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happyslappy

Unemployed student :(

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Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: Chile
Timeline

well, I have heard a lot of people who made under the minimum required to file, wrote a letter explaining why they didn´t have returns, and still got checklists (RFEs)...so I would just do it anyway. it´s really not that hard if you go with turbotax.

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With your current financial situation your best chance to obtain a visa for your fiance would be, as others have suggested, to travel to the Philippines and marry her there. However there are going to be a load of extra expenses doing it that way. You have said you want to stay with her in the Philippines until her visa is prepared. That will require you to maintain, and show financial records, of a domicile in the US. You will also need to pay for a visa extension for yourself in the Philippines before your first 21 days is up (`$75) and then after the additional 38 days you will pay an additional fee every two months afterwards (~$130). Add in the cost of food and lodging there as well as the expected expense of 'entertaining' as will be expected of a 'rich kano' and you'll soon learn that living abroad is not that cheap.

If you are underemployed and not paying taxes it is likely you are not going to be able to maintain a household in both the US and the Philippines simultaneously. You could travel there, marry her, and move back to the US. Filing for a CR-1 visa does not take that much longer than a K-1 visa and does save you the $1070 Adjustment of Status fee. You will however need quite a large savings (~$60k) or a co-sponsor that will fill out a 1-864 which will contractually bind them to be financially responsible for your spouse for ~10 years (if your spouse works, if she doesn't it could be for her lifetime). If your Godmother is willing to take that gamble you are a blessed man.

To be honest, the best advice has been given. Get a full-time job with benefits that will make more that 125% of the poverty rate for a family of two (~$20,000) and save for a year or two before bringing her over. You will face a huge amount of fees and hassle your first year just getting all of the paperwork filed in addition to trying to maintain a relationship over a long distance. She will need medical insurance when she arrives, and if you start a family you'll need a good health plan to cover maternity costs. She will not be able to use any of the government programs designed to help low-income families as those are all means-tested benefits which your co-sponsor will be responsible for paying back if, for whatever reason, she ever uses.

As a last remark I would also want to remind you that you will also be financially responsible for her family back home, regardless of what she has told you. Children are the social security system of the Philippines for the vast majority of the country. Children are expected to support their aging parents as well as provide for younger siblings, cousins, and nieces/nephews. Marrying a kano will be seen as a major boon by her extended family and you will not be able to keep from helping out back home without causing a major turmoil.

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Filed: Timeline

Her family is fairly wealthy and her siblings (4 of them) make roughly 80-150k-p/mo as the entire family is in the upholstery business. My fiancee is the youngest of the bunch.

As far as maintaining a domicile back home here, I'm not sure how that will be accomplished or if indeed it's absolutely required, but as stated before, I lived there from June 7th until September 20.

I am greatly appreciative of the advice I have received and the best route I can see is moving there, marrying, filing CR-1 and living with her until all is said and done, at which point she'll return with me and I'll go back to work out of the state. (I, too, have family that's entirely willing to put me to work for well beyond the poverty line)

I do have the 125% but it's in savings which I plan to draw on to live there and file the paperwork.. God willing, my joint sponsor(s) will sign the papers before I head back to put things in motion.

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Her family is fairly wealthy and her siblings (4 of them) make roughly 80-150k-p/mo as the entire family is in the upholstery business. My fiancee is the youngest of the bunch.

As far as maintaining a domicile back home here, I'm not sure how that will be accomplished or if indeed it's absolutely required, but as stated before, I lived there from June 7th until September 20.

I am greatly appreciative of the advice I have received and the best route I can see is moving there, marrying, filing CR-1 and living with her until all is said and done, at which point she'll return with me and I'll go back to work out of the state. (I, too, have family that's entirely willing to put me to work for well beyond the poverty line)

I do have the 125% but it's in savings which I plan to draw on to live there and file the paperwork.. God willing, my joint sponsor(s) will sign the papers before I head back to put things in motion.

Please understand that these requirements are not just opinions. They are non-negotiable facts the US State Department and the Department of Homeland Security will check on before allowing your spouse into the US.

If you are living overseas when you apply for a CR-1 through a Direct Consular Filing you WILL have to prove (through financial/tax records) that you have a home in the US. That means you will have to show proof of ownership or rental/lease records that show the domicile exists while you are living abroad. In other words, you have to maintain TWO homes at the same time, one in the Philippines and one in the US. The only people exempt from this requirement are people actively serving in the US military.

The 125% income requirement is actual annual income, not savings. If you are only using savings you must have 500% of the poverty level in assets (for a family of two that is currently $75,650). They will look at your past three years worth of income generally to gauge if you are able to maintain a constant level of income. If you get a co-sponsor you'll want the date it is signed to be close to the date when it is sent in with the DS-3032. That will be at least a few weeks, if not months, after your initial application, so getting it pre-signed would not be a wise idea.

If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask.

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It will not be a DCF application, it will be mailed from overseas. I did not mean to imply the savings would be used to prove income, rather it would be used to live over there while filing.

I will not date the I-864 at time of signing, thank you for that tip.

I wasn't giving you that as a tip. I was saying that you'll want the I-184 signed around the same time as you send in your DS-3032. I think you really need to stop and think about how you are approaching this whole situation. The advice you are being given is not to help you find loopholes or skirt the system. The advice you are being offered it here to help you avoid real trouble down the line. This isn't a normal government bureaucracy you are dealing with here. You are dealing with the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. These two organizations are notorious for causing heartache and trouble. If they even suspect you have done something shady or out of order they can (and will) permanently ban your spouse from entering the country.

You are going to have to face the facts that you will either have to be wealthy enough to maintain two residences and generate income while living overseas or you will have to endue a long period of separation from your spouse while you file back home.

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