road417king

hey Mike - it's a math thing. each plus sign seperates a step.

Thanks!

specifically on yer question - NO - NVC will not 'mail' that to the beneficiary AFTER the AOS fee bill is paid.

Good Luck !

That's interesting because the letter I received from the NVC says "when there is an immediate visa available or likely to be available within the next nine months, NVC will send a letter enclosing the Choice of Agent and Address Form (DS-3032) to all of the applications with a few exceptions." and then goes on to say if we have an atty, the atty will get it, or if the beneficiary is an adopted child.

Further on down it says that I can send her the form (or she can download it) if she doesn't eventually recieve one. Does this mean I can shortcut the process and have her download the form, fill it out, print it and send it in immediately?

Thanks!

Mike

Leaving to see the wife on Friday. As you know, no way I can really call the NVC while in China, would be nice though.

Actually there may be a way assuming your wife has internet access.

I did a quick check online and the Magic Jack appears to work in China according to what I found, so go down to your local big box electronics shop (best buy, or whatever's near you), activate it and bring your laptop computer and a cheap telephone to plug into it.

Once you've done that you can connect your notebook computer to the internet, plug in the Majic Jack and make "local to the US" calls.

If your wife has a computer in China with broadband (something above 128kbps) internet access, you can leave it with her (bring the installation CD if there is one), and then call each other to your heart's content.

My wife is in Japan and we have Vonage (same concept, it's an VOIP phone). A call to Hiroshima is simply dialing a Bothell, WA phone number. When she comes here, the Vonage phone will go to her parents and both of her daughters will get Majic Jacks (they're in college now).

If your wife's family has internet access and a computer, you could simply give the Magic Jack to them so they can be in touch without the high telephone bill costs.

Hope this helps!

Mike

Beneficiary: Get NVC# + receive DS3032 + send DS3032 + DS3032 accepted + IV fee bill available to be paid + pay & wait to show paid + print IV cover sheet + mail DS230 package with all original/certified documents

= wait for case complete + wait for interview to be scheduled.

Okay, I have to ask...

The part bolded and underlined above, that's a package that NVC sends to the foreign born spouse after I pay the AOS fee (which I've already done online), yes?

Also, from the look of how you typed it, it *almost* looks like it can be done all at once, but that doesn't seem right.

Can I assume that each item between the "+" symbols are all separate steps that actually happen spread out over time?

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

Mike

Sorry, New York State.

Start here:

http://www.tax.state.ny.us/pit/

http://www.tax.state.ny.us/pit/income_tax/it203_information.htm

The following is a copy and paste from this publication:

http://www.tax.state.ny.us/pdf/publications/income/pub88.pdf

Special accruals

If you are a New York State resident who becomes a nonresident or a nonresident who becomes a New York State resident, either due to a change in domicile or a change of resident status, you may have to use special accruals to compute your New York State personal income tax for 2009.

You must accrue on your New York State part-year or full-year resident return any items of income, gain, loss, or deduction that under an accrual method of accounting would be reportable at the time of the change of residence. You must also accrue to New York State the items of tax preference subject to minimum income tax (Form IT-220, Minimum Income Tax) and the total taxable amount of lump-sum distributions subject to the separate tax on lump-sum distributions (Form IT-230, Separate Tax on Lump-Sum Distributions).

Hope this helps!

Mike

We got our ITIN! Also IRS claims they have my federal return. My question now is how do I file state taxes? Do I need to include stuff like the 2555 to exclude her wages? OR Do I just use the numbers from my federal return on the state form? (IT-201)

Given that your profile doesn't seem to indicate where in the US you live, pointing you to the right website is not possible. More information is required to even provide that little bit of help.

Sorry!

Thanks!

Mike

Haha what a question !

I use two services, one on my cell phone and one at home. The one on my cell phone charges by the minute, and in the past has cost as much as $50 in one month.

At home I primarily use Vonage to call India and spend only about $32 per month on that. I heard of a new promo offer from Vonage, so I will try to call and get a lower price. :-)

We usually talk twice a day - once when she wakes up and I am going to bed, and again when I wake up and she is going to bed.

We very rarely talk on email or use text chatting, it is usually on the phone.

Hey Bobby, That's pretty much what I do with my wife as well, except that I have the Vonage box at her apartment in Hiroshima, which makes all phone calls local..

Call to say goodnight and chat, call to wake her up and chat, etc. When she finally gets here, we're going to put the Vonage box at her parents home so that they won't have to deal with long distance calls (just a 16 hour timezone difference) to talk with their oldest daughter...

Oh, and I keep a calling card in my wallet so I can call her cellphone without paying an arm and a leg for those.

When I printed out the Vonage phone records for my I-130 app, I made sure to show that they go all the way back to 2005 so NSCIS was happy... <grin>

Mike

My lovely Peruvian wife and I were wed last Friday.

Congrats!!!

We've already purchased airfare to leave (together) for Perú on May 20 to wait out the process and use the embassy in Lima to do the final interview after NVC processing.

Hmm... This is a tough question you are asking in light of your plans. I'm at the "Affidavit of Support" stage and the form clearly indicates that I must have a US domicile.

That said, there are rules on where to send it based upon where you live, you might want to look into that for any clues.

Hope this helps!

Mike

When there is insufficient space in a given question on a form, they ask you to use an additional sheet.

How do you tackle that? For e.g Qs. 33 - List below all educational institutions attended, offers 4 lines. I have to fill up 6 different institutions.

Do I fill up 4 on the main form and 2 on the additional sheet?

Or do I just say "See additional sheet" in Qs. 33, not put any entries in it, and put all 6 in the additional sheet?

Is there a standard way of dealing with additional sheets?

When I had to attach additional sheets for my wife's I-130, I wrote "SEE I-130 CONTINUATION FORM". And on a separate sheet of paper, at the top and bold, I put "I-130 CONTINUATION FORM", then below that put "item ##:" and followed that with the necessary information.

There were no problems with it because it was provided to give a complete answer. Just be sure to mark the continuation sheet clearly, what it is that you're continuing.

Hope this helps!

Mike

--> I noticed that the signature is somewhat clear as to the last name, but is squiggly and doesn't spell out her entire 1st name. Do I need to have her redo this and write it out like a 2nd grader?

Is it her legal signature? If so, then no.

Hope this helps!

Mike

I'm new here but i been reading and taking notes i just send off my husband i130 on the 18 of march and anyone please help whats next. how long does it take to get a letter back. I miss husband and cant wait for him to come live with me

I feel for you, my wife is in Japan and it feels like it's been forever now that we're married.

However on a good note if it helps, read the timelines below our posts to give you an idea of what to expect and when. I filed my I-130 package in the middle of January, just over two months later it was approved and sent to NVC. Today I got the I-864 bill (and paid it online), so things seem to be moving along quite nicely.

Hang in there, you'll be fine, we all miss our spouses when we're separated like this but there is a rainbow at the end of the line.

Mike

I have been looking on the irs website for the rule that states your not required to file if you had no income or low income but i cannot find it maybe im not looking in the right place if anyone knows please let me know. I am going to send it with my i864 please help.

Thanks.

You want to see Publication 501. You can download the PDF from here:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

The section you're interested in is Table 1, which can be found on page 3 of that publication.

Hope this helps!

Mike

I hate the online TurboTax. With the installed version (about $24) you can go look at all your forms. With online, you are stuck with the "interview" thing.

I agree, however I've already paid the fee for the online version in order to see the forms to try and figure out what was going on.

Next time I'll do the boxed version, however it boils down to having roughly $800 in capital gains. If I remove the stock sales from the calculations then I get a large refund, but because of the capital gains from the ESPP stock sales, I'm basically screwed because when doing capital gains they definitely consider my wife's (excludable) foreign income as part of the basis for figuring the tax percentage.

In the end, it's actually more cost effect at this time to file Married Separately.

Thanks Nich-Nick (I'm assuming the Nich part?)

Mike

IRS assistance center was pointless! They told me they cannot advise me on my concerns. wow.

The IRS cannot give tax advise, they're legally restricted. Just like people who work at the court house are not able to provide legal advise.

I've been fighting with the taxes thing for the past few days and I am getting ready to say "screw it" and file Married Separately.

I'm using Turbo Tax online and it's actually starting to frustrate me because my "married separately" filing gets a refund, changing it to "married jointly" almost triples the amount but then when I go through all the fun and games of adding in her income as "other income" and completing the Foreign Income Exclusion wizard, the final refund drops to less than 1/3rd of the "married separately" refund.

Now these aren't real numbers, however imagine starting with a refund of $500 (married separately), then changing it to married jointly and watching the refund go up to $1400, then adding her income as "other income, foreign income" and completing the Foreign Income Exclusion" and watching that $1400 *reduce* to $187.

Depressing and confusing are mild terms for what I'm feeling right now. I just don't get it.

Mike

thanks for the info, but sorry, i don't look at visa journey forums all the time #######.

And here all he said was "that's asked all the time" to indicate that it's a common question, and then answered your question.

Good luck with that attitude and good luck getting any more answers.

'THEY' should be flogged or caned ! (your choice ! )

I absolutely agree.

I just did my taxes and the difference between filing Married Separately and filing Married Jointly more than doubles (about 2 1/2 times actually) my refund. It will definitely be worth doing the extra paperwork so that we can get that extra money and I recommend that everyone do both calculations.

Mike

Check was cashed yesterday! There's a WAC reciept# on the back of the check. When I try to look up the case status using that it says case not found. Should I be worried?

No, just be patient and wait until you recieve your NOA1, by that time it should work.

Keep in mind that spouses' petitions aren't subject to waiting for the visa numbers - those are exempt.

I wasn't aware of that exemption, but you should remember that this is a branch of the government and they excel at finding exceptions to the rules that they create.

Mike

try what other people have said and if it dont work....find yourself a male friend and see how he likes it.

Absolutely the WORST idea, I advise that you do NOT do this. Do nothing illegal or immoral, that's the quickest way as it will jeopardize your ability to remain here since you have already stated that an AOS has not been done.

<editing this from my original post>

I saw later that you had a talk with him and things are better. Be strong, be smart, be loving and keep reminding him of why he married you. Not through words, but through actions.

Good luck!

Mike

What is the Legal I-130 wait time? I have read online after 120 days, that some people have filed lawsuits to get a response , is this the same for the I-130 process? What are the escalation procedures?

Is it better to press them about it?

I submitted my I-130 on July 24th 2009, it was last touched 8/5/2009

By any chance, did you read the NOA? Specifically the "If this case is an I-130 Petition" section?

"Filing and approval of a Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, is only the first step in helping a relative immigrate to the United States. The beneficiaries of a petition must wait until a visa number is available before they can take the next step to apply for an immigrant visa or adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident. To best allocate resources, USCIS may wait to process forms I-130 until closer to the time when a visa number will become available, which may take years after the petition is filed. Nevertheless, USCIS processes forms i-130 in a time not to delay relatives ability to take the next step toward permanent residence once a visa number does become available."

Basically that's their get out of jail free card, so I wouldn't waste money trying to sue them, instead, a phone call might be in order (phone number is on the NOA that your recieved).

On the reverse side, "Inquires" reads "You should contact the office listed on the reverse side of this notice if you have questions about the notice, or questions about the status of your application or petition. We recommend you call. However, if you write us, please enclose a copy of this notice with your letter."

Again, a phone call might be in order. Just a thought.

Mike

Hi ! Also January filer from Mexico!

Are we supposed to get a NOA1 when filing DCF?

I am waiting for it all week long!

According to your timeline graph, you should:

http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=79235

Mike

Got our NOA1 in the mail today, I guess it's officially started.

I would greatly appreciate any advice you can give me

Seriously, you need to hire an accountant to do your taxes. Taking any advice other than that would only be asking for trouble.

Oh, and good luck with it!

Mike

PLEASE I NEED ANY TYPE OF HELP .

You should get a lawyer. And please stop typing in all capital letters, it's VERY discourteous.

Hello All,

First of all, to those of you who have helped us out with advice and by sharing experiences....MANY MANY THANKS!

<deleted to make smaller>

*Oh and is it wise to send along wedding pictures and things like that to prove a bona-fide marriage in the I-130 packet? Or should i wait til we are asked for those things?* THANKS!

What I provided was proof of an existing relationship prior to the marriage (copy of my passport with stamps showing visits, phone records and photos of Seiko and I in various places together through the six years leading up to our marriage, including photos of her with my family and me with her family [parents, siblings, chlidren, nieces and nephews]). I also provided photos from our wedding, complete with shots showing friends and family attending the wedding.

Since you're newlyweds, getting an affidavit attesting to the validity of your marriage would probably be a waste of time since you just got married.

I also provided proof that she has been added both as my dependent (work benefits) as well as my insurance beneficiary.

Just some thoughts.

Mike

However, I got married in Pakistan and our marriage certificate is in different language than english. I got the english translation of the marriage certificate but do i need to send in the orignal of the english translation or can I send in a photocopy of that?

Also, for the letters e.g. I got one letter from my bank that we have joint bank account, can I send in photocopy or do I need to send in orignal letter?

Photocopies are all that are required. Keep the originals in case you are asked for them by an RFE (Request for Evidence). Then follow the instructions to the letter.

I've been reading all the posts and as much of the FAQs and Guides as I can...

Thanks!

Mike