Is wife employed or unemployed?

[magdasal 19]

Hi All,

Now in the interview prep stages here and trying to anticipate anything that might come up during the interview that could be tricky to answer.

I think I found one and we may (or may not) have trouble with it.

Background: Wife is currently living at home of her parents/extended in a fairly remote area of Mindanao. Wife's family are basically very poor subsistence farmers. She's been working overseas most of her adult life to support them, but went back to live with her family after we were married last year. Since then, she has basically been taking care of her elderly parents. One thing she has done to try and help her family become self-sustaining, after she leaves, it to try to get more of her family involved in farming crops other than rice. So, she began helping some of her brothers grow corn...she provided the capital (seed and fertilizer) from some of the monthly remittance I send her. She also helps plant and harvest these crops and every couple of weeks, helps weed the crops. All this in the hope that when she leaves to be with me, they have a little better income and won't require so much support from us. The results, thus far, have been mixed. But it has kept her busy and provided her with some comfort knowing she is doing her best to help her family.

Concern: When we filed the I-130 and DS-230, I decided to put her employment status down as 'unemployed' because at the time, I didn't really consider help to her family farming efforts to be 'employment'. But, when I sent chat logs to with the I-130 package there are conversations about this 'farming' and the work she is doing...and even the pitiful amount of money she made on one crop. So, if the CO reviews this, would they think we lied about her being 'unemployed'. I think it is one of the standard interview questions...but we've already put 'unemployed' on the forms...should she contradict that and say she is employed?

I'm really asking a question of semantics here...not trying to find a way to mis-represent anything, BTW.

What do you guys think?

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

Chances are they won't even look at the chat logs...

If the issue is questioned she should just answer honestly that she doesn't really consider it as being employed since she is trying to help her family establish themselves to be self-sufficient after she leaves.

I doubt it will be an issue.

[Daniel&Theary 30]

It says you can mark out any personal information just remove that page or black it out with a marker I would not really consider that employment either.

[magdasal 19]

Chances are they won't even look at the chat logs...

If the issue is questioned she should just answer honestly that she doesn't really consider it as being employed since she is trying to help her family establish themselves to be self-sufficient after she leaves.

I doubt it will be an issue.

Thank you! Yes, that sounds like the reasonable approach.

[magdasal 19]

It says you can mark out any personal information just remove that page or black it out with a marker I would not really consider that employment either.

Thank you for reply.

True, but too late to mark anything out...those logs went in with the petition paperwork many months ago. And even now, I'm not sure I would mark that out...just wanted to make sure that if it does come up, it's not a surprise and my wife has a truthful, yet succinct way of expressing the answer.

[Richie Rich 70]

Technically she is unemployed unless her family is faming large scale to sell and get a large income .Then it would be considered ''self-employed '' . If as you mentioned that she is just helping her family , then it will be fine to say that she is unemployed . Good luck on your interview .

[magdasal 19]

Technically she is unemployed unless her family is faming large scale to sell and get a large income .Then it would be considered ''self-employed '' . If as you mentioned that she is just helping her family , then it will be fine to say that she is unemployed . Good luck on your interview .

Hehe, no, they are pretty far from large scale farming. It's long, hot, hard, back breaking work and too often they are lucky to break even after a crop is sold at market.

I see the main point as that she isn't doing this to 'make a living'. I think that is basically the key to the question. I financially support her 100% (and, through her, her family) right now. It's really just an attempt to get her family on a firmer footing.

Thank you. These replies have helped me form a better idea of how to say it.