devusr

We got married in Bahamas. She came the long route from Colombo to Grand Bahama transiting through Dubai, Brazil, Panama, and finally Nassau. There is a flight route from IST (Turkey) to PTY (Panama) to NAS (Bahamas). It is important to check flight routes and transit without visa requirements. For an example, PTY has transit without visa for my spouse but she must depart PTY within 12 hours and must show the onward ticket. When she arrived in PTY, while rushing to the next gate (1 hour layover), she asked a airport official for directions. They signaled to Panama Immigration Officials and they came and questioned her on the spot. She quickly showed that she is leaving and showed the onward ticket from PTY to Nassau. Check the passport and visa requirements from https://www.emirates.com/us/english/before-you-fly/visa-passport-information/ Make sure to enter all the countries she would be transiting through and carefully read through the exemptions. You can also use https://www.flightconnections.com to see other routes that might be available from IST to NAS.

Hi. My wife is from Sri Lanka and we met in Bahamas. She went from CMB (Colombo, Sri Lanka) to DXB (Dubai) to GRU (Brazil) to PTY (Panama) to NAS (Nassau) to FPO (Grand Bahama, Bahamas). On the return trip back, she went from FPO (Grand Bahama, Bahamas) to NAS (Nassau) to PTY (Panama) to IST (Turkey) to MLE (Maldives) to CMB (Colombo, Sri Lanka). The reason for the very long trip across many countries was that she probably wouldn't be able to get a VISA or Transit Visa and I wasn't able to fly to Sri Lanka. So we choose route that allowed Transit without Visa (had many limitations) to get married in a another country. I used https://www.flightconnections.com to find flight routes. I used https://www.emirates.com/us/english/before-you-fly/visa-passport-information/ to find the passport/visa information/transit without visa information. I used https://www.passportindex.org/ to check the visa free destinations for Kenya citizens. I did a quick check of the potential routes from flightconnections for Kenya to the Caribbean and I didn't see a possible route with "Transit without Visa". There are 2 potential ones to BGI and PAP but it requires more than the transit without visa time limit (PTY has a limit of 12 hours where you must leave the country if you're using transit without visa). PTY is a main flight hub for South America and Carribean.

Meaning when I filed my taxes in 2022, it was for Tax Year 2021. When I filed my taxes in 2023, it was for Tax Year 2022. When I filed my taxes in 2024 (last week), it was for Tax Year 2023. It doesn't let me file it electronically...I think IRS doesn't allowed that (or maybe because I mailed the original, the amendment needs to be mailed as well).

Sorry, I meant to say 2021 Tax Year as in 2022 Calendar Year. 2022 Tax Year as in 2023 Calendar Year.

We got married in April, 2021 and after the CR1 process, my wife immigrated in 2023. She got her SSN in 2023. For 2021 and 2022 Tax Years, I filed Married Filing Separately. I want to go back and amend those years filing status to Married Filing Jointly. Turbo Tax says that I'm eligible for the Recovery Rebate Credit (Economic Impact Payment??). I've read online that you had to have an SSN by 2021 to qualify. However, I also see in the IRS website that they went back and changed the rule so that only one of the spouses needed to have an SSN. Do I qualify for this Recovery Rebate Credit or not? I wonder why Turbo Tax keeps saying I do.

Ok great. On her return back to the US, will the US border agents make any issue?

We are planning to drive to Canada for 2 days to visit relatives of my wife. I'm a US Citizen and my wife is a permanent resident (Green Card and Sri Lankan Passport with US Visa stamp). She arrived t We've never gone to Canada before. 1) How is the border crossing? 2) How long is the wait? Do we just wait in the card and present our documents when we pull up to the gate? 3) Will my wife only need her passport and green card? 4) Will there be any immigration related problems on entry to Canada or the return back to the US?

We submitted all the required 221g documents mid March and they approved and issued the Visa on first week of June.

Our POE was on June 9th and we received the SSN 06/26. When I filed the DS-260, I selected the option to automatically receive the SSN after POE.

Yeah the status was changed from Refused to AP and then to Issued within the first week of June.

Once we get the IR1 spouse visa (which I presume they print on the passport), what else is required to fly to the US besides the tickets, marriage certificate, and COVID vaccine certificate? I checked Emirates passport requirements and did not see anything specific. Are there any other documents that my wife needs to bring?

My wife had her CR1 interview in beginning of March and received a 221G for a new police certificate report. We submitted it to the embassy the following week. There were no updates for almost a month and then suddenly threre was an update on 04/19. Again there were no updates and suddenly there was an update on 05/13.....a Saturday. Embassy is not open on Saturdays. Any idea what might be going on?

Asking for a friend here. They recently had their VISA interview and the CO gave a verbal approval. The CO also said no sealed envelope will be given anymore because everything is digitized and CPB will look up the application. I have not read about this anywhere. Is it accurate?

I'm very disappointed. The CO grilled my wife. We provided lots and lots of evidence for each question. The CO was hellbent on giving a refusal today and was extremely rude (when my wife responded to a question, she asks "wheres the evidence?? wheres the evidence?? wheres the evidence???"). 1) She ticked "Other" in the "Financial Sponsorship Responsibilities" and wrote "provide evidence of financial support after marrying". It's not enough that I brought her all the way to Bahamas and spent 3 months together. It's not enough I signed the AOS, put her as the beneficiary on all my accounts. 2) We also need to provide a new Police Clearance report. The Police Clearance application is so badly designed that it only lists until the 2020 which was determined by the address history and didn't include the present address. It looks like they want me to submit the new Police Report at CEAC and then also drop off the original in an envelope to the embassy. For the "Financial Sponsorship Responsibilities", do I provide my bank statement, her bank statement, and remittance records through Western Union? Also the receipts that I ordered dinner for her everyday, paid cell phone bills, internet bills, rent etc. I've probably remitted about 30,000-40,000 USD since we got married.

We received our marriage certificate from the Registrar General of Bahamas (Grand Bahamas). I made sure to get 4 copies - 2 for me, 2 for her. Since Bahamas and USA are both part of the Hague Convention, do the marriage certificates need to be apostilled?