OK So I married my husband in Houston Texas, June 2004. For the rest of '04, and till May of '05 we were filing for a spouse visa there, but then decided we'd prefer to live in Australia. So filing for his visa over here is what we have been doing for the last year, unfortunately he was refused a visa for lack of evidence of living together
and subsequently sent packing.

So he's back in Texas, I unfortunately only found out about DCF about a week ago, and have been kicking myself for not finding it sooner.

Anyway my question is, since he hasn't worked in the last year, and is currently unemployed (for the two weeks he's been there) and living with his sister. What kind of problem will that pose with the Affidavit of Support? Would we be able to site his sister as a joint sponsor if we would be living in her house to begin with??

Sorry if this question has a simple answer, just that I'm planning on doing a Thursday 'walk-in' tomorrow, and really don't want to hear that this is something that will still take forever based on the fact my husband didn't work while he was here.

Thank You in advance for any help you can give me
-Nicole

He has to prove he can support you. If he didn't have the proper income for the last tax year, he can use a co-sponsor or assets...but since he JUST moved back I'm betting that won't work. You can look up the poverty guidelines to see how much that is...but if he can't prove he makes enough you will need a co-sponsor. DCF CAN BE easy but you've GOT to do the legwork...the research and be TOTALLY and completely prepared....that's what I found in Australia anyway...

good luck.

Nicole, your post is confusing. You are the Australian? Why didn't you and your husband have sufficient evidence of living together to satisfy Australian immigration? What will be different for US immigration?

If he does not have sufficient income to sponsor you, he will have to have a Joint Sponsor. How will he return to Australia? How will you do a walk in without him?
I don't know that it will take 'forever' because he hasn't been working, but I'm not sure what it is that you do want to hear.. like I say, a bit confusing. I'll be eager to see your report from Thursday's appointment & maybe I'll understand better.

Sorry to be confusing, trust me, it all very much confuses us also.

Yes, I am the Australian. We were originally in Houston Texas filing our spouse visa, but because of lack of knowledge of the system made a few mistakes along the way. Subsequently we thought it best to try and live together in Australia, also because I have more family here. The only thing being that during the year I stayed in america we didn't pay bills together or anything of the sort, so were really naive and unprepared for what was expected of us. As we had none of that to show, the immigration department here said that we didn't have enough evidence to say we lived together.
The difference with getting the US visa is that we were living together in my parents house, so they can sign stat. decs. to state that etc. And if we were to do the DCF, my parents would then pay for him to fly over.

Anyway, the thursday walk in didn't go well, the person there was about as helpful as a dead fish. I was told that we could not file it without my husband being here for the filing. I was under the impression he only had to be here for the interview process.

hi again,
Well, I'm not surprised that the walk in didn't work out---that is for the USC to file their I-130 petition. So, no USC, no file. As for helpful, the process has been spelled out here in great detail, so I'd suggest you start with the DCF Guide (re-review if you've already read it) and the two main Australia DCF threads here.
Hopefully your Australia immigration process will guide you to be less naive and more prepared this time around.
You won't need so much proof of living together for the US visa process, but you will need to pay attention to a lot of detail. You can start ordering your police certificate now, and gathering the paperwork you'll need. It should be close to hand after the Australia visa trip.

NOTE: Policy in Sydney is changing/just changed. Bear that in mind when reading stories from before July 2006. Someone recently posted the info that is at Sydney's webpage--it is very comprehensive, so double check your next moves. Consider asking your USC spouse to get more involved, too.

These are the instructions for filing the I-130 that are currently posted on the Sydney Consulate website:
http://sydney.usconsulate.gov/consular/Pet...nstructions.pdf

If you read the information on their website, it will help you.