n00b question re nvc process

[pushbrk 14,263]

Hey, pushbrk, thanks for engaging with me while I try to work this out ... you do come across as a tad antagonistic, but I don't mind at all. I guess my newbish questions are bothersome to the pros.

Ok, well actually this instruction about which line to use from your 1040/A is identically reproduced in the instructions for the I-864ez. It's just that I haven't yet had the opportunity to file any tax return that involved foreign earned income; I first started getting paid overseas in 2011. So, with respect to all relevant years' tax returns, any qualifying income I would have been relying on to meet the form's requirements, were in fact documented in prior year W-2s. And when the form asks my "current income," that's exactly what I input. Even had I been earning this income in the US, I couldn't very well wait for it to appear on a W-2, for by then it would be last year's income.

That's the thing, the section asking about "current income" is clearly separate from the section asking for prior years tax information, and they only ask that you attach prior years tax returns. If the imperative of the whole process is that there be continuity throughout, i.e., the maintenance of your meager $18,387 salary over the course of not only the three prior years for which you duly filed with the IRS, but also of the year you submitted your I-130, the current year during which you patiently await word from Homeland Security, and the next year after that when you'll finally be allowed to reunite with your dearly beloved (on the condition that you keep him or her off food stamps), well then the form ought to be asking different questions.

The form, like most forms, contains some ambiguities. I do not think the form is infallible. But yes I would've preferred to get it right the first time, and I totally appreciate your help!

The only feelings I'm concerned about you having are the ones you'll have when your process is successful and you and your spouse are together in the USA. I suggest you take the straight talk as straight talk and consider me coming across as knowing what you don't know but need to know.