Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751 September 2011 Filers	Me and my wife just bought a townhouse, and my expired GC did not cause a problem. They just needed a photocopy of the GC and extension letter and the underwriter approved it without apparently any problem. I did have to write a letter explaining why there was a gap in my employment record between when I moved and when I started looking for work after my EAD showed up - they were more worried about that then the GC expiration and extension letter. We went through a smaller local mortgage company, but I think our underwriting was done by Chase - they appear to be the primary buyer for mortgages set up by our local mortgage company.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-02-10 16:57:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751 September 2011 Filers	There's a natural diffusion process here: people who filed AOS in October 2009 received green cards with "Resident Since" dates spread out over roughly a 6 month range. That translates into a 6 month range during which all of our 2-year GCs will expire. And for each month in that 6 month range, we each have the option of filing our RoCs either 1, 2, or 3 months before. What this means is that our October 2009 group will be spread over a nine separate month-based RoC Filer's groups, but we will mostly be clustered in three or four of those months, with people who filed AOS a few months before or after us mixed in. I think most of us are clustered in the September, October, and November 2011 I-751 Filers threads, but a few of the people in the October 2009 AOS Filer's group, as I recall, had to wait a significant amount of extra time to get their GCs. They may not need to file their RoCs until May or even June. It might be fun to create an "October 2009 AOS Filer's I-751 Filers" thread, and merge the information from our current monthly I-751 Filer's threads, but it would also be a lot of work, and end up causing fragmentation to the progress lists we keep per month - people would post in one place and not the other, and keeping things synchronized would be a lot of work. Keeping the I-751 Filer's threads split up by month of I-751 filing is a good thing, because then someone who filed early in November, for example, can see what the next few weeks will look like by looking at the info posted for people who filed a few weeks before them, and that is nice and easy to find in the October thread. Besides, it's not like grade school where the kids in other classes and grades are scary aliens, we're totally allowed to visit and post in each other's threads! Edited by HeatDeath, 23 November 2011 - 12:26 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-11-23 00:23:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751 September 2011 Filers	You make an Infopass appointment for your local USCIS office, on uscis.gov. The immigration officer you talk to there can, at their discretion, put the stamp in your passport.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-11-06 11:59:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751 November 2011 Filers	I GOT MY GC DECEMBER, AND COULDN'T WORK SO SHE FILLED ALONE AND CIRCUMSTANCES AGAIN THE FOLLOWING YEAR SO I FILLED MARRIED SEPARATELY, AND AM DUE TO GET MY PAPERS IN FOR THE ROC, I HAVE ALL OTHER PROVES AS REQUIRED BUT JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW IMPORTANT IS THE TAX RETURNS IF ITS JUST AN OPTION OF FINANCIAL CO-MINGLING IN THE I-751 INSTRUCTIONS INCASE OF AN INTERVIEW, WOULD I STILL HAVE TO GO WITH MY SPOUSE OR JUST ME ALONE ? THANKS A ) Dude. Caps Lock. Really. B ) Even if one partner isn't working, it is usually in your best interest to file jointly. In the vast majority of cases, a married couple will pay less taxes filing jointly, even if one of the partners isn't working. You may want to look into that, and consider filing amended returns (which you can do for up to 3 years, as far as I can remember). You may very well get some money back. C ) As I said above, USCIS are very keen to see that you have filed taxes in some way, shape or form, and they are very keen to see that you have filed as married. On top of that, they are interested in whether you two are cohabitating and that you have co-mingled your finances. Tax returns are the only acceptable proofs of the first two, and are less important (but not unimportant) evidence for the third and forth. As I said above, As long as you have very good evidence of financial co-mingling and cohabitation other than the tax returns, you will virtually certainly be fine. Interviews for Removal of Conditions, as far as I know, virtually always require the USC spouse to attend. This is generally not optional. If the interview appointment date and time don't work for her, you should reschedule - they are fantastically unlikely to accept excuses for her absence.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-11-01 00:58:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751 November 2011 Filers	i am about to file in my i-751, i have all the financial co mingling, lease, credit card, sams club joint acct,auto,medical and life insurances, but my tax return was married but filling separately, due to spouse not been ready at time of filling, would this affect my petition in any way? Well, by the time you're filing the I-751 you should have at least 2 tax returns, unless you AOS'd very early in the year, I think.. Are all of the tax returns "married filing separate;y" or just one? The first tax return I did after getting married was married filing separately, because that was the last year her parents could claim her as a dependant. The next two have been married filing jointly. It wasn't a problem for my RoC at all - I was approved in less than 5 months (CSC) with no interview. I wouldn't expect it to be a problem for you. The worst case scenario is that the interviewer may ask you about it if you have an interview which, all other things being equal, is pretty unlikely. And as long as you have a reasonably significant amount of evidence showing other forms of financial co-mingling, and as long as you include some unambiguous evidence of cohabitation, you should be fine. The important thing is that you did file as married. If you'd filed as single USCIS would be very curious about that. Also, this is the sort of question that gets more, better, and quicker answers if you post it in the top level forum, instead of burying it in a year-old progress thread that wouldn't even have anyone reading it if VSC hadn't [apparently] gone and lost a box or truck full of last November's RoC applications.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-10-31 09:50:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751 November 2011 Filers	Up to a certain point, the lateness of your cases could be blamed simply on the fact that the VSC is (and has been for several years) massively overtasked and understaffed relative to the CSC, and that load-balancing between the two seems simply not to exist. But now we're at the point where the remaining cases from Nov. 2011 are significant outliers, even relative the VSC's "normal" timeframe. That means it's almost certainly time to involve your Congressman/Senator. Something has gone wrong. Your congressional rep's immigration liaison office can almost certainly fix it, but neither you nor the phone droid on the 800 number can do anything about it yourselves, except for one thing: file for naturalization. Remember, you don't have to have an approved I-751 to file for citizenship. If you were planning to apply once you were eligible anyways, definitely do so. That frequently fixes "stuck" files.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-10-27 13:26:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751 November 2011 Filers	has anyone done the n400 before receiving the greencard? It's very possible, and in fact somewhat recommended. You are perfectly entitled to apply for naturalization once you meet all of the conditions outlined in the N-400 instructions, whether your RoC has been approved or not. That's the law, so USCIS have to respect it. Applying for citizenship forces USCIS to dig up your RoC application, move it to the front of the line, and process it immediately so they can do the N-400. If you are otherwise eligible to apply for citizenship, but your RoC is still stuck in limbo, sending in an N-400 is a good way to force them to move on it. USCIS care a lot more about citizenship applications than Removal of Condition applications (you can tell from the relative volume and quality of instructional material they've created for the two processes). Citizenship is much closer to their hearts, core values, public image, and mission statement (not to mention much more confiningly defined for them by Congress) than the minor bureaucratic hoop that is RoC, so applying for citizenship definitely has the effect of dragging a late RoC process to completion.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-10-12 10:01:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	November Filers	I mailed mine today. According to the time-line it's gonna take over 3 month to receive it back. Is it true?	mmmm1982	Male	0	2009-11-09 12:18:00
Canada	What are the reasons one would be denied?	Don't let some of the horror stories you've read here freak you out. Unlike many countries in the world, Canada is not considered by the US State Department to be a hotbed of desperate third world con artists who would say or do anything to get a green card. When I interviewed in Vancouver, the consular officer's biggest concern was that I wouldn't have medical insurance for my type II diabetes for at least several months until my EAD came through and I found work, given that my now-wife was unemployed and we had a cosponsor for the affidavits of support. I assured her my health was under very good control and I had a years supply of meds socked away. She admitted cheerfully that it would obviously too extreme to start denying people "just for diabetes". As long as you've filled out their forms correctly, and have a reasonable life-plan sketched out for the next year or so, everything will be fine.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-04 23:18:00
Canada	Medical	Clinically diagnosed morbid obesity might get listed as a Class B medical condition [as Type II Diabetes is] in your medical results, in and of itself, but Class B medical conditions will not, in themselves, cause you to fail the medical or the interview, unless they are significantly likely, combined with your circumstances, to cause you to become a public charge in the US. The "public-charge" angle is what the consular officer will be trying to evaluate, and that's what you'll need to prove to the CO - that your medical conditions, if any, will not result in you becoming a public charge in the US. My diabetes caused the consular officer doing the interview to be curious and slightly concerned about what kind of access to medical care I would have between when I entered the US and when I got my EAD and a job, since my USC wife was unemployed and uninsured herself at the time. But the consular officer admitted they couldn't deny me just for that, especially given that my general health was very good and that I had a significant stock of medication and testing supplies I was bringing with me. Your goal at the interview, assuming it even gets mentioned, will be to convince the CO that your health is and will remain stable enough to ensure that you are in no danger of becoming a public charge - that you will have the support mechanisms [access to medical care via a spouse's insurance or private funds, necessary medications and supplies brought with you when you move down, etc.] to deal with any reasonably likely minor health crises, and that any serious health crisis is in fact very unlikely. If you can convince the CO of this, you will overcome any concerns they may have, and should have no problem getting approved. Edited by HeatDeath, 13 July 2011 - 01:32 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-13 01:29:00
Canada	Visting Canada on One Way Ticket	In July 2008 my now-wife flew up to Canada on a one-way ticket to meet me to drive back to Salt Lake City together. She had no problem getting into Canada at all. Getting back into the US, on the other hand... The CBP officer was quite grumpy until I said those two little words all CBP officers in that situation want to hear: "fiance visa" Edited by HeatDeath, 19 July 2011 - 11:18 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-19 11:18:00
Canada	POE question	Call ahead to the PoE and let them know your plans. That way they can try to make sure someone is on shift at that hour who knows how to do a K-1. In the worst-case scenario, you could be stuck there for several hours until someone who knows how to do a K-1 gets in. Edited by HeatDeath, 06 July 2011 - 04:26 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-06 16:25:00
Canada	Temporary vs. permanent work authorization questions	No one can work without either an EAD card, a GC, or a GC passport stamp in their hand. As a K-1 entrant, you are entitled to pay $340 or so to order an EAD card. No one does this. You probably won't even receive it until 60+ days after entry, and that EAD will expire when your I-94 does, 90 days after entry, and you won't be able to renew it. That $340 buys you less than a month of gainful employment, assuming you can even find someplace that will hire you, knowing that your work authorization will expire very shortly and you'll just have to go on unpaid leave until your AOS EAD (which you will need to apply for anyways) shows up. In contrast, the EAD you apply for with your AOS papers is free (the fee is waived if you are applying for it concurrently with your AOS), and it is good for a year, or until your GC shows up and replaces it (whichever comes first), and it can be renewed indefinitely if necessary.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-28 13:25:00
Canada	POE Edmonton International	The sequence for flights to the US at Canadian airports is: Check in, check baggage -> US Customs and Immigration -> Security screening/X-Ray -> Departure Lounge, Boarding -> Airplane. You would show your K-1 visa, and hand your do-not-open envelope to the CBP officer at the US Customs and Immigration step. [You will have been told to present your chest x-ray as well, but they almost certainly won't ask for it.] This is the same step where you would normally show your passport and tell them where you are going and how long you will be. Only this time they will send you off to secondary inspection, who will process your visa. Only then will they release you to the security and x-ray step. It is normally recommended you arrive at the airport 90 minutes to two hours before the flight leaves, for an international flight, to allow for any delays that might occur during the normal check-in and inspection process. For a normal flight as a Canadian tourist, that is conservative, and you will spend at least 45 mins to an hour in the departure lounge. You should add an hour to that for the extra time processing the visa in secondary inspection.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-08-09 12:41:00
Canada	Vancouver consulate review July 28/11	Thats funny ! And I thought I was nervous. I had to read this to my husband, he laughed and asked what the consulate officer said when she saw you do that ? It wasn't a consular officer. At least, it wasn't the same one who did the interview proper. I barely remember. Something like "No, no, no! On your fingers!" Then she got me some kleenex to wipe off the fingerprint thingy. It did work fine after that, though... Edited by HeatDeath, 19 August 2011 - 12:44 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-08-19 00:43:00
Canada	Vancouver consulate review July 28/11	I was so nervous that my hand was shaking madly when the agent made me raise it, so badly in fact that he got distracted and forgot what he was saying. Everyone is nervous, it's understandable. You have nothing to worry about if you have nothing to hide and your relationship is true =). My best tip would be to come prepared and tell the truth. Your medical results are sealed. LOL. I was so nervous, it was hilarious. They asked me to put my fingers on the fingerprint machine to take my fingerprints. Well, they wouldn't quite read, so she told me to use some hand sanitizer. I was so nervous, that instead of rubbing it on my fingers, I squirted it on the fingerprint machine glass and rubbed it around! Enh, the thing probably needed cleaning anyways. Edited by HeatDeath, 17 August 2011 - 11:07 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-08-17 11:06:00
Canada	Vancouver consulate review July 28/11	Thanks for the review and congratz, I have mine on the 22nd of Aug. Isent it only you and the immigration officer in the room for the interview anyways? Or are you saying everyone in the lobby will be able to hear you? Vancouver is set up as a central waiting room, with two hallways coming off from it, one pointing east and one pointing south. the "interview rooms" are just windowed booths set into the wall of one side of each of these hallways. There is no privacy between adjacent booths whatsoever, but the ceiling, walls, and floors are sound-absorbent enough that you can't really hear any details from the waiting room, unless it's quite quiet. You enter the waiting room (the big square) through a door I've marked with an x. There is a booth in the waiting room itself for dealing with the clerk . Two hallways go off, one pointing off to your right, and one pointing back behind you. There are interview booths along both hallways (the letter a's) If there are larger, more private interview rooms they're in a different part of the floor and I never saw them. ____ |.........|aaaaaaaaaaa|____ L......._________________... a.....|x a.....| a.....| a.....| a.....| Edited by HeatDeath, 02 August 2011 - 04:28 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-08-02 16:25:00
Canada	Montreal interview was today. Everything went fine except...	That's interesting. Vancouver's interview instructions specifically tell you to bring your original birth certificate, which they will keep unless you also bring a photocopy. I'm a little surprised Montreal won't accept a fax, but I guess their procedures are somewhat different from Vancouver's. Congratulations on the [preliminary] approval!	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-12 11:29:00
Canada	Applied for new Canadian passport today.	Mine has those dotted numbers, either punched with a hot needle or lasered through the back cover right up to but not including the id page and front cover. That and the numbers on the pages' edges make it way more difficult to splice in pages from another passport. my previous passport from 4.5 years ago didn't have that, but it makes to document noticeably more secure.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-08-03 23:38:00
Canada	Applied for new Canadian passport today.	I just renewed my Canadian passport by mail. I used the simplified application, and they issued it 10 business days after they received it, FYI.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-19 11:20:00
Canada	POE Tomorrow - Checklist?	I'm pretty sure the fee is an I-94 fee, and a CR-1 entrant won't get an I-94, so I don't think there will be a fee. Don't worry too much about US cash either way - I was a K-1 entrant so I did have a fee, but my PoE (Emerson, MB/Pembina, ND - July 2009) accepted a Canadian credit card for it, so it was no big deal.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-08-09 12:47:00
Canada	listing/selling your house	Once your K-1 visa is issued, it is valid for 6 months. You can enter the US with it any time in those 6 months, right up to the very last day. The repeated exhortation of USCIS and the Consulates is to not make any irrevocable plans or actions until the visa is in your hand. Accordingly, I would make preparations to list as soon as possible, and list the house the instant you have the visa in hand. The house should sell within 6 months, all things being equal, depending on your market and asking price. In the worst case scenario there are management companies who will rent and maintain the property for you after you move for a nominal percentage of the monthly rent - what is left over will be used for the mortgage payments. Edited by HeatDeath, 08 December 2011 - 11:17 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-12-08 23:16:00
Canada	Homesickness	I'm not normally a huge hockey fan, but I felt extra Canadian watching the Olympic Men's Hockey finals, and even the Stanley Cup finals last year.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-11-15 23:40:00
Canada	Homesickness	The US feels absolutely huge, until you're stuck there waiting for your AP documents. It must be even worse being so close to the border, being able to look across the river/lake at the Promised Land but, like Moses, knowing you can't go in. As a Canadian you grow up being so used to being able to cross that border more or less at will - it's a very weird feeling when all of a sudden you can't. When my AP documents showed up I triumphantly posted "<HeatDeath> is no longer being held prisoner by the US government! " on my Facebook wall. Funny thing is I haven't even been back to Canada since I moved here, but that feeling of homesickness/being trapped here went away when I got my AP documents. Interestingly, I find that watching really Canadian things on youtube helped when I was going through a homesickness period. Things like the CBC sign-on videos/O Canada videos, National Film Board Vignettes, etc. Maybe the nostalgia for early 80's CBC is just me. Also eating french fries with white vinegar. I do wish there was some place here that made poutine though. My wife got me the complete series of Corner Gas last Christmas. It's kind of funny, realizing you are probably the only person in a 500 mile radius watching that show at that particular moment, but it really helps me feel a little more at home. Edited by HeatDeath, 15 November 2011 - 10:05 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-11-15 22:05:00
Canada	TAX RETURNS	+1 above. As long as the W-2s and any 1099s are all in there, that's good enough.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-12-20 21:38:00
Canada	Interesting bit of info at POE	+1 above. The officer was confused. Once you're in on a K-1, you're IN - no reentering, whatsoever, without an AP document/card or a GC. Inky: Heh. My CBP officer at PoE (Emerson, MB / Pembina, ND, July 2009) was able to do mine on his own, but needed 90 minutes (!) thumbing through reference binders to make it happen. Also needed assistance to make the computer print a single entry I-94 instead of the multiple-entry one he got the first try. I don't think I had my fingerprints/photo taken - though I can't recall for sure. It may not have been standard procedure in 2009 - we didn't see the fingerprint/photo machines get added to airport CBP booths until a little later.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-12-26 22:45:00
Canada	Compiance letter says not compliant	Lastly, Shouldnt we as America just annex Canadato be part of the US. It should be very easy since there is not real army. I know we will have to do something with the French speakers, maybe resettle them in New Orleans. You realize, of course, that the British doing exactly that after they captured Nova Scotia from France in ~1760 is why New Orleans is so French in the first place!	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-30 12:35:00
Canada	EI while waiting for Green card?	+1 above. That's why I applied for EI in early August, right after my contract expired, even though I knew I wouldn't be seeing any money for months. I'd have applied even earlier but I don't think you can apply for EI while you're still technically employed [and especially still expecting another paycheque yet!]. Edited by HeatDeath, 19 March 2011 - 09:57 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-19 21:56:00
Canada	EI while waiting for Green card?	The pembina North Dakota crossing, sounds like a good old Winnipegger to me. LOL. Yep. Straight south on Highway 75 for 1 hour, and then you hit that building that looks like a brick wall built across the highway along the border. Edited by HeatDeath, 19 March 2011 - 09:40 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-19 21:36:00
Canada	EI while waiting for Green card?	I was working as a teacher in Canada, before I moved to the US on my K-1. The school year finished at the end of June, but my contract ran until the end of July of that year - 2009. I entered the US at the Pembina, North Dakota land crossing on July 12, 2009. I asked about the EAD stamp at my PoE. They said they weren't giving them anymore. I applied for EI within a few days of the formal end of my contract, in early August 2009, from the US. They approved it, but said I couldn't receive any benefits until I could show that I was ready, willing, and able to work - that is, until my EAD came through. I got married on September 12, and sent in my AOS package, including EAD application, on September 23. My EAD was approved in mid November. In January, 2010, they finally got a copy of my EAD (there was some miscommunication with them about that) and they sent me back-benefits back to when my EAD had been approved in November, and continued sending them until I got a full time job here in mid-April. Having been a teacher, I couldn't receive benefits for August anyways, because teachers normally don't work during August. So the window where I didn't receive benefits [and possibly could have, if things had worked differently] was really just September to mid-November - 2.5 months. If i'd gotten married immediately after PoEing, I could have had my EAD 2 months earlier - in mid September, which would have made that gap only a few weeks.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-19 20:19:00
Canada	POE experience	That is awesome. When I went through there in July 2009, the officer went through my packet with a reference binder and a fine-toothed comb for 90 minutes. Seemed none too happy about it either. Sounds like they've gotten some training since then Congratulations!	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-03-14 12:02:00
Canada	I 864, I 864A, I 864 EZ, I 864 W or I-134	The Canadian consulates are very good about answering emails quickly. Anything you get in email from a consulate trumps whatever anything else says. When I was going through the consulate-interview stage I barely needed VJ at all! Any questions I had would be answered authoritatively by Vancouver within a day or two. I did follow a piece of advice I read here, which may have made the interview smoother and definitely made things easier for AOS: The K-1 visa is an odd hybrid between a non-immigrant and immigrant visa (since it is a non-immigrant visa that allows immigrant intent). The consulates require nonimmigrant visa applicants to fill out I-134's, and immigrant visa applicants to fill out I-864's. The documentation requirements for an I-864 are a strict superset of the docs required for an I-134. So the advice I read and followed was to gather and bring to the interview all of the documents required for an I-134, plus all of the extra documents required for an I-864 [but not the form itself]. The extra documentation, showing that you can qualify under the I-864, can sometimes make the interviewing IO feel more relaxed about your financial basis, and anything that relaxes an IO is a good thing. This approach, as I mentioned above, has the additional advantage that you do all of the invasive and psychologically uncomfortable financial paper-gathering done all at once, and now you have all of the stuff you'll need for the I-864 during AOS gathered already and ready to go, a few months early.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-04-08 11:26:00
Canada	EAD approved online can I work now?	As with a lot of immigration stuff, intent counts for a great deal. It sounds like your employer, if they keep any paperwork on the wives volunteering at all, need to be recording them as volunteers, within specific volunteer positions which do not provide any expectation of pay, back pay, or eventual employment. As long as your employer records your work in those terms, both of you are protected. And again, as long as you are scrupulously honest with USCIS if the subject ever comes up (and it probably won't), everything will be fine.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-04-08 11:50:00
Canada	EAD approved online can I work now?	There is a nuance here. You can volunteer anywhere. That's no problem. Volunteering is totally allowed, and strongly encouraged. What you cannot do is accept a volunteering position with a wink-wink-nudge-nudge and a handshake under the table this will turn into a paid position, and you will receive back pay once your EAD comes through. That's just a sneaky little game to evade the employment eligibility laws. USCIS's wording is that you cannot accept a position "for which a US citizen could have been paid." A volunteer position must be only a volunteer position - it cannot be a normal job you're doing for free with the expectation of eventually being hired. Expecting to eventually receive back pay makes it even worse. If the position you're in is a volunteer position, and only a volunteer position, and they have no intention of ever paying anyone for it, and it's not even a field in which you would normally even seek a full time job, I don't think there's any problem with you keeping it. A good example is in schools. Volunteering in a classroom as a parent volunteer is great and awesome. USCIS are totally ok with that. What they are NOT ok with is a someone doing unpaid volunteering in a classroom as a teacher, with the expectation that once their EAD comes through they will be hired full-time and receive back pay [probably under the table]. That would constitute abuse of the volunteering rules and illegal work. As I said above, though, illegal work won't kibosh your AOS as long as you are perfectly honest about it [though obviously you should't be doing it]. The employer, OTOH, can get in significant trouble if they are caught doing this, but it's not as bad for you though. Edited by HeatDeath, 08 April 2012 - 11:41 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-04-08 11:38:00
Canada	EAD approved online can I work now?	+1 above to Udella and Wiz. Issues with volunteering for an eventually paid position aside, when you start a job, you and your employer will need to fill out an I-9 form within 3 days of your official start date. At that time, your employer will need to sign under oath that they saw and inspected whatever documents you are using to show work eligibility [in this case, your not-yet-delivered EAD card]. Yes, you can technically be hired on the basis of an EAD approval email, but both you and your employer have to sign that you have posession of, and that they have seen the document, within 3 days of your hiring, and both of you can get in trouble if you or them sign the form indicating that they've seen the EAD card when they actually haven't. I would wait until the EAD card is in your actual hand before switching over to be an official employee. BTW, don't worry too much about having volunteered for the position prior to be hired for it. Illegal work, by itself, is not enough to disqualify an AOS-through-marriage applicant. Just remember, if you have an AOS interview, and the question of the volunteering comes up, be ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY HONEST when you answer their questions. Volunteering for an eventually-paid position won't hurt your AOS, but lying to the IO at your interview is a one-way-trip home! Be scrupulously honest in everything you ever say or send to USCIS, and everything will be fine. Edited by HeatDeath, 08 April 2012 - 10:50 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-04-08 10:48:00
Canada	K1 Dual Citizenship - Canada/US	Need some serious help to answer these questions. Question 1.) When do you apply for a dual citizenship???? My fiancee from Vancouver, BC doesn't want to lose her Canadian citizenship. When should she start applying for a dual citizenship?? Does she start once after the AOS has been approved???. She'll be moving to Seattle next month so we still have to go through the AOS process. Question 2.) How about filing for taxes once she gets to the states??? She has some CDN retirement funds and want to keep it there. Once she gets a job in the states, does she start filing taxes for both Canada/US??? Does she include the CDN retirement funds when she files for taxes next year in the US??? Is it best to transfer her CDN retirement funds to US??? Question 3.) How long does it take for the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) to be approved???? Thanks Everyone! 1 ) If she is still married to you 3 years after she gets her first green card, she can apply for US citizenship then. It isn't a choice she even has to think about for a few years yet. Applying for US citizenship will not cost her her Canadian citizenship. Unlike some countries, Canada has no problem with its citizens getting Us citizenship. No one will make her renounce her Canadian citizenship. As I said though, this isn't something she even needs to begin worrying about until after Removal of Conditions, which is 2 years after AOS. 2 ) She can keep Canadian retirement funds in Canada, though she should check with the institutions holding them - she will probably not be able to contribute to them after she ceases to be a Canadian resident and may not be able to manipulate them. Regarding Canadian taxes, she will file one more Canadian tax return, called a "departing return" for the year she ceases to be a Canadian resident. After that she does not need to file Canadian taxes. There are special procedures for doing a departing tax return that differ somewhat from a normal Canadian tax return - she might want to speak to an accountant about that. Regarding US taxes, she will need to do a US tax return for the year she arrives in the US [and every year thereafter] even if she has no US income. The IRS taxes you on all global income, but there is a form (2555) Canadians can use in their first year in the US to remove Canadian income from consideration so she will not be double taxed on it. There is another form (8891 I think) that she uses to report the Canadian RRSPs to the IRS, and she will not be taxed on their contents or growth. If she intends to manipulate the contents of her RRSPs after ceasing to be a Canadian resident, it might be worthwhile to move them to the US, but it's very hard to say - the tax costs to cash them out could be prohibitive. A proper answer to that will require the services of a good cross-border accountant. 3 ) Her EAD will be approved between 45 and 60 days after she files for it with her AOS package, which should be as soon as humanly possible after the wedding. [Ideally, she should have all of her AOS forms done, packaged, dated for the day after the wedding, and ready to drop in an envelope, before the wedding. Believe me, neither of you will feel like dealing with immigration paperwork after the wedding! ]	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-04-14 14:25:00
Canada	Coordinating Medical and Interview?	I did my K1 interview and medical on April 29, 2009, but I'm pretty sure what I did is still mostly valid. When I faxed in my Packet 3 checklist, I requested an interview for Wednesday or preferably Thursday. They gave me Wednesday at 1:30 PM. I indicated on my Packet 3 checklist, and confirmed via email with the Vancouver consulate that this was ok, that I wouldn't arrange my medical until after I had my interview appointment. They were fine with that. At that point I already knew that Woking only did medicals on Wednesdays. So I ended up having a very busy Wednesday. I flew out there Tuesday evening after work, arrived about midnight Vancouver time. I stayed in a Hotel called the Burrard Inn [www.BurrardInn.com] which is literally 200 feet from the medical centre's front door [Same block, same side of the street. Very convenient. Make sure you request a room in the back away from the main street], and about 15-20 minute's brisk walk from the consulate. So I woke up at 5:30 AM, got in line outside Woking at 5:45, was done by about 9:30. Went to the travel clinic a few blocks up (appointment arranged by Woking) to get my TDap shot. Walked back to Woking to hand deliver the updated vaccination information. Walked around, had lunch, walked to the consulate. Was done at the consulate by about 3:15. Approved pending medical results. Hiked very quickly back to Woking to pick up my medical results, and hiked them even more quickly back to the consulate, which closes at 4. (You might want to get a cab for this part). Consulate says I'm approved, and can pick up my passport with visa tomorrow (I understand they don't do this part anymore). I had set my flights to give me most of Thursday in Vancouver as well (leave Vancouver around 5:40, back in Winnipeg by midnight) so the next day I walked around downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park, saw some of the sights, arranged to be at the consulate by about 2 to pick up my visa, then hiked back to the hotel, picked up my luggage from where they were storing it after I checked out, and caught the airport shuttle back to the airport. (BTW: allow for more than 1 hour for the airport shuttle bus to get you back to the airport. It dawdles a bit downtown going from hotel to hotel and I nearly missed my flight.) I was back in Winnipeg by about midnight Winnipeg time and back at work Friday morning. Re: scheduling the medical appointment: Woking have an assembly-line like process. They can handle a large amount of people on any given Wednesday. They indicated via email that once I knew my interview date, they could trivially slip me in to the nearest Wednesday [which just ended up being the same day], and that there was little realistic danger of a given Wednesday being so busy they couldn't handle another person.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-04-19 09:48:00
Canada	Employment Insurance from Canada	The cheques are issued in Canadian funds, drawn from a Canadian bank. Your bank probably won't "cash" the cheque, but should be able to deposit it. that's what my bank does - it takes about an extra week for it to process, but it goes through, and the exchange rate is decent. If your bank absolutely refuses to do this, look around for another bank. EI will not do direct deposit outside Canada at all, as far as I know - I think cheques are the only option if you are outside Canada. Edited by HeatDeath, 25 April 2012 - 03:17 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-04-25 15:17:00
Canada	POE at Piegan	Your best bet is, once you're ready to cross within the next few days, call the post directly and discuss your plans with them to make sure they'll have the ability to easily process you at the particular time you plan to show up. You don't want to show up to find out that the only person there wo knows how to process a K-1 is off that day. I drove in with my K-1 at Emerson/Pembina in Manitoba, which is fairly big, and even then the officer I got took 90 minutes thumbing through reference binders to get me processed. So even at the larger prairie border stations, K-1 visas can seem like a strange and unusual thing to them. Things might have gone easier if I had called them first. I've never crossed at Piegan but I have crossed back into Canada at Waterton Lakes, just to the west. Now there's a small PoE	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-05-05 11:30:00
Canada	Police Check Expiry	I just took my Packet 3 checklist in to the RCMP detachment by my work, showed it to them, and they knew exactly what I needed - a Canada-wide name check report. Edited by HeatDeath, 10 May 2012 - 07:23 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2012-05-10 19:22:00