jessibicho

Thanks!!!

Hi - wanted to let everyone know that my husband got his visa yesterday!!! We are very excited as it has been a long and trying road. He was denied the visa at first, after the interview, because they said that we needed another signature on the affidavit of support from our co sponser. The co sponser is my mother and she owns a business with my father. They wanted his signature - but this was not possible because my dad is against my relationship and doesnt even know that we are married. Anyway, they were also really rude and condescending to him at the interview. They did not ask him too many questions and they told him that he could not ask questions. However, they did go through every single piece of evidence that he brought concerning our relationship.

After they denied the visa they gave him a paper that told him to submit such and such documents and the missing signature & that they would then give him the visa. I had a lawyer dealing with all this, and so the lawyer wrote a cover letter explaining that my mother makes well above the required amount to sponser someone, and that as I am now fully employed, that I do too. The lawyer also submitted more information about my job (Im a teacher) so they submitted my pay schedule etc etc. Apparently this was enough and my husband recieved a letter that says he has until March to come to the US. We are uber excited!

Thanks everyone on VJ for all of your help and knowledge.

Please let me know if anyone is going through this in Ecuador and you have specific questions.

Thanks again!!!!

Thanks for the advice everyone.... C urrently my lawyer is seeing what can be done about this mess - I will update you when I know what we are going to do.

Hi All - OK so hubby went to the interview yesterday in Guayaquil (city on the coast) - and was given a purple slip. I used a lawyer to help us and my mom was the co sponser. Apparently the now obviously worthless lawyer used the older version of the I864 - so we were rejected on that reason alone but here is where it gets complicated - so my mom was the co sponser and she owns a business with my dad. Technically she is the owner as she owns 51% of the business. My dad does not know that I am married and he would divorce my mother if he found out that she signed the I864 without consulting him etc. He is very much against my relationship. The lawyer told me that because my mom made enough money that there would be no problems with my dad - despite the fact that they file joint income taxes. Evidently the lawyer included too many papers in the whole package that had my fathers name on them (stating partial ownership of the business) and so now the consulate says that my father has to also sign an I 864 - in other words that aside from me - that my husband needs 2 co sponsers. I am wondering if they did this because flags were raised at our I 130 interview because I said that I hadnt told my father yet. It is TOTALLY out of the question that my dad sign the I 864. Not just because of me, but because he will become irate with my mother etc etc etc ....... I feel like these are mistakes made by our lawyer that could have been prevented. Of course it is now his responsibility to try to clear some of this up but I am positive that VJ members are more insightful that him! Do you think there is a way out of this mess? Or am I doomed? Culd we try a fiance visa? We were doing the CR1. Also I will be making enough to get him here by myself - it is just that I dont get paid until Sept. - could we start the process over and void using a co spnser?? Does it matter that my tax history shows that I have previously made next to nothing???

What to do what to do???

I am very distraught..... Please let me know if you have any suggestions.... Thanks!

So, my husband has his interview in 2 weeks. All of our paperwork says that he should recieve his green card at my parent's house (where I am currently living)..... However, before he gets here I am planning on getting us a place of our own. Shouls he tell them this, or should he just say that he is going to move into my parent's house???

Thanks for your help!

CONGRATULATIONS

Best of luck with getting all your paperwork together and with having a succesful interview.

Thank you! and good luck to you as well!!

Ecuador - the consulate in Guayaquil

Just wanted to share the news - we got our interview date and it will be on the 23rd of August - we called them to schedule today! I wasnt expecting to get the date so soon so now we are running around trying to get together all of our supporting docs etc. and the medical exam and so on and so forth

Wish us luck!

Will post with all the details of the interview

Thanks you all - I appreciate your help and I am relieved that we won't need them.... I think the consulate officer kept our originals - it was a while ago though so I forget.....

Thanks again !

I am amazed as to how this happened, but apparently we lost copies and originals of the I -130 - we do have the NOA and the package 4 that they sent to our apartment in Quito.

Do you think that this will be a big problem?

The immigration lawyer I got to help didnt seem too concerned, but he may have just wanted me out of his office....

what do you think???

jess,

I thought I had mentioned this possibility to you? In any case, we struck a similar deal with our potential Joint Sponsors. gimyg makes a good point, but all we can do is each judge our own situation.

Naturalization was a part of our plan from the beginning, for a number of reasons, but killing the I-864 was certainly one of them.

Everyone can see exactly what the natz requirements are (study of English is not one of them, but minimum proficiency is) by checking out the pinned thread at the top of the Citizenship forum here at VJ.

No, I guess we just didn't read the fine print on the I-864. The problem is that you read it and it mentions 40 quarters of work, etc etc etc and it just makes it seem so daunting (at least this was the case with my mother). It mentions citizenship but I just had no idea that was citizenship was a possibility that was actually atainable.

Anyways thanks as always!

Hello. I desperately need to sort through some issues with an immigration lawyer. I was wondering if anyone here has had a lawyer from houston or any surrounding areas in texas? Any contact info/names, experiences with lawyer would be greately appreciated. Thank you!

[wasn't sure where to post this.. but it is marriage related]

I am using one in El Paso and their main office is in Houston. The office here in El Paso is full of immigrants and everyone I talked to there had good things to say. I am pretty sure that they ONLY deal with immigration. I am paying a thousand dollars (I do not know what others charge so I do not know if it is low or high, but it didnt seem outrageous to me).

I do not have the number in Houston - but if you call the El Paso office I am syure that they could help you.

(915) 298 - 7500

I need to get the background certificates from Mexico for having lived there for more than 6 months. The way I read the reciprocity site Mexico does not supply these. Anyone have any experience with this?

Have you been to the Mexican embassy in Brazil? I am no expert, but my husband had to get a background certificate from Israel while he was in Ecuador (he is Ecuadorian). He went to the Iraeli embassy in Quito and he had to fill out paperwork. The embassy sent it to Israel and then a couple of months later he recieved the background check.

Thought I would share this information with you all.......

My mother was not going to be our co-sponser because she thought 10 years was a really long time to be held responsible for someone. I decided that I would go to an immigration lawyer to help with our case because it is taking a really long time and I won't be making good money until August.

My attorney told me that the I-864 says that if the beneficiary becomes a US citizen then the co-sponser is no longer bound to the agreement. According to my attorney to become a US citizen it takes about 3 years and you must take English classes (something that my husband will do anyway) ..... now, I am not totally sure about the particulars of becoming a citizen, but in my case my mother was much more confident about signing the I-864 with a 3 - 5 year commitment as opposed to a 10 year or longer commitment. She has now decide that she will sign as long as he takes the steps to become a citizen.

I don't know if anyone else if having a hard time convincing a sponser but this may help.

One more thing - I live in El Paso (on border of Mexico) and my lawyer told me that the US consulate in Mexico is particularly picky about certain things and that the new thing about only sending in 1 year of tax returns does not fly there. He told me that they still consider it necessary to be 3 years.

Thank you everyone - I really appreciate it!!

Im wondering if my husband's interview will be in English or Spanish? The interview for I-130 was in English (of course I was there too) .... but what about the final interview. His interview will be in Ecuador - anyone with experience in Ecaudor or maybe Colombia or Peru????

Thanks

Hi - we are having problems with proof of relationship as well - when we turned in the I-130 the CO thought it was odd that our parents were not in our pics and asked why not (my husband and I decided to get married without talking to our parents about it - after all, we are adults and it was our decision) - this didnt fly so well with the CO. She made phone calls to friends to make sure that we had a valid relationship. Ultimately the I-130 was approved, but now we are expecting a really tough interview about all this..... aside from the obvious pictures, emails, phone records, MSN messages, cards, letters I am also providing my debit and credit card history. This proves that I was where I said I was (on vacation at the beach etc).

Also I am going to go back and visit my husband and we are going to go on a few trips and everything will be documented - save hotel recipts with BOTH names on them, reciepts at restaurants and have a waitor take a pic of you together at the place.

I try to send my husband at least 2 hand written cards/letters a week plus an email a day and we talk on the phone at least every other day. Try to have good solid documentation of your on going relationship.

I put together a scrapbook of things we have done with pics and extra details and I dont know if this is totally lame, but you could maybe make a cd of songs that are meaningful to you both and send it to her in a package with other things that have meaning to the relationship. She could take this to the interview as mail that she has recieved from you.

Here is a list of everything I would try to do:

-phone bills

-emails

-regular mail

-msn messages

-photos/photo album/scrapbook

-Credit/debit card history (even better if your wife can access her info and you match them - same place same time)

-movie ticket stubbs/concert ticket stubbs/hotel reciept with both names on them

-Proof that you lived together - mail addressed to both of you/water or electric bills/ a lease with both names on it

- Letters from friends and family supporting your relationship

- I am including info about future plans we have (we are going to have a bigger wedding in my hometown so I am including brochures about the place where we are going to have the wedding) Or maybe information about an occupation your wife may be going into in the future

-bus tickets/airline tickets

Hope this helps

SO I just finished reading a girls post on the K3 forum and her situation seems similar to mine and some of the responses got me a little scared.

Here is my situation. Married Alberto in Ecuador in Nov 2005. Filed the I-130 in January and it was approved 2 weeks later. We have recieved the packette 4 (finally). I moved back to the states in March and I have been working as a waitress (so I make my money in tips and I dont really have that much to show for it ) but I am going to start working as a high school teacher in August and I will have a signed contract making 36,000 plus benefits. I have some mutual funds and money in the stock market that are in my name (my parents started these for me, but they Are in my name) - I think it may be around 10,000 or more. BUT I graduated from college and moved to Ecuador and lived on my savings and so I really have very little work history. Getting a co sponser is not an option because my parents do not want to sign something that legally binds them to my husband for 10 years...... 5 years would be feasible but not 10

My questions are the following : 1) I am planning on waiting until I have been paid twice before my husband calls to schedule an interview - will this be enough evidence coupled with the other stuff (stock, mutual funds)??

2) What about my previous tax history - I havent ever made very much money because I was in school and then in Ecuador..... will this be a prob?

3) What happens if he is denied the visa because of these economic conditions. Can we apply again? Will he have to start over from square one? Will a co sponser be our only option?

If anyone can give me a little insight on this I would be grateful. I get freaked out when I read other members posts saying how essential it is to have a co sponser and it just makes me feel like things arent going to work out. Also I hope you dont think I am rude about posting my salary etc..... I just cannot figure out how to determine the 125% poverty line thing - pretty sad for a college grad (and now in Grad school even) but I am just TERRIBLY HORRIBLY PATHETICALLY bad at math........ So another question will my salary etc be above the poverty line??????...............Maybe I should see a lawyer....

Thanks

Although I'm not even remotely an expert on this, I saw that no one else had yet replied and thought I'd offer what little I do know to make you feel better.

First off, here's a link re: the poverty guidelines:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4054

As you'll see, your current salary well exceeds what you'll need to meet the requirements for the two of you. I'm not sure, though, how your limited work history or lack of qualifying income before now will impact things. As far as assets go, you would need to have 125%, or five times, the minimum income requirement to make up for insufficient income (if they tell you it's insufficient b/c of lack of history). This would be $82,500.

So... good news is that you definitely qualify based on your current salary. Perhaps a notorized letter from your employer, stating the terms of your contract and salary would be sufficient...? I would clarify the specifics with someone at your embassy, however, to be sure this is enough.

Hope this helped, at least a little. Good luck.

Thank you very much ... I will ask my employer about a certified letter and I think I will be visiting one of the many immigration lawyers that happen to be here in El Paso! Thanks again!!

SO I just finished reading a girls post on the K3 forum and her situation seems similar to mine and some of the responses got me a little scared.

Here is my situation. Married Alberto in Ecuador in Nov 2005. Filed the I-130 in January and it was approved 2 weeks later. We have recieved the packette 4 (finally). I moved back to the states in March and I have been working as a waitress (so I make my money in tips and I dont really have that much to show for it ) but I am going to start working as a high school teacher in August and I will have a signed contract making 36,000 plus benefits. I have some mutual funds and money in the stock market that are in my name (my parents started these for me, but they Are in my name) - I think it may be around 10,000 or more. BUT I graduated from college and moved to Ecuador and lived on my savings and so I really have very little work history. Getting a co sponser is not an option because my parents do not want to sign something that legally binds them to my husband for 10 years...... 5 years would be feasible but not 10

My questions are the following : 1) I am planning on waiting until I have been paid twice before my husband calls to schedule an interview - will this be enough evidence coupled with the other stuff (stock, mutual funds)??

2) What about my previous tax history - I havent ever made very much money because I was in school and then in Ecuador..... will this be a prob?

3) What happens if he is denied the visa because of these economic conditions. Can we apply again? Will he have to start over from square one? Will a co sponser be our only option?

If anyone can give me a little insight on this I would be grateful. I get freaked out when I read other members posts saying how essential it is to have a co sponser and it just makes me feel like things arent going to work out. Also I hope you dont think I am rude about posting my salary etc..... I just cannot figure out how to determine the 125% poverty line thing - pretty sad for a college grad (and now in Grad school even) but I am just TERRIBLY HORRIBLY PATHETICALLY bad at math........ So another question will my salary etc be above the poverty line??????...............Maybe I should see a lawyer....

Thanks

If you use yahoo for your email then you can go back to SENT - go through all of your sent emails and you will be able to print emails that you sent to her. If you replied to one of her emails then what she wrote May also be saved and you can pront that. Get proof that you were in the same place at the same time by matching up your use of your ATM card or credit card. Go through the history of your Debit and credit and print these out - your wife should do the same. If you cant figure out where to get that kind of information you can call the help line for your debit/credit and they can tell you how. I use bank of america and it is really easy through them.

Put together photo albums and if you have any saved ticket stubbs from movies or concerts or anything like that you need to put it together. I would also suggest that you start writting hand written mail to eachother - my husband and I write a real letter at least once a week to eachother. You should start calling eachother on landlines NOW so that you have substantial proof. Make sure that you save your tickets from airline travel and have copies of your passports made so that the official can see entry dates etc.

Sorry so long to write back - my computer fried last week

We were told by the embassy that we could either send the I864 to the NVC or that my husband could turn it in at the interview..... However, we have been told numerous things by the embassy in Guayaquil and then the opposite from the embassy in Quito - so I never know.

I have been planning for my husband to turn everything in at his interview, but I just wasnt sure if it would be better to turn it in to the NVC or not.

Have you never heard of having this option before? Could be that the person we spoke to gave us the wrong information?

I think to be on the safe side I will have my husband turn it in.

Thanks!

This is a great thread! I have laughed reading them all...

These are questions that I had to ask my husband when I was living in Ecuador :

1. Why does no one have change for a 20?

2. Why is there no one out on a Sunday?

3. Why is customer service so dreadfully bad?

4. Why dont the cars stop for you to cross the road? And why do they speed up at you?

5. Why cant you flush toilet paper?

6. Why are there no traffic police?

7. Why do people just cut infront of everyone else in line?? - This one I will never understand

8. Why are motorcycles allowed to drive on the sidewalk?

I taught ESL at a university in Quito and some of my students asked me some funny stuff about the US - my fav was

"Is it true about America?"

Me - Is what true?

"Is it true like in the movie American pie? Do they do that there?"

- I didnt know what to say because he was referring to the sex scene with a pie - an uncomfortable discussion to have with a student, so I laughed and said no and changed the subject.

Another one was the concept of the mailbox. I showed them a pic of my house and they all asked what is that little box there - so cute!

Forgot a recent one. Sent some pics to my husband (I am in the states and he is in Ecuador). Took a pic of my dog. He says " That is a very small park where you took your dog."

I said " Honey, that is the back yard."

Him - "What is that?"

Me - "Well generally there is a back yard and a front yard here."

Him - "So you all are surronded by gardens?"

Apparently we have 2 options for turning in the I-864. Should I mail them to the NVC, or give them to my husband for when he has his interview at which point he will turn them in? Does it really matter or can doing one make a difference?

Thanks!!!

Hi Dan - You are the first person who has posted that is also married to an Ecuadorian. My husband and I did DCF through Quito. We are gathering the documents to call and schedule the interview but will have to wait until I start earning a better salary - hopefully by August. In any case would you mind emailing me and telling me your experiences?? Are you going through Quito or Guayaquil? Did you get married in Ecuador or the states???

Please let me know because we have been having some difficulties with both embassies.

My email adress is jessipotomus@yahoo.com and my name is (obviously) Jessica

Thanks so much!!

and I would try to get your dad to co sponser if possible (although mine wont) do you have savings or anythign you could show them?

Hello exeryone - well, my mother has decided NOT to be our joint sponser because it is for 10 years and because she thinks she will have to submit one for my dad as well because they file their taxes together - problem because my dad doesnt know i am married - I intend to tell him once he has had an opportunity to meet my husband in person etc.

In anycase, I have read the I864A- as I understand it, this would be like some kind of agreement between me (the sponser) and my mother (and therefore my mother would be responsible for ME and not DIRECTLY responsible for my husband). If I understand correctly it says that if I need money (for anything that may arise because of my husband) that she would be there to help support us...... Is this a correct assesment for this form?????

Do you think this would better suit the needs of my mothers concerns of being directly responsible for someone for 10 years????

By the way, starting in August I will be making suffiecient funds (according to the guidelines) to support both myself and my husband, however my last 3 years of taxes would be considered insufficient - especially the most recent as I had been living in Ecuador and making next to nothing - will the I864A do? or is it imperative that I find a co sponser?????

Thanks for all your help/comments/suggestions!

jessibicho,

No, that is not the purpose/use of the I-864A. The -A would be for someone living in your US household who is contributing toward your spouse's support. The I-864 and -A are for supporting the alien; you yourself are entitled to the means-tested benefits that your spouse is not.

If you want to wait until August to submit your I-864 and your own income will be sufficient, you can emphasize your current income at that time and explain your past few years (you are not required to have the past years be at/above poverty level, but should explain if they are below).

If you do not want to wait until August and your current income is not sufficient, you will likely need a Joint Sponsor. While your mother could do this without your father, I certainly don't recommend that. Also, if I remember you are a teacher (?) and a contract of future employment *may* be acceptable to the ConOff. However, without any other resources, I think that would be a frustrating path to follow. ie, would be hard to convince CO with no income history and only a job offer. Might depend on the strength of the contract and the willingness of the CO.

Thank you meauxna - as always you have been extremely helpful. I guess I will just have to wait until I my first pay check comes in from being a teacher - a longer wait than we had wanted but I guess this is what we will have to do to ensure that my husband gets here.

Thanks again - Jessica

Hello exeryone - well, my mother has decided NOT to be our joint sponser because it is for 10 years and because she thinks she will have to submit one for my dad as well because they file their taxes together - problem because my dad doesnt know i am married - I intend to tell him once he has had an opportunity to meet my husband in person etc.

In anycase, I have read the I864A- as I understand it, this would be like some kind of agreement between me (the sponser) and my mother (and therefore my mother would be responsible for ME and not DIRECTLY responsible for my husband). If I understand correctly it says that if I need money (for anything that may arise because of my husband) that she would be there to help support us...... Is this a correct assesment for this form?????

Do you think this would better suit the needs of my mothers concerns of being directly responsible for someone for 10 years????

By the way, starting in August I will be making suffiecient funds (according to the guidelines) to support both myself and my husband, however my last 3 years of taxes would be considered insufficient - especially the most recent as I had been living in Ecuador and making next to nothing - will the I864A do? or is it imperative that I find a co sponser?????

Thanks for all your help/comments/suggestions!