I-864 RFE, why ?

[NickF 0]

Hi,

I'm from Canada, came here as an F1 student and got married with my GF who is American. She is a dual citizen (Canada/USA) but was born and raised in Canada. Although she is American, she only moved here with me in August of 2010.

She then had to find a job etc etc....turned out to be pretty good. The only problem is that she never filled a Tax return in the US before because she wasn't living here, thus she wasn't making enough money.

Now because she only worked 3 months in 2010, my wife's income was around $11,000 on her 2010 tax return (which we sent). We got letters from her employers sating that she was expected to make that much money for 2011 and

sent all of that signed by the employers. She also sent a letter explaining her situation and so everything "should" have been find (at least that's what I thought). Because she works with short notice contracts, she could only prove that

she was going to make $21,500 in 2011....which is still more then 125% of poverty (correct me if it's not).

I received an RFE today saying that based of the I-864 that they received, the income did not meet 125% of federal poverty.

I'm wondering if they just checked the tax return from 2010 without reading the letter.

Also, do I have to print a law stating that she doesn't have to fill a tax return because she made under XX amount of money ??

I even sent a account balance of mine with over $20,000 in it...

Anybody think that there's something missing here or just get a joint-sponsor and that's it ???

Any help is really appreciated.

Thanks everyone

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

They have some discretion in evaluating the financial evidence.

It's only required that she includes a tax return for the most recent tax year, but it is ALSO required that she had filed a return for the previous three years or explain why she wasn't required to file.

If she's doing contract work, and she could only submit evidence that her likely income will be around $21K, then that's probably why they didn't accept it. If she's self-employed as well (i.e., if they're not withholding taxes from her pay) then she'd likely be able to add a schedule C to her tax return, and drastically reduce her tax burden by writing off her business expenses and lowering her taxable income - good for paying less taxes, but bad for an affidavit of support.

You could kick and scream and maybe get them to accept it, but it sounds like her financial evidence is borderline. It would be easier and less stressful to just get a joint sponsor.

[NickF 0]

The 125% is met counting only the stable work (teaching in school). She didn't 125% last year because she worked for only 3 months, so all that is proving USCIS that she will make over 125% are letters from employers.

I'll just copy and paste the beginning of the letter that we sent explaining that she didn't file tax return, maybe somebody can see something wrong. Otherwise, I guess I'm just screwed !!

Letter

To whom it may concern,

The purpose of this letter is to explain my income regarding form I-864. I permanently moved from Canada to the United States in August 2010. Therefore, I didn’t file any tax return prior to the year 2010 because my income was $0 for each of those years. As you see in my 2010 tax return, my income in 2010 was very low. This is due to the fact that I only began working in the United States full-time in the month of September.

Attached to this letter and application form are letters from my employers stating my expected income for the year of 2011. Also attached, paystubs from independent contracts from 2011.

thanks again for your help

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Your letter seems to make a cause and effect out of the move from Canada to US. It says "I permanently moved from Canada to the United States in August 2010. Therefore, I didn’t file any tax return prior to the year 2010 because my income was $0 for each of those years." It makes it seem like not filing taxes was the result of a move, which is not the correct reason. A USC, whether living in Canada or the moon, must file US taxes. If she did not work at all, then you can state she did not have any income in years XX and was therefore not required to file taxes. I wouldn't muddy the waters with where she was living because it makes it seem like she didn't work in the US so she didn't file taxes, which is not a good enough reason. Good luck.