ajay416

What did you submit?

Submitted id's and permanent resident card, letters showing health, dental, home owners, car insurance policies.Copies of insurance cards with both our names on it, 3 different companies since our insurance kept getting changed. Leases from two places we rented. Bank statements from 2008-2011 from 2 banks and one credit union. Joint tax returns (no w2's though), Util bills, 1 page picture collage (probably didn't even need this). We don't use credit cards, no loans or leases for anything so didn't send anything like that. It was a nice sized packet though.

Everything was a cakewalk till this. They even lost all our paperwork at our k-1 interview and they were able to reconstruct things on the spot by using the NOAs and that went without any hassle.

Send it to CSC with a letter explaining your situation, sending to VSC would have caused delay as your case is being dealt with CSC. hopefully it will be completed by CSC and card sent to new address.

That is what I was initially thinking. I just remembered that they send the notice after you change your address, so at least that will give me some assurance that the address is changed and hopefully all the notices go to the correct one.

I have a concern. We just got an RFE today for my removal of conditions filed. It was pretty vague and pretty much lists everything I already submitted. I am just going to submit the same things and add some letters from friends and family. Also have some letters from previous landlords which say we lived together and the dates we lived at the residences.

Now my one worry is that we are in the process of relocating from Washington State to NYC. I just had my last day at work and going to be driving there on Monday with my Dog and my wife has been there working at her new job for the last 3 weeks.

Where do I send the RFE? should I send it to the California Service center it told me to send it to? Will it cause any confusion after I get there and do my address change with the USCIS which I'm required to do within 10 days of moving? I'm thinking they will just move my stuff to the Vermont center but don't want them to lose my RFE materials. Arrg! Any suggestions or thoughts?

Hey all, I have a question that a friend asked me. She wants to sponsor someone through a K1 visa. Her income only consists of a pension she receives because she is disability retired. Is she able to petition with just this income? It is a decent size pension and falls above the poverty line. Any help is appreciated.

We had our interview this morning and got approved! It took about 10 mins maximum. The interviewer went through the I-485 to make sure the info was correct and then just asked for a few items like joint bank accounts and utility bills. He also mentioned that they were having a delay with the card production and told us we may have to wait up to 6 months. He did however stamp my passport.

We have our interview tomorrow at the Seattle consulate. Nervous as usual and I pray everything goes well. We have a ton of paperwork and evidence to take with us, but unfortunately we didn't file a joint tax return for the 2008 tax year. I filed in Canada, since that saved us a couple of thousand extra in taxes owed (self-employed, bleh) than if I were to file in the USA, since I still have unused tuition credits to use to minimize taxable income there. Money is tight and my business isn't doing as well as it was last year so we decided that was the best decision. My name is on the tax return, Sarah filed so maybe that will help. We have have 2 joint accounts so maybe that will go towards the co-mingled asset requirements. I will post a review of some sort when we get back. Congrats to those who have been approved already and for those still waiting, hang in there! Have a blessed day everyone.

I've gone through this thread but I'm still not confident on a few things, hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

I came to the US on a K1 in November 2008. Up till then, I worked for a company part-time in Canada and was also self-employed. Currently filed for AOS and have an interview date in May of this year. I would really like to utilize my student tax credits in Canada to minimize my taxable income. I have a few questions...

1) Can I qualify to file jointly and exclude my foreign income? From what I read in publication 519, it said I can't use any tax treaty benefits since I would be considered a non resident alien filing jointly (may have interpreted it wrong).

2) Could I use form 2555 to exclude my foreign income?

3) If I can exclude my income, Do I need to file in Canada first, before we file here?

4) Finally, will I need to fill out any other forms?

If anyone could help, It would be greatly appreciated.

congrats, we have our interview at the seattle office in may!

Hey guys, just got our interview appointment letter, it is scheduled for May 28th, 2009 in Seattle, woo hoo! Also got my social security card today, double woo hoo!

Just a question for those others who got their appointment letter recently. Does it ask ask you to bring a new Medical Exam and I-864 to the interview? The checklist on my letter asks us to bring these two things, but in brackets it says, (unless already submitted). I just want to check if this is a standard letter sent to everyone or tailored to each case. I sent in all those documents already, except I understand that I have to have an updated I-864 with recent supporting docs just in case, but I really don't want to go through the Medical Exam again. But I'm wondering if I should do the I-693 again just in case they lost that document some how.

Congrats, i bet that was a huge relief.

If i was in your situation, I would try to schedule another appointment with the civil surgeon and ask for a tb skin test and a chest x-ray if the tb skin test turns out positive. I am not sure if something from the health department would suffice, since they need the civil surgeon to sign off on stuff. But mind you, that is what I would do, because I'm incredibly paranoid. I saw one person who said they never had the tst and got approved, it was in their signature. I don't recall who it was however.

Thanks for the advice guys, yes I don't think the USCIS would care much about the economy. hah, just my luck we will be scheduled to have our interview right when my wife has to go on this cruise for a convention with her job. If the unfortunate thing happens and she loses her job, we have a co-sponser lined up, so I think we will play it safe and have them fill out the I-864. Thanks mint and haloe.

You see more and more people having the layoff problem daily. LOTS right here on VJ. Best to try and backup with a co sponsor.

I doubt if USCIS cares much about the shitty economy causing massive layoffs and will go by the book.

Actually I guess they should even be more strict as there will be more people going on welfare.

Well it's great you two got everything sorted out and the RFE doesn't sound too bad since it wasn't your fault. Congratulations...

I'm just curious about the error with the medical exam, did your Civil Surgeon fill in the vaccination supplement wrong? or was it something else?

The only thing was that our papers from the medical exam in the sealed envelope weren't filed out correct from the doctor. He forgot to make marks about

the vaccination I got. And some other things like the chest X ray So we got a RFE. Unfortuneately. But later that day we went these doctor and gave him the papers back in order to make the missing statements. They did it. Apologized a hundred times. And after that we send the papers with registered mail back to our friendly interview officer.

No one has anything to fear about the interview...as long as your marriage is in good faith. And as long as you believe in God's help. We'll see what comes next. Because my husband and I have done all we could to be able to be together. And if we get denied we still can live in Germany. I'd be kind of hard though...but it's in God's hands now.

We were in the same situation, but luckily my EAD just got here so I applied for an SSN. I was told by HR block that the only way you could do it is by getting an ITIN, that was what we were planning to do, if we didn't get the EAD in time.

Thanks for the reply.

Yep, I applied for my SSN the other day, so waiting for it to arrive, or might just go get the print out.

I didn't know about the under 87,000 rule. I am pretty sure I was under that for last year, thank you for the form numbers. The reason I want to file separately is because I got some conflicting information, that If I would file jointly then all my Canadian income will be taxed as US income... and I would like to avoid that since if that was the case I would end up owing money instead of getting a refund, since I wouldn't be able to utilize xx,xxx in tuition credits in Canada. I will do some more research, I think I am just panicking too soon.

@Anh Map yeah, we will try going to HR block again, but the last time we went, they had no clue about Canadian taxes, I think you have to go to a specialist for that.

It's not bad to file your tax return jointly, it is beneficial for somebody. Don't worry too much about including your income in your wife's income tax return if it is under $87,000. You can exclude your income using form 2555 or 2555E. Canada and US has a tax treaty agreement therefore you won't be taxed twice. It's really depends on your situation, you can either file it jointly or separately whichever that gives you more benefits. I just filed my tax return last month, and you can file yours as long as you have an valid SSN. As I can see in your time line, you just received your EAD card. You need to apply for SSN. Once you got your SSN, you can either comeback there in your local SSA office and ask for your SSN print out - this takes about 2 days from the date you applied. Once you got your SSN wait about 7 days from the date you applied and file your federal tax return electronically. I did our tax return, I didn't pay anything because I used the fillable forms in IRS website and entered all numbers manually.

What is your situation reasons for filing your tax return separately? I haven't filed my Canadian tax return yet as I'm waiting for my T4s.

Is it really bad not to file jointly? We are planning on filing as married but separate, because of a situation with my income earned in Canada.

I have a bunch of tax credits in Canada that I would like to use to minimize my income there. I have no income in the USA so I just assumed that I would pay my taxes to Canada this year and claim US taxes next year. Tax is so complicated makes my head hurt. If anyone has any advice it will be appreciated. My wife was on the phone with the IRS last month and each rep told us something different. We went to one of those local tax offices and the guy told me that my wife should just file as single, because he assumed I was an illegal immigrant (lol, ran straight out of there).

I took JillA's advice and reposted the question in the general AOS forum so we can share with other people,

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=184285

Sorry to hear about your job loss, and to clarify, I was was wondering if you could still get a co-sponsor after you have already filed for AOS. That was what the whole, "would the uscis require her to hold her job at this point" was about.

ajay... if I understand what you're saying I've got the same concern. I'm surprised more of us here aren't talking about the USC side of the visajourney relationship getting laid-off.

I don't understand what you are saying here "would the uscis require her to hold her job at this point". What do you mean "hold her job". If she gets let go from her current job and is unemployed then she has no job.

Hey all,

I thought I would just post this question here instead of the December thread, since it seems like a few people have the same concern.

Well, my wife (USC) thinks that her days at her job are numbered, since there are talks about a second round of layoffs. She survived the first round at Christmas time, but the company is hemorrhaging money, and talking about cuts again.

I am wondering about preparing for the worst case scenario. What would be my best options if she does lose her job and can't find a new one by the interview date.

Would getting a co-sponsor be an option if she were to lose her job suddenly? If so, would we just walk into the interview with a new I-864 or would we have to inform USCIS that things have changed before the interview?

Please chime in if you have any advice.

First off congrats Soancika+Brian for getting your GC and to all the others who just got their EADs and APs.

I have a few questions I would like to get feedback on if anyone has any knowledge so here goes...

My wife has survived the first round of layoffs at her work in December, but now there are talks of budget cuts again and she has a bad feeling that she would be quite possibly one of the people laid off in her department. We haven't received an interview letter yet, but suppose she does get laid off and hasn't found a new job by the time we have our interview, what exactly would our options be? Would going to the interview with a new I-864 with a co-sponsor be enough? Or would the USCIS require her to hold her job at this point and not allow us to use a co-sponsor in our case? Just wanted to get prepared for the worst.

Ajay

Just got my EAD today. The letter was dated 02/26/09.. No updates on the UCIS site about it at all, so I'm going to have to agree with a lot of people that it doesn't work well

Congrats to all that got their interview already, hopefully we get a letter about that soon.

I was browsing through the forums and got curious about something.

For those of you who haven't been transferred to CSC where are your applications sitting at? My online case status indicates that my applications for the I-485 and EAD are at the National Benefits Center (NBC). Are your applications at the NBC as well? I'm wondering if they are supposed to be at the local field offices by now.

AJ

I am in the situation, I haven't been touched since the biometrics, but I'm not worrying too much.. we are still pretty early in the process.

Hello everyone I filled my AOS on december 3th and already did my biometric app on jan 7 but so far they havent touched my case anymore =( evebody seems to have their papers sent to California right away =( I am thinking about calling them. Is there anyone on the same situation??

Ana

A quick congrats to all those who got the NOA2 for the interview, wow that was fast!

I had my biometrics yesterday in seattle. Tt was a very pleasant experience. Also checked my online status yesterday and my case was finally touched (last touch was jan 7) probably because of the biometrics.

Wishing everyone a good week.

Hey everyone,

Received my NOAs for I-485 and EAD yesterday, 01/10/09. Also received the letter for the biometrics appointment, which is scheduled on February, 2nd 2009 at 9:00am. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Hey everyone, last night we were driving to get some dinner and found out that our cheque was cashed. Hopefully we'll get the NOAs soon. It's been kind of stressful since it's been raining like crazy in WA and most of our mail was getting soaked. I had to wrap garbage bags around my mailbox and line it with flyers! Hope nothing important gets wet

You sent your packet to the Chicago office, right? Hopefully since you're on a K-1 you won't have an interview. Ours was transferred directly to CSC, so we probably won't have an interview.

Yep, we sent it to the Chicago Lock box. I hope we get transferred to CSC, *crossing fingers*