mateinone

Speaking with my lawyer (California based), she advised that the stamp at JFK that states you are authorized to work is valid, but she believed they had now stopped issuing it and she knew of no other POE that was issuing it.

Now I don't know what anyone's qualifications are, perhaps Rebecca Jo is actually an immigration lawyer as well, I don't have an opinion as I am just applying for my AOS after marriage and going from there, but according to my lawyer and her colleagues the stamp at JFK does in fact authorize you to work.

What is the longest time it has taken for Visas/Passports to arrive back from the US Consulate in Sydeny for others.

They told me it should be late last week (interview was last Tuesday) and it is now 8 days later and my tracking id has nothing against it with Australia Post?

Has anyone else ever had delays of anywhere near this length?

Omg, after what seemed like an eternity to get to this stage I had my appointment in Sydney today. I was extremely nervous, not because I was not prepared, because what if they said no. What would my future spouse and I do? We hired a lawyer for the process because we believed it was better with the paperwork that way and she done an amazing job, she was US based and i would recommend her to anyone to be honest. So back to today.... I walk in there with 30 emails, 30 photos. 50 pages of phone logs, records of our times together etc and .... Within no time at all I walked out approved without having to show any of that (we had submitted a lot of detail and we had spent 200 or so days together over 5 different trips), but OMG it still felt wonderful to know we can be together soon.

I want to send a huge thanks to this site as well, i read much more than I ever posted, but it was fantastic for peace of mind in my preparation.

:D

Hi I looked into this a few months ago as I was considering doing the same thing with my Canadian employer. I was advised by a US immigration lawyer that there wouldn't be any legal issues with doing this. There would be tax issues, in that I would have to pay both US and Cdn taxes. I didn't go any further with it, so I'm not sure what happens with the taxes: whether the taxes paid would be refunded by one or the other country at some point.

Thanks eebee, that is exactly as I suspected. The ATO (Australian Tax Office) has suggested that you would be eligible for any refunds for the period of time that you are not resident in Australia, so you would be able to claim this tax back, though of course you would need to pay that tax to the IRS.

The following year if you had a full time employer, you can advise them to pay no payroll tax at all, and you could pay your taxes directly to the IRS.

From the tax perspective it matters not to the Australian Government.

Australia and the US do have a tax treaty and you should be able to claim any 'double taxes'.

Hate to say it but NOPE! It's been over 2 years for me and while I no longer miss being able to call home whenever I want (well I do, just don't notice it as much) I still keenly miss family holidays. Or for instance Nov 12. Apparently my sister and her husband are going home to my parents for the w/end. It's my brothers birthday around then as well as my BIL's, not to mention my parents 30th wedding anniversary and we would all normally be home to celebrate. Chatting and what not. My sister is pregnant.. i won't be around for all that... ahh it sucks but yeah, it's not as bad as it would have been in the beginning.

Just on this... I could not have coped if I could not have had daily phone calls with my fiance for the duration of our relationship.

To achieve this I setup two skype 'online' numbers. One is a Kansas City number, the other is a Melbourne number. These both cost me $40 a year each.

I have both, because I want my family to be able to call me as easily as I can call them.

So then I also pay for a 'subscription' which is $16 a month, (or you can get 15% off if you pay for an entire year). This allows you to make unlimited calls to anywhere in the world (you could just pay $6 a month for a subscription to Australia).

Then what I do is setup 'skype to go' numbers, you get 10 of these with a subscription and you can change them as often as you like.

When I am in the US, these 'STG' numbers will be all Australian numbers and when I am in Australia (as I am currently) these are US numbers (ie my fiance's home, mobile, work, her parents etc).

I choose a locale for where I am and it will assign me a local number that will call through to them.

So lets say that I am in Melbourne (03) and I want to call my fiance who is in Kansas City (816).

I go online and I add her number as a STG number (816 111 1111) whilst having my locale in there and it will give me a number (03 9005 0005). When I call that phone number from any phone in Melbourne it will divert to her home phone, the same goes with her mobile, at no cost other than my subscription.

I also divert the skype (no extra cost) to go directly to my mobile (when I am in the US) and to my home phone (when in Aus). This means that if anyone calls my online number (one of the two I have registered) it will go to whichever phone I have diverted to and because I have my world subscription ($16 a month listed above) it costs nothing for me or the caller.

Anyway I find it cheap, in total I spend only

$80 (online numbers)

$192 (world subscription)

per year (or $22.67 a month) for phone calls and we talk for at least an hour and often many hours a day.

If that is not overly clear and you would like some more details, just let me know and I will provide a more thorough step by step guide.

Hi

I should hopefully be moving to the US within the next 10-12 weeks.

As an Australian I obviously have the 'right' to work within Australia from an Australian Government perspective.

My question is whether or not I lose that ability once I am on US soil.

My employer is interested in still hiring me whilst I am based in the US, whilst I am still waiting for authority to work in the US.

I am sure that once I am able to work in both countries (as a US Resident & Australian Citizen) that there should not be any regulations preventing me working, though of course it provides me with some tax hassles.

I was wondering whether or not there is any regulations stopping people from working for an overseas company for example

- Writing articles

- Telecommuting to a permanent employer

- Freelance coding for overseas companies

From what I understand as long as you are not taking a job from a US company based in the US or performing work for clients based in the US, there really should not be any problem. I do wonder though if anyone has any experience at all in this field, surely I am not the first to wonder about this.

I would much appreciate any advise on this.

Rgds

Hi

I posted something on the K-1 forum asking the same question, but work has also indicated they might be able to sponsor me on an L-1 visa.

The indications I have is that I am able to come on a K-1, my question to you is two part.

1) If I apply for a K-1 and work comes through with an L-1, can I still put in for an L-1

2) Can I still get an L-1 after a previous overstay (it was 18 days on the VWP).

Thanks very much for your help here

I recently traveled to the US with the intention of spending 12 days with my girlfriend.

Previously I overstayed the 90 day limit by 18 days. I had issues with my kids and needing to go when they were booked, I knew I was getting close, but had not really paid attention to the actual dates at the time.

Anyway, when I traveled this time, I was refused entry at LAX. I was completely honest about everything with them, they asked questions such as whether or not I had a US Bank Account (I do, because it is far cheaper when I travel to transfer money at one hit rather than exorbitant fees for each transaction) which I answered yes. I guess they figured I was a potential overstay, despite the fact I have an extremely good job at home and would not be planning to just "give it up" out of nowhere.

Anyway... In light of having been sent back home (it used my return ticket), we have now started to discuss a) How do we now see each other and b) Should we consider getting engaged and going down the K1 visa route and if so, is it still eligible?

I was not at all told I was banned from the US, just that I could not enter on the VWP and that I needed to go and get a B1 or L1 Visa (I mentioned that work was considering transferring me at some stage as well) before re-entry.

I suspect that I am not 'banned' for any exclusion period for the 18 days, just that I need to fully justify any visit and that I will be put through the ringer. Whilst it was a little harrowing at the time, I don't particularly have an issue, border security is serious stuff and I understand wanting to make sure people are processed correctly, I know I want people processed correctly here in Australia as well.

Anyway... I am wondering if anyone here at all has information on this (please exclude just pure speculation as I can do that myself) or a similar situation.

Thanks very much