E&W

Small detail, if your married name is different then the name on your passport, you will need to also submit a wedding certificate alongside your passport. We did this last year, and our preparer forgot to include our wedding certificate. it delayed getting the ITIN by a few weeks.

13 minutes ago, HRQX said:

When you do receive it, inform the IRS at 800-908-9982:

 

OK, will do, thank you!

18 hours ago, HRQX said:

Did you receive your EAD? Because with the EAD you are eligible for SSN and thus no longer eligible for the ITIN: https://www.irs.gov/instructions/iw7 "Don’t complete Form W-7 if you have an SSN or if you’re eligible to get an SSN."

I have not received it yet, although the status online did say they are printing it since last week. There was no knowing when the EAD would be done, that's why we went with the ITIN. For a time it did seem like the ITIN would come sooner. But the agent forgetting to copy the wedding certificate got it delayed.

4 hours ago, Wuozopo said:

It’s all on paper. You can use software like TurboTax leaving her SSN spot blank and ignore the alerts that it’s missing. Then instead of efiling, print the return and both sign it. Prepare and sign the W7. Then go have one of those places certify her passport so you don’t have to mail the actual passport off to Austin. They will make a certified copy of her passport and send everything to Austin for you. That is your filing date. You will be notified of her ITIN number once it is assigned. 

My husband and I did this exactly. We missed the window to get the SSN, so needed to get a ITIN. He filled the tax return out online, printed. We both signed. And I filled out the W7. We went to a certifying agent, they made a copy of my passport and took the filled out forms, sent them in for us. The only thing is that since I took my husbands last name, it didn't match up with the passport, and the acceptance agent forgot to also copy and sent in our marriage certificate. So we had to come in once again to give them a copy. But that solved the last name issue. Sadly, I am still waiting on the number, IRS is absolutely swamped. So you will have a wait on your hands.

YES! The EAD status was updated to producing card. OMG, I have been getting worried that the biometrics went wrong, since they had so much trouble getting my fingerprints. I'm one of those people that always has trouble with getting viable fingerprints. I'm gonna go get some ice cream, this requires celebrating.

Went today to have the biometrics done. As always, they could not get a good print. It's been a problem for years now, the damn electronic machines just can't read my fingerprints. I wish it was due to dry skin, but I keep my hands in extremely good condition, it's just the prints are so shallow. Here's hoping they get accepted, if not, going back in. Might need to dry out my hands so they stand out better. 😔😔😔

Find out where you can buy food from home that he likes. I swear, this helps so much, as ridiculous as it sounded to me at first. We found a store that has my favorite soup from my home country, it feels so good just knowing whenever I am craving home, I can just get some soup and I'll be better.

Whatever hobbies he has, shop for those. Or even something he has wanted to try for a while, but hasn't been able to do/find. Include him in your hobbies, or find new ones you both like. I felt so much better and included into my husbands group of friends after we started paying MTG, which is something I wanted to learn and try for a long time.

Growing plants was also very helpful for me. I have gotten a while bunch of succulents and seeing them grow and thrive makes me feel so much more at home.

It will be hard at times, it is for everyone. Be aware of that, accept it, work through it.
I hope some of this helps you out.

Got my biometrics appointment notice two days ago. Always feels good when something gets moving.

Received text messages with the receipt numbers on Thursday, so far so good!

6 hours ago, Siggy said:

Check if your cheque got cashed or not, if yes you can ask EMMA for case number.. I haven't done this but people from other groups are trying this..some are successful in getting their case number 

Yep, we’ve been checking, but nothing yet. Thank you, though.

Kinda late to the party, but here we are. AOS package sent on Feb 5th, Delivered on Feb 8th. No signs of life as of yet, but we all know it's a waiting game. Hopefully we get the NOA1 soon.

1 hour ago, eirinlinn said:

We got approved! 

Congrats!

17 hours ago, LegalAlienn said:

Woooow they've been so lazy.. honestly it's not like they got hundreds of applications here in Bosnia so they can't mail it the same day. 

But oh well what can we do then just wait on them to do their job! Thank you 

Who knows what kind of crazy work rules they got since covid. In any case it will arrive soon and then you can do the next step.

2 hours ago, LegalAlienn said:

My case status also turned today to Issued.. seems like that the embassy in Sarajevo works only on Mondays and Wednesdays where on Mondays they have interviews and on Wednesdays they process the cases. @E&W did you get your passport back the same they it changed to Issued or?

My documents were delivered yesterday. Makes sense, it takes a few days for the post to deliver it.

@LegalAlienn they didn’t tell me it was approved, she said it’s been temporarily denied because they need to process some things, and gave me the paper saying so. 
@Greenbaum thank you. I am assuming that it will be approved and that there aren’t issues, just this year, man, it’s been chaos, as we all know. Lol. And yeah, no one can say how long, I am just hoping it’s soon so I can actually make it out of Croatia, cases have been skyrocketing here.
Oh well, it will be as it will be. I’m lucky I am able to even get the visa at this time. 

Welp, we got put in administrative processing. Everything seemed to be going well at the interview until the CO noticed she didn’t have the i-134. Which is weird, since my fiancé had sent it to them directly via email (and got their automated covid email answer, meaning it arrived to the right place). I did have a printed out copy I showed them.
She just said that they need to process some things. They kept my passport.
Sincerely hope this doesn’t take long and we don’t get rejected.

Patience is the keyword for this year it seems.

Got a call from the embassy at the beginning of the week, we scheduled the interview. Feels so good for things to finally be moving forward.

7 hours ago, stech786 said:

Tourist also bring virus

Fiances also brings money in. When they move in, they buy new car, house, furniture etc

 

 

Does it look like they care about virus numbers? Doesn't seem like it to me.
Fiance brings money, but also stays. Tourists leave, meaning tourist = pure profit.
Might be wrong of course, nothing I say is set in stone.

Just to clarify, I know B visas aren’t just for tourism, there is the medical and business aspect of them, and we don’t know exactly what limits they have, so who can actually get the visa. But I feel my point still stands. 🤷‍♀️

10 hours ago, LegalAlienn said:

Ok this is a joke now!!! US Embassy in Zagreb Croatia will resume B1/B2 visas from August 18th... WHAT THE F*** IS GOING ON?! 😡 😡😡

Tourists bring in money. Fiancés don’t. I’m not surprised, just so extremely tired of all of this. As my fiancé would say, they are at least adding more visas to the list, so I guess that is something to be grateful for. 

@LegalAlienn sorry, I haven’t payed the fee yet, so can’t check.

@eirinlinn I know that the Croatian embassy always needed a few days from proclaiming something on their social media and it being added to the website. Websites updates can take a while depending on what kind of platform they are built and until the IT section can get to it, especially with government sites. Might be they don’t even have direct access, they need someone in the US to do it. Anyway, I’m sure the site will be updated eventually.

Here we are a week later, and another update from Croatian embassy, they have now added a few more visas they are processing and expanded the explanation what isn’t processed and why. Hopefully my fellow Croatian citizens will be even more careful and get those numbers of covid cases that were rising the last week back down again, and keep it that way so we can get to processing of K visas as well.