HELP!! Request For Initial Evidence?

[nokobo 0]

Hi All!

 

I have been reading and referencing all useful information on visa journey, and I feel that it's time for me to throw a question up on here - PLEASE advice / help with your experience and/or knowledge!!
 

 

• Applicant (me) is from South Korea... Current H-1B Holder
• Sponsor, my husband, is a US citizen
• Married and submitted applications for Adjustment of Status in October 2016 to Chicago Lockbox office
• Received Request for Initial Evidence (I-485) letter (color: pink) on December 4, 2016... We have to return requested information to Lee's Summit by the end of February 2017
• My husband is an independent contractor
• He did not file a tax 2015... His father was dying of cancer and he had to stop working completely to be a primary caregiver. No work period: From January 2015  To June 2016
• We submitted my husband's tax returns of 2012, 2013, and 2014 in the initial green card application package
• We also included an official IRS letter of non-filing for the 2015 tax year, together with a letter from a governmental facility stating that he was a full time caregiver during the period above
• My husband's [bank saving balance + assets] is about $35K
• After we received the RFIE letter, he filed a 2016 tax return in which the total on 1040 line 22 is about $15K

 

[Excerpt from the Request for Initial Evidence letter]

 

Quote

...Based on the documents submitted with Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, for the petitioner/sponsor, the net value of the assets do not make up the difference between the petitioner/sponsor's income and the poverty guideline.  Submit evidence of assets that meet the standards listed below or obtain a joint sponsor...

 

And they hand-underlined the section below this^ statement:

Quote

• Assets must equal three times the difference for a spouse or child of a United States citizen.

Then finally, highlighted the very last section that says:

Quote

...Note: The total income (line 22)on IRS Form 1040 is used to determine qualifying income for a sponsor, not the "Gross Receipts" (line 1) from IRS Schedule C or C-EZ.

*Basically where I used underline on here, is where they actually hand-underlined on the RFIE letter

 

[Questions]

• Could we assume that the original location (Chicago Lockbox) forwarded all of our package and its contents to the new location (Lee's Summit office in MO) we are supposed to send our requested documents?
  If not, we have to include massive amount of relevant documents from the original package we sent in last year, and send all over again to the new location...
   

Instead of sending in the same assets information, we decided to include my husband's latest 2016 tax return information although it was not requested on the RFIE letter. Do you think this would work?
Basically we thought we could prove that he can earn necessary over 125% poverty guide line amount with his independent contractor business.
  In 2016 tax year, he earned a little less ($15K) to reach to that required 125% poverty guide line to be my sponsor, but his assets ($35K) should cover more than three times the difference.
We think it's not too bad considering the fact that he only worked half a year after his father has passed away and got back in working situation. Should we write a cover letter to include this statement, so we can explain better to whoever the new person assessing our submitted evidence at a new location?
  Is there anything else we should include in the new package we are going to submit in few weeks?

 

[Note]

• We are guessing that they refered to his 2014 tax return to check if his assets will make up the three times difference. Which is NO, because he was a student back then and was working part time
• We unfortunately don't have any family member of my husband or friends to file joint sponsorship
• His assets are mainly stocks

 

Thank you so much for taking your time to read thus far, I know it is a little complicated, but I'll really really really appreciate any information / advice on this!
All the best,

nokobo

Edited February 7, 2017 by nokobo
typo and indents fix