours ago, geowrian said:

If the medical was already completed, then an unexpired medical would be needed before the visa can be issued.

But the OP only noted the I-130 was approved...nothing about having done a medical yet.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Yes, I am only talking about the I-130 approval, we haven't started the actual visa application or done the medical check or anything like that yet. 

We are hoping to move back April 2019 at the earliest, so I think we will submit the visa application in around October of this year. 

Hello all, 

My wife and I filed our I-130 via DCF at the Guangzhou Consulate on June 15. Our I-130 was approved just 5 days later, on June 20th. I wasn't expecting this step to be completed so quickly - we are planning to make the move back to the States in April 2019. I have read that once the immigrant visa is issued, it is only valid for 6 months. Therefore we do not want to apply for the visa until within six months of our expected departure date. 

Is it ok to sit on the approved I-130 for a few months before moving the process forward? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!