BlueBonnet

Im in Texas too. The laws here are that you apply for the license, then you must wait 72 hours from its issue before youre allowed to marry. You can get around this by taking a pre marital course, upon passing the course, you may marry, and they will deduct 60$ from the charges. You can carry your license around and never use it. If you dont use it, youre NOT married

Why file anything at all really ?

You can get married, anyone can marry anyone anywhere, so thats a non issue.

You are very lucky that you get to see each other so often.

If you want to stay working in Canada, and im thinking living too, so its easier to get to work, it makes sense that youre not going for a US residency.

Im not seeing any reason why youre looking at any type of immigration right now if you want to keep your job in Canada. As a Canadian, you have 6 months a year that you can spend in the USA, no visa required, and vise versa for your SO. what i would do, is apply to ... i cant think of the name, i think its nexxus ... and get him one too.

You say, "interview in the Phillipines instead of Canada?" Wow!...now that sounds complicated due to travel and timing.

Whomever said this is incorrect. I am a UK Subject, in no way shape or form am I Canadian ( by legal standpoint. I was only a PR ). I was raised in Canada only. When I first looked into this, I spoke with a lawyer. They too told me I would have to interview in the UK. I was like, for real ?! But nope. When it came time to go to the US consulate in Vancouver they emailed me this ( Ive altered my personal info )

Subject: K1 visa VAC

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:20:07 -0700

From: Vancouverk@state.gov

To:

Dear Ms. ,

Are you landed immigrant in Canada, on employment authorization or are pursuing a full-time academic program? If you are in one of these categories, please provide evidence from a Canadian authority.

K Unit

Vancouver, BC

This email is UNCLASSIFIED.

So as you can see, you can very well interview in Canada, even if youre a citizen of another country, aslong as the person has approval from the Canadidan government to be in the country on the day of the interview. I really wish people on this board wouldnt answer the questions that they dont know the honest answer to.

For us, we met in an online game. So we continued to use that as our main way to stay in touch in the evenings. We used the phone ( I had a great flat rate fee ), even falling asleep on the phone every night. We would rent the same movie and watch it together over the computers while using a ventrilo server. Of course there was emails and random calls during the day. Ive heard of people going out and purchasing the same foods through the day, then using a camera to cook together and eat dinner together. Theres also a site I found along time ago where you can go on virtual holidays together. We also used to play on pogo.com, some backgammon, battleship or dominos, or sometimes we would gang up on others in spades while talking on vent so we each knew each other hands. We were lucky too that one year, I went to see him every 3 months. But its about sharing your life with each other as much as possible, its the constant contact.

Good luck, it really does get better.

And we, as people in LDRs, are kinda lucky. Because we will always understand what it is like to truly appreciate being able to be with the person you love, once you get to be with them.

Congratulations !

I would go with the option ... Married filed together.

I would look into the "J" visas. They are usualy good for 2 years. Also there is an entrepreneur type of speedy green card way. If he has a million dollars to invest he can do that. He could also look into opening a dentist office in the USA, and have it based out of Canada.

If he is a legal resident and free to marry, there is no reason why he cant petition her. Now you said his papers arnt finalized, he cannot petition for her until that is over with first.

The 7 month rule is towards the non citizen and how long they have been in the country, the 6 months is for married couples.

To my understanding, if I for example earned money in Canada within 2011, that money is reported to the Canadian Gov., if I inturn I didnt earn money in the USA in 2011 I have nothing to report to the US gov. except to say, I earned 0. The US gov. isnt intereseted in my Canadian earnings, and the Canadian Gov. ( in my case ) isnt interested in my US earnings. There is also a 7 month rule about being in the country, and for those who it pertains to there is a 6 month married rule.

Also to my understanding Turbo tax is made to be easy to file with, and doesnt give alot of the more difficult situations a fair area. If you are truly concerned you need to hire a tax preparer so that you can ask these questions, and I wouldnt recommend the big "box" stores for this.

I didnt use an attorney and I think most people here didnt either, what I found most helpful was the user guides, but also the sample forms. Just d/l the sample forms and change the information they have inputted there to your own. It really does make life so simple, and honestly its exactly what your lawyer will make you do anyways.

I consulted a lawyer before we started too, and they said that it would be around 4k but that they would buy all the forms for me. I thought, Oh wow, thats awesome, until I found out all the forms were free to begin with.

Between the air flights, hotel bills, phone bills, gifts, immunizations, visa fees, consulate fees, why would anyone want to add in lawyer fees ?

Ive also seen alot of ads where the company promises faster service or guaranteed results, this is a blatant lie. No one petitioner nor lawyer can speed up the process and no visa is ever guaranteed.

I immigrated to Canada when I was 5. My mother never became a citizen, and she still isnt, so she couldnt swear me in, and I never took the test. I lived in Canada for over 30 years, but only as a permanent resident. Thats why I couldnt vote.

Thank you for some kind words. I guess if 1 person can get something out of this thread all the ridicule I got was worth it.

I guess maybe understanding me a little bit would help with the header.

I have never liked politics, I have never been allowed to vote, so I never got involved. I stay away from any and all conversations about politics, because in my opinion, Im not entitled to an opinion.

It was my husband who told me I came from a socialist country, I never knew what it was called, he was also the one who told me that the USA was a capitalistic country ... 3 years ago I didnt even know what either of these words meant.

So basicaly I was more excited that, coming from Canada, earning about $25 an hour, moving here, where I couldnt find anything related to my skill set, that wouldnt pay over $14 I decided to start my own business. I would never of thought of doing this in Canada, but here I am here, giving it a try.

I dont claim to be a CPA, Ive worked along side one for 15+ years and when I got here I took a tax course and found alot of the laws the same. So I spend my days on the IRS website reading.

I only posted this because I felt so helpless finacialy within my marriage for such a long time, and Im sure that I am not the only one here who has or is feeling like that.

And you would be surprised how many people dont know their allowable deductions. I met with a man the other day, hes been running a land scaping business for years, and had no idea he could deduct his truck expenses, to me, thats crazy, but honestly some people truly dont know. I guess in all fairness though, I could kill a cactus and to him that would seem crazy.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf

Theres the education information straight off the irs.gov

Im from Canada, and now living in the USA.

Like most couples here, we had the discussion of whom should move to whom. Canada doesnt offer a K1 visa, you must be married, they do have one for same sex couples but I dont know much about that one as I didnt read up on it. So the USA offered a visa that worked for us, getting quicker to my partner apposed to waiting a year or more. He made it clear that he didnt like the snow so the weather was a factor. But our biggest decision maker was family. I wasnt born in Canada, only grew up there, I was raised as an only child, no grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, no one. My husband has grandparents, parents, siblings, cousins, nieces, newfews, aunts, uncles, you get the point. I had a great job, now I cant find one, I didnt need to worry about healthcare, thank goodness Im healthy, but still.

Any couple who is international has to have a fair discussion on whom moves to whom, and you as a couple must decide what works better for you both.

I dont miss Canada the country, I do miss my paycheque, friends, the mountains, things like that. But I moved to be with my husband, and I am, and I dont care where I live, I didnt move to live in the USA, I moved to be with him.

It is funny though, alot of people that Ive met, when they hear Im from Canada, they say they want to live there, socialised healthcare, more jobs, better economy, ect. But they usualy also mention how cold it is and that they arnt sure they could deal with that. lol.

So I guess to answer your question about why the USA and not Canada, it was family related. I was taken from my family as a child and hated always being alone that way, and I didnt want to take him away from his.

Probably not. He doesnt require the books for a course that he is taking, hence, he doesnt need them for his business. No deduction. If he gifts them to you, then that is what they are, a gift. Now if he gave you the money to buy the books, and you are taking the course, and you are required by your course to have these books, then you couldve dedcuted them.

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=169490,00.html

Go read.

Because Im not sitting here typing out 3 pages on this, thats why I didnt. I gave you a paragraph, I offered my knowledge. Boy did I get attacked for it. I guess this is why people dont help others out anymore, just better to keep quiet. I wouldnt of even posted that link if I didnt feel my integrity wasnt on the line here.

Live and learn I guess. Kathryn shut this thread down, and then re opened it. I think that says alot for the "up and up" of what Im doing. Its so sad that 2 days ago I couldnt contain my excitment and wanted to share with my VJ family, to today, where I will never do anything like this again.

Thank you Kathryn for re opening the thread and allowing the people here the opportunity to reap the benefits that I learned. I only came to help, I certainly didnt want to come across any other way. I definetly didnt need to be labeled as a scammer. This site has offered me so much help over these last few years, and when my 2 year conditional green card is up .. Im sure Ill have many more questions to come.

Moving here I gave up everything which included a 50K a year job. Now .. Ive had 4 interviews and nothing. I figured if you cant find a job, make a job. Like I said, I havent made a penny of my "venture" yet .. but I know how it feels to sit and do nothing while your spouse works so hard to support you. I really was and still am willing to help you learn how to aleviate that pressure off of your partner.

In my original post, all I stated was that I gave a friend this advise and she was blown away and asked me to do her taxes. Instead of a "yeah you go girl" I got a .. I cant believe she would let you do her taxes. I wasnt soliciting any business with that statement, I was simply saying ... I found some work.

So with that behind us, Ill say this again ... I have found a way for us immigrants who are sitting at our computer, with no income, to help aleviate the finacial pressure off of our spouce, if youre interested, please PM me and I will gladly answer any of your questions.

actualy i use irs.gov

i read alot, just tried to share .. like i said , my bad

Ive had a couple PM me, I have given them the information. I think I did right by them .. so if I helped a couple people, then Ive done my part. You dont want to believe me, IM not loosing anything here .. I was really only trying to help others in my position.

no its not amway, but that really is one of the better ones to sign up with to be able to save this money.

Im not pitching at all, i was only offering to help those who were interested in knowing.

I guess my bad, and this is why 90% of the people in the USA dont use this feature that is available to them. the other 10% are the wealthy business owners.

Excuse me ? Did I ask for money or a job ? All my advise is being given for free, so please dont wave your admin bat at me.

Please tell me that's some metaphor/ joke. You've been in the US since March, and someone is willing to let you do their taxes?! I was a tax inspector in the UK for thirteen years, yet I wouldn't dream of jumping into US tax codes without a great deal of training.

Ive known here since I was 15. She moved to the USA over 20 years ago. Shes just a resident too and she knows that this is a good thing and perfectly legal, so yes, she is letting me do her taxes.