Hi,

I need help with my i-864 and hope someone here can help !

Background:
My Dad is American and mother German so I have dual citizenship (American and German passports)
I was born in Germany and lived ther most of my childhood up until the age of 9 (briefly lived in Seattle when I was 2).
At the age of 9 I moved to the United Kingdom and have lived there ever since.

I got married in 2005 to my british wife and we have decided that we would love to live and work in the USA.
We have already submitted our i-130 petition and had that approved and she has had her medical (no problem).
The final stage is for me to submit the DS-230, DS-2001 and i-864.

Questions:
I am the sponsor (of my wife) and am filling out the i-864 form. Part 6 deals with my income and tax returns.
I have only ever worked in the UK and have never filed a Fedreal income Tax return. I have now learned that although I live in the UK I should have been filing a tax return evey year

1) I do not have 3 years of IRS tax returns to show my income. I don't have any at all. Can I use my UK tax returns ? Do I need a sponsor in the USA ?
2) Do I need to quickly backfill 3 years of returns and wait for them to be approved before I can proceed ?
3) I will be taking approx $250,000 with me, does that help ?

Please help !!!

Many thanks,

Tim

If you are a USC I believe you should be filing taxes for all your income each year no matter where you earned it. If you earn below approx $80,000 residing outside the US you will not have to pay taxes on it, but do have to file. I wasn't aware of this when we were starting our process last year and last September I completed 1040's and 2555's (foreign income exclusion) for 2003/2004/2005. I also had to submit a W7 with my 1040's for my husband's ITIN as I filed as 'married filing separately'. I took all this to the IRS office at the London Embassy (no appointment necessary) and handed them in to file. Be sure to make your own copy of all the docs and they will stamp the copies as 'received' and you can take this to the interview with you for your I-864. I have also been advised to use my UK income on my I-864 for my husband (I am the USC) but although that is not sufficient as I will not be earning that money in the US, it shows I have been working and will match my tax returns. We also have a joint sponsor (my dad) as I do not have a job lined up in the states yet.

We have our interview next week and hopefully this is all correct, but I think it is, based on what I have read and the kind advice of others on this forum.

I don't know about your cash, from the sounds of it that would be enough for you to sponsor on your own, but I believe that you will need a joint sponsor if your assets do not total 3x the minimum poverty level. However, as I have no assets myself, I'm sure others can give you better info on that.

Hope this helps!