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DV 2015 Oceania winners

LazyDoggie said:
Hi @EmilyW. I am interested in learning a bit more on how you managed to book that apartment.

1) Did you do this online?
2) How did you arrange the upfront deposit and monthly rental payments from AU?

I am planning to do the same from my home country, Fiji, before departing to US in mid April. I am heading to Columbus, Ohio so looking for apartments somewhere near in Westerville. I am using Zillow and Trulia to look at some apartments but me thinks that the price is a bit overstated and I would get something for much cheaper if I actually go in person while in US. But again, I need to arrange accommodation before I depart and prolonged hotel stays do not suit my budget (expect for a brief layover in LAX)...
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I heard from somewhere that you need to leave applications for apartments and then wait for one to be available to you. It is like, you can't just go and get an apartment immediately. The only time you can expect to get an apartment immediately is if it is free and you have a lot of money with you. I have a feeling that you will also need to show your bank statement with sufficient inflow of cash so that you can prove that you will be able to afford the rent.
 
Maisy said:
I totally agree about the bit about once beautiful country, I left Fiji in 1987, before the first coup( I was 9 years then), it was the most beautiful place on earth, I returned for two weeks in 1995, saw the changes, terrible, then I went back to Fiji in 2013, after soo many years, believe me what I saw was unbelievable, not the Fiji I remember as I kid, In 87, we went to Australia for 2 years, ... my dad made all the right choices and we landed in little great nz. Had a great education and bringing up. Some parents are just awesome when they want to make things better for their children's future. BTW, your son will have an American accent, how cool is that! There are Hindi language classes in California and Houston, you could find out once you get there whatever state you are in (Indians are everywhere), for more info, maybe you could (if you wanted) have your son attend Hindi classes, once a week, so he learns the written hindi. Just a thought! I will surely send my child- keep the language alive.
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That entire country is a sinking ship. No matter what they do, the country fails from every direction. Like with any 3rd world country, it will be stuck with whatever was left by the previous rulers and move no further. The biggest problem there is racism, not politics. Politics is just a stage where the natives are painting every other ethnicity from that country as the bad guys and themselves as the victim. The people who were truly good at things have left that country. Now the only ones left in that country are people who are ghetto level thinkers. They prefer gang culture. None of them would ever talk about anything innovative.

You will have to note that Hindi isn't the language that his or her children should learn. I heard that they speak Fiji Hindi in that country. So that is their true language instead of Hindi. I suspect that their language is dying.
 
@EmilyW
I loved reading your post! Happy to hear that the move went smoothly.
Did you fly direct to Charlotte?
Regarding what you packed, were you able to fit everything in your bag allowance? Any tips?
Have you enrolled your children in school? How are they liking it?
Have you done your drivers licence?
Sorry for all the questions, my husband has been offered work in Gastonia so we are looking at the Charlotte area any helpful hints you have, let me know, it will help so much

Thanks in advance
 
EmilyW said:
We got them from this site: http://www.usaprepaidsimcard.com.au/

I'm not sure I'll keep the number going forward because it is a bit expensive and I can get a cheaper plan here, but it was worth it just to have connection as soon as we landed.
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I bought my pre-paid sim card from TravelSimsDirect

The H2O card (AT&T re-seller) for $49 looked good but 500MB wasn't going to handle my wife's instagram addiction so I went for t-mobile with 3GB of data for $1 more.
 
guestgulkan said:
I bought my pre-paid sim card from TravelSimsDirect

The H2O card (AT&T re-seller) for $49 looked good but 500MB wasn't going to handle my wife's instagram addiction so I went for t-mobile with 3GB of data for $1 more.
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What we did during the activation trip was to order H2O sims from BestBuy to be delivered to the hotel before arrival, and informed the hotel staff. Then we charged them with only 10$/3 months valid each via h20 website, they also accept foreign cards. These 3 months expire now and I still wonder is it worthy to recharge and extend so that one day we move to have active phones.
 
Lisa D said:
Thanks for your help. So I assume I can do my tax online?

Lucky I am a non smoker!! I will be relieved once I get over there and get into the swing of things!
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If you are outside of the US until mid-April, you automatically qualify for 2 months extension. There is also a form if you wish to fill for an extension until mid-October.
https://www.irs.gov/uac/About-Form-4868

I also need to report Nov-Dec'15 to IRS since we became LPRs in Nov. I am researching how to do this online, but unfortunately can't see an option - it says you need to have previous year's return processed as a precondition to use e-file.
https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Electronic-Filing-PIN-Request

Has anyone done this before? - Can you provide a guidance please?
 
guestgulkan said:
My activation trip is coming up next week. Does that make me the last OC2015 to activate? Really excited. Activating in Hawaii then travelling on to SFO and DEN. I'll make sure to update everyone on how I go with immigration!
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Smooth sailings monkey-man. Can't wait for the update.
 
Permutation said:
If you are outside of the US until mid-April, you automatically qualify for 2 months extension. There is also a form if you wish to fill for an extension until mid-October.
https://www.irs.gov/uac/About-Form-4868

I also need to report Nov-Dec'15 to IRS since we became LPRs in Nov. I am researching how to do this online, but unfortunately can't see an option - it says you need to have previous year's return processed as a precondition to use e-file.
https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Electronic-Filing-PIN-Request

Has anyone done this before? - Can you provide a guidance please?
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Ok thanks for this. An extension would be great!
 
Hi all. More questions on TAX!

So I activated on Dec 11th but still living in Australia until September this year!

I was under the impression I would only have to do a US return for Dec 2015?

I have contacted an accountant online who was recommended from a friend she is telling me that I actually need to do a return for the entire 2015 and give her all earnings for 2015? Also her fee is 300 USD .......Does this seem expensive??

Does anyone else have experience with this or can recommend someone? Also is it correct you can apply for an extension as permutation has stated above??
 
Lisa D said:
Hi all. More questions on TAX!

So I activated on Dec 11th but still living in Australia until September this year!

I was under the impression I would only have to do a US return for Dec 2015?

I have contacted an accountant online who was recommended from a friend she is telling me that I actually need to do a return for the entire 2015 and give her all earnings for 2015? Also her fee is 300 USD .......Does this seem expensive??

Does anyone else have experience with this or can recommend someone? Also is it correct you can apply for an extension as permutation has stated above??
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The advice is correct. If you are an LPR in a year, you have to file for that year - which means gathering data for the whole year. The tax paid outside of the USA will offset, meaning you probably won't pay twice, but you have to report anyway.

$300 is not expensive.
 
Lisa D said:
Hi all. More questions on TAX!

So I activated on Dec 11th but still living in Australia until September this year!

I was under the impression I would only have to do a US return for Dec 2015?

I have contacted an accountant online who was recommended from a friend she is telling me that I actually need to do a return for the entire 2015 and give her all earnings for 2015? Also her fee is 300 USD .......Does this seem expensive??

Does anyone else have experience with this or can recommend someone? Also is it correct you can apply for an extension as permutation has stated above??
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Technically you are supposed to file dually, for the full year but as non-resident for the first part and resident for when you had a green card (you can elect to file as resident for the full year if you want though).

Fee is quite reasonable.
 
Britsimon said:
The advice is correct. If you are an LPR in a year, you have to file for that year - which means gathering data for the whole year. The tax paid outside of the USA will offset, meaning you probably won't pay twice, but you have to report anyway.

$300 is not expensive.
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Thank you so much! Do you know about getting the extension to file later in the year? Can you do this?
 
SusieQQQ said:
Technically you are supposed to file dually, for the full year but as non-resident for the first part and resident for when you had a green card (you can elect to file as resident for the full year if you want though).

Fee is quite reasonable.
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Excellent. Thanks so much! Always good to check info on here.
 
Lisa D said:
Thank you so much! Do you know about getting the extension to file later in the year? Can you do this?
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We did that, as I recall its just a matter of filling in the right form and sending it - we only had to file in October. If you owe any tax it still needs to be paid by April but you're unlikely to be in that situation.
 
EmilyW said:
Another rite of US passage passed yesterday - I got my North Carolinian license!
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Congrats . Did you have to take just the online or online and practical both ?

I gave my online test first week of FEB and the earliest they could schedule me for a practical in Houston is March
 
We had to do the whole thing: vision test, signs test, written knowledge test and a road test. Everything has to be done at the DMV itself in NC: no online component.

The licensing (well here in NC anyway) is strict in that it doesn't matter that we have 20 years of driving experience and only a minor speeding fine each in that time. As far as they are concerned, our history does not exist because it's not American, Canadian or Mexican history.

In NC you can book ahead and it will only take 1-2 hours. You can just show up at the DMV but that's a wait of around 3-4 hours.
 
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