I-864 AoS Questions

[jv86 1]

Hi again everyone,

Just a few questions I came across trying to complete the I-864:

1) I have been unemployed since the end of March, 2015. Under the "Current Annual Salary" do I simply put $0 or total up the amount I earned during the first 3 months of the year and put that as the total?

2) I have been residing abroad for several years working and studying. I spoke with an accountant and together we looked at my earnings from previous jobs over the past 3 years and in none of the years did I meet the minimum earnings required to have to file taxes. I know in the instructions it states that you just need a letter statings why you didn't have to file and he will help me with that. However, my question is in the section asking for the previous 3 tax return amounts, will it simply be left as $0 in each of the 3 years? I know it sounds straight forward but for some reason I feel like I'm doing something incorrectly by doing so.

3) Based on the above, I know I will need a joint sponsor and my father has agreed to do so. My understanding is that if there is a joint sponsor, earnings are not cumulative between the petitioner and the joint sponsor in order to reach the required level, in a sense whatever I put on my form will be tossed out anyway since I don't meet the requirements. With this in mind, is it even worth putting my wife's earnings or trying to figure out my own assets if I'm certain it won't come anywhere close to meeting the minimum requirement to be a sponsor? As of now I'm leaning towards making it easy on myself, putting in the minimum required of me and then completing the joint sponsor's form with everything needed.

As always, thank you all for the help.

[mallafri76 1,012]

I don't have any personal experience of what you ask for in question one but I would think that you write whatever salary you've made in the US in 2015.

For question two, if you had zero income and didn't file a federal tax return, still write zero in the boxes under questions 13. We left it blank as instructed by an NVC operator and referred to an attached signed and dated letter which explained the reason why my husband hadn't been required to file taxes and that his income had been zero, and got a checklist for that. So write zero.

If your assets don't get you above the federal guidelines then no need to write that. Likewise with your foreign spouse, if her salary will not continue from the same source, then her income or any future income don't count so no need to write that.

Good luck

[jv86 1]

Thanks mallafri76,

I think for the first question I'll put the total amount I made thus far in 2015.

I should have clarified, I'm applying for my wife's visa from abroad as I'm still residing outside of the US. That said, we haven't had to go through the NVC stage as we are doing it through the local USCIS office in country, but is there a place that I can find this checklist you mentioned or was it something given directly to you? I may just put $0 in the 3 years as you mentioned and have the letter from the accountant explain my annual salary in each of those years and other pertinent information as is noted in the instructions.

I'll also leave the other points blank to save myself the trouble since it won't make any difference anyway.

Thanks again for your help.

[mallafri76 1,012]

You're so lucky you don't have to go through NVC. It's a mess and you can get five different answers to a question depending on who you speak to at NVC.

Checklist is something you get from NVC if they think something needs to be updated on your case before they can send it to the embassy for interview. So nothing you need to worry about with DCF.

I think that with DCF, if you make any mistakes on the forms, this is discussed at the time of interview, so you don't get RFEs/checklists etc from the embassy, you just get a chance to correct it after the interview.

[Ryan H 3,790]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to DCF Discussion.