I-134 Affidavit of Support by Federal Employee (Petitioner)

[bhook 3]

Hi everyone, 

 

I (US petitioner) work for the federal government and am wondering if the Standard Form (SF-50) is acceptable for proof of my employment/salary for the I-134 Affidavit of Support for our visa application. It is the official personnel form that shows the type of employment (permanent/temporary), position, salary, and is electronically signed by the central Talent Acquisition Group. Federal employees receive it any time a change is made to our salary and/or position. I'm asking now because I'm not sure if this standard form counts as "business stationery" and it might be very difficult to get something on agency letterhead since we don't have a local HR representative. This might be a silly question since the folks reviewing the I-134 forms are also federal employees but I don't want to make any assumptions. Mail is really slow to Ethiopia so I would like to have this lined up to send the original I-134 to my fiancé right after we receive NOA2. For anyone not familiar with the personnel form I'm referencing a stock copy of the SF-50 can be found here: https://www.gsa.gov/portal/forms/download/115474

 

Thanks for your help!

[KULtoATL 1,551]

I was thinking the same thing re: USCIS being federal employees. The SF-50 is very comprehensive and frankly better than a regular HR written letter. I sure hope they would just accept that.

 

I'm curious, would it take a long time for you to request for a letter from the non-local HR rep? Is it possible to get your head of department or immediate superior to write and sign the letter in place of the HR rep, provided that your head of department or immediate superior are allowed to know your salary?

[bhook 3]

9 minutes ago, KULtoATL said:

I was thinking the same thing re: USCIS being federal employees. The SF-50 is very comprehensive and frankly better than a regular HR written letter. I sure hope they would just accept that.

 

I'm curious, would it take a long time for you to request for a letter from the non-local HR rep? Is it possible to get your head of department or immediate superior to write and sign the letter in place of the HR rep, provided that your head of department or immediate superior are allowed to know your salary?

Hi @KULtoATL I'm really hoping that the standard language on the SF-50 counts as "business stationery". It took months for me to receive other documents from the centralized HR unit (pretty standard things like signing up for healthcare, receiving service credit for prior years of federal service) so I am assuming this would also take months. I'm pretty sure my immediate superior would refer me to the SF-50 or to the HR unit for this type of verification. 

[KULtoATL 1,551]

@bhook Not that I'm a federal employee so I'm just throwing out ideas for your consideration unless someone has the same experience as you and could give a 100% best solution for you and other federal employee petitioners  

 

So here:

 

1) Try and talk to your immediate superior and ask him/her if it's possible that he writes a letter to confirm what's stated in your SF-50. If he/she is willing, yeah, get that letter and attach it with your SF-50 to forward to your fiancee for her K-1 interview at the embassy.

 

2) Use the SF-50 without a confirmation letter from your immediate superior BUT you write a cover letter explaining that you are a federal employee and that your official record is the SF-50 (though USCIS should really know this but like you said, do not assume) and you have difficulty in obtaining a HR letter from the centralized unit. For this option it's your cover letter + SF50.

 

According to your timeline, your case might be adjudicated in early May. Maybe you can try to request the letter from your HR now and hope that they can send you one very,very soon. Between adjudication and the K-1 interview, you might have one or two months with USCIS having to transfer the file to NVC and NVC to then transfer it to your fiancee's embassy. This time in between is usually for the beneficiary to get her medical done and of course gather whatever necessary documents from you as well as her own while waiting for her interview.

Edited March 26, 2017 by KULtoATL

[KULtoATL 1,551]

One other option that I found mentioned in 2 separate threads from 2012... Use theworknumber dot com website. Not sure if the website is still working but I can't seem to access it because I'm outside the US.

 

VJ members mentioned about it in these old threads:

 

 

 

Hope that helps you a little

[bhook 3]

@KULtoATL thanks for being so thorough and resourceful! I definitely hope someone who completed the I-134 as a federal employee can weigh in on this post soon. Otherwise I plan to reach out to the HR unit next week, and my supervisor if absolutely necessary. 

[KULtoATL 1,551]

Happy to help out where I can  Perhaps you can get a headstart with HR on Monday. Seems like the sooner the better since they take awhile before they provide employees with the documents required.

[bhook 3]

Hoping a US petitioner who is/was also a federal employee completing the I-134 will reply to this thread. Thanks!