Ok here's the situation.

We are filing in London (DCF), wife (USC) and I (UKC) have lived here for the last 8 years. She has caught up with her last 3 year's tax returns (1040) including a Schedule C (self-employment) and form 2555 (foreign-earned income allowance) for each year. My wife hasn’t been earning that much over each of the last 3 years (well under the threshold of $80,000+). Also as all her earnings were in the UK and therefore foreign as far as filing US taxes is concerned. Hence the "total income" figure on each year's 1040 (line 22) is $0.00 as the form 2555 dismisses all of her foreign-earned income as far as liability to tax is concerned (on 1040 line 21).

I should point out that we will meet the financial requirement of the I-864 purely on the value of assets, so her income is not relevant in that respect, I am just interested in filling the form in correctly to avoid any issues in that regard.

My IV interview is in a couple of weeks.

I’m still hung up on the I-864, as respects what to put in items 23, 24 and 25. Anyone got any ideas on this.

First question. Do you think it would be frowned upon/unacceptable/reckless (e.g. likely to result in visa refusal) if I take multiple signed I-864 forms to the embassy, filled in differently, according to the several different ways the form could be interpreted? Then ask the consular officer how it is supposed to be filled in, and magically produce a correctly filled in I-864 from my mountain of paperwork?

If the answer is yes, then on to the second question.

The instructions for the I-864 seem to indicate that income that is going to be used to satisfy the financial requirement of the I-864 (i.e. 3 x 125% of the poverty line figure) must be income that will continue from the same source after the move. Hence, surely this would mean that items 23 and 24 on the I-864 should be filled in as $0.00, as her income will not continue from the same source?

Also, for I-864 item 25, as the "total income" figure of each year's 1040 tax return is $0.00, is this the amount to put here (for each of the last 3 years)? Or are they wanting your actual income figure here, regardless of whether or not this was discounted for tax purposes by the foreign-earned income exclusion (form 2555)?

These things are not clear at all, it's yet another example of forms that are designed to be filled in by USCs who are already living and earning in the US, and not abroad.

Does anyone recall what they did here, or have any pointers as to what would be the best course of action?

Thanks

BG36

The form asks for the sponsors current income. My wife had worked in the UK for 10 years before we moved to the States. So in answer to those questions we answered them literally, and showed her current UK income. Likewise our current UK household income.

Like you we also had in sufficient assets to cover the sponsor requirement and we had with us proof of that. We were also in a position to show that my wife could if she wished claim her Oregon Public Employees pension some 11 months after our interview date. So for good measure we included proof of that as well. (We had no intention of claiming it as we intended to leave it several more years to reach maximum benefit.)

Our main assets was the equity in our UK house and this was accepted by the Embassy without any questions being asked. They just checked the documents provided proved what we claimed on the form.

Thanks.

This is the thing with the I-864, it specifically states in the instructions that the sponsor cannot use income that will not continue from the same source after the move, but it seems to be the accepted thing that USCs moving from the UK back to the US do put their UK-based earnings in there, even when they will not continue from the same source.

For the financial requirement we are taking a mortgage redemption statement, plus our current brochure from the estate agent and an informal valuation from the estate agent, both showing a figure that, with the mortgage amount taken away, gives us at least 5 x the poverty line figure (I know we only need to show 3 x the figure).

You have for the assets exactly what we had. Mortgage redemption statement and the estate agent sales leaflet for the house with a letter from him confirming his evaluation. The just checked the equity was what we had on the form and said "fine".