Baba+7917

11 minutes ago, eckoin said:

Interesting.  Also paging @Baba+7917 since they're in a similar boat. 

 

How long have you been employed with the same company?  If I were you, I would prepare two new forms: 

 

1. I-864 with your spouse's updated income, and your updated income.  

2. The sponsor's forms, if they were changed.  It'd be nice to get a fresh signed copy, but if it's identical and kind of a pain to do, you can just skip it. 

 

The interviewer will ask where you both work, and if anything changed.  You will answer truthfully, and let them know that you have an updated I-864 with your current household income.  They may not want it, because your sponsor's income is fine as is, and care not at all.  In that case, you could ask if you could replace the I-864s they have, with the updated one, that shows your current household income (bring six most recent paystubs and a letter from your employer similar to the one you originally submitted, presumably), and effectively remove your joint sponsor from the equation.  They may accept that or reject that... but you could certainly try, and definitely get an updated I-864 but don't volunteer it until they ask about your current employment.  

 

If, on the off chance, they don't ask about current employment, I would personally drop it. 

@eckoin thanks for tagging me!

11 hours ago, eckoin said:

Cars are a weird one, such that USCIS doesn't really provide much guidance.  For real estate, they require a professional appraisal - cars don't really have that concept.  You could use the KBB report for a private sale as the basis, but it's (a) nowhere near guaranteed you'd get that price, and (b) well, it's a car - its value will go down next month just due to existing.  You could go to a dealership and have them draft you an offer, but it will be the trade-in value, which is lower than private sale.  And by the time your interview rolls around, how much will the car be worth?  If the CO is trying to be difficult, then you know, they can be difficult about it.  I'd include a car if it were like, a collector type maybe.  

 

I was just saying, a $30k+ used car for someone who is currently unemployed and presumably looking for work, sounds like overkill.  You can get away with a $12k car easily.  If it were me, I'd sell it, because that just doesn't sound like a solid financial decision.  But you guys do you.  

 

Otherwise, if you're doing the thing where the shortfall is $12k, and you're using $20k from various accounts plus another $10-15k from a car, it's just grasping at straws.  If you had $60k+ in stocks, then maybe.  I'd make a very strong argument about my OPT job and how much I'm excited and expecting to continue growing in my field and with my employer, than trying for assets, personally.  

Thank you for the analysis. I am trying to explore all the options before filing. I think my OPT income is still the best bet at this point.

3 hours ago, eckoin said:

Check out the manual: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-8-part-g-chapter-9 and https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition/i-864-affidavit-faqs.html

 

Basically, you can claim a vehicle as an asset as long as it's not your only one. So you could technically claim both, and use one of them to make up the shortfall. 

 

For a family of two, the 125% of the line is $21,550, and assuming we're going by $10k earned, that's an $11.5k shortfall. Is his car worth at least $35k after the car loan payoff, if any? Assuming the KBB value let's say. If so, yeah, sell it, can get a new car when the situation improves. 

 

But honestly, take your employment letter, leave the cars out of it, and write your own letter explaining what you do, and how much you're looking forward to continuing growing your career with your employer, and I don't know, throw in some interesting projects coming up for some personal touch. Then say, "letter from my employer attached" and include their dry-### letter. 

 

Worst case - you get an RFE, and just prepare for it. If you have at least $40k of various assets you can compile (first car doesn't count, subtract loans), then fair enough, but assets require a lot more documentation. For a house, you need an actual appraisal, and those are like $500-700. 

Thanks for the insight!

About the car, is it necessary to sell it? Or do we just need to provide paper work regarding its values?

And yeah..we might just have to use my income in this case. We only have like 20k in cash asset

On 10/13/2020 at 10:18 PM, eckoin said:

You need to prove basically two things: legal, and will continue from the same source. There has to be some language that they can include to confirm that the income will continue from the same source. 

 

"Her contract is contingent upon client needs, and at this time we expect no changes to market requirements, and as such foresee her employment to continue pending legal authorization, until further written notice." 

 

As such, there's no indication that your employment is not a contract with an end date, tied to your OPT explicitly, or in general will continue from the same source. Convince them to add *something* that would at least clarify that there is no explicit end date, and your permanent resident status will allow for the status quo to continue. 

Was trying to ask my employer to add that the employment doesn't have specific end date and my permanent resident status will allow for the status quo to continue but this is their response:

So I am not sure what I should do then. 

My husband (USC) and I (immigrant ) are preparing docs for marriage green card aos. He has earning this year but he's currently unemployed. Earning this year is around $10000. I do have a job now and the income meets the poverty line but not sure if it will  be qualified since it's F1 OPT income (have had some discussion on other threads on this and it seems that it really depends on the officer). In short, we are thinking to include assets if they don't accept my F1 OPT income.  Can't find a co-sponsor either.

What we have now is some cash in bank and stock. We have two cars (one under his name and one under mine). Is there any way we can use one of the cars (preferably his since it's worth more) to use an asset? And if so, what documents besides the car title do we need?

Thank you in advance!

4 hours ago, Dashinka said:

That appears correct to meet the minimum requirement, but keep in mind that number is just a guidance for USCIS and consulates.  I would suggest your husband look into finding a co-sponsor to assist.

 

Good Luck!

We would if we can but we can't find anyone to be the co sponsor. We do have my income to use as well but in case that doesn't work, I am thinking to include the assets just in case

My husband (USC) and I (immigrant) are preparing docs for marriage green card aos. My husband earns around $10000 in 2020. According to poverty guideline 125%, his annual income needs to be $21550 to meet i864 requirements. So we are planning to use assets to be qualified. I know that to use assets, the amount has to be three times the difference between the 125%of poverty guideline for two people and the sponsor's annual income if he's only sponsoring me (his spouse).

So based on this, below is my calculation:

We will need ($21550 - $10000)*3, which is $34650 worth of assets if we want to use assets to meet the i864 requirement.

Please let me know if my calculations and understanding are correct on this.

Thank you!

3 minutes ago, eckoin said:

You need to prove basically two things: legal, and will continue from the same source. There has to be some language that they can include to confirm that the income will continue from the same source. 

 

"Her contract is contingent upon client needs, and at this time we expect no changes to market requirements, and as such foresee her employment to continue pending legal authorization, until further written notice." 

 

As such, there's no indication that your employment is not a contract with an end date, tied to your OPT explicitly, or in general will continue from the same source. Convince them to add *something* that would at least clarify that there is no explicit end date, and your permanent resident status will allow for the status quo to continue. 

ok.. I will need to convince them to add that. Thanks. 

6 minutes ago, eckoin said:

Found what I think was the original thread that had the actual copy of the RFE: 

This has since come up every time a relevant RFE request was posted about, but do take it with a grain of salt - I'm sure it worked out just fine for plenty of people. Just be prepared, but if your employer can write a letter stating that they will extend your contract pending your permanent residency application approval, I'd say it's good enough. 

Thanks for the help! So what my employer gave me was:

And like I mentioned in earlier comments, when I said can we put something to state that my employment is not temporary, their full response is below:

4 hours ago, eckoin said:

I quite vividly recall that F1 income is frowned upon. The idea is that F1 jobs are supposed to be explicitly for "get experience and leave", and some COs therefore do not consider it as permanent income. Someone else can pitch in, I think I got that from geowrian a few years back. 

 

I also was the sole income earner when I applied for AOS, but I was on a work status. My employer signed a letter that said, "eckoin works as XYZ at ABC, from her start date of 123. Her salary is $456. Pending her successful adjustment of status to permanent residency, her contact will continue past her current TN status expiry in accordance to the employment laws." Or something like that. They didn't want" permanent " anywhere in the letter, because of right to work laws, so it was a sort of," yeah we'll keep her if we legally can provided that we want to, and right now we do". 

5 minutes ago, eckoin said:

Here's one of the responses regarding the F1 income: 

There were similar threads about it. 

 

Ultimately, if you have nothing else, you can go ahead and send it off. You just need to prove that the income is legal (which it is), and will continue from the same source (ie not tied directly to your F1 status). But from what I recall a couple of years ago, some people did just fine and others got RFEs, so it is somewhat under the officer's discretion. I remember they used the "OPT is for experience only" sort of reasoning. 

Thank you for the info. I will review them.

On 10/8/2020 at 10:41 PM, elmers said:

Correct. No co-sponsor, just my salary. Not sure if bank balance is considered an asset but we showed this. Combined between checking & savings, we probably had ~30K cash I think. Nothing else for finances.

 

And no, no questions were asked about income at the interview. My spouse was still a student during the interview but we weren't asked anything about finances. The interviewer went over the questions from 485 form, and some basic relationship questions like how we met, why we got married in city A even though we are currently living in another city, etc.

On 10/6/2020 at 10:27 AM, elmers said:

I adjusted from J1 and used my income only. My USC spouse was a student and had zero income at the time of application. No issues in adjusting. We did get an RFIE which is because I forgot to send documents showing lawful employment along with the I-864. Just make sure you sent I-94, pay slips, tax transcripts, letter from your employer (department/college) saying your job is relatively secure, and you'll be fine.

4 hours ago, eckoin said:

I quite vividly recall that F1 income is frowned upon. The idea is that F1 jobs are supposed to be explicitly for "get experience and leave", and some COs therefore do not consider it as permanent income. Someone else can pitch in, I think I got that from geowrian a few years back. 

 

I also was the sole income earner when I applied for AOS, but I was on a work status. My employer signed a letter that said, "eckoin works as XYZ at ABC, from her start date of 123. Her salary is $456. Pending her successful adjustment of status to permanent residency, her contact will continue past her current TN status expiry in accordance to the employment laws." Or something like that. They didn't want" permanent " anywhere in the letter, because of right to work laws, so it was a sort of," yeah we'll keep her if we legally can provided that we want to, and right now we do". 

@elmers May I ask the work visa you were on, is it a part of J1? Or is it like exchange visitor worker (if thats a thing)? Thank you!

4 hours ago, eckoin said:

I quite vividly recall that F1 income is frowned upon. The idea is that F1 jobs are supposed to be explicitly for "get experience and leave", and some COs therefore do not consider it as permanent income. Someone else can pitch in, I think I got that from geowrian a few years back. 

 

I also was the sole income earner when I applied for AOS, but I was on a work status. My employer signed a letter that said, "eckoin works as XYZ at ABC, from her start date of 123. Her salary is $456. Pending her successful adjustment of status to permanent residency, her contact will continue past her current TN status expiry in accordance to the employment laws." Or something like that. They didn't want" permanent " anywhere in the letter, because of right to work laws, so it was a sort of," yeah we'll keep her if we legally can provided that we want to, and right now we do". 

hmm have you seen or heard of cases where F1 income is rejected? When I went to do the lawyer consultation I did say I am on F1 OPT and they said it's fine. I am not sure if it's they didn't pay attention to that or what. Now I need to do some double check...

55 minutes ago, elmers said:

as permanent since it wasn't. Maybe you c

1 hour ago, elmers said:

Here is what I had them prepare for me. I was the one who actually wrote the letter; they simply signed off and did not even change a single word.

To whom it may concern:

 

I hereby verify that Mr. <YOUR NAME> has been working full-time in our department since <MM_DD_YYYY>. He is a <JOB TITLE> in our department and is employed with an annual pay rate of <SALARY>. His current contract expires on <MM_DD_YYYY> but is expected to continue beyond that date, contingent upon successful annual evaluation. Were <YOUR NAME> to continue in his current capacity, funding for his position is in place until <MM_YYYY>. Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via phone or email.

Sincerely,
<Head of Dept.>

 

I am not sure how much care USCIS gives when evaluating these types of letters. But just to be safe, I mentioned in the letter that my job will continue for a long after my AoS is complete. I did say it was full-time but did not specify that the job was permanent since it wasn't. Maybe you can come up with wording that your HR will like that expresses what you want to say but not to the irk of HR people? Good luck! 🙂

 

 

Thank for the feedback! yeah i tried to add some wording that doesn't seem too much for them but they say they have given out similar letters in the past and simply saying it's full-time should be fine. So I think I will just go with that.

On 10/6/2020 at 10:27 AM, elmers said:

I adjusted from J1 and used my income only. My USC spouse was a student and had zero income at the time of application. No issues in adjusting. We did get an RFIE which is because I forgot to send documents showing lawful employment along with the I-864. Just make sure you sent I-94, pay slips, tax transcripts, letter from your employer (department/college) saying your job is relatively secure, and you'll be fine.

May I ask what did you include in the letter from employer? I asked for an letter from my employer and regarding the status of my job, it only says that my job is full time. I asked them if it's possible to say that it's permanent and it doesn't have a decided end date, they told me they can't do that because if our client decides to not use me anymore, then my employment ends. 

So I am wondering if saying "this is a full-time position" is enough. Because for usics it says the income has to come from the same source after green card is obtained right? 

7 minutes ago, James120383 said:

Yes they already know about it. Its not like you can hide it when its in the system.  Not an issue here . either ways you will get one of the EAD's. you can have two EAD's but AOS EAD supersedes OPT EAD 

Yeah but I mean like will they deny my opt stem application if I have already submit a green card application? Because if i can't get my green ead and my opt expires, and I can't get an opt extension then I can't work

1 hour ago, Elena_S said:

EAD filed 05.14.2020

Noa 05.21.2020

Biometric 08.03.2020

EAD received 10.10.2020.

Good luck 👍 

Ok thanks. Not too bad...

54 minutes ago, James120383 said:

you can have two EAD's in your case. OPT extension and AOS are two different applications

Yes. But is there any chance that uscis could find out that I have a pending green card application while they are reviewing my opt extension application? 

For people who applied for an EAD card with your green card aos application in 2020, what does the timeline look like? How long after you filed did you receive your EAD card?

Thanks!

I am currently on F1 first year OPT. I plan to send out my marriage-based green card AOS in the end of October 2020. I am wondering if my green card EAD card hasn't come before my current opt EAD card expires in May 2021, am I able to apply for OPT stem extension while I have a green card application in progress? How will USCIS find out if I file an OPT extension while having a pending gc application?

My main concern is my job. If my OPT expires before I can get the green card EAD then I may lose the job due to not having the right to work. And I am not sure how long  green card EAD would take now due to the pandemic.

Let me know if anyone has applied for OPT stem extension while having a pending gc application!

49 minutes ago, elmers said:

I adjusted from J1 and used my income only. My USC spouse was a student and had zero income at the time of application. No issues in adjusting. We did get an RFIE which is because I forgot to send documents showing lawful employment along with the I-864. Just make sure you sent I-94, pay slips, tax transcripts, letter from your employer (department/college) saying your job is relatively secure, and you'll be fine.

Oh ok! So you guys didn't use a co-sponsor or assets right? 

And may I ask did they question your spouses income during the interview? 

9 hours ago, Lemonslice said:

If your husband is currently unemployed, what is his source of income?

I have a job so for now I am for the household.

46 minutes ago, Paula&Johnny said:

I think the AOS need to be filled for a US citizen or LPR. The person who is sponsoring you need to be financially responsible for it. I don't think you can use your income. 

 

Maybe somebody with more experience here can help you better.

From my understanding since we are married and live in the same household my husband should be able to include my income ( at least according to uscis s instructions). So I just wanna see if anyone who did this actually got approved...

Hi, 

My husband (USC) and I (F1 OPT) are preparing docs for marriage-based AOS. He is currently unemployed, but his 2019 tax return is above the poverty guideline. I am currently employed and my income is above the poverty guideline. We don't much asset. We aren't able to find a co-sponsor either. 

I have had two consultations with two immigration lawyers to ask if it's too risky if we file i864 with only my income (we live in the same household). Their answers are both " it should be fine." I just want to know if anyone on this forum has had similar situation as we are and what was your experience when filing aos using only the intending immigrant's income?

Thank you!

10 minutes ago, itscarly said:

We didn’t have any assets or co sponsor, we just sent what we had: his tax return and his recent pay stubs. He lost his job in March and got it back mid June (Pandemic related). So we sent December, January, February and March pay stubs with the original application.

For our interview we had new pay stubs from July, August and September, and a letter of employment but the officer didn’t ask for them. He did ask my husband what his current job was but that’s it. 

Oh gotcha. So it seems that you guys sent it out when your husband got employeed again? 

Thank you so much for sharing! This post has given me so much hope haha!

You mentioned that your husband was unemployed at the time you filed and his 2019 tax return had enough to support you. May I ask you how you filled out the I-864 with your situation? Did you provide any assets or a co-sponsor? Did they ask you about you guys' income or your husband's unemployment at the interview?

The reason I am asking is that my husband(USC) and I(immigrant) are in a similar situation. He is currently unemployed but his 2019 tax return had enough for i864. We don't have any asset (we are quite young as well). Can't find co-sponsors either. I am currently making enough so we plan to use my income for i864. I am very worried that that this will cause an issue.