405. Medical examination for

green card - Filling US taxes

from India

Questions: Hi, Your website is a great source of information. I am 28 years old staying in India. My spouse is a US citizen. We are travelling to the US in Apr-2012. I would be applying for my Green Card once there. I have couple of questions 1) I have had all the vaccinations done during my childhood that are required for I-693. Although, not sure if my parents have retained the vaccination reports. I may not be able to show the reports to the surgeon at the time of medical examination. What should I do? Will my GC application be rejected? 2) My wife (US citizen) has been staying with me in India for past 2-3 years. Hence she has not filed her federal returns. How can we apply for the GC incase the federal returns are not available? Can she file late returns and use that? I would be currently working there on H1-B, so would my salary letter help? - Sawan Answer: The purpose of seeing the civil surgeon is to get her/his signature on Form I- 693. The civil surgeon is supposed to review your vaccination records to see whether you have proof of earlier vaccinations against vaccine- preventable diseases that are applicable to your age category. Therefore it is important that you take some sort of written vaccination documentation (perhaps from your family doctor) to show the civil surgeon when you have your medical examination. If you lack any vaccinations that are required for your age category, the civil surgeon will administer the vaccines as needed. You do have the option of getting the required vaccines from your own doctor as the applicants do have to pay the civil surgeon for any vaccinations they give. Regards to your question of whether your application can be rejected, failure to get or show proof of having received the required vaccines may result in your application being denied. There is a provision though that sometimes a waiver can be obtained in certain circumstances. As for your second question, while your salary will be considered, your wife should certainly file returns as soon as possible.

US Citizens Residing in India and

US Taxes

I have discussed US citizens living in India and US taxes in my book the NRI GUIDE 2012/2013, for those who don’t have the book, I briefly want them to be aware that normally, if a person files before the IRS actually catches up and asks the person to file a return, and no tax is payable, there are no penalties. A point that should be taken into consideration seriously is that while not paying taxes may be only a civil offense, but on the other hand, not filing may be considered as a criminal offense. Currently for the United States, If filling status is single, then you must file a return if your gross income was at least $9500. Under some circumstances you must file a return regardless of what your income was. Even if there is less or perhaps no income, it is sometimes beneficial to file every year. This helps run out the statute of limitations*. The statute of limitations for the IRS is generally three years from the date you filed your return. The IRS can come after you for up to six years if they find that your declared income was understated by 25% or more. Once the statute of limitations runs out, you are usually home safe. So even with no income, filling a return is indeed something every one should consider. If you don’t file, the statute of limitations will not help you. *(In case of fraud, the statute of limitations does not run out)