shikimo

Current income is certainly the most important factor in the income equation...but think of it this way: one of the key factors in the judgment-call aspect of the AOS is stability. Someone who has a multi-year history of filing a more-or-less correct tax return is probably a safer bet for ongoing stability and thus support of a new immigrant than someone who only has sufficient current income and an unclear tax status in recent years.

This is just an idea that I have: I don't have any special insight into the process. I do know, however, that due to living abroad my 2nd- and 3rd-year historical tax returns demonstrated an AGI well below the threshold and it didn't negatively affect our application (my current-year income was well above the limit, which as you say is what really matters in the practical sense). I'm just glad I filed properly with the IRS all those years when it came time to provide transcripts to the NVC.

Update: My wife's visa was approved at her interview on 4/1!!

She said the interview was short but intense, and that the CO tried to trip her up with numbers/years and by switching back and forth between English and French very quickly, but in the end it's all done.:) CEAC status is now "Issued."

12 months and 20 days later, my family once again has permission be whole.

We gave them all that I even said that to the guy and he said they still give themselves w2s but I don't think that's right. I emailed them saying so. We gave them his tax return plus all schedules.

That is just plain wrong! There is no way for a self-employed person to issue oneself a W2 without participating in his/her company's payment structure in a way that makes he or she not technically self-employed, at least in the eyes of the IRS.

I've been self-employed for more than one entire tax year, I've always kept up on my taxes, and I've never had a W2 during those years. It's hard to imagine the motivation of the person telling you otherwise: it seems impossible that they could be that ignorant about something so basic and relevant to their job.

I don't know what to do his dad insists that self employed people don't report on w2s

He's right: a W2 is a tax form given by an employer to an employee. Self-employed people don't get them.

There are other ways to prove self-employment income, the best example being all the special tax forms that self-employed people are required to fill out in great detail.

Thats all K1 stuff. You have done all the form filing you will do. The only thing left to do is after you receive your Visa and you go online to pay your Visa Fee (green card production fee) of $165.

Great, thanks for the response: that's what I thought, but we've come too far to leave anything to chance.

Quick question/confirmation as our interview date approaches:

I was just looking over the VJ Paris Embassy page (http://www.visajourney.com/consulates/index.php?ctry=France&cty=Paris), and I noticed that there is a lot of information that hasn't come up in our case and isn't mentioned in our P4 letter at all. I think I understand that the P3 is only for fiance visas and doesn't apply to us; if this is the case, does this mean that we can ignore the DS-160, DS-2001, and I-134 forms? None of these things are mentioned in the interview preparation instructions in the P4 letter.

I think we've got this under control, but I don't want to leave any stone unturned after 13 months of waiting.

At this point, I'm pretty much convinced that we're going to get a checklist. People with our scan date have been getting case complete for three days now and we've got nothing. Our first wedding anniversary is tomorrow and I'm pretty much positive that we're getting a checklist as a present.

If it makes you feel any better our checklist came a little early, while our CC came several days late and well after a few others with later scan dates.

That's not much in the way of evidence, but it does suggest that being "out of order" with others around your scan date doesn't necessarily indicate failure or success.

Good luck!

As I understand it you can, but it changes the requirements for the AOS and I don't know how you would make that change so close to the end. I suppose you would need to base your AOS on assets (or in your case the sponsor alone) instead of the income of the USC currently domiciled financially in the US, but I don't know if that obviates the domicile requirement or not...maybe someone who's done that will chime in? I do know of couples who have made it through the entire process without setting foot in the US until the beneficiary's POE, but they started down that path from the beginning.

I moved to the US last May specifically to NOT have to worry about this. We never dreamt we would be apart this long and it's been something of a catastrophe for our family, but now that we have the interview date it's just a question of hanging on a little longer and letting the healing commence...

P4!!!!!!!!!!!

April 1st!!!!

I can't believe it's coming up so soon...after all this waiting, now it's going to be a scramble to get ready.

Pay stubs from 2015 pay periods would be even more current proof of revenue than a 2014 tax return, right? Couldn't hurt to have them with you.

Just checked and NA under Aos fee. I hope that means CC! I didn't get an email yet.

Congrats! I was in the same boat a few days ago; I got through to the NVC on Tuesday and they confirmed the CC (which, incidentally, happened the same day as the third N/A).

I suppose that nothing is for sure in this process, but I haven't heard of anyone seeing the third N/A and not getting a CC...

OK, new thread to read: CC 3/2, waiting for Paris interview date!

Reading this thread, I'm thinking that I'm probably going to need to do my taxes and send my wife a copy of my return to bring to the interview. I guess I should get on that.

Just because I said I would post it: CC on March 2nd is official!

I'd seen the third N/A since Monday, but I didn't get through to confirm until tonight.

Predictably she said that there's no way for me to have any concrete information about how long it will take to get the interview scheduled...but what's a little more waiting at this point??

Well, there was a bit of good news yesterday: at day 71 after checklist scan date, we now have the mythical third N/A on our CEAC account! A true sight for sore eyes: barring something majorly out of order, that should equal a CC and the end of the NVC for us.

Hopefully the embassy in Paris is doing OK and we can get an interview date before the end of days.

Congrats!

Most likely it's CC.

Don't forget to update the spreadsheet, it makes the rest of us feel better when we see progress xD

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10PgA_IJw9TFvAjQGxJUNaQpD-fgwi6yh0pusO54oppo/edit#gid=0

Thank you!!

I shouldn't update it until I confirm the actual CC, right?

Third N/A third N/A third N/A!!!! (checklist doc scan date 12/22). It appeared sometime between 5:45 am and 6:15 pm CST today (3/2).

By all accounts, this is a quasi-sure-thing lead-up to an official CC...right? I don't have the time to call and verify right now because of work...

Can't wait for an interview date...even if it's a little bit off in the future (which it probably will be), having a date will drastically change both of our lives for the better.

Checking in, month #7 @ NVC. Yippee.

Despite a scan date of 12/18 (after a one-item checklist) and a confirmation from the NVC by telephone last Tuesday that I would have news in a "a couple of days," still nothing.

I can't bear calling them again only to be told the same thing. I'll give it another week of checking for the third N/A...

Anyway, all that aside: good luck to everyone, and here's hoping for some happy March stories!

I am also on day 64. I hope they have been reviewing our documents today!

Have you checked whether you have 3 n/a's yet?

Yes, I check once per day, thanks. If I start checking more often than that I won't get anything else done.

I just wish I could know whether the news will be good (CC) or bad (second ticky-tack checklist). "Could be!" is just NOT the definitive response I was hoping for.

Good luck to you too! Maybe we'll have CCs by the end of the week...

She's right you will hear from them soon because of your scan date... I did add you to the spreadsheet, please report back, my best guess is Friday.

Will do: hopefully it's good news!!

Finally got through, just after posting that...45 minutes of hold time, but that's better than not even getting the privilege of waiting.

...the woman, who was nice and cheery, wouldn't tell me what the status of my case was but did insist that I would receive an email in the next couple of days. When I asked her if that meant that it would be done soon, she said "could be."

Wish I knew what that meant: was she looking at a case complete or another checklist on her screen when she said that??

This process is just...so...inhuman.

But y'all already knew that.

Just spoke with NVC tonight, 64 days after they confirmed receipt of my one-item checklist...the woman was nice, cheery even, and told me the weather story but then also said to look for an email from the NVC in "the next couple of days." I asked her if this meant that we could finally have a CC. She paused and then said, "could be." "Can you tell me any more than that?" I said. "No! Sorry!" she chirped back.

[sound of more hair turning gray]

If I understand the system correctly, she was probably looking at my case on the screen and probably knew at that moment whether I was getting another checklist or CC. Does anyone have a decent guess as to which, based on the response?

Not that I'd hold anyone to their guess--I'm just going mad is all, no worries.

Here's a question from a frustrated NVC-bound lonely person who misses his family: has anyone else had trouble even getting in line to talk to someone on the phone at the NVC? Before I used to have to call a few times just to get past the busy signal, but once I got through after 30-40 minutes I'd get a person.

Now it goes straight to a recording telling me that they're too busy to even put me on hold. Then it delivers the message in Spanish and hangs up. I've tried about 100-150 times--I'm 65 days past a 60-day letter for the most ticky-tack checklist imaginable--and I can't even get an update.

Has anyone else been getting this, or is the NVC routing only my phone number to this message??

Congrats TeddyB!! You've earned it.

As I ride out the wait for my one-item checklist to be vetted, I'm optimistically putting together some docs for my wife for the interview: there are great resources here for that and I've got everything I need, but I've got one question:

At some point during this awful process I SWEAR that I received a document from the NVC that said something to the effect of "keep this document, as the beneficiary will be required to present it at the interview."

Now I'm plowing through all the docs in the immigration file, and I'm not finding this mysterious item.

Did I dream that up? I can't find a reference to it anywhere, so maybe I did...

Thanks!

Hi,

You don't be disheartened. I am going through a similar phase. You don't need to send any documents along with the updated i-864 unless stated in the checklist email from NVC. But , make sure that you check the checkbox which states if you have attached the transcripts with the I-864. DO NOT leave it blank of unchecked.

They will replace you earlier I-864 with the updated one. Make sure you fill this new form with the required changes and everything else should be the same as the particulars filled in the the earlier I-864.

Also, a small piece of advice will be to call NVC and confirm that there is nothing else missing in the packet or nothing else needs to be corrected and sent. Once confirmed, send the updated I-864 with the case number written on it along with the bar coded cover sheet that you sent the last time.

Good luck!!

Thank you: I appreciate the kind words and advice.

So basically, the idea is that I'm checking the box about the tax transcripts because they already have them, even though I'm not technically sending them with this particular document? If that's what you meant, that makes sense to me. The trap would be to NOT check it this time because I'm not sending the transcripts with this particular document...

I will call tomorrow and do as you suggest: it might not make any difference, but it can't hurt. I don't think my family will survive another checklist.

checklist for me too!

(@*$#%^.

Unlike Dave87 I don't have a lawyer to blame (and YES you should be furious with him/her!!), just myself:

In Part 5. Sponsor's Household Size, please correct the following... [x] Item 2. You must enter (1) for yourself in this field.

[x]

Although it's a stupid, tiny little mistake that doesn't affect the integrity of the document and there's no good reason to ruin the lives of three people for 60 more days over it, it is nonetheless a mistake.

@)$(&%.

Just one question for you all from a very depressed person: when you get a checklist asking for a new i-864, do you have to submit all the other AOS docs along with it, or just the form itself?

)@*($#%&)*(@#%&&)#$*.

It's been nearly 9 months since I started this thread and my wife and I started this journey. Now it is close to the end. My wife passed her interview and now just a fee more weeks until she is home with me.

I want to thank everyone for their support and friendship through this process. Good luck to all and NEVER give up hope.

Congrats, TeddyB!! I'm genuinely happy for you. Sooner or later we'll all get there...