bck86

After nearly 4 months, we've received our interview date for June. 😀

I know it's been a few weeks since you asked this, but thought I'd pop in to say that I've been DQ since Jan 2 and waiting on the Cambodia embassy for an interview going on 3 months this week. 😓

I’m not but my husband is so that might be helpful! What’s the name of the group?

Good luck to you @Hex123 and @Dataunavailable on your upcoming interviews. If you could please share how it went after they’re complete, or message me if that’s better, I would appreciate it. I’m still waiting on my interview date. 😭

Can you please elaborate on the “especially if you’re expecting a refund” part? Why is that riskier than if you owe taxes?

Thanks for this info! I think I’ll file for an extension so I can go with my Option 2 and hope that if they get to us before I get to Thailand in May-ish to file the taxes, they’ll accept that I have requested the extension. You’re right, it says there’s no penalty for not filing by April 15 if you don’t owe taxes. I was posting here to check my understanding. I appreciate your knowledge across these forums, and I think based on everyone’s answers here and my own understanding, I’m going to go with filing an extension and then Option 2 of filing MFJ at a CAA when I go to Cambodia and Thailand in a few months.

I do think (hope) he’ll be here before October 15. Been DQ since January 2. Already submitted DS-260 and definitely checked the box that we’d like to get his SSN. Amending is definitely something I’m not interested in, too much paperwork. But we are for sure owed a refund, we won’t owe taxes. Just waiting for the interview date now. A couple of people who were waiting for interviews in Cambodia got their interviews 5-6 months after DQ so I’m hoping mine is coming soon, been DQ for almost 3 months now. Do they require a filed tax return, even if you aren’t legally required to file it just yet? I can obviously provide W-2s for the past calendar year, make well over the financial threshold, and we have proof of joint finances (property ownership).

Ah I totally missed that. THANK YOU! That being said, the issue remains that all of his certified documents are in Cambodia and I have no way of getting them. I'm assuming certified copy means not a photocopy/PDF of said certified document. Do you happen to know, then, if I can do my Option 2 beyond the April 15 date once I go to Cambodia and get a certified copy of his birth certificate from him?

I appreciate your responses, and I am aware of these guidelines. I guess I could expand on why I'm not doing the ITIN approach to begin with. To file the Form W-7 for ITIN with my MFJ return, I'll need to include my spouse's physical passport, correct? But he is in Cambodia and currently waiting for his interview date, so I have no way of getting his passport, and we wouldn't want to send it anyway since he will need it for his interview and we don't want to risk him not having it. We're hoping our interview is coming soon. So I believe that means I cannot file the W-7 with my return by April 15. Therefore, I feel like I have two options: Option 1: Delay filing my tax return until he arrives in the U.S. At that point, he'll get his SSN soon after and we can file like regular. My understanding (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that this would be an okay solution because, since we are owed a refund, we actually have up until April 15, 2027 to file said return with no penalties (see here). Option 2: Delay filing my tax return until I go see him in Cambodia. We would actually then need to fly to Bangkok (no problem) to visit an IRS-approved CAA where he can present his passport in person, and we can file the tax return with W-7 without having to surrender his physical passport. Either option would require me to file after the April 15, 2024 filing deadline. I suppose my question is, is my understanding of the above correct? And if so, does it sound like a good idea?

Yes, I'm aware. My spouse has no income so this works out incredibly favorably if I file MFJ, which is why I'm pretty adamant about filing it that way.

I have read dozens of posts and see that the common advice is to file Married Filing Separately if your spouse is still abroad. In my case, there is a significant tax liability difference in filing MFS and MFJ. Here's my conundrum: If I file MFS, I will owe a couple thousand If I file MFJ, we will get a refund of several thousands My spouse is abroad, has never been to the US, and we are currently DQ and just waiting for our interview letter I read that if you are owed a refund, you can file your taxes up to three years after the filing deadline for the tax year. In this case, I would theoretically have until April 15, 2027 to file and get the refund. However, of course, if you owe, you must file by the regular deadline. There is obviously a risk in waiting until he comes to the US to file the taxes, but is it a legally viable option for me? Do I have a correct understanding of the rules? I'm really hoping for our interview letter any day now, and at least if we had that I'd feel more comfortable with the decision to wait. Am I being silly, and should I just file separately and pay the thousands, even knowing I should actually be owed several thousand more? The other thing is I'll be visiting him this summer, so an alternative option would be to file MFJ at a CAA when I see him, but it would be after April 15. Thanks in advance!

Jan 2, so quite a bit after yours. I’m in the U.S. too and will anxiously await my turn. 😄 As soon as I get the interview date, I plan to book a flight to be there.

Wow, congrats!! No email for me, but happy for you both! And really happy to see any kind of CR1/IR1 action from the Embassy at all. That means I’m moving up in the queue too. Yay!

Breaking my heart. 💔 Every day I keep hoping today is the day. I didn’t realize this would be potentially as long as the initial I-130 approval.

Sorry, I meant what was the response from NVC but it sounds like no response yet. There’s a silver lining for you! My husband and I won’t hit 2 years until Jan 2025. If this ends up taking until we qualify for IR1 then it will have taken way too long, so we’re kinda lose-lose either way in that regard, haha.

Did you do that, and if so, what was the response? The interview schedule updated again this morning and they have officially passed my number so my hope that they’re going somewhat in order is once again dashed.

Ah, that’s a bummer. Thanks for the info. If I were in your position, I would submit a question to the Embassy to inquire about current wait times specifically for your visa type. https://kh.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/immigrant-visas-family-based-immigration/questions/ I’ll be sure to update here when I hear something. Hoping for good news for both of us soon. 🤞🏼

Sorry for the double post, but I'll also add that when I started looking at the interview list... which I now realize was since 1/15, not a few weeks ago... they were on case numbers 2023818.

I'm also waiting on the Cambodian embassy. Have you, by chance, seen the document with currently scheduled interviews here? https://kh.usembassy.gov/interview-schedule/ I've been tracking it for a few weeks and it looks like they're going somewhat sequentially by case number, just based on my observations week over week. Would you be willing to share if your case number falls within the range of already scheduled interviews (and was maybe skipped over) or if it hasn't come up yet? The reason I ask is because my case number starts with 2023854... and just today they updated this list (even though it says 1/29, which hasn't even arrived yet) and are up to 2023853... so I'm hoping my time is coming up soon.

No, you don’t need to send anything by email. Once you submit all the forms and required docs, you just wait and you’ll get an email. I got two — one saying we were DQ and one saying we had a new message and to log in to CEAC to see it. The message in CEAC simply repeated that we were DQ. If you’re still waiting to be DQ, make sure that the status of your docs says SUBMITTED and not just UPLOADED.

Super helpful, thank you so much!

Hi all. Just want to get a quick sanity check. After we are DQ at NVC, we just sit tight and wait for an interview letter (IL) email from the Embassy, right? We don’t have to do anything on our part to send it that way? Just checking, as we’ve now entered the second dreaded wait between DQ and IL and when I check the case status on CEAC, the status shows “At NVC.”

We were DQ this morning, too! Things seem to move quite quickly in the NVC stage. Timeline: January 17, 2023 - Priority Date December 14, 2023 - USCIS approved December 20, 2023 - NVC Welcome Letter received & paid fees December 25, 2023 - Fees show as “PAID” December 26, 2023 - Submitted AOS, DS-260, and all docs January 2, 2024 - Documentarily Qualified Now just waiting on the interview letter from the Phnom Penh (Cambodia) Embassy. I’m here in Cambodia for the next 12 days. Could we be so lucky to have it scheduled in the next week and a half? 🤪

Just submitted AOS, DS-260, and all supporting docs to NVC. Hoping for a quick and painless DQ. 🤞🏼

I got a notice of case creation from NVC a few hours ago (Dec 20). My USCIS approval was Dec 14. I was able to log in right away and pay the fees, now I’m just waiting for the fees to show PAID before I submit my docs.