PGA

Yes, and it seems that the story is that every single visa holder that gets questioned is now "interrogated" and "treated like a criminal."

Man, they really had to crop that picture up nice and tight to avoid showing the other attendees that were, in fact, also wearing blue suits.

Oh you must be old school like me, pre Dept of Education, when a history/civics class was actually history/civics....

Maybe I'm wrong but I think there is a much bigger play going on. I'm starting to believe that Democrats feel that if they can make the case for this guy in court or even just in the court of public opinion, it will be very difficult to deport anyone in the future. Immigration with all its complexities that the general public has very little familiarity with has long been an issue that Democrats like to conflate; for example, rarely do I see a distinction in most media between "illegal" and "legal."

This right here👆. If the mere mention of moving to their country sends him or her into a panic and/or results in an argument, you'll know what's up. I tend to believe a lot of folks don't make this suggestion because they are afraid of what will be revealed.

Just to add: we filed with FreeTax USA because it was the only one of the three that was, in fact, free (if you didn't need to file a state return and being in Florida we didn't have that issue).

Ok. I'm going to keep this short. My wife, the beneficiary, moved to the US in December 2022. In January she received a job offer which she accepted - it offered very few benefits. We signed her up for ACA. After reading the information about the program, me, with an advanced degree, had difficulty figuring it out. First, there seemed to be little information provided on what the tax consequences would be if A happened or B happened. That made me suspicious right away. There was absolutely no way to figure the tax burden without knowing a ton of information that wasn't available. I immediately told my wife that we needed to put money aside each month to cover the full premiums because, as any American knows, or SHOULD know, government programs or government subsidized programs sound great on the sale but are never as good as what you were sold. In October of 2024, my wife changed jobs. It had great benefits, including health and I was ecstatic. I was dancing on the roof with glee because she was no longer on that awful ACA. Now, I predicted it would happen and it did. I was grateful we put that money aside for the premiums because at tax time came the screw job from the government. For only 10 months of ACA our taxes skyrocketed and only because of the ACA. I was hoping at first it was a mistake, sweating, and waiting for every tax document to arrive; I ran all through FreeTax, TaxSlayer, TurboTax: all came back with the same result. If you do meet with a CPA and he/she tells you that the calculation is wrong, please update as I would certainly be willing to file an amended return for my wife and I. However, and most importantly, I really want to make clear to everyone, when the government subsidizes something it is very rarely a good outcome for the taxpayer and you need to prepare for what will come down the road.

Turns out they are super smart about all of this grift as well; tie that grift into something that at least sounds good, for instance, "feeding the poor" and then you take that and rent an office space (most likely in a facility owned by a spouse, or child, or cousin, etc (I'm sure in the name of a mysterious LLC) of some mostly Democrat representative, but I'm sure more than a few Republicans have gotten their bite at the apple as well - at astronomical lease terms. Then, of course, the whatever organization it is administration officials (my guess is also fairly close relatives to said representative) must get paid something just shy of a million dollars (don't forget all the benefits -401K, health) a year to run this operation while leaving just a grand or two to feed those poor people. Then we have the media: "Donald Trump and Elon Musk are Cutting Funding to Feed the Poor!" while neglecting to mention any of the corruption. I remember growing up in the 70's and 80's and always hearing about the $7.00 hammer that the government pays $10,000 for. That hammer story pales in comparison to this kind of corruption.

My personal recommendation: Get married and file for CR-1.

My wife checked the box but just in case we went to the SSA office on our arrival. I mentioned to the very nice young man that we checked the box, he said it wasn't in the system and I said "I heard it was hit or miss with checking the box." His response: "oh, there are hits?" First time I ever laughed at a government office.

Just be patient. I believe our 221g took a few months to process: Bureaucracy moves slowly.

My apologies for having no information to offer, but please do report back with what/anything specific you discover as to Ft Myers as this will be our office when we file the N400 later this year.

Well, our local Chinese cuisine joints meet all of those except for #9 .... "Your order of six combo plates and four sides of pot stickers came to $2.99." I have no idea where that place is.

Honestly, if "its my fiance's dream to have some sort of celebratory event in Sayulita, Mexico since her father's side still has some family ties over there" then I would do that. I certainly wouldn't ruin my fiance's dream just to save what amounts to probably a little time for the immigration process.

Something to consider. Health can be a very fickle thing and often people don't just die suddenly in their sleep. My father (a US citizen since birth) for example got sick with a cold/flu and got bronchitis and as a result went to the hospital and there he acquired C-diff. To make a long story short, this was the beginning of an almost 3 year long and very unexpected battle which, sadly, he lost in the end. Now, I am pointing this out because in those 3 years it required multiple stays at long term care facilities/rehabs as well as hospital stays and constant battles between private health insurance and Medicare and Medicaid, hiring an attorney to sort it all out, and basically draining him of any penny he had left. The expense of the overall care was enormous and I can't imagine what would have happened if he was an aging, recently arrived immigrant with no or minimal healthcare coverage (and most won't cover LTC). Now, if someone is flush with cash maybe it's not something to be concerned with but the worst case scenarios should be considered carefully when making these kinds of decisions. In any case good luck.