*Clarifying the circumstance

My fiance will be coming to US on a K-1 Visa from France and we're trying to understand how to handle moving her money from her home country to the US. It does not have to happen immediately...but obviously at some point she'll want it.

Does anyone have any general guidance or tips?

Appreciate the tips. Plan on calling my bank here on Monday but hoping you guys can save me some time.

Wire transfer $25-40.

Are there tax implications for me if the wire transfer comes pre or post marriage? (based on some of the below messages I'm assuming it's easier for her to simply transfer it to her self once allowed to have local bank accounts)

Is it a gift, payment or loan? If so possible tax implications. If the money is yours shouldn't be any US tax consequences.

If it is your account no issue doing a wire from a French bank. If the sending account isn't yours that person will need your bank instructions to iniate a wire transfer. Bank cutoff is usually 3 or 3:30 local time for same day wires. Ie I used to make sure all wires for a UK account we're submitted by 9 am CST to process that day otherwise they would go the next business day.

What about using PayPal or Venmo to bypass the wire fee?

Also what currency are the accounts in? If you are going from Euros to dollars I would suggest contacting the bank so you don't get shafted on the exchange rate if it is a sizeable amount of money. I have only done foreign currency exchanges for corporate accounts so I'm not sure who you could call at your bank about a personal foreign currency exchange.

Trying to save $25 to wire $10k USD to the US is just dumb.

With an international wire, you get tracing and wire ID numbers to track the transfer. Unless it's <$500 I would definitely go with a wire transfer.

I get wire transfers are "expensive" but you are sending money from overseas. I have seen all sorts of payments go screw and if it isn't with a bank you have zero recourse if something goes wrong. Just be glad you aren't trying to get money in or out of an African country.

This would be Euros to Dollars, not my account, it's under soon to be spouses name, but currently not family in the eyes of the law. That's why the tax thing worries me and wondering if we should just wait.

Appreciate the tips guys.

As others have said, direct wire. Any bank should be able to receive an international wire, but it may go through a bigger bank first. Ask for wire instructions from the receiving bank and give to the bank or person originating the wire.

No idea of tax implications. I would think it would be subject to the same U.S. taxes whether it came from a domestic account or foreign. Last name shouldn't have anything to do with it.

If you have income and holdings in multiple countries, the only advice you should be looking for here is how to find a competent tax professional for your situation.

My tax professionals in my entire life have consisted of Turbo Tax. Don't have the first clue about how to find a good tax professional nor do I understand what I'd be paying for.

Just trying to move her money from there to here. It shouldn't be a taxable event should it??? I was planning to use TurboTax this year and next filing my little W-2's and getting on with life.

If you do have a name you could recommend though I'd be happy to start a conversation.

You can gift up to $14k per year per person no tax.

you're assuming facts here not in evidence.

exp, is your future wife a US citizen? because international gifts are sometimes different than the standard 14k gifting exclusion.

Future wife is not a US Citizen. What's the next move?

Lol, definitely not.

If that's a question I should be worried about answering then she can keep her money in France until she has bank accounts under her own name here.

So with that out of the way, what is the advised method for her to bring her money over here?

edit - I don't even know the rules for a non-citizen to open a bank account but I was assuming they wouldn't let her do it until she had permanent resident status, which won't come immediately.

Okay, thanks guys. I can appreciate my situation being turned into a joke. Maybe it's time I go the CPA route.

There are not any issues. Just keep transfers under $10K. I would not do any more than $5K at a time just to keep the banks from flagging to IRS. It would be better if she had an account in the USA. Transferring to yourself from your own account overseas is not an issue. She can bring $10k in cash in when she travels here without any issues.

By the way the banks will kill you with exchange rates.

You're WAAAAY overthinking this. Once she arrives on a visa, she can open a bank account. You can even open a joint account already if you want to.

Then just have her wire the money to herself. Absolutely no need to go pay for a CPA to transfer your own money between countries.

Duncan Idaho said:

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Btc was literally made for this.

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Does not avoid complications of LIQUIDITY, of which as far as I can tell is woefully lacking with BTC. Guess I had better start really figuring out this not-so-fad.

Buck Compton said:

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You're WAAAAY overthinking this. Once she arrives on a visa, she can open a bank account. You can even open a joint account already if you want to.

Then just have her wire the money to herself. Absolutely no need to go pay for a CPA to transfer your own money between countries.

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Pretty much this. As long as the potential gifting aspect is out because you can't gift money to yourself.

My comment earlier was when everyone was so focused on gifting because there are citizenship issues with some gifts that frankly as a CPA i would need to refresh myself on to determine reportability.

https://www.xoom.com/ is a good way to transfer money internationally using your Bank or Card. it should arrive directly into their bank accounts for some Banks.

Xoom is only for outbound from US as far as I can tell.

I was hoping this had to do with recruiting