Brian1977

Matt had his interview today.

Actually, we had a mini-crisis on Friday, as I saw his passport had just UNDER 6 months left. I begged the passport office to give an emergency appointment, which they did yesterday at 8am.

The interview was uneventful. We had an 8am appt, so to get to central London by 7.30, we stayed with friends in South London as we couldn't get an early enough train from our home in Hastings. After going through the airport security- and by the way, they were fine with taking mobile phones, which we left in the car.

Once inside, we were staring at the giant cinema screen with numbers dinging up as everyone else described. A momentary panic set in when the advisory screen said to bring your DS260 confirmation. As it turned out, this wasn't needed. Matt was seen in about 20 minutes. There were no issues with the documents, which was a relief.

Matt sat down again while they passed his info to the interviewer. Another 15 minutes and he was called up. Contrary to my anxieties, they were just fine with us having our house listed for sale and owning another property in the USA. They didn't care that I didn't have a job yet. However, as a point of note, I put down (correctly) zero on my income and on each year's tax return as my UK earnings don't count for US tax or the form.

The only surprise was that they said that my dad's income of nearly $100K a year was not suitable as a joint sponsor alone. Then they saw the house valuation and equity we have in the UK property we are selling and were happy with this, noting that it is well in excess. They were much happier with the asset based application than the joint sponsor. (I thought it would be the other way around.)

No funny questions about Matt's history, just how we met, and a question of 'what the heck were you doing between when you met and got a civil partnership in 2007?' I think this was meant as a joke, but Matt was too stressed to respond wittily.

It was only about 15 minutes, most of which was just going through the forms. She ended the interview by keeping Matt's passport and saying that she is going to 'recommend the visa.' We then walked around the building to the DX counter and paid $14, and should have it back in 5-10 days.

Matt said what was really helpful was having the cover letters explaining the finances and residency- especially the calculation of assets, which he was able to explain clearly to the interviewer. This was the text that was successful:

I-864 Income and Assets:

As I will be leaving my employment upon returning to the USA, my i-864 is solely based on assets.

The primary asset is the house in the UK that is jointly owned with the applicant, which is listed with an estate agent pending approval of Matthew’s visa.

(house listing and Realtor agreement)

We have had our UK house valued at £210,000. ($343,116)

(Realtor valuation)

The latest mortgage statement indicates, including early repayment fees, the total owed on our mortgage is £113,064. ($184,734 @$1.63 exchange). The amount owed will decrease slightly each month.

(mortgage statement)

Based on the above sums, our assets are $158,382, which is well in excess of the 3x 125% of the poverty line for a family of two necessary to establish support. Even in the event that the house does not sell for the full assessed value, our assets will remain significantly in excess of the minimum requirement.

******

Thanks everyone for your advice- hopefully this will be helpful to you all as well- Best of luck everybody!

cheers,

Brian

Thanks Nick- Yes it was London, but the poster said that the agent 'tut tutted' at her but let it by anyway. I am probably just working myself up over nothing.

HI all,

Well the good news is that Matt has his interview next Tuesday for his spouse visa!

We have gathered all of our documents and feel that we have as much evidence as we can.

However, I am still stumped as to what to put on section 4 of the i-864 form. I've seen answers to similar questions, but their situations are always just a little bit different than ours to just make me even more confused. I remember one post where the consulate official said becuse the person used their US address as the residence they shouldn't have been allowed to use DCF!

I live in the UK and am making the application on re-establishing domicile in the USA. (we are selling our house and have already purchased a property in the USA).

However, on section 4 of the form there are three areas:

Mailing Address

Residence

Domicile.

Do I put all three as my UK address as would be correct as of today, or should I put USA as domicile, although I am not domiciled there, but intend to re-establish.

Also, do I fill it out as is correct for today, or based on where I am, or do I use the USA address that we will be living at?

I presently use my parents address for all of my banking, bills, etc as our new house is vacant and it takes ages for mail to get forwarded. However, as soon as we move to the USA, we will be using our new address.

Obviously the form that I fill out for the Embassy would be outdated by the time Matt gets through the port of entry and gets his green card.

I just don't want to fill it out wrong and then either get rejected or have them say that I didn't qualify for DCF in the first place!

many thanks!

Brian

Thanks Nick- that's reassuring about the house.

My dad's completed his forms already- he's the type who seems to enjoy doing taxes for fun and emailed me his tax transcripts and a copy of his passport, Social Security Card and birth certificate. He's posting the original signed form.

Filling out mine, I am putting down my current year to date income in part 6 box 5, even though I don't pay US taxes as its below the threshold. Neither the London guidance nor the instructions are clear about what to do about foreign income sources that are due to terminate when leaving the country, but it just seems common sense not to base an applicaiton on this alone. Equally it seems counterintuitive not to declare it, as it would raise the question as to how we have been supporting ourselves.

My husband is self employed and we could use this as well, but this might cause more confusion than help. Although most of his clients are electronic and 50% are American, he may have to close his UK company and reopen it again as a US company, and thus his income may travel with him, but the company may not.

I will also be including a clear explanation of the steps taken to re-establish residency.

Hopefully they will see sense to understand that we have money in excess of the requirements even if we don't fit into the boxes exactly.

I hope that others find this useful, and I have made a note to remind myself to update this as I get nearer the date and after the interview to see what was helpful and what wasn't so others can learn from my mistakes.

Thanks again!

Brian

Thanks Nick- that sounds like good advice. I'll have my dad complete his forms just in case. The guidance seems to indicate that houses are OK, but it does seem that without having any substantial 'cash,' to declare they might be a bit iffy.

I've also read in many people's timelines about London not even checking tax forms, but I wasn't sure if this was an anomoly.

cheers,

Brian

Hi everyone,

My husband has his medical booked for next week and we've successfully completed the DS260, so I figure we could have an appointment within the next month or so.

I had a laugh at the 'are you a member of the communist party?' question. That sounds like something right out of the 50s. You'd think they'd update it to reflect groups that have actually been active and an actual threat since the 1970s- but I digress.

But anyway, in completing the i-864, I was confused by the guidance as to whether or not we need tax transcripts.

I have lived in the UK for 10 years and have photocopies of my last three year 1040 and f2555 forms. The older ones are hand written but the 2013 was filed online and I have the printout. I tried to apply online for tax transcripts, but probably because my address is in the UK it didn't work. I applied by post, but who knows if it will actually make it to the UK.

Does London require tax transcripts, or do you think my online confirmation, 1040, plus the older signed 1040's and reciepts from the post office confirming delivery will be sufficient?

Our other question relates to assets. We are selling our house in London and would need to rely on assets alone as the nil returns and the fact I will obviously be quitting my UK job means that I had to say our income is 'zero.'

Thanks to the crazy housing bubble down here, we should have $150,000 after we pay off the mortgage. We have had our house valued by a local estate agent who is preparing it for sale, but the guidance said to have it valued by a licensed appraiser. Does this mean that we will have to have a survey done like they do for mortgages? Equally, we purchased our house in the USA back in May, so if they accept our closing papers on that as a valuation, it should bring the amount up to over $200K.

Will they be OK with us relying totally on assets, or will it be a good idea to have my dad act as a co-sponsor as well?

Regarding re-establishing domicile in the USA, we have purchased a house in the USA- do we need the actual deed (its in the USA), or our printed electronic copies of our closing papers enough to prove ownership? (we did the purchase remotely from the UK, so everything's pdf). We also have utility bills that we're paying and will include the letter from our estate agent and the brochure for our house in London indicating that it is for sale. Is there anything else that people have found helpful? I don't really want to quit my job and move over first, as trying to pay our mortgage in the UK with US dollars until we sell the UK house will be painful to say the least! Would it be a good idea to get a quote from moving/shipping companies to bring with us as well?

I never know if when they mean 'original documents' they just mean birth certificates, marriage certificate and such, or if they mean EVERYTHING.

You are probably all laughing at how paranoid I am about this, and I hope I will laugh at myself too when its all over, but I'd hate to delay everything for not bringing a piece of paper that I could have chased up before hand.

cheers,

Brian

For what its worth, I never got a NOA1 form- the only idea I had they got my forms was when about 7 days later my credit card was charged. I recieved my NOA2 (approval) about 6 weeks later, but there was 2 weeks between when it was postmarked and when it arrived. About a week later, we got the letter with the LND number on it so we could start our ds260 and book the medical. For us, the process was about a 2 weeks faster than the status update on the embassy website.

It was really fast, but the lack of an NOA1 meant until the letters came, we really did not know if it would be weeks or months! Nailbiting this stuff is.

Hooray! the envelope in my familliar handwriting arrived today with the NOA2.

It was dated 27 July though, so it was procesed very quickly indeed.

It didn't have a reference number on it, with the first box checked that stated that the number would be sent within the next 8 weeks. I understand that I can call the number and politely ask if they have this.

It took a few reads of the form to make sense of it, as it has every possible outcome listed, but the one that is relevant is highlighted and ticked.

Thanks everyone for your help and kind words!

Nich- thanks for that link again- I came across it ages ago and couldn't find it again- its really helpful.

In other news...

Matt got his immunizations today, and the GP signed his police clearance too- so that's off now as well. He charged £15 under the table- I think he needed some cash for lunch or something. Our lazy GP didn't give Matt a record of his immunizations though- he said the doctors at the clinic can call him to verify- I told Matt to go back and get a stamped copy.

Now I'm just doing my back tax returns. I'm one of those people- probably like 90% of American expats- who didn't realise until I renewed my passport this year that I needed to file US taxes even though I've been living here for years. I am very glad that the new passport highlights this, becuase it seems that you're just supposed to know- I never thought about it, as I've been paying taxes in the UK for ages now, and figured you pay taxes where you live.

I filed my 2013 taxes online back in March, but since looking at the affidavit of support, it looks like they want the past three years, so I'm doing my 2011 and 2012 now. I hope they don't ask for tax info before this, as I would really struggle to find my old paperwork.

Hopefully the fine for late filing won't be too huge and it won't be a criminal matter. I know that ignorance of the law is no excuse and I'm resigned to take my medicine, whatever it may be.

By the way- its really easy to file online if you earn less than about $90,000 a year- you put a bunch of stuff in boxes and it all amounts to zero, and sends itself off automatically. For my back forms, I'm just duplicating what I did in 2013 but with the previous years allowances. At least the pay freeze has made this easy!

My understanding of the AOS is there are 2 parts- the residency requirement and the financial requirement.

I've also sent my dad the affidavit of support, as he's going to have to sponsor Matt, as although I've never earned less than $50K since being in the UK, I have officially zero US income. We (hope to) have a lump sum from selling our house that will be well over the limit, but we don't want to sell the house until we are further along, so the sponsorship seems the way to go to meet the financial part of the requirement. I am getting 2 agents to value our house, and we will list it once we get a visa interview date, so that we can use the official valuation, estate agent's contract, as well as the real estate ads to prove that the house really is for sale. We might even have an offer by that time, given how hot the market is at the moment.

Since we have purchased our 'new' house in St Louis, hopefully this should be enough, along with evidence of our British house being for sale, to prove our intention to re-establish ourselves in the USA permanently. It is a bit of a gamble though- if our house sells and Matt's immigraiton doesn't go through, we will lose this house that we really love, and it would be very difficult for us to find another one as nice. I think I read that that once he gets his papers, we MUST travel within 90 days, and trying to time immigraiton with listing and then a buyer closing on our house in that time is quite difficult.

I'm mainly sharing all this for others who might be in the same position later- I learned so much from everyone on this forum that hopefully others can learn from my experience too.

Thanks again everyone!

Brian

Hello all,

long time listener first time caller.

I am a US citizen and permanent resident in the UK and have been for 11 years. My partner since 2004 (and now husband since 2014) is a UK citizen. We would have moved back to the US earlier, but it wasn't until last year's supreme court decision that it was legally possible for me to sponsor him.

I applied for his i130 on 4 July through the embassy and my credit card was debited on 8 July.

However, I never received an noa1 email- is this normal?

I used the contact form to contact the embassy and did not get a response. Is this normal, or did my application end up in the black hole to be not touched for months, or will I just magically get a 'brown envelope' through the post? The status update today said 'applications recieved on Jun 24 are being processed as of Jul 24' so I am just assuming my date must be the 8th or there abouts.

This whole process is so nervewracking- even though we tick all the boxes now, it is so hard to plan anything- I know it can take from 3-6 months or more, and I wish I had a crystal ball so I knew when we could put our house on the market. I'm sure everyone feels like this when in limbo. What's worse, we purchased an antebellum home in St Louis to rehab, where we intend to move that was a short sale thinking it would take 6 months or more or the bank to approve and the timing would line up perfectly, but that went through in 3 weeks- so now we have an empty house 3000 miles away to keep on top of, and hope that it all goes through so we can actually go and live there!

many thanks!

Brian