Confused - told gross income on i-864 is incorrect

[rysa 3]

Hi all,

Finally heard back from NVC, but I'm confused why they need a correction. They only requested one correction:

In Part 6. Sponsor's Income and Employment, please correct the following...

[x] Items 13.a.1. The income you enter must match the total (gross) income reported on your most recent Federal

income tax return. If you filed Form 1040EZ, use the adjusted gross income instead.

But when I look at my tax forms, I reported the correct amount. I did joint filing with my overseas spouse, so I did foreign income tax exclusion. I did put down the "total income" (line 22 on f1040) on my i-864, not adjusted gross (line 37 on f1040, although that's the same number, too). Am I supposed to put down a number from a different part of the f1040?

Do I just call them about this to explain, or will they force me to resubmit the i-864 (with the same information), which will potentially result in another cycle of "no, you put down the wrong info"?

Thanks muchly for your advice.

[rysa 3]

Has no one had this experience?

[slvrfx576 15]

Hi all,

Finally heard back from NVC, but I'm confused why they need a correction. They only requested one correction:

In Part 6. Sponsor's Income and Employment, please correct the following...

[x] Items 13.a.1. The income you enter must match the total (gross) income reported on your most recent Federal

income tax return. If you filed Form 1040EZ, use the adjusted gross income instead.

But when I look at my tax forms, I reported the correct amount. I did joint filing with my overseas spouse, so I did foreign income tax exclusion. I did put down the "total income" (line 22 on f1040) on my i-864, not adjusted gross (line 37 on f1040, although that's the same number, too). Am I supposed to put down a number from a different part of the f1040?

Do I just call them about this to explain, or will they force me to resubmit the i-864 (with the same information), which will potentially result in another cycle of "no, you put down the wrong info"?

Thanks muchly for your advice.

No I have not had your exact experience. But perhaps the problem is that when you use the "foreign income exclusion" that amount is subtracted from the amount that you enter on line 22 of the form 1040.

My potential problem was similar in that I had non-taxable income (which is what your "foreign income exclusion" is) which would not be included on line 22 of the 1040. I explained this in my cover letter and I had no problem.

Did you point this out in your cover letter ?

[slvrfx576 15]

sorry, I got interrupted....

Whether or not you pointed this out in your cover letter, I would certainly call NVC and talk to a Supervisor....not one of the customer service reps that answer first....they won't know anything. I would do that ASAP.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You cannot include your wife's foreign income, unless you can prove that income will continue after the spouse arrives in the US.

[rysa 3]

Thank you for the responses.

slvrfx: No, I did not include this in my cover letter, as the instructions seemed to indicate you just need to match the line in the tax form, so I did not see a problem with it (and my 2012 income didn't change noticeably from 2010 and 2011, so it's not like including my spouse's income inflated my apparent income due to the foreign income tax exclusion--we just filed joint since we thought that's better evidence of bona fide marriage). What did you write in your cover letter?

The Patriot: My total taxable income wouldn't have changed whether we had filed separately or not, but the i-864 instructions specifically stated that the amount I put down should match what is on the tax form, and we had filed joint, so I couldn't have left his income out in that sense.

I will also call NVC on Monday. I guess I'll just ask to speak to a supervisor right away.

[newacct 688]

You cannot include your wife's foreign income, unless you can prove that income will continue after the spouse arrives in the US.

The current income and the number from the tax form are two completely separate questions. The OP is being told there's a problem with the question that asks for the "total income" on his tax returns, but his answer does match the number for "total income" on his tax returns.

[rysa 3]

I called NVC and they said they'll put in a request for a supervisor review that can take 20-30 days... They did not recommend resending the information if it's not going to change (i.e. the amount would still be the same) since that'd also take 30 days to process... I'm worried. I sent in the tax transcript, and not the f1040 form. I'm not sure if that's what's causing the confusion. They said I must call back to find out the review outcome. I chose not to get bumped up to a supervisor (since they said there'd be a supervisor review) during the call; was that a wrong choice?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I called NVC and they said they'll put in a request for a supervisor review that can take 20-30 days... They did not recommend resending the information if it's not going to change (i.e. the amount would still be the same) since that'd also take 30 days to process... I'm worried. I sent in the tax transcript, and not the f1040 form. I'm not sure if that's what's causing the confusion. They said I must call back to find out the review outcome. I chose not to get bumped up to a supervisor (since they said there'd be a supervisor review) during the call; was that a wrong choice?

Do the amounts on the transcript match what you have on the 1040? The the transcript shows the "official" number. The 1040 number much be supported by the total of the numbers shown on the W-2's, etc.

[rysa 3]

The transcript number matches the f1040 number for "total income." The transcript for tax year 2012 also has a strange row below the total income number, titled "total income per computer," that is 1K USD less than the "total income" number. I've just looked at transcripts for tax years 2009-2011 and the 2012 transcript is the only instance in which the "total income per computer" number does not match the "total income" number. Could that be it? Maybe the "total income per computer" is the final number for IRS, if the filer (me) made an error... Maybe calling IRS is faster in this case.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The transcript number matches the f1040 number for "total income." The transcript for tax year 2012 also has a strange row below the total income number, titled "total income per computer," that is 1K USD less than the "total income" number. I've just looked at transcripts for tax years 2009-2011 and the 2012 transcript is the only instance in which the "total income per computer" number does not match the "total income" number. Could that be it? Maybe the "total income per computer" is the final number for IRS, if the filer (me) made an error... Maybe calling IRS is faster in this case.

There is the mistake right there. The IRS computer says you made a mistake in arithmetic, and gives the correct number. Go by the corrected number and refile the I-864.

[rysa 3]

Thank you for the comment!

Ugh... I feel so stupid. Now it's another 30-day delay. I bet if I had submitted copies of my f1040 this wouldn't even be happening...

We were already delayed 6 weeks because their online payment system was broken in June and we didn't know our payment got magically rejected... and thought they were just late sending us the notice.

Edited September 10, 2013 by rysa

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

It does seem a little inefficient though. You would think the NVC could have just corrected the number, like the IRS did. Unless you are really close on the qualifying income, I don't see how it could really matter.

[rysa 3]

My income is comfortably above the cutoff point, but I guess they didn't like it anyway. I know it was my own fault for the error in calculation, but to get held back because I sent the f1040 and not the tax transcript... still sad.

[GabbyBird 53]

I had a similar error on mine, except I used the AGI instead of Gross on my form. I'm always nervous returning it because we also did a joint return as my wife was living in the USA until her student visa expired.

What's frustrating is waiting 1.5 months for them to re-review a paper when they literally tell you "take this number from line 22 of the paper you clearly gave us and put it into the line on this paper you clearly gave us".

But I guess the whole point of NVC is to prepare and correct the documents to send them to the embassy.