S2N

Follow-up to @TBoneTX’s excellent post to say that it’s extremely unlikely that there will be follow-ups to the accurate response of “vacation” and that if she has ever been to the U.S. before on a valid ESTA (even if it’s different than the current one), mobile passport control will further decrease the odds of follow-ups since it flags any issues before reaching the officer. Only requirement for an Irish national to use it is a previous visit to the U.S. under the visa waiver program.

1) There is no obligation to volunteer red flags to the government. When asked the purpose of the trip they’re asking to determine if the admission is under ESTA’s business or tourism class. It is perfectly acceptable to say “vacation” since that is true. If they specifically ask if she’s visiting her spouse she has to be honest, but it’s not a requirement that she proactively disclose it. My husband landed in the U.S. with a pending I-130 on ESTA a week ago. Linked to my summary of his admission below. 2) There is no reason not to start the process as early as possible. You can delay at NVC as long as you want by paying the fee and then contacting them at least once a year to keep the petition open. We prepped the petition before hand and filed a week after getting the married, literally the day we landed in Chile after his visit here to get married. If you’re getting married in Ireland and she’s not already in the U.S., you could file the day you get the certificate. Reason to wait for her to leave if you do the marriage in the U.S. is to not confuse USCIS with the “is she in the U.S.?” question and also requesting consular processing. Know you’re doing it in Ireland, but explaining the logic. 3) Re: the family visiting, I’m a strong advocate of the view that the response to “reason for visit?” at passport control in any country is one word — “vacation” — for any type of leisure travel unless asked to explain more. It’s accurate and it’s what the passport control officer is going to note on the admission form anyway, so no need to give more details unless asked. My recent post about arrival on ESTA with pending I-130:

Just as a general rule of thumb from someone who is still in the I-130 stage but has dealt with the government a decent amount: you should assume most estimates from USCIS/DHS are wrong, and can assume most estimates from the State Department are correct.

Distinctions like this are why lawyers are useful. Forms are easy to fill out; the U.S. government writes in plain English and if you take everything literally the mechanical process of doing it isn’t hard. The trick is knowing which form to fill out when and what the burden of proof is as well as what the judgmental areas of the law that give discretion to officials are, and what is the most successful way to address those. Technically DIY is possible for everything with the government. It doesn’t make it advisable in every case, though.

Chiming in to say this would be a case not to DIY it and to hire a qualified lawyer with experience in waivers.

My read is they don’t have a grandchild, it’s an older daughter from a previous marriage. OP — if your wife has decent credit I would suggest to her she might want to open a travel credit card with a signup bonus to make traveling to see you sooner cheaper/free.

Just an update because I know a lot of people are worried about visits given the current climate. Husband landed in the U.S. with a valid ESTA last night. Used mobile passport control — first time as we didn’t realize returning VWP participants could use it previously. They waved him through with less questions than even the normal minimal questions for ESTA (reason for visit, where he was staying, was he staying with family. Responses of: “vacation”, city name, “yes”.) Would highly recommend mobile passport control for anyone who qualifies, I have GE so never used it, but I think the idea is the same and aligns with DHS’ overall objective to take discretion out of the hands of front-line individuals and automate admission decisions so that close-calls are really only made in secondary. Eased our anxiety quiet a bit and according to the husband was a marvel. I will add this though: I’ve been to late night pickups from Avianca and Copa a decent amount of times and this was the first time I’ve seen CBP come out to let families know that their loved ones have been detained, had their visas revoked, and/or referred to secondary. Extraordinarily kind about it, but I’d never seen it before in the two years we’ve been going back and forth between here and Chile. The two people detained/delayed/visas revoked were from non-VWP countries (so not Chile; clarifying that since the status of Chile within VWP is always a cause of heartburn down there.)

That’s not relevant to what OP is asking. Their parents have already filed an extension. @pushbrk and I have advised them that an extension does not mean they have to wait until 10/15 to file. Their question has nothing to do with the payment rules, which would have already been clearly explained to their parents when they filed their extension.

You keep trying to correct me on this as if the IRS quote contradicts what I’ve said. Extensions are extensions of time to file. Not time to pay. It says so on the form. Anyone who files one will see that. Many people need to file them and when you file the form you are required to estimate how much you owe and pay it. There’s really no room for confusion in the process. Regardless. OP’s parents have already filed an extension, and my advice to him was to get them to speed up providing their documents to their CPA so they can file earlier and it’s easier to act as a joint sponsor, which is good advice and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that an extension of time to file doesn’t relieve someone of their obligation to pay as of 4/15.

An extension is not a requirement to file 10/15. It just gives you until 10/15 to file. This is the slow season in the accounting world on both the audit and tax side, so their CPA might be out of office, but if they can give them all the documents and explain it’s urgent it shouldn’t take that long to turn around. We filed an extension in order to apply for an ITIN in-person tomorrow when he’s visiting me in the states. IRS will take your return anytime from late January until 4/15/28 (with penalties that late if you owe.)

My comment was more one of practicality having misread your initial post i.e. it doesn’t make much sense to amend twice if you don’t have to and it’s easier if you already have an SSN, so the easiest path forward would have been for you just to wait until your wife was here given the stage you were in. The short answer on virtually every tax question is “it depends” and when you throw in a non-resident alien spouse, that becomes even more the case since you have a decent amount of valid options. The way you did it certainly is valid and there’s nothing wrong with it, just might not be the most efficient way, but that’s water under the bridge at this point Sorry again for misreading your initial post.

I misread. Lack of sleep. Sorry about that, OP.

Is your plan to submit a second amended return after she moves to the U.S. in order to claim the tax benefits? It’s certainly possible, but seems like a waste of time to me vs. just amending once she’s here.

@pushbrk has a line on this — it doesn’t really matter for immigration purposes. Consular officers understand. For tax purposes it matters if you live in a handful of states or made more than $125k, but if you have to amend, I’d just wait until your spouse is here with an SSN and amend to MFJ so you get money back.

You are stating the opinion of some CBP officers, which is no less anecdotal than the experiences I’m citing. It is not the opinion of all CBP officers, and there are those that will admit as IR-1. They have a lot of discretion on admission decisions even if actions might not be the standard. You make it sound like they’re robots, which they’re not. There’s no harm in asking them to provide USCIS with one less point of failure. Worst that can happen is they tell someone what the CBP officer told you when they tried it. Best is that they admit you as IR-1 and it’s one less opportunity for USCIS to screw up. Most people prefer to avoid the I-90. I don’t really see the point in discouraging people from asking based on your experience given that it’s not the universal experience and nothing bad happens regardless of the answer.

We’re saying the same thing: CBP determine class of admission at POE, which is different from which LPR status you ultimately end up with. You got one of the ones whom I mentioned was of the mind that CR-1 visa = CR-1 class of admission. That’s usually where the screwups with USCIS occur, which is why it’s worth asking them to admit you as IR-1. If they say no, it’s not a big deal. If they say yes, one less potential point of failure. There are CBP officers who will admit as IR-1 even on a CR-1 visa (you can search Reddit for proof of stamps showing that and pretty sure others here have mentioned it.) End of the day, anyone who enters after 2 years will eventually get a 10 year GC one way or the other, though.

Technically CBP is responsible for determining class of admission, and there are reports about some feeling very strongly that CR-1=CR-1. USCIS then reviews the admissions data and determines what green card to issue based on marriage date and date of admission. A lot of the reports of USCIS screwing this up comes from CBP admitting someone as CR-1, which USCIS should ignore when issuing the green card, but sometimes doesn’t and then you have to file I-90. That’s why it’s useful to verbally mention to CBP in a respectful way that the beneficiary should be admitted as IR-1 since it’s been over two years.

Visa is based on date of interview. Class of admission at POE is a grey area: some CBP officers say it’s based on visa, but if you ask nicely they might note IR-1 over CR-1 to make it less confusing to USCIS if it’s been over 2 years at the POE and they enter IR-1. Others default to the date of marriage since that’s what USCIS uses. It really is an officer-by-officer thing what they enter into the computer. I would ask it be noted IR-1 if she enters after the 2-year anniversary, though to make it less confusing for USCIS. If CBP refuses, not the worst thing in the world, though. 10-year green card vs. 2-year green card is based on length of marriage at point of entry, regardless of what CBP notes as class of admission. USCIS is supposed to compare date of marriage to date of entry and make the determination based on that, but sometimes they don’t and default to what CBP enters. If CBP notes CR-1 since the visa is CR-1, USCIS might screw this up when issuing the green card. In that case you’d file form I-90 for free immediately asking them to fix it. If your wife enters with an immigrant visa in your passport CBP will process her an an immigrant and she’ll be an LPR, even if you’d rather wait a few months so she gets the 10-year green card.

Easier said than done, I know, but have you considered looking for an additional stream of income? If you’re only a few thousand off a part-time job might be an option.

Above answer works: you provide evidence and a letter. They might have more questions and ask for more evidence, but if she’s not a filer there’s no requirement to file. The other option is to use FreeTaxUSA to file a return even if not required and report $1 in interest income (won’t have any tax impact but you have to report something for e-File.) Can be done for the three most recent tax years free online using efile and if the only source of income is SS, it’s incredibly easy to do. Can also have VITA do it Has non-immigration benefits as well since a lot of government programs are easier to access with a filed return and it closes off that SSN from identity theft (i.e. someone fraudulently filing a return using your sisters SSN and claiming a refund and then your sister getting hit with a bill.) Personal choice, but anytime someone brings up that they’re not required to file I always point out that anyone who qualifies as a non-filer is going to have a really simple return and 9/10 when dealing with the government it’s easier to just do the free simple thing rather than rely on an exception and have to explain it.

I’m the petitioner. Talking about something like Juan Garcia Fernandez and some documents only list Juan Garcia or Juan Garcia F. The online form made it mandatory to upload proof of legal name change if you listed any of those, which won’t exist. I added an additional response to that question noting the name and said it was not a legal change and because of the technical limitation was disclosing it as an additional response rather than directly on the question.

Chile has two legal last names but by convention the paternal last name is used on its own in many cases. Because of that my husband has documents that only list one of his last names. I uploaded an additional response when filing noting that I didn’t use the “additional names used” box of the online form because it asked for proof of a legal name change when there was none. We’ll see if we get an RFE, but I have a feeling “documents in similar but different names without a legal change” is somewhat common.

It’s a government resource that they only call if they have translation issues and they need an answer to a question: it’s better for you if they don’t use it because it means they don’t have questions or were able to get what they need without it. My point was if they really need a document translated to make an admission decision, they have the resources. Agreed, but I also wouldn’t pay to have a lease of a foreign apartment translated into English (or do it myself since it’d be a pain) on the unlikely event CBP wants to see it. Its obviously better to have items in English when possible, but wanted to clarify that if needed, they have resources to translate things that can only reasonably be in Italian. Up to OP/his wife what their risk tolerance is on the odds of needing an Italian rental contract in English to enter the country.

Worth noting that if it’s actually necessary (probably won’t be) they deputize flight attendants to translate and if that doesn’t work have access to a 24/7 translation line. Obviously English is preferred, but it’s also not really feasible to get a lot of these documents in English in my experience (but each CBP post will have at least one Spanish speaker on duty, so also not really an issue in our case.)

The answer is the same either way. You need the birth certificate from where you were born.