blchaddy

Just now, ROK2USA said:

Which program did you use?

For every single program I've ever tried they force me to add an SSN if filing MFS. And you can't file electronically if you do not provide the SSN. 

OLT. Theyll fill in NRA as a filler for it. 

12 hours ago, RedAndChile said:

I did some research in the finance forum here, and many filed by mail MFS, and wrote "NRA" on the SSN spot for spouse. The downpart of doing it by mail is having to wait from 6 to 8 weeks so the IRS has the transcript ready.

 

By software you're not usually able to do an E-File. I think there is 1 exception with one software I dont know and it's a very recent version, but its not our case it seems (her mom is an accountant as I mentioned, and couldn't do it by software). Even the people on the forum tested and concluded negatively on the software.

 

How long did the IRS take to have the transcript ready for you?.

 

Thank you!!!

Lol I can’t believe how much everyone is still posting about this. They have problems, received a ton of advice about it, I think they’re good. 

On 5/16/2022 at 4:15 PM, RedAndChile said:

May I ask how you did it? You just left the identification space in blank? We're really confused, because applying for an ITIN number could be a long wait.

Yes, you just need to leave the SSN spot for spouse blank if you’re filing married separately. If you look at the tax forms, it actually says to only put spouse’s SSN/ITIN if you’re filing married jointly (If you file married separately, it says to leave blank)

On 5/15/2022 at 12:07 PM, emilyneff said:

Thank you. The post i had been responding to really scared me so I appreciate you clarifying. 

You’re welcome! Yeah you definitely have the right for your spouse to adjust status once in the US, as long as you didn’t plan on it ahead of time. So as long as your intent was for him to go back home, you can certainly change your mind after he arrives .. It happens all the time. Just be truthful the the border and yourselves, as having the intention to do this ahead of time is what would be considered fraud. 

Definitely also be prepared mentally for the possibility that CBP can turn him away at PoE, even if he’s only coming for a short trip. As others have said, be sure he brings proof of ties to his home country. Hopefully he has lots of visits under his belt and no immigration issues and gets a nice officer so everything works out ok 😊

17 minutes ago, RedAndChile said:

 

I'm sorry for my late response, had to travel for work the  weekend and also got really sick  . . .

 

About her 2021 tax return filing, we hit a big wall. She would have to file "Married" and "Separately". Her mom is an accountant and she tried to file it but had no idea how to place her foreign income in the form. And for my filing (I believe the system asks both documents to proceed), I don't even have a SSN or ITIN. Same story for filing jointly.

 

Today I called the NVC support phone number and the person that answered me suggested me to explain the 2021 tax filing issue and attach the other two (2019 and 2020) with the Chilean tax return attached solely to show she foreing income only. I find this scary and risky, considering your warnings about doing that.

 

What do you do in this case?

 

 

I don’t know if this helps..but, we filed married/separately, that way my husband didn’t have to get an ITIN/SSN. Also, for US taxes, you don’t have to report the foreign spouses income if you’re filing separately. You can also go back and amend your tax returns up to 3 years afterwards I believe, so you should be able to go back and make any corrections. 

I have heard stories before of issues when someone applied for spousal visa with missing tax returns —this is just some thing I’ve seen when watching Jim Hacking videos. So I don’t have first hand knowledge if that would actually be an issue, and if so if it’s minor or major. 

On 5/9/2022 at 2:03 PM, rollitup said:

Thanks for your advice, I'm just worried that if I don't agree to go she will reign hellfire on me 😔. I'm an introvert so I keep all these problems to myself until now here on this website.

Get away from this toxic behavior. You will likely never be happy with this person. I would suggest you get ahead of this all and start recording her when she threatens you. Call the police on her and file a protective order against her next time she physical hurts you or threatens you, that way you have some control over the situation. And some evidence that you’re not the instigator. She also sounds like the type who will probably start hitting herself and saying it was you who did it, so if you’re planning on staying, maybe some security cams around the house might be a good investment. 

12 hours ago, emilyneff said:

Is the process of him coming here on a tourist visa, us marrying in person, and then him going back to his home country what you're referring to as fraud? I agree with you. I dont see how marrying in Utah online and then him using a tourist visa to regularly visit is fraud. 

Neither is fraud. It would only be fraud if you intended on having him adjust status while here to permanently stay in the US. 

On 5/11/2022 at 10:49 PM, RedAndChile said:

Hello mr. @pushbrk , we come in search of wisdom about the same stage, Affidavit of Support. We're applying for spousal CR-1 visa, the sponsor lives in Chile since 2019 with the beneficiary.

 

So, basically our question is, in I-864 form, Page 5, Part 6, item 23b. The sponsor (she) is living with the beneficiary and working in Chile, thus making no income in the USA. She had 2019 tax return filed (with around 1000 USD annual income) and 2020 tax return filed with 0 USD income. 2021 was not filed (again, 0 income).

 

So, if she's missing only 2021 tax return:

- Should we just not check item 23b., check "No" on 23a, and check item box 25?

- Should we still attach these tax returns?

- If we check Item box 25, would her Chilean income and Chilean temporary visa be proof of not needing to file the last three years taxes? (that's exactly the time she has been living in Chile).

 

We already have household members that whose income will be used to meet the poverty guideline criteria. We're just not sure about the mentioned section of the I-864.

 

Thank you so much for your time!!  

Your issue here is she didn’t file a 2021 tax return. Your wife needs to file a tax return and report her worldwide when living abroad and married to a non U.S citizen, even if she only made $10 for the year. I believe she has an automatic 2 month extension built in here since she’s abroad (so deadline would be mid June).  So definitely do that so you don’t run into trouble during the petition and interview processes. 

17 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

No expedited removal from pre-clearance facility as the traveler would not be in the US.  Can't be deported if you're not in the US in the first place.  His ESTA can be revoked though.  As mentioned above, best to have evidence of strong ties to home country.

 

Thanks for the input. I wasn’t sure if they would consider preclearance as “the US” just for the sake of removals/deportations. It sounds like it will probably be in our best interest to make future plans to travel through preclearance  while the petition is pending, just to be on the safe side. 

5 hours ago, emmillinnee said:

I’m glad it was helpful! I scoured the internet for info about travel while waiting on the visa and wanted to provide the same help others provided to me. I will add that we crossed one more time in February via car from Windsor to Detroit. And it was a very different story. We were there for 6.5 hours and at first they told us we weren’t going to be allowed to enter. Some back story below:

 

my husband was in the US for 87 days from September 2021 to Christmas Day 2021. We left and went to Spain to see his family for the holidays and then flew straight to Toronto to stay there for three months while we continued to wait on his visa to be processed. We told the officers in Toronto about our entire plan, and they were cool with it. But in February my grandmother passed away and the funeral was going to be in Texas. I desperately wanted to go and it just didn’t feel right that my husband not be able to join. We knew he was really close to the 90 day limit so I crossed the border in my car to Detroit the day before we were planning on entering the US and asked the officer (explaining that he had a pending immigration visa). The office said it would be fine, but just in case to call the immigration office in Detroit and ask. I called, the office said it should be fine, but to bring proof of absolutely everything so that there would be no issues. Armed with a million documents printed out, we headed to Detroit from Canada. They were rude from the get go, calling us liars, frauds, that we shouldn’t have been granted the ESTÁ if we answered the questions truthfully, etc. they brought my husband to a cell in a back room and made him remove his shoes, socks and shirt and did a very invasive pat down. Then they made us sit on opposite sides of the room and came back an hour or so and brought my husband to another back room and peppered him with questions about his entire life for an hour and a half. after that they were nicer and started treating us like humans again. And eventually let him pass, stamped his passport for another three month entry, and we were able to attend the funeral. It was terrible, and we swore to never enter again until he had his green card, but he was allowed entry. Just a warning for entering the border via car. The officer did tell us that the worst that could happen is that he was sent back to Canada. And that it shouldn’t affect his immigration case even if he was denied entry. But it was still scary. 

Wow that is so intense! Thank you once again for sharing. It’s so helpful to hear about the potential issues and also that there is hope it could smoothly!

My husband is UK citizen still living overseas. We are just about to submit our I-130 petition and have one major concern about his travels to the US during this time. I know that it is up to CBP if they allow him entry. But, I’ve read that if they do deny you at PoE, they can process it as immediate removal/deportation with a 5 year ban. I know there’s a waiver for these cases, but we would like to avoid that issue altogether. So I am wondering if anyone knows the answer to this …

If he travels through Dublin (with US preclearance),  if they deny him entry here, will that sort of circumvent the whole removal/deportation with ban since he would not be in the US? Or would this still count as such?

Any advise or experience with this would be appreciated. 

On 1/19/2022 at 6:47 AM, emmillinnee said:

Sorry I got confused, but we have travelled one time to the US before we had applied for the visa (pre-Covid too) and twice since applying for the visa/post-Covid. And all three times he was allowed to enter. The two times he entered with the visa pending, we had to go to a back room and they asked him a couple questions. 

Thanks for all this info! My husband and I were just trying to find answers to all these questions about esta and traveling with pending 130…and found all our answers here!

3 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

We wrote a short description for every photo, with info on who, what, when, where -- eg. Thanksgiving dinner with MrChancy's brother's family at Xyz City, Louisiana (Date taken: Nov xx, 20xx).

 

We did the same thing for our photos-date, location, brief, description of what we were doing, and the names of family/friends in the photo with us.
We also tried to use photos that showed us in different settings  i.e. standing in front of stonehenge in one, axe throwing in another, etc. 

On 2/25/2022 at 6:32 PM, pushbrk said:

The online form is missing the instruction to provide entry information only if the beneficiary is currently in the USA.  USCIS is aware of his issue, so expect them to simply ignore the issue.

I’ve been wondering this same thing actually and have been delaying submission of the petition while doing research on the topic. This is what I was thinking, since printed instructions say it should only be answered if they’re in the US. Thanks for this input and confirmation on the issue. 

23 hours ago, pushbrk said:

My suggestion is 3 pages of photos, 9 photos per page.  Then concentrate on primary evidence of time spent together in person, like passport stamps and boarding passes.  Even photos together are secondary evidence.  The time spent together in person is the strongest evidence.  A few examples showing how and how frequently you communicate are good.  All the social media stuff is easily faked anyway.  A couple examples are fine.

I didn’t realize photos were secondary, I always assumed primary…but now that I think about it, it does make sense that it’s secondary. 
Besides legal documents/boarding passes/having children together, any other ideas for primary evidence?

On 3/9/2022 at 10:01 AM, JeanneAdil said:

 

3 hours ago, Ctavarez90 said:

Hello. I have already filed my I-130 and I did not submit any pictures, or proof of marriage other than the required documents. My lawyer said I would not need to show my pictures, and other proof of marriage until my husband has his actual interview. Is this correct?

This sounds like really bad advice coming from an immigration lawyer. Front loading with as much evidence as possible (during the submittal of initial petition) is the norm and best practice. 

On 2/13/2022 at 6:58 PM, TYosemite said:

Hey guys, I got my notice for my I-485 interview for March 1st & after reading through the recommended evidence for ongoing relationship I started to panic a bit. 
 

Due to SSA messing me around, I never got my SSN so most things I could never get.

So far aside from photos from our wedding ceremony in California (we had our actual wedding a few months before this at the courthouse to stay within the 90 days)… I’ve been able to be added as an authorized user to my husbands credit card & we have a Sam’s club membership together. 

He’s going to be talking to his work on Monday about a possible loop hole they may have managed to find to get me on his health insurance (it’s not open enrolment) so that’s a possibility! 
Our lease isn’t due for renewal until after the appointment date so I cant be added to that in time to use it as evidence either.
 

Is there any other ideas you guys have that I could use? Or do you think these things will be enough? 
 

I did check off for USCIS to apply for SSN for me due to not being able to get one in time, so I’m hoping they’d be understanding that most things require an SSN to be added to (eg bank accounts, car insurance, bills etc) 

 

Not having a SSN shouldnt stop you from having legit things as evidence. My husband hasn’t even gotten his visa yet and during his visits here we have gotten plenty of evidence gathered (again, with no SSN for him)—auto insurance, joint owner on bank accounts, beneficiaries of accounts, life insurance, several other legal documents that carry even more weight, plenty of social evidence and sharing of all kinds of accounts, etc.. All without him even living here yet.  

It always kind of irks me when people say they can’t gather enough evidence…all it really takes is some genuine thinking and running around 🙈😂

On 2/16/2022 at 6:04 PM, Boiler said:

 

 

38 minutes in

Haha that’s funny you came across OP asking same question on this video. 

On 2/7/2022 at 4:09 PM, Oleg92 said:

I will make the consular aware of it before they get to it so its no misrepresentation at all. Mistakes happen all the time.

Exactly. And I’m sure also, when it comes to cautions in the UK, it could cause confusion on whether that’s an arrest since we don’t have cautions in the US. I am sure if you’re honest, you’ll be fine! Please let us know how it goes once you have your interview. 

20 hours ago, Vikas1986 said:

Sorry all sorted now.! Don’t know how to delete this.! But all sorted.!

 

thanks

What was your solution, if you don’t mind me asking? I am uploading all my stuff for submittal now, so I will run into this problem at some point lol. Thanks!

On 2/4/2022 at 3:20 PM, Milda said:

Hi 👋🏽 

 

So i have a question.. 

we have our ir1/2 visasbin hand and our flight is in one week. But my husband who went back to the US ahead of us to fix some things, have now informed me he wants to divorce. I no longer have a job, or a place to stay here in my country as we had already got everything ready for the move. 
 

the question is, can i still use the visas and maybe go to a shelter in the US? Just for a week or so so i can just find a place for me and the kids since my husband has abandoned us..

Are you sure you want to live in a shelter? They are not nice places. Also, think of the fact that your husband can get you for custody of his kids if you move to the US. Is it really worth it? 
 

You should be able to still travel on your visa if it’s been issued and they allow you over the border -not sure how you would explain this if they question your entry, as you need to tell them the truth at the border and saying you’re getting divorced could in turn make the officer deny you at Poe. That is if he doesn’t somehow cancel his support affidavit and/or visa -I have no actual knowledge of this, but I’m guessing it is possible. 
 

It might be in your best interest to speak with a professional so you can get accurate info. 

4 hours ago, Oleg92 said:

So I found out that I got a reprimand for common assault. Is that something I should be worried about my visa acceptance? 

If you have no conviction and only that one arrest as a juvenile, I am sure that will be fine. My only thought for real concern is that you did not reveal this initially on your ds-260. That could be interpreted is misrepresentation, even if you genuinely didn’t mean it as such. Hopefully, it will work in your favor, though!

On 1/16/2022 at 5:24 AM, nanobot said:

Hey folks

 

Plenty of these on the forum but here's mine from last week.

 

Family of 4, booked 28th Dec for 14th Jan.  Concerned about proximity to interview, VM said to contact the embassy and rebook as they needed 10 business days pls 5 days to send it.  My lawyer said to keep both dates and go with it.

 

Appointment 8.50. Arrived 8.45 went to the window, they said to take a seat until 8.50 then come back. Ok fine. So 5 minutes later, same person, went to the window. Several forms to sign per person. I had docs split per person in the family which worked. They took digital photos there - despite me calling up and asking if they still needed the 4 identical photos brining.  Sit down and wait about an hour.  Then see the Dr, this was all of 10 minutes per person.  The Dr was super nice, put everything at ease.  Review of the questionnaire, chat about what we did, quick check of vision, height, weight tendon reflexes, and abdomen (or, as he told the kids, trying to guess what they had for breakfast!).  Dr was super with the kids and they had a great time.  Dr also said he thought they'd get the medicals over to the embassy in time for us, suggesting it takes them a couple of days if there are no issues.

 

No urine samples (I think they said it was 12-24 or similar now).

 

Called for chest xray for adults, takes about 2 minutes.

 

There is a nurse who checks vaccinations, they had changed the rules end of Dec to add HepA for older kids, which they did there and then for £45.

 

Then about another hours wait.

 

3 hours start to finish... pay and walk away with a certified vaccine file for each of us to keep (not for embassy) for using in the USA for schools, medicals etc.

 

Take aways

• If you are a family then have all your documents split per person - we did, but others did not, which really annoyed the reception staff
• They didnt need passport photos, they did them on site
• Take ipads and snacks for kids, there is also water in the waiting room
• Many of the staff are super nice, there's a few coarse characters

 

Lots of worry for no reason, doesn't appear they aren't looking to fail anyone unless you have big unmanaged health issues, drug or other addictions etc.

 

This was great info, thank you for taking the time to write this out for everyone!