I&G

20 hours ago, Anyi said:

Quote

I am going through the same situation. Did you find out a good response to those questions?

 

I spoke with an attorney and explained what I posted here and he said to skip it. 

It is something new and it is extremely confusing.... I will be writing an explanation as to why I chose to put 'No' in the Additional information section just to cover all bases.

In the instructions it says:

"Part 8. General Eligibility and Inadmissibility Grounds. Select the answer you think is correct. If you answer
“Yes” to any questions (or if you answer “No,” but are unsure of your answer), provide an explanation of the
events and circumstances in the space provided in Part 14. Additional Information."

This leads to believe they are giving some leeway with this section - probably because it is a completely new section. If someone ends up doing it incorrectly, they'll ask you to resubmit the form later. 

11 hours ago, Dashinka said:

Will your mother be requiring public welfare benefits?  Do you meet the requirements of the I864 to support your mother?

Hello,

As far as I understand from the guidance she will not require any of the listed welfare benefits.  We do as a family meet the requirements of the I-864 as well.  I still am unclear what to do. This is a very confusing addition the Form. 

I am filling Form I-485 in conjunction with I-130 to adjust the status of a parent of US citizen living in the United States and I am very confused by the section about 'Public Charge' in Part 8. items 61 to 68.d. on page 13 and 14 of the form.

From the related guidance it seems that the the mother of a US citizen applying for adjustment of status is subject to the public charge ground of inadmissibility under INA section 212(a)(4) - so I would answer Yes for item 61. 

However, right after that things getting pretty confusing. Item 62 asks for size of your household, however, according to the guidance the only household members the applicant is required to list are:

• themselves
• their spouse
• their parents
• unmarried siblings
• unmarried children under 21 residing with them.
• or any other individuals who list them as a dependent on their federal income tax return

According to this, the applicant would only list themselves as part of the household because although she is living with her daughter, son in law and her two grandchildren, none of these people fall into the categories as defined in the I-485 instructions. So technically the household has 5 members (including the applicant), but am I not supposed to put 5 because they are not any of those listed people?

This doesn't seem right, which has me questioning if I should even answer yes to to item 61 - that the applicant is subject to the public charge ground of inadmissibility under INA section 212(a)(4).  Or do I disregard the guidance and put the 5 people even though they do not fit into those categories? 

I am slightly leaning toward thinking I don't have to answer yes to item 61 that she is subject to the public charge thing because why would we then have to list annual household income, assets, liabilities in items 63 to 65 if she is not part of the wider household according to this definition in the instructions? She has no US-based assets or income and has never applied or benefited from public assistance in the USA. And even if I say yes that she is subject to the public charge and list the household as 5, why do I have to put all this info about our family assets etc, which are separate from hers, on this form when she is the applicant and we are filing an Affidavit of Support, which details our income when sponsoring her as the beneficiary? 

If anyone has any experience or knowledge about how to handle this type of situation it would be great to get your insights about how to proceed.  I am sure this will be something many will be dealing with now and it would great to know what we're supposed to do! 

Hopefully someone can help out.  Many thanks

Hello,

Update in case anyone is interested.

I called up the NVC yesterday as it had been 42 days since the case was put under review because someone forgot to check the DS-260. Guess what? No one had checked it yet! At first the rep said that she would have to put in for review AGAIN. I said no freakin way lady... let me speak to a supervisor...which thankfully she let me do. The supervisor was very nice and after I explained the situation to him he said he would check the DS-260 that day.

The AOS fee has changed from PAID to N/A on the CEAC, so it looks like he did in fact look it over. I'm hoping that means case complete!

If anyone is having similar problems with the NVC, I'd recommend that you call them up and ask to speak with a supervisor. If the particular agent you connect with won't let you do it, call up again until you find one that does.

Update in case anyone is interested:

Called NVC and they told me that the DS-260 we submitted months ago was never read. In the words of the rep, 'It was stuck due to severe problems they experienced with their system in May, June, July.'

On the bright side they told me that the AOS and IV documents sent in were accepted - although I am now totally skeptical of everything they say. You would think that after looking over the packages that they would check to see if a DS-260 was filled out. I asked them to just put a note on the case, but they gave me no other option but to put the case under supervisor review - which they say can take up to 42 days. Of course given the experience of others I guess this can possibly take much longer.

It happened with me same thing coz i did not put correct information and nvc reopen for me to complete again. I filled out april 19 and got view aug 3. And i resubmit on aug 6 2015. Today is oct 14 and have not view yet. If they reopen for u that mean u made mistakes and its need to be correct..good luck

Thanks for the info. Did you have to ask them to reopen it? Ours is marked as complete and we have a confirmation number.

Don't think that we did anything incorrectly, since they are just asking for the entire IV application rather than pointing out anything specifically.

Thanks for your replies. I have not managed to get through today, but will keep trying.

mallafri76, sorry about your ordeal. I hope it ends soon! And thanks for advice. I am hesitant to have it put under review if this is in fact a 'false checklist' - I've read on some older posts that asking for an already submitted DS-260 is one of the more common 'false' ones. Some have been advised to ignore this type of checklist...but that doesn't seem right to me. We'll see I guess.

Thanks dwheels76... very much appreciated!

Hello,

Just wondering if anyone out there knows if its possible to change/reschedule an immigrant visa interview at the Warsaw Embassy? I've done some research, but its still not very clear to me whether this is possible or not.

We are hoping not to have to reschedule, but would like to be prepared if something does in fact come up. For example, if I am away on business, sick etc...

If anyone has an knowledge or experience with this it would be great to hear about how this works.

Many thanks in advance.

I&G

Hi again DM_G,

Don't know if you're still responding to posts on this forum, but I have some questions regarding setting up a U.S. company while still having a company in Poland.

I've looked into doing this and the one thing that bothers me is how would my U.S. tax return look, when I have two companies in two different countries? I've got to report my earnings from Poland even though there is a Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. The US company is sitting dormant and has no earnings and I am not even physically present in the US anyway so how does that work for domicile? Is the case you can have a US company, but not actually live in the US?

I mean I have no idea how long it will take for my wife's Green Card to be approved so this US company could be lying dormant for half a year. I'm assuming I've got to include this US company in my upcoming US tax return, so its just more paper work. It just seems like a strange set up from that perspective. How did you deal with this kind of stuff?

I would prefer to avoid all these extra hurdles and just tell them that I will set up my US operation as soon as I know that my wife has her GC approved, but I know things need to be official for the interview so I'm willing to put up with this if it will make things easier. I am just wondering what your experience was in a little be more detail.

Any additional insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

As promised, I was gonna let you know if they accepted our bank letter or not. It seems they did or I think they did anyway. I mean we got a checklist but it says we need a joint sponsor because the assets are not in the petitioner's name, which to me sounds like they were ok with the backup for the assets, just not that they were in the beneficiary's name.

Thanks for the update. Isn't it possible to include the beneficiaries assets as part of the I-864? I thought I read somewhere on the I-864 that you can include household assets using some other type of I-864 form...

Maybe I misunderstood that. In general I find this all a bit confusing overly complicated.

I guess we'll see how things go with our application. Most of my cash/stock assets are in the US and in my name so hopefully they don't require us to get a co-sponsor. I am self-employed in Poland and will continue to be in the beginning when we move over to the US.

I'm still waiting for Tax Transcripts to be sent back to me here so we can't really send our completed NVC package yet. I'm finding the waiting the most annoying part of all this.

That's exactly correct.

I continued to operate my polish business, and the US business I set up was just sitting idle, not making any money, as to not complicate my taxes with "Urzad Skarbowy". But it showed the consular officer that I have everything set up to start working and support my family once I arrive in the US.

I set it all up over internet and phone. There are companies out there that will register an LLC or other corp for you, for a fee, which means you won't have to personally be present. They'll even mail all your paperwork to poland. Once your business is set up, then you can set up a business checking account. It's a little bit more difficult remotely as many banks want you to come in to do it. But if you still have a US bank account with online access, then it should be no problem to add a business account remotely. Since you'll be using a US address for the bank, you need someone who will open your mail to get the forms they need you to sign, send those forms to you to poland to sign and mail back to the bank. But I guess in reality you don't really need a business bank account at this point, you can set one up within 1 hour once you arrive in the US so it doesn't impact anything.

That's great. I'm definitely going to go this route as well. Hope to have the same success.

Thanks again! Very helpful for us.

It was the US number 800-908-9946. I believe it was shown to me after I tried obtaining the taxes online, and after 3 failed attempts (because foreign address) they gave this number to call.

Thanks.

Unfortunately still doesn't work for me. It's automated so can't speak to anyone either. Guess I'll just have to wait for them to come in the mail.

Appreciate your help.

Hi I&G,

I know it's been a while since you posted this but maybe it's still a current question.

I was in the same situation. All the items you listed I also had, plus some US Credit Card statements. I did not sign a lease or purchase a car until I came to the US.

Regarding employment, I was also self-employed in Poland. I did not close the company until before we left for the US and it was not an issue at the interview. But I think the most important thing is you need to do is to show that you will be able to work once you come to the US. A job offer letter from an employer is what many people do.

Me, I was going to continue to be self-employed in the US. So what I did is set up my US business, business bank accounts, etc while still in poland.

At the interview I was asked about what steps I took to reestablish domicile. The officer had all my domicile paperwork but did not look at it (maybe she look at it before talking to me).

So I said that I have living arrangements all set (had a letter from family member stating that I and my family can live there upon arrival), had a business set up where upon arriving I can go straight to work (she did ask what kind of work I will be doing), have bank accounts and credit cards. Was approved without any additional issues.

Hi DM_G

Thanks so much for your response. That's really insightful. We've just started the NVC phase so still current.

I actually did consider setting up a US self-employed business, but wasn't sure I could have both a Polish and US one at the same time. So I guess what you did was continue to operate your Polish one until it was time to leave, while the US one was established to help prove domicile, but was not actually making any money since you were still in Poland. Is that right? If that is true, I will most likely do the same.

Did you have to travel to the US to set up the business, or can this be done remotely? Sorry if that seems like a dumb question, but I haven't looked that closely into this yet.

Many thanks

Hello,

I was in a similar situation. They will mail it to you if you talk to them, but it can take a long time.

The fastest way is to call them and request that they fax it to you. You'll need a US fax number, which I'm guessing you don't have since you're working abroad. But just do a search online and there are plenty of services where you can pay less than $10 and get a US fax number. Then just call IRS and ask to have it faxed to that number, you'll receive it as a PDF from the fax service. Then just print it and that's it. That's what I did and had my 3 years of transcripts within 1 day.

Edit: Just wanted to add that I also sent out the 4505-T before I requested it by fax. I received the transcripts by mail about a month after I got them by fax.

Thanks for your tip.

Which number did you call the IRS on? When I called the international service center the person I spoke to didn't seem to really know what they were doing. They wouldn't let me order the transcripts, they just directed me to the 450-T form, which I sent out about 8 business days ago.

Thanks mallafri76.

I think what I will do is show my investment portfolio statements displaying when I acquired stocks that I own and also show the value of the total portfolio over the past several years.

I get that there is no way to assure the value of holdings in a stock-based portfolio, but its unlikely they will go to zero within the next year. Also not interested in selling out stock holdings just for the AOS. I would have to pay tax on capital gains and then have less money to re-buy them after the AOS phase.

Hello,

Since I am a USC living abroad, I am planning to use my US-based cash savings and stock portfolio in order to prove I am able to sponsor my wife based upon assets.

The i-864 instructions say that one must show proof of ownership, and the basis for the owner's claim of its net cash value of an assets. I think they also want you to show date of acquisition.

Has anyone used stocks as assets for the i-864? For my stock portfolio would it be possible to just submit the most recent monthly statement displaying its value?

Just wondering how people are going about handling this.

Many thanks!

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I ended up calling the International Taxpayer Service Call Center to see what I could find out from them. While they weren't able to arrange for the delivery of my tax return transcripts, they were able to confirm which address of mine they have on file. Thankfully it is the one I am at, so they did receive my tax returns after all.

Unfortunately I still can't order my transcripts via the online and phone routes - no idea why, can only suspect a computer system glitch since I confirmed my address with the IRS. Not surprising given the recent news about the security breach!

Will need to request the transcripts the old fashion way via the postal service by sending out form 4505-T. We'll see how that goes.

Hope this is helpful for anyone encountering a similar issue.

We are in the NVC phase now and am collecting the packet for the Affidavit of Support. I am having a hard time getting my tax return transcripts for the past 3 years.

I live and work abroad with my wife and have filed my US tax return for every single year abroad. However, when I go to order my transcripts over the phone or online, I am not able to. I get the message "The information you have entered does not match our records." However, the info I entered is exactly what was on my last tax return.

I am not sure what to do, I called the IRS transcript phone line several time but it is automated - its not possible to talk to a real person!

I am mailing in a form 4505-T, but I am now worried that maybe my transcripts will still not be available. I have changed addresses in the past several years, and I have informed the IRS about this using their form 8822. Maybe they never got them in the first place all these years?

Can you get through the NVC phase without having the tax transcripts from the IRS?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Hello All

I am in the process of going through the process of applying for a IV for my wife. We are living in Poland together and we hope to move over to the US together when she finally has her visa approved. I do not want to have to go back to the U.S. before her and set up a residence because there's no way to know how long the IV process will take.

Since we are applying from Poland, I understand that proving domicile is one of the trickiest parts of the whole process, and I would like to get some advice on the best way to proceed. I know there are other posts on VJ, but this one is specific to people in my particular situation living in Poland. I hope it can be useful for others in a similar situation now or in the future.

At the moment here is what I will be able to use to prove my US domicile:

• Lease agreement to live in the rental property my grandma owns - (is it a conflict of interest that this is a family member renting the unit to me? - We will be paying)
• US bank account statements
• US investment account statements
• Records of mortgage payments on a property that I owned with my brother - (This was sold in 2014 - so I am considering not including these, but I think this does show that my time abroad was always intended to be temporary)
• US Driver's license - It is a California license but we will be initially be moving to Illinois - Should I change it to an Illinois one or does it matter? We may end up in CA eventually anyway.
• I am considering buying a car over in the US closer to the time when the interview will occur. Naturally prefer to delay this expense, but will this help my case to have a car registered and be making insurance payments?

Does anyone with any knowledge of the process, know if this will be enough? What can I do to improve my chances of proving my case? (other than moving to the US ahead of my wife)

** This is the main thing I am worried about: I am self-employed in Poland, and in the interest of financial security, I don't want to close this operation down until my wife's immigration visa is approved. I will probably not continue being self-employed in the US, but I am not sure I will be able to have a job lined up in the US before we move over. Can this potentially screw things up for us?

Many thanks to anyone and everyone who can provide some insight and advice!

I&G

Lying is definitely not the way to go, but what happens if you arrive at the border with your non-citizen spouse/fiancée on a tourist visa and tell them 'we're here to stay'?

What happens then? Do they say sorry, you gotta go back?

Is there anywhere on the internet where we can see the official stance on this, or is this the type of things that is up to the discretion of the officials at the POE?

There is no lying involved here, but perhaps foolishness.

Thanks

Apologies,

I think there is some misunderstanding on your part as well, just putting a hypothetical situation out there to demonstrate how confusing this all is and how, as the original poster stated, is really really 'FRUSTRATING'

It is not very clear for some people what is legal or not and barring discussion of certain topics does not help the members of the forum best understand how they can legally go through the process. I understand you are doing your job as moderator though.

No one is looking for illegal ways to do things, they want to clearly understand what is legal. USCIS documentation, some lawyers, do not always do a good job unfortunately.

Many thanks

It is illegal to have the intent to immigrate on a tourist visa but the USCIS is the one who has to prove you have intent. However, lying to the CBP is a hugely bad idea.

How can the CBP or whomever prove you are lying when perhaps all you in fact did was change your mind during your visit?

This to me is grey territory, what if you arrive for an extended trip with your non-citizen spouse/fiancee to travel the US for 3 to 6 months on a tourist visa.. In the middle of this trip you think wow I love this place, lets get the ball rolling with the green card from here.

There is a lot of talk on this forum on how its illegal to arrive on the tourist visa and then adjust status but not much concrete evidence to back it up.

Nor does the USCIS make it very clear that it is illegal - in fact they are super vague and you can get the impression from them that its not fraud!

Check out this 'official document' about how US citizens can get their spouses a Green Card: http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/A1en.pdf

"If your relatives are already in the United States and entered legally, then they may be able to file an I-485 application to adjust their status to lawful permanent resident at the same time as you file the I-130 relative petition."

From this guide alone you can be forgiven for thinking I am just going to arrive on a tourist visa and then apply from within the US for the GC - this is in fact legal entry to the USA! I thought this was legal and wanted to do this until I ran across a bunch of VJ posts warning against it.

Now apparently this method is Fraud, but the USCIS document does not explicitly state it is illegal in this document - i.e. in this guide they do not warn you that if your intent is to adjust status via a tourist visa, that this is fraud. Obviously they should do a better job of that so we would not have so much confusion for honest people who are not trying to break the law being treated as if they were.