nemozed

Thank you.  I do have a tax bill I have been paying off and I am now down to where it might be possible to have it paid off by June.  I have none of the other problems listed above, failure to pay child support (no children) or anything like that.  Nor are we on public assistance of any kind.  

Due to an accumulation of debts, including medical debt, I have finally reached the point where I had to file bankruptcy.  The Discharge hearing is scheduled for May 23rd.  My wife is eligible to apply for citizenship in June and wants to apply on June 1st.  She has been informed by several friends who recently obtained their citizenship that there is a prolonged interview about your life, your relationship and your finances prior to taking the test.  We need to know whether or not admitting that I had to file for bankruptcy will negatively effect her application? 

Just trying to be absolutely clear.

Thanks.

The first provisional green card does not confer permanent legal resident status though, does it?  So the three years only starts when she receives the second Permanent Legal Resident green card, doesn't it?  Another chart I found on USCIS appeared to make a distinction.  If the three-years started from the time she received her first green card she would be eligible now.  But that contradicts everything I read about this as part of my original research.  If true, it's great. 

My wife has a permanent green card.  She has held a provisional green card for more than two years and a permanent green card for about five months.  My understanding was that she would have to hold the permanent green card for three years before she was eligible to apply for citizenship but a friend of hers who has been in the county longer and who has already obtained citizenship told her that it was simply three years of holding a green card.  When I went to USCIS I answered a series of questions and was informed at the end that she qualifies to apply for citizenship.  The questions referred to holding a green card but made no distinction between provisional and permanent.  So, I just want to ask the resident experts her on Visa Journey about to make absolutely sure before we go ahead and attempt to start the process of obtaining her citizenship.  Thank you. 

My wife's cousin's late father filed an I-130 form to bring her sister over from the Philippines. The petition was approved. After a prolonged delay the father died. Now my wife's cousin is trying to resume the procedure to bring her sister over. The USCIS sent a letter stating that the petition can be resumed provided that that the beneficiary write a letter explicating the humanitarian reasons for reviving her petition and listing the names, relations and locations of all of her relatives.

My wife's cousin will have to fill out and fully document I-864 form proving her ability to financially support her sister.

But she is unsure about what else she has to do. So I am here trying to gather information for her.

When I did the finance Visa for my wife we both had to fill out G-325 forms, multiple copies for each. Is this a requirement also for a legal American resident trying to bring a sibling over?

My fiance had to get a NBiI Clearance, an official NSO birth certificate and a Philippine passport. I assume that these things will also be necessary for a relative that someone here is attempting to sponsor.

My wife had to undergo a medical exam and an interview at the U.S. embassy in Manila. I assume that this will be the case for the sister as well. Am I wrong?

Please correct any inaccurate assumptions that I may have about this process. I would appreciate any information that anyone would care to provide.

I went through the B-1 process with my wife. This process may be similar in some ways but I suspect it may also be different in others.

Last time I ordered tax transcripts they took two weeks, not five days. Maybe they are supposed to take five days but that is not what actually happened.

I may try to get the affidavits notarized just to cross that extra t.

I have all the documentation that is possible for my wife and I to have. I have to hope that it will be sufficient.

I have tax transcripts except for this year (I just filed) and we have to send this thing with the week. I am ordering the transcript for this year but it usually takes a couple weeks. I will append a cover letter explaining the absence of this years tax transcript and making it known that I can send it along to them at any time once it arrives from the IRS.

Thanks for the responses. We're low income. We have lease agreements, wills, insurance, joint bank accounts, utility bills and other bills in both are names but we don't have any big ticket items bought on time, like houses or cars, and I know they put the most stock in financial evidence. I feel the affidavits will augment the evidence we do have.

Preparing our application for ROC. The instructions tell me that I must provide 2 Affidavits from people who know my wife and I and who can testify to the nature of our relationship.

What should these affidavits include? How should they be done? Should they bit witnessed, notarized?

I would appreciate some information on this. Thanks.

Thanks. I thought so. Appreciate the clarification.

My wife got her provisional green card in late June of 2014. My understanding was that we had to file for the ROC 90 days prior to the expiration date of that first green card. She recently heard some women talking at work who are also immigrants who were saying you can file earlier than 90 days prior.

I am looking for information as to whether or not there is any truth to this or not? Or if it is just more rumors? It took us longer than average to obtain the first green card and I think my wife is getting anxious.

Thank you. That's great news. (I confess to having lost track of all the little factoids involved in this process. Ours has been a long, grueling and complicated journey).

She just got the first, conditional green card. So, to be clear, she no longer needs to wait for her EAD to be renewed in order to go back to work? (I know the green card after the ROC enables you to work without the EAD I just wasn't sure if the first or provisional green card did so).

After a long wait my wife finally received notification that her status had successfully been adjusted and that she was receiving her green card. We had just recently filed a renewal for her EAD, which we were a little late in doing so she has to sit out from her job for awhile. Now that she has her green card her older cousins who live in the area are insisting that with the green card she no longer needs the EAD to work. I thought she still did but they have all been through this process before so in order to be absolutely sure I thought I would try to settle the question here on Visa Journey.

Thank you.

Thanks Kay.

I agree. To me what you say makes the most sense. I will file jointly next year for sure even if it is in fact not as advantageous financially just to be absolutely sure that they don't make an issue about this and to provide as much evidence/documentation of co-mingled finances as possible, even if they end up discounting it as they have a tendency to do in our case (God knows why?). I will worry about the most financially advantageous mode of tax filing after the immigration issue is all over. Yes, I know they really don't have much to do with each other and should be disassociated but I am trying to cover every base even ones that prove to be superfluous and redundant (Unnecessary, in point of fact) just to make sure that every appearance is created of our co-mingled status. We're in this kind of limbo right now. We know our marriage is real; that our income is sufficient to meet the requirement, not by much but its over the minimum requirement. I am coming from the position of wanting to be extra diligent about showing these people what they want to see given what we've already been through.

I thank everyone for their responses thus far and naturally welcome any additional information, insights, perspectives and so on.

"this whole process' has nothing to do with taxes and income tax returns - you two should disassociate Immigration and Taxes for the nonce,

focus on tax stuff now."

My position was essentially to disassociate the taxes from the immigration but my wife has an older cousin who has been residing in this country for over twenty years who is hounding her to file a tax return (even though she has earned far less then the amount required to even file); and even though I don't think jointly filing effects our Adjust of Status situation (The relative is adamant that it does; I have been dealing with this person for several years, always insistently pushing advice which more often than not proves to be inaccurate or wrong but since I am not 100% certain and want to do everything possible to ensure the successful completion of the immigration process rather than just dismiss this latest campaign of hers I want to get some other opinions about it).

Yes, not enough evidence of co-mingling, though it was difficult to produce more under the circumstances, paying rent to a relative who paid the actual utility bills etc (Subletting); we did have joint bank account, car and life insurance, shared rent payment, all of which was downplayed by the interrogator. A utility and a couple other bills supposedly would make the crucial difference. Of course we plan to get our own place in the next few months and will be jointly paying all the bills for that. If filing a joint tax return for this year adds to the evidence for the ROC then I will certainly do it. There is no doubt that we will file jointly next year. I am just trying to ascertain filing jointly can effect the current deliberations since they are dealing with the tax returns and other income verification I provided previously, before my wife even had a job.

Our process has not gone so smoothly thus far which is why I think it is a good idea for the future, for finances in general and for the ROC. However, they already have the past tax returns and financial information so I don't think it effects the process of getting the provisional green card and as I stated above she has only been working a relatively short time and hasn't earned anywhere near enough to even be required to file. My fear is that it would unnecessarily make a relatively complicated process more complicated and yield not financial benefit. Since it also doesn't seem to yield any benefit in terms of how it effects our case with USCIS I'm not entirely sure why it is so urgent to do so this time out. Next time when she should be working full time and has an entire year's worth of income to report and to combine with my income plus the need to produce documentation and evidence for the ROC it makes more sense to me.

Frankly, my concern is much more about how if effects our current situation with our Adjustment of Status then I am with any potential and I suspect minimal or non-existent financial benefits that it would bring about (Given the current levels of income etc.). I am all ears for someone providing a strong case for filing a joint return this year as it pertains to obtaining her green card.

We have been waiting nearly a year for the green card. We went through a Bates Interview several months ago which I think we got through pretty well (It was rough though). Now one of my wife's cousin is insisting we should file a joint tax return. I am wondering about this only because it would seem that USCIS would be making its decision based on the income/tax returns I already provided them which predate my wife getting a job and also because as someone who is self-employed my individual tax return is a little complicated and she working only part time hasn't earned the minimum amount to even be required to file a tax return. I suspect a joint return might be a good idea, especially in the future when she gets a full time job but I am not sure it is so vital right now. But I know in matters relating to this whole process I am almost certain to be wrong (Given past experience)/

I would be very interested in getting some feedback/advice on this issue. Thank you very much advance.

I consulted an Immigration Attorney online. This is the list of typical Stokes Interview Questions she told me we can expect:

One possible issue: My wife under the influence of her older cousin who already lives here got a separate bank account a couple months after our first interview and deposited her earning from her part time job in that account instead of in our joint account.

She pays for groceries, and contributes to our rent, electricity, and garbage pick up bills but this may be a problem since there is no paper trail of money going into our joint account from her and no way to verify that she contributes to our finances since she gives me her share of the money in cash. We absolutely are together in every way and managing just fine but they're liable to put much more stock in appearances rather than reality. I should have argued more about that one at the time, Hindsight is twenty-twenty.

I know I have something to worry about since I am economically borderline in terms of meeting their requirements. I did meet them but it was close thing. I tend to think they are going to subject us to much more intense scrutiny.

What would be some of the big questions?

We went to our first Adjustment of Status interview in May in Seattle WA. I had to provide some additional evidence that we had co-mingled our finances, life insurance policy, more documentary proof of payments from the client for my small business. I sent it in a couple of weeks after the appointment. I didn't hear from them again after that. In September, concerned about how long it was taking, I called in and asked about our case and was told that given the date I submitted the documents etc. my wife should be getting the green card in late November/Early December.

Today in early December I receive a notification informing us that they want us to come in for another interview in one week, to bring all of our financial documentation, proof that we intend to live together as man and wife, that we are living together etc. advising that we can bring an attorney if we want to and that the interview may take up to two hours.

Is this a cause for concern?