kwn

Answer is in IRS Pub 54. Unfortunately, passive collection of foreign rental income is unearned income and does not qualify. If person is actively involved in generating the rent, then up to 30% of the rental income may be considered earned income, and therefore eligible for the exclusion. Unearned foreign income will have to be reported on Form 1040, if non-resident spouse elects to be taxed as a full year resident. First and foremost, Do not use the H&R block software to do your taxes if you are filling out Form 2555. After I was through I found 3 gross errors which would have cost me over 600$. I am not sure how good the other tax software is. You will have to use Form 1040 1. You will claim her income on Line 7. My wife only worked the first 6 months of 2008. I just used her monthly income and converted it to dollars using the average monthly conversion rate. I put this on a spreadsheet and have a copy for my records. Since there is no record of her salary I am treating it the same way I would treat tips. Unless her income is over ~85,000$, the amount is a moot point (as long as you are close). You will be deducting the same amount from the total income 2. fill out Form 2555EZ ¨C You can use form 2555, but it is a lot of unnecessary work if she made less than ~85,000$ 3. You will record the amount on line 21 as a negative number (unless she made over ~85,000$) and subtract it from the total income. 4. You will also have to make a statement to the IRS that your wife will be considered a resident alien when it comes to taxes for 2008. That is explained in Pub. 54.

Thanks. I forgot to ask. What if she also has some rental income in 2008 from her apartment in China? How is this reported? Is this foreign rental income eligible for exclusion as well? First and foremost, Do not use the H&R block software to do your taxes if you are filling out Form 2555. After I was through I found 3 gross errors which would have cost me over 600$. I am not sure how good the other tax software is. You will have to use Form 1040 1. You will claim her income on Line 7. My wife only worked the first 6 months of 2008. I just used her monthly income and converted it to dollars using the average monthly conversion rate. I put this on a spreadsheet and have a copy for my records. Since there is no record of her salary I am treating it the same way I would treat tips. Unless her income is over ~85,000$, the amount is a moot point (as long as you are close). You will be deducting the same amount from the total income 2. fill out Form 2555EZ ¨C You can use form 2555, but it is a lot of unnecessary work if she made less than ~85,000$ 3. You will record the amount on line 21 as a negative number (unless she made over ~85,000$) and subtract it from the total income. 4. You will also have to make a statement to the IRS that your wife will be considered a resident alien when it comes to taxes for 2008. That is explained in Pub. 54.

I am filing a 2008 joint return with my wife electing to be considered resident for whole year. She has some 2008 income in China. How does one report this income since she has no W-2 in China? Will IRS ask for proof? Anyone has experience with this? Thanks. You can deduct anything you want, as long as you're not caught. Perhaps he found a category to sneak them under. Hope he's not caught.

We got our notification throught the USCIS Online system. Hopefully yours should be anytime now too.

I have posted my timeline for comparing processing times. Good luck to all.

Oops, sorry, guys, missed out the two lines in bold. Need new glasses. Thanks.

I have a question on I864, Number of people in household. No of sponsored immigrants: 2 Self : 1 If you are married, enter 1 : 1 Total=4 that will be counting wife and SO twice. Should I just leave the third line for married blank? Thanks

Randy, I guess I am trying to find out if I can claim my stepchild for the qualifying child credit. He meets all the conditions. I am just not clear about the resident alien condition for his first year of living in this country. If he lives here for more than half a year, is he a resident alien or dual status? Thanks. If the child has been in the US for 183 days or more you can claim him/her as a dependent and for the child tax credit and earned income or any other tax matter you woulkd claim a natural child born in the usa. Been there done that! That's a fact and once we explained the $1000 benefit to my wife's family we were told to return to the US from GZ immediately after receiving son's visa and arrived in the US on July 1 with 2 days to spare. I decided to call IRS to find out and I was told "Was child a resident alien?" is meant to be for the whole tax year. Now, if the K-2 arrives in the US, according to Pub 519, he or shewill be dual status in the first year of residency. Is my interpretation correct?

Thanks, Randy kwn

Randy, I guess I am trying to find out if I can claim my stepchild for the qualifying child credit. He meets all the conditions. I am just not clear about the resident alien condition for his first year of living in this country. If he lives here for more than half a year, is he a resident alien or dual status? Thanks.

Hi friends, Couple of questions for those who may be in the know. 1. If K-1 beneficiary makes 1st year choice and opts to be treated as resident for the tax year, does her K-2 child also become a resident alien for tax purposes? I am thinking specifically of the resident alien condition that has to be met in order to claim the qualifying child credit. 2. Can USC then claim the child tax credit for the K-2 stepchild (assuming all other conditions for child credit are met)? Thanks

You are right, considered the proxy route but in the end, decided to just send her for another trip. We'll see how it goes. Sure is difficult to relax until actual visa is in hand. Thanks, and all the best to you too.

Hi Darnell, I have seen the actual letter. Basically it is the same as what shyaushu described in his posts. There are 3 boxes; 'Congrats, your immigrant (or K) visa application has been approved, we now only require the passport(s) of the approved applicant(s) for printing.' Two other possible boxes are '...will be approved upon submission of additional certs (Unmarried, Police, etc)' and 'we must conduct a seconf interview...' My SO got No 1 box checked off, to my relief. It is called the Call-in Letter, Form GUZ-LF1. It is sent via EMS. It gives instructions to hand in this letter and passports between 2-3 pm on Mon, Tue or Wed. If more than one passport, only one person need go. Still could not find anything about the empowering of a representative in the link provided to the Consulate website. Maybe I did not look closly enough. Thanks.

http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/guangzho...or%20tianyu.htm Maybe this is what you desire Thanks. However this is not the document I am referring to. I read ithe instructions for it on the back page of a blue card. If somebody has a recent blue card, they will be able to read it. It is the paragraph just below the paragragh that describes the mail-in instructions for overcome evidence.