I-134 supporting documents unemployed

[Nicolerae 19]

I am preparing my I-134 and supporting documents for my fiancé to take to his interview in a couple weeks. I am using my 2016, 2017 and 2018 taxes. I was unemployed all of 2019 (living in fiance's country). I am back in the US now and will be starting my job on the same day my fiancé has his interview so I will just be sending my official offer of employment letter to him since that's all I can provide from my job. When filling the I-134 should I list my current annual income or what my income was on my most recent taxes? My income will soon be similar to my 2018 taxes once I start this job, but my bank statements for the past year won't back that up so should I just say I'm unemployed on the form and leave my income as $0 and send the letter with my fiancé so he can explain I will be starting work? We have a co/joint sponsor who meets all of the requirements so I'm not too worried. I just don't want them to reject us because I fill something out incorrectly. 

[Boiler 43,595]

Another case where the K1 option confuses me but on to the question, when you complete the form your income is $0, so you need a joint sponsor, on the plus side your job will help show domicile.

[Nicolerae 19]

 

13 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Another case where the K1 option confuses me but on to the question, when you complete the form your income is $0, so you need a joint sponsor, on the plus side your job will help show domicile.

Why do you say the K1 option confuses you? We've got the joint sponsor and all of their documents are in order. I was just mostly concerned with my income matching the tax info. Should I still provide tax transcripts for myself? I've requested them from the IRS twice now and still have not received them so I'm worried they won't arrive in time. From what I've seen the Australian embassy doesn't require them, but I've also seen cases where they look at them so I'd rather have them to be safe. My joint sponsor is providing theirs so maybe it will be okay. 

[SalishSea 16,826]

Just now, Nicolerae said:

Why do you say the K1 option confuses you?

Because living abroad, the CR-1 would have made much more sense.

[Nicolerae 19]

1 minute ago, Jorgedig said:

Because living abroad, the CR-1 would have made much more sense.

Yeah we submitted our petition for the K1 in October while I was living in Australia. The visa I was there on expired at the end of December meaning I knew I would be returning to the US. We weren't engaged yet when we submitted our petition and we want to marry in the US so there wasn't enough time to get married and do all of the things required for the CR-1. Especially considering we were both unemployed at the time we petitioned (my parents paid the I-129F fee) It would've also meant more time apart for us since I couldn't stay in Australia with him while he waited. This way we'll have only been apart for 3 months by the time he's here. He's not working in Australia anyway and we'll be living with my parents so the waiting for the green card once he gets here isn't an issue for us. For some people the K1 is the best option. 

[geowrian 22,336]

1 hour ago, Nicolerae said:

 When filling the I-134 should I list my current annual income or what my income was on my most recent taxes?

The I-134 only asks for current income. As it doe snot appear that you will have any at the time the I-134 is presented, this would be $0.

 

30 minutes ago, Nicolerae said:

We weren't engaged yet when we submitted our petition

Huh?

[Nicolerae 19]

32 minutes ago, geowrian said:

The I-134 only asks for current income. As it doe snot appear that you will have any at the time the I-134 is presented, this would be $0.

 

Huh?

Someone said applying for the K1 didn't make sense for us because I was living abroad. When we submitted our petition for the K1 visa we weren't officially engaged yet. We knew we were going to get married, but he hadn't officially proposed. We didn't want to rush everything just to do a CR-1 before my visa to live in his country expired. In our situation the K1 made more sense. Its kind of irrelevant to the question in general, but I thought I would explain why the K1 in our case did make sense since someone questioned it. 

[Boiler 43,595]

Submitting a K1 makes you about as engaged as I could possibly think you could be.

 

There are so many issues with the K1, and a few pluses but the pluses in your situation do not seem to apply, anyway water under the bridge. As you can see I did it, mistake, but also a different time as I could drive, get an EAD reasonably quickly unlike now.

[Nicolerae 19]

3 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Submitting a K1 makes you about as engaged as I could possibly think you could be.

 

There are so many issues with the K1, and a few pluses but the pluses in your situation do not seem to apply, anyway water under the bridge. As you can see I did it, mistake, but also a different time as I could drive, get an EAD reasonably quickly unlike now.

Yeah we knew going in to it the CR-1 was the better option of the two on paper, but it just wasn't an option for us for multiple reasons. My fiancé lived in the US for 10 years on a green card before he was diagnosed with cancer. He graduated high school in the US, his only work history is from the US, etc. Most of his life is in the US so we weren't too worried about being denied. Him not being able to work isn't an issue for us. All of his friends are here so he will have plenty to do to keep him busy. It was more important for us to pay a little more in the long run and have a longer process because we will be together much sooner. Of course that's not always the ideal scenario for everyone. Thanks for your help!

[Boiler 43,595]

I only can talk for myself but I assume others hold similar views, everybody's path in life is different and I certainly support informed decisions even if I would not do that myself.

 

There is a tendency which I am no doubt guilty of to comment on these as we see so many people who seem to jump on one route without understanding the consequences.

 

Seems you have your bases covered.

[geowrian 22,336]

24 minutes ago, Nicolerae said:

Someone said applying for the K1 didn't make sense for us because I was living abroad. When we submitted our petition for the K1 visa we weren't officially engaged yet. We knew we were going to get married, but he hadn't officially proposed. We didn't want to rush everything just to do a CR-1 before my visa to live in his country expired. In our situation the K1 made more sense. Its kind of irrelevant to the question in general, but I thought I would explain why the K1 in our case did make sense since someone questioned it. 

You signed letters stating your intents to marry. You filed an I-129F for a fiancé/fiancée. You were already engaged by every sense of the word.

[Nicolerae 19]

8 minutes ago, geowrian said:

You signed letters stating your intents to marry. You filed an I-129F for a fiancé/fiancée. You were already engaged by every sense of the word.

Okay sure maybe in the eyes of the government/USCIS and you. We didn't consider ourselves engaged yet though and neither did our family or friends. My only point in saying that was because someone suggested the CR-1 was a better option and I was explaining why it wasn't. Maybe some people don't mind rushing to get married for immigration purposes, but we didn't want to. I still feel we made the best decision choosing the K1. To each their own.

[geowrian 22,336]

9 minutes ago, Nicolerae said:

Okay sure maybe in the eyes of the government/USCIS and you.

And the dictionary:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/engaged
 

The reason I noted it is because words matter with immigration. Something like that can and has resulted in a refused visa in some cases.

 

Edit: I would note the opposite is true, too. People have used wife/husband with a CO and has resulted in a refused visa for the same reason.

Edited March 7, 2020 by geowrian

[KittyKat3072 235]

Yeah I would be careful with how he talks about your engagement at your interview.  

What if they ask when you guys got engaged? 

If he responds with a date after you filed the petition and says that you didnt consider yourselves engaged when you filed it, it could lead to visa refusal. 

I don't know what would happen about not including certain documents for the interview. But I would definitely include whats on the list the Sydney consulate has given him especially since you guys dont have a solid work history.  

 

I'm not sure what you should say you're annual wage is given that you haven't gotten paid from your new job and have no pay stubs. I would make sure they have the amount you would be making a year there when you get a letter from them. Are you not able to get your tax transcripts online? When did you request your transcripts via mail? Even if you didnt file imo you should include a 'status of nonfiler' verification page from the irs when/if you log in. Which shows you didnt file your taxes for 2019 (if you hadn't). Also I would write a letter to the consulate explaining your situation and saying that your going to start working and its secure long term employment etc.

 

[Nicolerae 19]

9 hours ago, KittyKat3072 said:

Yeah I would be careful with how he talks about your engagement at your interview.  

What if they ask when you guys got engaged? 

If he responds with a date after you filed the petition and says that you didnt consider yourselves engaged when you filed it, it could lead to visa refusal. 

I don't know what would happen about not including certain documents for the interview. But I would definitely include whats on the list the Sydney consulate has given him especially since you guys dont have a solid work history.  

 

I'm not sure what you should say you're annual wage is given that you haven't gotten paid from your new job and have no pay stubs. I would make sure they have the amount you would be making a year there when you get a letter from them. Are you not able to get your tax transcripts online? When did you request your transcripts via mail? Even if you didnt file imo you should include a 'status of nonfiler' verification page from the irs when/if you log in. Which shows you didnt file your taxes for 2019 (if you hadn't). Also I would write a letter to the consulate explaining your situation and saying that your going to start working and its secure long term employment etc.

 

From everything I've seen in my research its okay if you weren't "officially engaged" at the time of applying as long as you had every intention of marrying. I think a lot of people talk about marriage and their plans before they get engaged. I don't think its any different considering we are now engaged and have every intention of marrying just like we did when we wrote our letters of intent. My fiancé wanted to make the proposal special which is why he hadn't proposed yet at the time of our filing the petition. We both knew we would be engaged though. 

 

The Sydney consulate doesn't include tax returns or transcripts or anything on their required documents list/packet 4. The only thing they include is the I-134 instructions which list a letter from the bank with details of the account and a letter from employer. Those are the only supporting documents required in the instructions.

 

I called the IRS a couple of months ago to change my address and request transcripts. Turns out the person I talked to didn't change my address so I never got them. So called again a few weeks ago and requested them again and changed my address again. I wasn't able to get them online initially because my address hadn't been changed yet. I did try to go on and get them again, but I don't have a phone bill in my name because I've been using a prepaid plan since I returned to the US a few months ago. So now they're mailing me a a validation code which could take another 10 days. I'm hoping the transcripts might still show up this week or possibly the validation letter so I can get them online. Otherwise I will have to go to the nearest IRS office to get them. 

 

2019 taxes shouldn't be required yet because it's still before the April 15th deadline and our interview is before the deadline. At least that's what I've been told anyway.

 

The letter is a great idea. I will do that just to cover my bases.