ishack1956

I read that and only can think about blacks saying that Obama was ONLY half black, and didn't really understand black issues since he was raised by his white grandmother Hawaii. TOTAL BS

We just filed for a Tax Payer ID, and used that for bank accounts and such until my wife got her EAD

It took ours almost 2 weeks after it was approved. But you can make in Infopass appointment and get it the same day in this case.

Our case went very fast however, we got the AP last week and had our interview today and was approved. They stamped my wife's passport with I-551 and took back the AP. Told her see could travel with that stamp in passport, it's the same a GC until it arrives in a couple of weeks.

Congrates - We had our interview today and APPROVED I-551 stamped in my wife's passport. EAD, and AP taken back because NOT NEEDED. Green Card in 3-4 weeks.

Hi,

My husband and I would like to bring his son Tom, who is 15, over but we still don't have a time frame of when that can happen. We'd like to bring him over this summer for good but we're not sure if that's going to be the best time yet. I'm about to send in my husband's I-485; I-130; I-765 etc. to request for AOS and I'm not sure if just adding Tom to his I-130 qualifies him for entrance into the country whenever he's ready. I read on the guides that a steparent can apply for their stepchild without having to wait for a "visa number" but I'm not sure what that means exactly. Do I have to wait and send in an I-130 for him when he's already here in the US or when he's ready to leave England? Or if I add him to his father's I-130 now will that mean he can come whenever he wants? It seems like the INS is real lax on bringing over children (under 21). No medical exam or backround checks required which is great but I want to make sure that's the case.

Some advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks guys.

~Lani

It would be a lot easier to file the I-130 with your husband's. But you can wait till he's hear,but then you have to do the I-485 again. I did my ex-wife's son about 3 years after she came here, so I did a separate I-130. It does depend on his son's timeline.

I am wondering what my husband should do for his 2008 taxes. I don't have an SS# but was living in the US with him for all of 2008. I have no income. I am using the HR Block software, and it is asking me if we are filing seperately or jointly. I don't know how to file?

He can claim up, but you;ll have download and fill out the application for Taxpayer ID. I just took my tax forms along with the application for ITIN.

If she leaves without AP after filing AOS, then that is considered abandoning the process and you start all over again. DO LEAVE

ishack- Thank you so much! I will check my options when I get my GC. I would like to apply for academic scholarships. Wonder how that works at Purdue?

If you're going to a public university such as Purdue, then you have to hunt for them yourself for the most part. At least at our campus, the financial aid office is too eager (because it's easy) to recommend student loans. STAY AWAY IF YOU CAN!!! Without realizing it you'll run up 50/60/70K or more and you'll be paying on them for years. Of course the exception might be nursing, because 'some' hospitals will pay them for you when you graduate. But even then be careful. My ex thought that way in the end she left the hospital that was paying them for her, and ended up with about 15K. But she believed in borrowing everything she could.

I would search online, and apply for anything. Make it a part time job searching for them. I'll try to find some good places, but it's worth it to spend time applying for them. Good luck, what are majoring in? or do you know yet.

I just got back and we were able to do the biometrics about two weeks early. I just told them that I had classes all day on the 15th, which I would have to cancel - and it wasn't fair to cancel classes two weeks before finals. They said no problem, fill out the form, and was in/out in less than 30 minutes.

How did the Malaysian govt even know they became US Citizens? It isn't like the US reports them to their country. I know many Thai's that have both a US & Thai passport, they just never show them together.

I am also surprised your clearance was pulled. You actually have grounds for a law suit. They cannot do that without granting a hearing. There may have been other circumstances surrounding why your access was revoked, and that could be the fact that your wife used to work for the Malaysian government. I can tell you for a fact that is not normal just because you marry a non-usc that your access is revoked. I know many people who have married non-usc's and still have their clearances.

I don't know how the Malaysian govt found out in their cases, but I know they did. In the case of my clearance being pulled = I was living overseas teaching for two years, and when I came back it needed to be 'updated' After that it was never reinstated, but remember that I was only doing consulting work and not working for the company. It may have been a case of cost to update a clearance for someone that had been living overseas for a number of years and married a non-USC. I didn't pursue it. That was about 12 years ago, and some of the rules have changed since then. I remember when I was in the AF we had a 1st Sgt that married a Filipino, and his was pulled. Thus he wasn't even allowed in the ops building afterwards. Again that was 30 years ago. Another part of it maybe the type of clearances we had.

ishack - I have the same question too... But weird that your ex has MS without undergrad? hmmm...

I graduated with a degree in Tourism as well and I am still trying to decide whether to move forward with masters or another undegrad degree. I will be entering the US as K1 and I am also wondering when I would qualify to go to school there. Do I have to wait for my GC?

We don't check immigration status for admission, but will help with immigration paperwork for student visa. You're not asking the school to get you a visa to attend. It's not like employment where a work permit is needed. But you may find problems trying to pay instate tuition without the GC. Depends on how picky the bursar's office is at your school. But if you're married to a USC that is a resident of the state then that 'should' be enough to qualify for instate rates.

What should we file, jointly or separated?

Jointly unless there is some reason such as one of you has large medical bills that you want to separate your income. But in 95% of cases it's better to file jointly (even if only one of you has income)

Personal check - I printed the cashed check and kept it in the file afterwards. With a money order, it's not really possible to prove that USCIS actually cashed. Just my opinion

This maybe late, but I went to the local IRS office with my marriage cert and her passport. I plan to file a 1040X once I get her SSN, I have to anyway because I forgot a 1099 from some consulting work. It was very easy this way, because then I had the tax forms to send with rest of the paperwork.

I've run into this problem as well. I used to have a 'special access' clearance for years and was able to do a lot of consulting work for defense contractors . Once I married a non-citizen the clearance was pull immed. and there went that type of work. My ex-wife and my current wife are both from Malaysia and Malaysia doesn't allow dual citizenship and neither of them would even in their wildest dreams would consider giving up their citizenship. We plan to to retire overseas for a number of reasons, so it makes sense for my wife not give up her citizenship. Besides she's a retired govt employee, and if she gives up her citizenship it would cost her any cost of living increases on her pension.

I've known of at least two cases of Malaysians that did become USC's for security clearance reasons, and the Malaysian govt voided their passports as soon as they were informed. Thus I can understand why my wife wouldn't consider it.

I don't think you'll have any problems. In my case I talked my wife in getting married just before the end of the year so I could file jointly (had to get a tax id from the IRS - just went to the local IRS office with our marriage certificate and her passport). We got married at the local courthouse and no cameras were allowed, so no wedding or receptions photos, but have photos from the last 3 years of various trips we took together both overseas and in the US. Most importantly we have photos with my dad (my mother passed away before we started dating), her family, my children and with friends. Lots of other evidence. My plan is to be honest in saying the we were planning on getting married when I went back to Malaysia for 3 months, but after looking at my taxes decided to move the date for tax advantage. Filing jointly had nothing to do with us getting married, just when.

I will let you know. My wife's appointment is April 15th, and we're going to try to do a walk in tomorrow. The 15th is a Wed and I have classes from 9AM-9:30PM, be have Fridays off. So I'm going to try my luck. We're about 2 hours away, so it's a bit of gamble. But I've seen people posted that have done it BEFORE the scheduled time with good luck. But if you do after I've read that it may be considered abandoning the process. If possible I would try BEFORE the scheduled time.

I am a professor at a major university (Purdue) and what we do it look at the individual courses. Some transfer and others don't. The degree itself doesn't really matter unless you're going into a MS/PhD program, then it's often a matter of the accreditation of the college you graduated. A lot of it is up to the individual adviser as to what you'll get credit for. I've done a lot such credit evaluations for students from overseas, and to be honest some of it decided upon an interview with the student.

Another factor is what program you're going into, and what your previous coursework was. In my ex-wife's case, not much transfered because she had a MS in Human Resources, but no undergraduate degree (a little suspisious in my opinon - how can someone get into a Master's program without any previous coursework) and she went into a nursing degree.

But in almost any case the College level coursework in English/Public Speaking almost never transfer.

We all know the government doesn't lay off...they move people around.

Not to be a smartass, but USPS recently announced layoffs for about 5000 FTEs if I remember correctly..

The post office has been turned over to the private sector. Most ppl don't realize that the now have to make a profit. They're still govt controlled, but run as a private company

Not a surprise. If it wasn't for the internet this type of information would never been known.

Not to discourage you, but if you can't find a way to raise your income up to 125% of the poverty level should you reconsider this process. Is there a reason you can't increase your income?

Hello All,

I'm somewhat new to this forum, but not the immigration process. I processed my ex-wife's GC, and her son (separately) about 10 and 7 years ago. I've recently remarried and in the middle of doing the process again. This forum is GREAT for most people going through the process. Even though this is my third time through the process it's great to have this resource.

However with that said, as in all forums of this type people stumble into topics or through their signatures are likely to overstep what I consider reasonable boundaries.

I've seen the cartoon in question because it was emailed to me directly by a former friend that is not happy with my conversion to Islam (which was 12 years ago and I still get such emails to remind me how unhappy he is with my decision). I found the cartoon to be very insulting to anyone from either the Middle East or is Muslim. The moderator was completely within his/her rights to remove it. In fact I feel that it was his/her obligation to remove such garbage from this forum. Of all forums on the internet, this is one of the last places I would expect to see such trash. After all most people on this site have decided for one reason or another to marry outside their comfort zone.

From my experience being married to someone from another country and culture requires a lot of patience and a willingness to go beyond the stereotypes to understand and love that person. If a person is the type that is willing to be hateful and unwilling to understand a culture or religion that they are not familiar with then they will have a maintaining a good marriage with someone from outside their comfort zone.

Thank you very much for you actions Captain Ewok and keep up the good work.

I've always known that engineers are smarter than lawyers. From my experience I've been able able to do my own legal work much better than any lawyer I've ever hired. But I've never seen a lawyer that can do engineer's work, other than engineers that latter got a law degree. And I've seen a number of engineers that were able to go back to school and pass the bar, but I've yet to see an attorney go back and pick up and engineering degree.

I've been through the process twice already (once for my ex-wife and my ex's step-son (he came two years after her so a separate case)) and am currently doing it again for my current wife. I have not hired a lawyer for any of the three. But I also processed my last divorce without an attorney as well. My experience using lawyers has been horrible from my first divorce. I had two different attorneys during that case. Both were worthless. One even asked me if I had children on our way to a custody hearing. At that point I made a decision to fire him and to avoid ever hiring an attorney again if at all possible.

I've known several people that have hired attorneys for this process, and EVERYONE had mistakes on their forms. In one case the lawyer put the WRONG ADDRESS on the form to mail their childrens GC's and they were lost in the mail. That delayed their whole process by at least six months, and added about $500 to the total cost.

Thus my opinion is very simple I would not hire an attorney unless I felt uncomfortable doing the paperwork or the case was complex. You'll find that you'll save a LOT of money, have control of getting the paperwork done RIGHT the first time (remember any mistake will generate a RFE - which puts your paperwork back on the pile not to be looked at for 60-90 days), and nobody will know your case better than YOU.

If you have questions and want an attorney's advice you can always consult one with a list of specific questions for advice without hiring them to do your case. In that case you can hire one on an hourly basis just for consulting purposes.

Just my opinion.

Iskandar

You can probably get one like it off Ebay from Hong Kong for a couple hundred.

I've found bags like that in Kuala Lumpur for only about 20. As I wear my $15 Rolex, which sells on EBay for about $250. Of course the real one is about $20,000.

But I would never pay more than $100 for ANY piece of jewelry, handbag or such. The only exception would be a engagement/wedding ring. But I was married to a woman for about

10 years that would pay that. She sold a house once, and spent the entire profit on a $12,000 Rolex. Six months later she had to sell her car because she could afford the payments.