Job Discussion Forums

[dynow]

blasphemer wrote:

[Blasphemer]

Working visa is basically something that looks just like a green card but it's a work permit with a nice little bar-code, pic and exp. date. I still have mine, kept it for keeps sake. It's basically something that she'll need to show her employer in order to get hired.

Citizenship rules have changed, I've looked into it after your post.. lucky you. In my case it was a 10 year wait.

Good luck!

[dynow]

i guess i'm still not following Blasphemer.

just because someone is immigrating to America doesn't mean they're going to work. a work visa is not an immigrant visa. when someone gets a work visa, they can stay in america for as long as their work contract is valid. once it's expired, back home you go.

for example, someone that petitions for their mother to immigrate, and the mother is 75 years old. she's getting an immigrant visa, which has nothing to do with work. in order for her to be in america legally and stay legally, she needs a residency card, or "greencard". if you have an immigrant visa, in order to work as well in america, you need a social security card. the IRS is a completely seperate entity.

case and point is what MasterShake is going through right now, see his last thread, 'Starting a business in Poland, Not so simple for Americans'. He is living and working legally in Poland because he has a work visa. Because he lives and works here, sure, he was issued a residency card, but his status here is completely different than mine. He is looking to open his own business and freelance (like me) but if he quits his school, the school that granted him his work visa and is technically "sponsoring" him, he no longer will have legal residence in Poland and will have to leave (also read Sprial78's post within that thread, he's in the same situation but in the Netherlands).

not only have the laws changed, but your situation Blasphemer is much different than what my wife and I are facing. you were in America for what.....20 years.....still no American passport? sure, things happen, people wind up in other countries as children and have to deal with the hand they're dealt, but unless you had immediate relatives that were American citizens that petitioned for you to come to America BEFORE you came to America, had at least one American parent, or some other extreme situation like asylum, you were doing it the hard way.

[dynow]

unfortunately we're still waiting for our interview date from the embassy.

when we received the confirmation letter, they asked us to mail them the DS-230 form which is just biographical data. they sent us an email that they received it but still no interview notice. we even called the embassy to see what's up and they basically said sit tight and wait, it should be soon.

so not much to report.

[dynow]

Well, we finally received our letter.

Our interview date is scheduled for the first week of December. They included in the letter a few things that my wife will need to bring with her but we had this stuff all finished and prepared beforehand.

It's worth mentioning the medical exam. The exam can only be done in 3 authorized clinics, they are in Warsaw, Krakow or Poznan. After you do your exam, they give you a brown envelope with your results which you need to keep sealed. From that point on, your medical results are valid for the next 6 months meaning if you were to have your interview at the Embassy longer than 6 months from when the medical exam was done, your results wouldn't be valid.

I guess my next post will be whether my wife gets the visa or not

[spiral78]

Yeah, they'll do an xray scan for signs of TB and you get the photos in a sealed envelope - they've also got identifying stamps on them. Maybe some other stuff, but this is all I really remember from what Canada demanded when I went there.

Anyway, I'm sure it will all be fine - good luck!

[sparks]

I suppose I could just walk to the Embassy and ask this but...

Is this any amount of time that you must be married (assuming that the wedding takes place in Poland) before you may begin the process that you are so kindly and helpfully describing Dynow.

To be clear, If I were to marry my Polish fiance tomorrow would we be able to file the paperwork for a visa the next day or is there some sort of waiting period.

It seems to take several months to jump through the hoops to get the visa, I'm wondering if there is an additional waiting period before beginning the process.

[dynow]

sparks wrote:

[sparks]

Great,

Thanks a lot dynow. We're looking at next Spring/Summer for the marriage and to get out of here.

You mentioned that you need I would need permanent residency. I assume that you just meant a KP czasowego as stalego takes at least five years of having the czasowego.

Thanks again

[dynow]

sparks wrote:

[dynow]

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

My wife had her interview on Friday last week. She's gettting her visa but there's an interesting story to go along with it.

For one thing, that whole thing about having to interview by yourself without your spouse present.....rubbish. When my wife had her interview one of the first things the woman interviewing her asked was, "so where's your husband?"

Another interesting part is that you aren't even taken into a private room. Your "interview" consists of nothing more than approaching a glass window with a consular on the other side who is handling your case. Basically, everyone in the waiting room waiting for their interview can hear everything that is going on. Strange. I thought for sure that she'd be taken into a room for this.

So it essentially went like this: my wife had her "interview" and the woman basically right away started talking to her as if she had already received the visa. I mean, she was holding her paperwork already and knew her case, but there was no discussion. She just told her she's getting it.

In the meantime, I was waiting in a cafe and after my wife finished, she came to the cafe and told me, "I'm getting the visa, but you need to give them 2 things." The first thing they requested is a copy of my father's passport or birth certificate to prove he's an american citizen (I used my father as my financial sponsor and he had to fill out an I-864 form. If you have any questions about that, let me know) but this wasn't a problem, you can simply fax it to them and it's done.

The second thing they requested was something about my foreign income statement from 2009. Now, when my wife showed me what the woman wrote, I had a good idea what it was but after travelling this far to be in Warsaw, I wanted to make sure that I know exactly what they need before I leave because they told my wife that this form they were requesting cannot be mailed or faxed, it must be handed in in person which means ANOTHER expensive trip out to Warsaw, just to hand them a lousy piece of paper. So, I decided to just march into the embassy myself and get to the bottom of it.

I met the woman that dealt with my wife, showed her what she wrote and started asking about it. I told the woman that I have always filed my taxes in America since I've been in Poland via TurboTax (i have some small investments in america that i collect a small amount of interest on along with a savings account and because this is income, you must file every year regardless whether you're tax exempt or not) and I told her that i even have my IRS transcripts with me from 2006 to 2009. The woman immediately was like, "Oh! OK great! let me see those!" I handed them to her.....she didn't even check if what she wanted was there. She flipped through 2006, got half way through 2007 and just said, "Ok great, well, now you don't have to come back here. Just fax me your dad's birth certificate and you're all set. Congratuations! Good luck in America!" She took my wife's passport, handed her a DHL confirmation and said, "You'll get your passport with the visa inside in no more than 5 business days from DHL."

THAT WAS IT.

Can you imagine? She didn't even check if what she wanted was there and if I hadn't gone back into that embassy, it would have been more paperwork and another looooong and expensive trip to Warsaw. Just unreal.

Word of the wise: For all americans living abroad, when you file your taxes with the IRS back home, make sure you include your foreign earned income, in dollars, every year. After you claim it, you then must submit a Form 2555, this is a foreign income form. As of now, as long as you earn less than $91,500, you are tax exempt meaning the IRS back home cannot claim any of your income bugt either way, you must file and show you are earning money abroad. This form, the 2555, is what the embassy was askin for. Oddly enough, she only asked for 2009. Strange considering I've been earning foreign income for 4 years. Even more strange is that when I handed her my tax transcripts, they did not include 2555 forms yet she approved my wife's visa application immediately. I almost had the feeling that she saw I took it upon myself to prepare transcripts, have always paid my taxes in America and just said, "aaahhh screw it, he's a good boy, no risk with these two going to America, I'll let it slide."

Moral of the story, have all your paperwork back home straight and come with your guns loaded when you go for the interview at the embassy. I thought we had everything that they could possibly ask for......and I was wrong. Bring every piece of documentation you have because there's no telling what they will ask for and if you don't live in Warsaw, it means another long trip out there to give them what they want.

[Jack Walker]

Congratulations! Polish bureaucracy is completely assinine most of the time and it's a good thing you got it all straightened out in the end.

[dynow]

jack walker wrote:

[sparks]

Congratulations and thanks for the heads up about the taxes. I hope that we have the same success next Summer.

I envy you for your upcoming return to the land of the free.

[dynow]

sparks wrote: