JH & EB

Thank you!!

Our I-485 was approved today! Wishing everyone a speed process and approvals! NOA1 (sent to Chicago lockbox): Nov. 30, 2023 Biometrics: Dec 13 (originally was scheduled for Dec 28 but we were going to be out of town so rescheduled it for an earlier date) EAD approved: Dec 14 (card delivered Dec 26) I-485 approved: Feb 2, 2024

Thanks so much. This is really, really helpful. 3520 is new to me so adding to the list to ask the international accountant about when we find one. Great flag. Yes, agree re: keeping it simple. Right now it's just figuring out how to manage what he already had, and how we need to plan in advance for when the time comes to sell those properties, and what we'll need to do should we stay here in retirement vs going to Europe (long ways a way but we should be planning now).

Thanks so much for clarifying. I literally had no idea that we would do this on foreign owned vacation rental properties. I have added this to the list of questions for when we find/talk to an international accountant.

Okay thank you and good tip. Saving this for when we get to the point of selling those. I appreciate it!

Thanks so much for your help. So, just to make sure I'm understanding correctly, I am correct that we will only use form 1116 since his only foreign income was the passive income from the vacation rentals. He was not employed - abroad or here - in 2023 so we wouldn't use 2555. Do I have that right? And thanks for the extra flag on FBAR. I didn't realize that applied to foreign pensions but reading more now, understand that it very much does (just diving deeper into all of this now that the AOS paperwork is out of the way). We will do this asap next week; I've having him gather all his pension fund info and balances, from funds in France, UK and Italy as we speak. And I have the question re: 8938 on my list for when we find a CPA qualified for these matters. (Not looking forward to dealing with all of the financial / reporting / tax matters when he sells the vacation rental properties, but that's a headache for another year.) Thanks again for taking the time to help!

I would appreciate that so much. Yes, please. Thank you!

Thank you! I had a similar question about FBAR for those pensions. The pension matters seemed pretty country / tax treaty specific too and how they’re taxed in the country where they’re held. Did you seek out any specialities re: international taxes expertise for (not overly complex / high wealth or business) individuals when finding your accountant? I’m having trouble finding someone who really seems to understand situations like ours. I am clearly not using the right key words or something, and I’m usually really good at finding things. (Was actually going to ask you after reading one of your comments in another thread but figured I should probably get someone in California for state implications.) Thanks again.

Hi community, My now husband and I are filing 2023 taxes jointly. He entered on k1 in Sept 2023, we married Nov 2023 + filed for AOS, and he’s currently in AOS waiting period (EAD but GC still pending). For tax purposes, we’ll have him considered a resident alien for all of 2023 tax year. He meets the requirements for this. For any experts out there or anyone with similar experiences who are willing to answer a couple questions, I would greatly appreciate any help with the following: 1. In 2023, he made roughly $15k in passive income from his two vacation rental properties he owns in Italy. He of course pays taxes in Italy and will have precise numbers from his accountant shortly, for reporting exact 2023 income and taxes already paid in Italy, for when we file 2023 taxes in the US. He doesn't may a mortgage on either property; they are each paid off in full. Am I correct in my understanding that we can report this income and also use form 1116 for FTC (I believe this makes more sense than FEIE given it’s passive, among other factors), to avoid paying “double” taxes on it in the US? US has a tax treaty with Italy and reading through it, I’m almost positive it covers this type of income. Has anyone filed this form using turbo tax / turbo tax deluxe? It says it’s available now and I found instructions how to find it when filing via the software, but curious if anyone has done it that way yet. 2. I’m pretty sure on this now (was very confused with conflicting information at my first stages of research) but in case anyone has handled a similar situation: My husband has a number of private foreign pensions from private employers in the UK, from the 22 years he worked in UK. He is not withdrawing from them. They’re just “sitting there” for now, and will for some time. We don’t need to report / do anything with tax agreements on these for our 2023 taxes right now, correct, since he’s not withdrawing on it? I don’t think any one pension fund is extremely high worth at this point. Additional details that I don’t think matter but sharing in case they in fact do: Husband is a French citizen but was an Italian resident, living in Italy, since 2017 and up until he moved to the US. He was previously in the UK as a resident. He did not work / have active employment in 2023 in any country (he transitioned his active job within the business in Italy in 2022 because they had found a good replacement and knew we’d be traveling back and forth a lot in 2023). He didn’t have any US income in 2023 (EAD arrived Dec 29 so just getting started on the job hunt). We don’t have children together and do not own property in the US. I am a fulltime salaried employee at my US company. I was initially searching for a California-based CPA to help with 2023 filing, given my taxes in all previous years have always been super simple. However, after doing more reading on IRS pubs (to understand tax implications for aliens and foreign income) and more recent Intuit forums (re: what forms are available via Turbo. Tax in the current edition), I think I may be able to avoid hiring a CPA. (I was also having trouble finding someone equipped for international tax matters like this, for those like us who are not high wealth individuals with much more substantial foreign income/assets. Most were for specialized for USC’s with much more substantial foreign income/assets/businesses compared to us.) Thanks so much for in advance,

Adding an update as promised, for California folks. Once my spouse received his EAD / I-766 card, we went back through the DMV to apply for his RealID DL. It was easy since he’d already passed the written and road tests for DL. He completed the RealID application online through CA DMV. I made an appt for a local dmv office. His EAD served as his form of required ID. We took in 4 forms of residency proof but, as expected, they only took the first two we offered, and without question (they give you a lot of options for residency proof when you use the realID tool on their website). For us, it was his ssn card with the address still attached and his I-765 approval letter. (We also took proof of his health insurance under our family policy, a copy of my energy bill under my name + our marriage certificate…but they didn’t need these after we gave the first two aforementioned docs). He should receive his “realID enforced” new DL within about 2 weeks.

We didn’t get a combo card but we received my spouse’s EAD four days after our case status changed to “card is being produced.” That included Christmas Day in between.

I realize this is pedantic bc others have answered, but just adding on encouragement to file the I-765 and I-131 with I-485. Even if she doesn’t plan to work, in some states it makes getting and RealID and/or DL much easier, and can help your spouse feel like / know they’re establishing life here even during the AOS process. It can feel like a milestone in establishing new life together + more official to have a US ID. And those additional forms are easy, as others said.

Thanks! Yes, same re: insurance. Annoying that we have to pay "new driver" rate for a year but it is what it is I suppose. Ironically, we got EAD "card is being produced" the day after passing the DL test / getting the temp DL. The EAD card arrived a day before the plastic DL. If we'd had the road test appointment literally one day later, we could have skipped the AB60 and waited a week for the EAD to arrive, to apply for REAL ID DL instead. But, we all know there was no way to know EAD would come that fast. This process works in the oddest ways sometimes. So, back the to the DMV we go to replace the AB60 with a ReadlD DL lol.

Yeah we had a different experience, after a long convo / go around with the worker at our first DMV appt who eventually said “I stand corrected” after I politely showed him proof x2 that we were in fact eligible for AB60 without secondary verification, which convinced him to go double check with a supervisor (he said it must have changed recently - who knows, he was super friendly though even when we were going back and forth). We were then able to apply for ab60 DL without the secondary verification (ie, didn’t have to do the extra verification via phone etc). Husband had road test today, passed (only has 35+ yrs driving experience lol) and they gave him the approved interim paper DL and they said 1-2 weeks until he’ll get the plastic DL in the mail.

It is a personal preference. I’m not worried about a joint bank account, me being a US citizen, given our other proof and commingling of finances beyond a new joint bank account. Personal preference. We’ll see what happens at the DMV. I talk with a lot of other people from California and it’s just inconsistent and I wanted that to be clear to other readers so they’re aware it can be a different experience by office.