As a self-employed individual or person who owns a business, it’s natural to take advantage of all the tax deductions you can to reduce your taxable income. You have every right to do it. Unfortunately, for USCIS and tax purposes, your income is basically what you pay taxes on.
Read More »Should I Send Originals or Copies of Supporting Evidence to USCIS?
You should never send original supporting evidence to the USCIS, unless they specifically ask for it. Always send a photocopy. The USCIS won’t return you your original supporting documents back either, so be prepared to never see them again if you send those in.
Read More »Can a Green Card Holder Petition For a Child or Parent?
You’re not going to be able to bring your parent as a green card holder. Parents can only be petitioned by U.S. citizens, so you will need to naturalize yourself. That’s something we can help you with, or you can grab form N-400 and look through that.
Read More »Immigrant vs. Non-Immigrant “Intent” (U.S. Visas)
What's the difference between immigrant and non-immigrant "intent"? The type of visa is determined by the purpose of the travel to the United States. Immigrant Visa An immigrant visa is for someone that intends to immigrate to the US or permanently live in the United States. Most immigrant visas have a path to citizenship after a number […]
Read More »New Policy: Trump Admin Will Deny Rather Than Issue RFEs
In a disturbing memo issued by USCIS (PM-602-0163) on July 13, 2018, we were made aware of a new policy which will make it much easier for the Trump Administration to issue denials for legal immigration cases across the board (with the exception of DACA), including fiance visas, spousal visas, green card applications and more.
Read More »What is “Administrative Processing”? (Visa Applications)
For various reasons, some of which you may never really find out, your case, you may get an update from the State Department that tells you your case is in “Administrative Processing“, or AP. What that means in terms of immigration matters, is that there is something about your case that they don’t like, so they’re going to take a little longer to look at your case.
Read More »Does Income Matter at the Embassy Phase? Gross or Adjusted Gross?
“Once the USCIS and NVC approves the case, and the case is mailed out to the beneficiary’s local embassy for interview, should the interviewer still look at adjusted gross income or gross income?”
For the fiance visa, absolutely. Because they don’t even look at income until the embassy.
Read More »Will USCIS or a U.S. Embassy Look at My Social Media?
“I’ve read they passed a bill on where they go into your social media after interview, which would prolong the process, and that’ll effect a lot of K-1 Visas and my fiance is from the Philippines.”
The government has always had that authority to investigate pretty much anything.
Read More »What is “Extreme Vetting” & How Do I Prepare For It?
New standards are being rolled out that are designed to basically make it harder to immigrate to the US. The process to immigrate has always included a quite extensive vetting process, but these new measures are likely going to make it even harder.
Read More »What Are the Age Requirements for an IR2 Child Visa?
Sam asks: “What are the age limits for an IR2 Visa?”
There’s no age limit to petition for a child. However, there are vastly different waiting times. Basically, if the child is under 18, they’re going to get here pretty quick, less than a year, maybe closer to nine months. However, if the child is an adult, then it can vary.
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