Jump to content

heohoel

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    6

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by heohoel

  1. Claiming Earned Income Tax Credit while living/working abroad

    in Expats

    Posted

    What's up guys?

     

    I'm preparing my taxes for tax year 2014 now and I really would like to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit. To qualify, I've chosen not to file the Form 2555 (Foreign Earned Income Exclusion), which is fine because my deductions pretty much negate any tax due. However, the last qualification that must be met is "living in the US for at least 6 months." I've researched and researched but I'm coming up short on how the IRS defines living in the US versus living abroad. I've been in China for about 331 days in 2014 (so I could qualify for the FEIE if I wanted...), but I only worked for 6 months out of those 331 days... the other time was spent traveling around China and I also traveled out of the country for a little over a month.

     

    Anyway, I guess my question is this: have any of you claimed the EITC while living and working in China? Have any of you received advice from an accountant on this issue or something similar?

     

    -heohoel

  2. DCF on 25/11/2014...Still Waiting

    in Direct Consulate Filing

    Posted

    Thought I'd provide just another data point for everyone that could be useful.

     

    I filed for a DCF in Beijing on 25/11/2014. After the officer took my documentation he said it would take about 3 months (!). And indeed, we haven't heard anything yet at all. Big difference from some experiences I've read on here, with people hearing back after a week or two.

     

    It's getting close to the 60-day point when US CIS says you can begin to inquire about your petition status. So I'll probably do that in about a week.

     

    Anyone else applied around that time-frame? We're getting quite antsy.

     

    Another interesting question:

     

    I actually looked at the DS-260 form, and it only asks about current Communist Party membership, not past membership. But obviously the I-485 form does ask if you have ever been a Communist Party member. So it seems that if are a former member, and you follow the directions literally, you will write "No" on DS-260, but then later "Yes" on I-485, because they ask different things. That shouldn't be a problem, right?

    Mick, where do you reside in China? Maybe the deliay is due to Beijing USCIS not having jurisdiction over your area and needing to hand off to Guangzhou USCIS? According to http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/uscis.html...

     

    The Beijing Field Office is an overseas component of USCIS. We have jurisdiction over the following regions within China:

    Beijing, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Liaoning, Shanghai, Shanxi, Tianjin. Please note that the USCIS Guangzhou Field Office has jurisdiction over the remainder of China.

     

  3. Got the white books, but they don't have a note from the translato

    in General Visa Discussion & First Steps

    Posted

    The books we got pretty much outline what rogerinca said here:

     

    Our 'white books' from the Guangzhou government notary office, also have the red/blue ink stamp seal on the Chinese language pages, but no such stamp on the pages in English which certify the translation.

    However, aside from the ink stamped seals, the [entire] book, all pages have the pressure stamp seal applied to all pages, including the covers. Moreover, if you note, there are sequential serial numbers in red at the bottom of each page.

     

     

    But he didn't mention whether or not his included a statement from the translator... I'm going to assume that the statement from the translator is only for "unofficial" translations. Am I worrying about this too much?

  4. Got the white books, but they don't have a note from the translato

    in General Visa Discussion & First Steps

    Posted

    We got the white books back from the notary office today for the police record and birth certificate. They contain the Chinese document and the English translation, but none of the white books include a sheet from the translator stating that they're a qualified translator and that the translation is accurate.

     

    Do these white book notarial certificates actually need to include the statement from the translator or is that only for things that you're getting an "unofficial" or "unnotorized" translation of? Could you guys take a peak at your white books and see if that's actually included?

     

    Thanks a ton

×
×
  • Create New...