What to do after I-485 denied based on Affidavit of Support?

[PeterMcS 4]

My wife's I-485 application was denied because of my I-864, Affidavit of Support. We filed it over a year ago and they sent us an RFE (covered in this previous post by me) saying "we could not determine that the petitioning sponsor on Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, is qualified." They requested we get a joint sponsor or submit evidence of assets. I thought maybe it was an autogenerated letter, based on my low reported income, as I'd already presented evidence of assets on my I-864. We saw online that their scans of our evidence were incomplete, uploaded the missing parts, and replied that we'd already presented evidence of assets and added the pieces they were missing. The other day, we got notice that her I-485 was denied because the RFE had requested a joint sponsor or evidence of assets and we hadn't presented it. I had been worried that my non-standard assets (about ~$1 million in crypto) would be an issue, either because they wouldn't understand it or because the previous administration was very anti-crypto (e.g. debanking crypto customers because of regulatory pressure). Of course it could just be common incompetence. My wife will lose her employment authorization within a couple of weeks "unless you submit, within 18 days, proof that your Form I-485 remains pending." She cried over that, and we've been stressed about this. They say there's an I-290B form that we can submit to reopen (with additional evidence) and/or reconsider (if they made an error) the case. I don't know if submitting that's enough to keep her work permit, but I hope so. The additional evidence could be the $300K more in assets we have (in a regular investment account, not crypto). The error would be they missed the evidence of assets originally submitted. I just wrote our congressman earlier tonight, and we plan to submit the I-290B later this week. Does anyone have experience or suggestions on how to deal with this?

[wildbug100420 274]

5 hours ago, PeterMcS said:

My wife's I-485 application was denied because of my I-864, Affidavit of Support. We filed it over a year ago and they sent us an RFE (covered in this previous post by me) saying "we could not determine that the petitioning sponsor on Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, is qualified." They requested we get a joint sponsor or submit evidence of assets. I thought maybe it was an autogenerated letter, based on my low reported income, as I'd already presented evidence of assets on my I-864. We saw online that their scans of our evidence were incomplete, uploaded the missing parts, and replied that we'd already presented evidence of assets and added the pieces they were missing. The other day, we got notice that her I-485 was denied because the RFE had requested a joint sponsor or evidence of assets and we hadn't presented it. I had been worried that my non-standard assets (about ~$1 million in crypto) would be an issue, either because they wouldn't understand it or because the previous administration was very anti-crypto (e.g. debanking crypto customers because of regulatory pressure). Of course it could just be common incompetence. My wife will lose her employment authorization within a couple of weeks "unless you submit, within 18 days, proof that your Form I-485 remains pending." She cried over that, and we've been stressed about this. They say there's an I-290B form that we can submit to reopen (with additional evidence) and/or reconsider (if they made an error) the case. I don't know if submitting that's enough to keep her work permit, but I hope so. The additional evidence could be the $300K more in assets we have (in a regular investment account, not crypto). The error would be they missed the evidence of assets originally submitted. I just wrote our congressman earlier tonight, and we plan to submit the I-290B later this week. Does anyone have experience or suggestions on how to deal with this?

A 290 is for USCIS error. You'd be better off filing another I 485. Sounds like you need a sponsor 

[Dashinka 25,795]

An I290B seems to be appropriate here as the assets were presented.  You may considering organizing your asset information in a similar way as to the linked thread as even though this was done for the consulate, the situation is similar.

 

Good Luck!

 

 

[PeterMcS 4]

2 hours ago, wildbug100420 said:

A 290 is for USCIS error. You'd be better off filing another I 485. Sounds like you need a sponsor 

 

I believe the "reopen" option is for submitting additional evidence, and the "reconsider" option is for error. We're thinking of checking both options.

1 hour ago, Dashinka said:

An I290B seems to be appropriate here as the assets were presented.  You may considering organizing your asset information in a similar way as to the linked thread as even though this was done for the consulate, the situation is similar.

 

Good Luck!

 

 

 

Thanks! We'll take a look.

[Dashinka 25,795]

1 hour ago, PeterMcS said:

 

I believe the "reopen" option is for submitting additional evidence, and the "reconsider" option is for error. We're thinking of checking both options.

 

Thanks! We'll take a look.

It was actually a fortuitous post as it was the very next new posting after your post, and the poster was successful.

 

Good Luck!