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The Bloomies

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  1. May I run a currently hypothetical/potentially real situation by you all? I few recent threads about immigrating parents to the US have gotten me thinking about this. Let me first set up our particular situation and then I’ll ask the questions. I’m eligible to file for citizenship through marriage next year, which has resulted in some conversations between me and my mum about whether or not she’d like me to sponsor her for a green card one day. She’s open to it because I’m an only child and she would love to be close to me, my husband and her future grandchildren. There’s no rush for her to gain a green card, although I probably will begin the process in January for myself anyway since the U.K. and US allows dual citizenship as many of you know. I think it’s probably the best move for us as a family so that we can potentially move back home (or abroad) without it affecting my status here and so that we can be rid of USCIS for good! The question I have relates to how we’d be able to make it work from a health insurance point of view. I know that one option is that I could sponsor my mum, she could move here and just pay healthcare premiums. But I also recognise what many of you point out on related threads—healthcare costs here are definitely a consideration and potentially cost-prohibitive, particularly if there’s no chance to ever qualify for Medicare in the future. My mum is currently a very young 56 year old so work isn’t out of the question. In fact, she would probably enjoy some part-time work. That said, she hasn’t been able to have a full-time job for many years on account of her husband working abroad and her needing to have a flexible enough schedule to visit him when she wants. A schedule that she could have more control over would be better. Here’s where the hypothetical question comes in. If I sponsored her in the future and she moved here and received her work permit, could she set up, say, a sole prop as a childcare provider so that I could then effectively hire her? I see that the income requirement to earn each quarter is relatively low (currently) so I don’t imagine it would take too long to earn that amount each quarter. And, if she could and worked in this way for 40 quarters, would that then make her eligible for Medicare? My husband and I are just starting our family so we’re looking at many years of childcare and this occurred to me as an option that my mum would enjoy, be able to control and earn her credits if the alternative was too expensive. This is all hypothetical. In the end, we might find that, even if I do take citizenship, it might be better on the whole for us as a family to live either back home or in a third country. Thank you in advance for your comments. I’m not currently in need of any VJ guidance for my own visa journey, but I do still visit every day or so because I learn a lot. In another life I think I may have enjoyed being an immigration lawyer!
  2. Thank you for your response. That is correct. I didn't think it would qualify us, but just wanted to check. We will just have to be careful with how much time we spend outside of the country on any international assignments then. Thanks again.
  3. Thank you for your comment. It doesn’t seem that this person’s situation related to working for a religious organisation though. I’m wondering specifically if anyone knows what kind of work qualifies. For example, my husband works for a construction contractor engaged overseas by a U.S. religious organization. (He’s not in any sort of ecclesiastical role.) Does anyone think this might count? It would probably determine whether he takes international assignment, if it might affect my citizenship process.
  4. Spouses of U.S. Citizens Employed Abroad Generally, if your spouse is a U.S. citizen who is employed by the U.S. government, including the military or another qualifying employer, and your spouse is scheduled to be stationed abroad for at least one year at the time you file your Form N-400, you may be eligible for naturalization under Section 319(b) of the INA. Qualifying employers can include: Certain American institutions of research; American firms or corporations engaged in the development of foreign trade and commerce; Certain public international organizations; and Certain religious denominations or interdenominational mission organizations. Does anyone have any experience with using the above bolded reason—"certain religious denominations or interdenominational mission organizations"—as a reason for expedited citizenship and what that might include?
  5. I know that this is an old thread, but I thought it might not be best to start another one on the exact same topic. The reentry permit interests me for a similar reason with a few additional questions yet to be answered. There is a high chance that either my husband will take an assignment abroad or I may decide to study back home which will take us out of the country for an extended period of time. Does the back-to-back reentry permit only apply to studies abroad or would it be. The reason I ask is that my husband's potential job assignment might be for 3-4 year. I know that to apply for citizenship I have to be resident in the US for at least 18 months of the last 3 years and have lived in the jurisdiction from which I'll be applying for at least 3 months. Does the reason for being abroad make a difference to that rule? Are there any exceptions i.e. for study? If not, after we returned to the US permanently, the clock would start from 0 again? No previous time is counted even with the reentry permit? If we decided to wait until I applied for citizenship (which would be April 2024), could I leave the country whilst that application was pending, with the intention of coming back to the US for any appointments, etc.? If so, would my husband need to be with me during any appointments for taking citizenship? For more information, my husband and I have been married since October 2018 and I've had my green card since April 2021 (took 2 years to be approved because of COVID). Many thanks in advance.
  6. Thank you, @JeanneAdil. That’s what I thought too, but I was confused by the local taxes. @Wuozopo, thank you. Ah, yes, of course—FEI is a very specific term, tax-wise. Good to know about it for the future though. Great stuff. Will continue as usual then
  7. Hello all, I wondered if someone could explain what constitutes foreign-earned income for a LPR for tax purposes. I’ve been filing joint taxes with my husband since 2018 and didn’t have any reason to question taxes on my income until now. I live in the US and operate a sole proprietorship. I have one permanent client who is based in London. However, based on a few calls recently with my city and state, I’ve been made aware that income earned outside of the city or state does not get taxed so I don’t owe anything there. I was surprised by that and mentioned as much. I reiterated that I lived in my city and only the client was in London. They said they understood and that what they’d explained was correct. Are federal taxes different then? I believe I have to report that income for federal taxes and I’m happy to report it, but I wanted to check. We’re not using a tax professional this year and sometimes it’s difficult to annotate nuances like this on TurboTax. J
  8. Updating this thread because you’ve all been so helpful. I just picked my mum and her husband up from the airport today! After being denied boarding, they filed a DHS TRIP case and were told it would be 10 days before they heard anything back. On day 14, they got a pretty generic email from DHS saying that they'd looked into the case and made the necessary amends, but not much else. From what I’ve read online, that’s pretty standard for security reasons. We probably won’t ever know what the reason was. But no matter—they made it in the end! Thank you all for your help.
  9. Hello all, Thank you for your comments. I’m as confused as you all. As a note, my mum has residency in the UAE and a history of travelling back and forth (as many wives whose husband’s work our there do), she has property in the UK, hasn’t had a history of abusing visas, etc. To me, her history and circumstances are quite normal, from a visa point of view, so I’m really hoping that this has just been a mix up. Last night I did have a conversation with her husband who suggested that it may have been something to do with the CBP official in the US not knowing how long she’d been in Dubai, and therefore unable to assess accurately that she was eligible for entry. That might explain it although I’ve heard of people flying to Mexico from the Schengen area and ensconcing themselves there for 2 weeks and successfully crossing the border so I’m not sure why this would be different. I don’t suppose anyone knows if countries share passenger travel history with each other? I’ve called my mum for an update and she told me that they’ve managed to speak to a very nice lady at CBP (using the telephone number on this page: https://www.dhs.gov/dhs-trip) who has escalated the situation and will be emailing them back in around a half hour. She asked them when their PCE test runs out which is tomorrow. Wouldn’t it be great if she’d be able to get them on a plane before that happens! @Boiler, yes, my mum’s ESTA had been renewed for this trip and is still showing as approved and valid as confirmed by the CBP lady. RE: flying out from Abu Dhabi, they could potentially do that. Definitely nice to have pre-clearance and to be able to talk to someone. I do know that Abu Dhabi is requiring a test to visit from Dubai, but if they have tests for travel anyway, I’m sure those would suffice.
  10. This is so concerning to hear. I didn't realise what a big deal being denied entry on VWP was. Even if it's a reason which isn't your fault? @villanelle, no, I haven't had a baby, recently become a citizen, have a pending I130 or have any circumstances which would suggest my mum would be coming here to stay—this was a genuine summer trip after her not being able to visit last year due to COVID. She doesn't work so no issues with that either. I did just get my green card approved in March but I don't think that that would cause an issue since there would be no way for me to sponsor my mum anyway. @Chancy, I'm not sure if they did attempt to check in online. I think maybe not because, when they went to the desk, they were told that she was not allowed to fly, even though her ESTA had been approved. I think they called someone in the US. They don't know who though. I agree. I can't see why her 2019 trip would have been a problem either. They just tried to go to the consulate but weren't allowed to go inside the building and were told they had to send an email. They will attempt to phone the US embassy in Abu Dhabi and I will try to call CBP tomorrow to see if any light can be shed. I can't tell if it's a COVID thing, a visa thing... It's all very confusing. She's been vaccinated, they had their PCR tests done, etc. Thank you all for your input so far.
  11. No, she didn’t. I believe she was allowed to come for up to 90 days on the ESTA and she stayed for only 2 weeks.
  12. Can anyone help me understand the situation below to me, please? My mum (UK citizen) and her husband (also UK citizen) just tried to fly from Dubai to the US to visit my husband and me for 5 weeks. My mum visited us in June 2019 for 2 weeks on an ESTA. She has been in and out of the UK in the interim, travelling back and forth from Dubai where her husband works. They finally decided to come visit us this year because travel between the US and Dubai is open and she’s been there for well over the 14 days requirement from travel from Schengen countries. She’s just been told that she will not be allowed to fly and will have to go to the consulate to ask for an exemption to do so—who knows when that will be approved. Apparently it’s something to do with her visiting the US directly from the UK back in June 2019 even though that was on an old ESTA (and quite irrelevant to this trip in my mind) and even though she is allowed to travel to the US from Dubai. Her husband was apparently allowed to fly (but he won’t without her). His recent travel history to the US was for our wedding in October 2018 but it was directly from Dubai to LAX. Can anyone make sense of this or might it be a case of bad luck and the embassy (whom the airline called) being pedantic? Would appreciate any thoughts you might have.
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