684117

1 hour ago, Jennifer2017 said:

In addition, my husband would rather self-sponsor himself and would rather not have a joint sponsor.  Can someone tell me how much income he would need to have in dollars to qualify?  Also,  would he need to have enough income to support me and our child which would make the household size 3?  What documents can he show that he has yearly income from his self-employed business?  Also, how can he combine his assets such as his car,  land properties and house? 

 

I will appreciate any feedback.

Jennifer, your husband can sponsor himself. It's very easy, you can get documents showing assets and their value. Most important that any asset you show that is not cash money has to have a document of its value and a document or a letter (from lands commission in Ghana for example) that this asset can be sold at any time with no issues. If your household is 3 members. The PG for 2017 is somewhere around 25000$ you need 3 times that to qualify (75000$) in assets. Same applies for cash savings. If he is self employed, he can add his current individual income from Ghana only if the income will keep generating after he travels to USA. 

As for the joint sponsor part. I re add. You need a joint sponsor in both cases. Even if you qualify with assets, even if you make a lot of money you will still need a joint sponsor because you so not reside in USA.  

Combined, me and my wife make around 15 times the poverty guidelines. Assets that added up to over 30 times the poverty guideline and we were still asked to add a joint sponsor, who actually made less than us, but is continuously residing in the states. 

1 hour ago, Jennifer2017 said:

Thank you for your reply.  I have emailed the Embassy in Accra about DCF and they told me that I need a residence permit before I can file through DCF at Accra.  I don't have my residence permit and I was advised to file by mail at the US lockbox.  Also, the office stated that they don't require the affidavit of support to make a decision.  When I have done research online about how to get a residence permit the information states that I have to live in Ghana for at least 5 years before I qualify for a residence permit.

 

Also, my sister and her husband do not have children so our household size would be 5.

 

Can you give me further advice about DCF,  residence permit, and the affidavit of support?

 

Also, can you tell me more about the possible visit from US marines to our apartment, will they give us notice or just show up,  and what questions might they ask me and my husband?

 

Thanks for your time.

You are mixing resident permit with maybe indefinite permit or citizenship. 5 years rule apply when you are married to a Ghanaian to get what is called indefinite permit. Or citizenship. Basically you are supposed to have a permit to be living in ghana now. How are you residing here now?! You must get a permit through your husband. It will cost you 300 ghc yearly. This you have to asap. Not for ur petition, but for ur legal status is Ghana, as now you are considered illegal. 

Once you sort that out then you can DCF. Whixh is much much faster. Our case took 4 months from filing the I130 to have the IV in hand. 

The affidavit of support is a must! Even if you do not make enough you have to file one. You are the main sponsor. Because u cannot qualify you will need your sister as a joint. 

The marines visit happens, there are threads about it here for info. I myself was not visited but a friend was. They did not notify him, they first came and spoke to the guard about who lives here, how long have they lived in this house and then went in and said they are on a random visit and only looked around at some framed pictures of my friend and his wife, checked their kids rooms and asked the wife if she knows where her husband keeps their valuables which she said yes and offered to show them but they refused to see. 

Your case is very similar to mine. Not here to answer all your questions, but to give guidance that might answer your questions. 

- Since you live in Ghana for over 6 months, you are entitled to go through Direct consular filing. (search DCF) and submit your documents to USCIS in Accra. 

- You need to prove domicile, as you are not currently in USA. and your sister a a joint sponsor is a must. (Or anyone else) you CANNOT combine assets. the joint sponsor should qualify on his own. 

- Yes you can use your husband's assets. that will be on YOUR affidavit of support, which you are also required to file since you are the main sponsor even if you do not qualify. (Even if your assets qualify you, you still need a JS since you do not reside in USA) 

- The process is much easier since you are living together currently. ( Expect a visit to your address in Ghana from US marines or any official that will take a tour in your apartment and asks questions_YES IT DOES HAPPEN!!! Especially if DCFing) 

- Remember that if you are to live with your sister and her husband, your household size is 5 for now, that is if they don't have kids. if they do add the kids and get the household size. 

* If you have any other inquiries please feel free to contact me. I am still in Ghana and would be happy to help you or answer any question on the whole process of DCF. 

Add 0 where it tells you if you are married add 1. or leave it empty. 

It is also the case for cr1, the affidavit form is used to many type of immigrant visas, thus the confusion and the extra details. 

Just add 0. I did that. 

Whenever anyone works on your case, the ceac shows you an update. That means your case is being worked on. 

Legally speaking.  You should be resident for over six month. In many cases a tourist visa with extensions does not qualify you for DCF. must be a resident or work permit. 

That is the case in the field office where I reside. Maybe where you are is different, but I think it should be the same. 

You will need to provide the CO with a letter from the US branch confirming your appointment with them and stating the income. 

As for taxes, yes, even if you fall below the 100K you still need to file and add the 2555 form. 

CO told me it will be ready in two weeks as well. Then he added, two Ghana weeks. so check DHL after 3 to 4 weeks. 

You do not have to worry. As long as they kept your passport, that means you are almost approved, they just need the DNA result and your visa will be stamped. 

Who is your petitioner? Usually if it is the siblings, it might take a little over two months.  

11 hours ago, pghknr said:

If your Mother has Sufficient Income  she can do i864 But your Dad does not require to file i864A..Good Luck

Her father does need to sign the 864A as they are married and filing jointly! 

To the members applying in Ghana, did you receive the xray Cd with the medical report? I have not received any CD, Ive also noticed that no one was handed a CD...

If sent to Embassy in April it'll take em about 10 to 12 weeks to contact you....Be patient, you'll hear from them soon. 

On 5/19/2017 at 2:33 PM, Kweku mensah said:

Hi my wife has filed for i-130 we met in 2013 she came back 2016 and we got married at the moment we are waiting for my interview anyone here who can help me with questions the us embassy in Ghana will ask ? and also any thing you think I should add to my documents when going to the embassy also my with is 8 years older than me can this be a problem? will be happy if anyone has been to the Ghana embassy recently thanks 

How did she file the i130 in 2013 and you guys got married in 2016? 

25 minutes ago, sparkles_ said:

That will be a pain to get the documents they may want to keep out of. Go with a three ring binder and hole punch, or plastic page sleeves 

I don't think they will want any of the docs in there? I will use these for pictures, chat logs, emails and so on.... 

Good day folks, 

Is it okay to use plastic binders for some of my proof documents? 

Picture for reference

4 hours ago, JefLyn4ever said:

Thanks aleful! Do you happen to know if she will mark the box only joint sponsor?

 

She will. 

Basically she is the only joint sponsor. and Has a contract with your dad (i864A) that as a household member he agrees on this sponsorship. 

Which basically means, you parent are your 1 joint sponsors. 

8 minutes ago, NuestraUnion said:

So you gave them the wrong item. Did they accept it? 

 

They may give you another RFE for the tax transcripts  (not 1040).

 

If they accept the 1040 then so be it. But if not, be prepared to send the correct documents. Just a heads up.

 Please do not confuse OP with your information. 

A form 1040 is not a return, but if given to the embassy with all schedules and w2s as sent to the IRS it then serves as a proof of filing and can be threfore used instead of a transcript. 

Taxes are filed in April, if filled manually and sent to IRS on time, it takes up tp 8 weeks for a transcript to become available, when an interview is conducted in between Feb and June of the same year, usually no transcripts are available so people use the 1040 and schedules as proof and it is totally fine. ++ If it wasn't the case, you will have all IV and V immigrant applicants put on AP for that which doesn't make sense. 

You simply fill it online and submit it online. at the end of the application there is a submit button, once you submit you will be directed to a confirmation page. 

Print that page and bring it along to the interview and you will have to submit it with the docs they ask for. (Medicals, 864, pics, confirmation and extra proof)

To be on the safe side, put USA. eventually you are American, you have ties to America. 

Even if Physical address is abroad, you will move there and have the states as a domicile for the foreseeable future. 

What we also included, was a copy of the work/residence permit abroad. It shows that it expires every year and needs to be renewed. Just as assurance that the physical address of the petitioner in not permanent. 

I was in the same situation as you, what we did is that my wife filed as married filing separately.  wrote my name on the 1040 in the spouse section and in the SSN number we hand wrote NRA (Non Resident Alien) 

Getting and ITIN is super complex and manual and takes forever. 

We still do not have the transcript from IRS, but I have copies of the 1040, 2555, schedules and payslips that were sent to IRS as proof of filing. 

Hope this helps. 

Hello Members, 

Just out of curiosity, 

I was interviewed back in 2011 and approved for a tourist visa that expired in 2016, As I remember the interview was fairly short and I was asked the normal questions, of which was for how long I was travelling and the purpose of travel, I did answer that I was going for about 21 days (Which I did) and that I was visiting some friends, sightseeing, and roam around. 

Back in the same year I met my USC girlfriend (now wife) in the country I was working, and when I went to USA I was hosted by her family for around a week and spent some time with her. 

In the evidence provided to USCIS, We did submit pictures of my visit in 2011. 

Could that have an effect on my IV interview? ( Stating I was visiting friends, when later I saw my GF and her family?) 

Please note that I have also used the B1/B2 visa over 7 times in the past  5 years and always visited her family, never over stayed or never breached the visa law. 

I don't get the point here, was she denied her tourist visa because she lied? or was she denied her IV because she lied on a previous tourist visa?

35 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

What I would do is have the joint sponsor's affidavit and supporting documents ready in case they are needed.  If approved without them, then the joint sponsor avoids a huge potential liability.  If needed, you have everything you need handy to be evaluated and approved immediately.  The farther you are over the minimum liquid asset requirement, the less likely a joint sponsor would be used.  If you're just barely able to show enough, they'll know lots of that will be eaten up with travel, and moving expense before you even get to the USA, so will not be available for actual support.

 

I agree with you, but our embassy is tough! So ill just present to them both affidavits and let them decide if the will need the joint sponsor or no! 

Many cases in this embassy,  some required documents were needed, people stated that they had those docs, while COs told them to return later or to submit later as they cannot take any extra document (through interview window)  other than the ones given prior to the interview. 

On 3/29/2012 at 10:24 AM, pushbrk said:

Yes but savings isn't income. It takes $3 of savings to offset $1 in income shortfall, technically. However, it's a judgment call and I doubt a Consular officer is going to consider that amount of money as being available for support. It will probably mostly be spent on travel and other immediate expenses by the time, your spouse has been in the USA a month or two.

pushbrk, 

In case as you mentioned on a different thread to insert 0 as the individual current income as the source of income will not continue, we will be also adding our assets. Basically the poverty guidline for household of 2 for 2017 is set to 20,300 USD, ie we need to prove we have over (20,300 x 3 ) in savings to qualify, which we do. 

We also have a joint sponsor with a six figure current income, but since we could qualify from our assets, do you think we shouldn't include a joint sponsor?

I understand it is way better to have one, but is it a rule that if you qualify alone you cannot have a joint sponsor? We initially used a joint sponsor as advised by an experienced person as USC lived abroad for over 5 years. (Proof of domicile / intent of returning part is complete) 

20 minutes ago, patriot10 said:

Money made abroad DOES NOT COUNT unless this income will continue after move to the US.

In this case, one needs a joint sponsor

 

If you made income abroad, you need to put the ''taxeable'' income in the correct box and include the relavent tax transcript with your affidavit.

If per chance, your income was below threshold for the year where you were needed to file a return, or if you made zero income, then you type zero in the box or whatever income it was, and then include a statement to ''whomsoever it may concern'' that you did not file an income tax return for the year as you did not earn enough to be required to file a return as per IRS rules for the year.

 

 

Please be aware, if you have financial assets over $10000/- abroad (outside the US) EVEN if you did not earn enough, you are still required to file a return.

 

further, if you are self employed, you are required to file if you earn over $400/-.

 

 

rgds.

 

 

We did file taxes, 1040 and 2555 with the IRS even though money made abroad was lower than the threshold set for the years we filed.  That was suggested by the tax lawyer my wife used back in 2012 when she back filed her taxes of 09 10 11.  He suggested to always file a 1040 and 2555 even if its lower than the required.

Hence my question about the figure we should insert in part 6. 19a,b,c. Is it 0 or the amount reported on forms 2555 of wages made abroad?