I-864 or I-864 EZ - Foreign earned income

[Sunsh 0]

Hello,

we filed an I-130 at the consulate in Franfurt and I have a question regarding the affidavit of support:

We have been filing joint tax returns for the last couple of years. My husband works for the US Government in Germany and I work for a German company. We have been using the foreign earned income exclusion on our tax returns, therefore my husbands taxable income was reduced by my earned income in Germany. Due to this fact his adjusted gross income is really low (below the required amount), when in fact his actual income is more than enough.

My question is: Can we still use form I-864 EZ or do we have to use I-864 and include assets. Neither would be a problem, I just want to use the right form.

Thanks for your help.

[pushbrk 13,664]

Hello,

we filed an I-130 at the consulate in Franfurt and I have a question regarding the affidavit of support:

We have been filing joint tax returns for the last couple of years. My husband works for the US Government in Germany and I work for a German company. We have been using the foreign earned income exclusion on our tax returns, therefore my husbands taxable income was reduced by my earned income in Germany. Due to this fact his adjusted gross income is really low (below the required amount), when in fact his actual income is more than enough.

My question is: Can we still use form I-864 EZ or do we have to use I-864 and include assets. Neither would be a problem, I just want to use the right form.

Thanks for your help.

He can use the EZ version. Assuming his income will continue from the same source after returning to the USA, just state his current income as his salary and document it with a pay stub. It is the current income that qualifies you, not the income on past tax returns.

[Sunsh 0]

He can use the EZ version. Assuming his income will continue from the same source after returning to the USA, just state his current income as his salary and document it with a pay stub. It is the current income that qualifies you, not the income on past tax returns.

Thank you for the quick reply. His income will continue in the US. One more question though: If I use 864 EZ, on question 18 do I put his actual income as on the W2, but in question 19 I will have to put the adjusted gross income from the tax return, which is the very small amount due to the foreign earned income exclusion. Correct? Should I attach a note explaining this or will they get it at the consulate? It's so confusing.

[NikLR 13,234]

We put the amount from my husband's tax transcript as his income. In 2010 he spent half the year in Iraq in the USAF so wasn't taxed on it so his income is less than half of the year before and the year after.

Because you have to include ALL of the tax return and w2 or just the tax transcript, I think they will understand.

[pushbrk 13,664]

Thank you for the quick reply. His income will continue in the US. One more question though: If I use 864 EZ, on question 18 do I put his actual income as on the W2, but in question 19 I will have to put the adjusted gross income from the tax return, which is the very small amount due to the foreign earned income exclusion. Correct? Should I attach a note explaining this or will they get it at the consulate? It's so confusing.

You can put the total income certainly as the current income. For the past, (tax returns) it really doesn't matter much. If you send the complete tax returns, they'll see he's a government employee working abroad and respond accordingly.