pinayangelus

hey guys i was just wondering if you can help me?

i came here 2005 on an f-1 visa and i got my drivers licence in 2006, when i was still on that visa. last year in 2009 i did an adjustment of status and now have a green card, i havent updated anything at the DMV, does that make a difference? also, my California drivers licence is going to expire in jan 2011 and i have to renew. will i have to take a written or driving test again?! LOL i'm really worried about that.

any thoughts? thanks

dont worry i just sent a photocopy of the original marriage certificate, that was given to us on our wedding day!

Does she have to pay for school and attend this coming semester even if we are married before it starts?

I was an F-1 visa student also, and I believe I can answer this question for you. Even if you are already married she cannot just quit school, I was married for 4 years and still had to keep my F-1 visa status, until we were able to file for AOS. You MUST file the AOS documents before she is able to quit school, and even before that she must speak to her International Student Advisor and ask what is required for her so she is able to drop her status. The requirements are different for each school, but reading some of the posts on VJ, some schools may require to see very little such as see the receipts (NOA-1's) from the AOS process, you can see my timeline, other schools however want to see the actual greencard IN HAND before they allow her to quit school. so it all depends, she should definitely speak to her advisor, so you can get an idea.

I am a USC through Birth, my parents were also. I am a full time engineering student and I work part-time.

My fiancee came to the US, to be an Au Pair in Virginia, as a J-1 in the beginning of 2008. We met 07/08 and she had already started the paperwork for F-1. She was approved for her F-1 transfer to a school in Chicago and left Virginia for about 6months. In September she moved in with me back in Virginia and transferred her F1 to the college I am attending. Last month we got engaged and I am hoping to get married fairly soon.

My questions are:

Once we are married do I just follow the AOS guide for a stateside spouse?

Does she have to pay for school and attend this coming semester even if we are married before it starts?

Is there anything I should be worried about?

Thanks for any help

Saul

two of the most important pieces of evidence you can have for a joint relationship is a bank account and joint tax return forms.

maybe you cculd try to open a bank account at another bank closer to your new place? i know for sure wells fargo opens bank accounts, as long as one of you has a SSN. my husband and I didnt even open a bank account until a month before we sent out our AOS, i dont think it matters HOW LONG you've had an account together BUT more that you guys DO have a joint account together.

as for tax returns, i was an F-1 visa student and i never has a SSN. so my husband couldnt claim me on his taxes for the past few years. since i was applying for AOS, I also applied for my EAD. as soon as I recieved EAD, i got a SSN. we went back to my husbands tax guy to have his taxes ammended so that it was also joint. mind you this was 1 week before our interview. we brought extra copies of the ammended tax forms and the IO was very pleased that we had been able to show him 'joint' tax returns.

other things that you may have joint, what we sent in was our vet records for our dogs, library cards, costco cards, we also got my husbands parents to wriite an affidavit stating that we were living with them, therefore we dont have very many bills together, we also sent in the phone/internet and cell phone bill and that was it for us.

hopefully you can find other things that you can bring. good luck!

Other than the Affidavits it asks for mortgages,joint tenancy,joint bank account etc. We live with my brother in-law who owns the house and we pay half of the cost every month so no lease or name on mortgage. We can't get a joint bank account because his bank is in Washington and we now live in Utah and they will only do it on walk-in. The only thing we have together is the cable/phone/internet bill and insurance is that going to be enough? I don't have any letters or any record of flights and so on because he just lived a few hours away and just drove to Canada to see me. So i don't really have any proof of anything. I have pictures from 6 years ago when we got together but they have no dates or anything on them.

That's a very good idea!

Good luck to you

thanks! i booked an infopass appointment just to be sure before i send everything in because i don't know if we'll get another chance if this one gets denied. my first one was denied at the interview so i wanna make sure the second one that we sent in is okay.

Since it is just her and she has no dependents, and also if you are also working, then most probably, you will have no problems.

Better, if you can to get someone with a higher income to be safe, but if you cant... i think you should be ok.

she is single and has no children. so it would be her and I.

what are the odds now? thanks

actually you need to fill out one I-864 for you and your spouse, and the joint sponsor has to fill out an I-864 for themselves and their son.

Part 5. Sponsor's Household Size

This section asks you to add together the number of persons for whom you are financially responsible. Some of these persons may not be residing with you. Make sure you do not count any individual more than once, since in some cases thesame person could fit into two categories. This means any dependents, like kids and parents. Anyone who is claimed on the sponsor's and joint sponsor's tax returns.

so for your spouse's I-864, for household size, you would put just your spouse, to make 2.

for your joint sponsor's I-864, they would put themselves and their son, also put down 2.

when the USCIS reviews your AOS they will figure out whether or not your sponsors make enough to support you.

the joint sponsor should be the MOST IMPORTANT, to show that you will be supported, also it is REQUIRED that your sponsor makes more than 125% of the povertly line, for the number of ppl in his/her family PLUS you & your husband (so basically add two people to your joint sponsors household) and this is what they should at least be making to sponsor you.

e.g. our sponsor makes $125,000 for a family of 7, the poverty guidelines show that our sponsor should be making a minimum of $41,588 (125%) for the househould and adding two more people would mean she should be making a minimum of $50,938 (125%) for a total of 9 ppl, to sponsor us with no problems.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtml

Ok so when i fill out the joint sponsor application i would put me,my husband,sponsor as well as his son? we all live together.. this whole process is so confusing you think your almost done but your not.. i feel like i am never going to get this completed.

it also depends on how many people she has as a dependents in the household (children, parents). say that it is only her living alone then, you would be a family of "3"... her, yourself and spouse, this means that she would have to make more than 125% of the poverty guidelines for a family of 3 to be absolutely sure that she is making enough.

good luck

Hey guys,

so im still dealing with the whole joint sponsor issue. just got all the paper work from my friend in....

this is what her tax returns say...

2006 she made 4,000

2007 she made 13,500

2008 she made 22,000

and 2009 she's made 20,000 so far. she also has a letter from her employer who shes been with for a year and a half stating her income, hours, salary, position and duties.

do you think shell qualify as a joint sponsor given those numbers? i see that shes made enough in 2008 and is making enough in 2009 too but im worried that theyll deny her as my joint sponsort because of how much she made in 2006 and 2007. what do you think? thanks. i really appreciate your help and support.

the joint sponsor should be the MOST IMPORTANT, to show that you will be supported, also it is REQUIRED that your sponsor makes more than 125% of the povertly line, for the number of ppl in his/her family PLUS you & your husband (so basically add two people to your joint sponsors household) and this is what they should at least be making to sponsor you.

e.g. our sponsor makes $125,000 for a family of 7, the poverty guidelines show that our sponsor should be making a minimum of $41,588 (125%) for the househould and adding two more people would mean she should be making a minimum of $50,938 (125%) for a total of 9 ppl, to sponsor us with no problems.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtml

Dont worry too much about it! My husband and I were going through the same thing when we sent off our AOS package on July 30th, my husband lost his job on July 10th. I dont think that social security or unemployment earnings makes a difference, we did not add these into the I-864 (just put that he was unemployed as of July 10th), the joint sponsor should be the MOST IMPORTANT, to show that you will be supported, also it is REQUIRED that your sponsor makes more than 125% of the povertly line, for the number of ppl in his/her family, as long as you can prove this, there should be no problems regarding the I-864, even if you and your husband dont work at the moment. We just added up my husbands total earnings for this year 2009 up to the point where he got laid off! I dont believe that it makes a difference to the IO whether or not your husband has a job, it didnt hurt our chances, we got approved on October 9th, straight from the interview.

We asked the IO at our interview about the fact that my husband doesnt have a job, but he explained to us... "Would you stop loving each other if you didnt have a job or money, and the answer is that is obviously NO!", therefore it cannot be grounds to decline your AOS. They are looking more at the relationship you have with one another.

Good Luck, I hope that I this puts your mind at ease a little more!

I am having a joint sponsor for my I-864.. But my husband got laid off on October 31st so he doesn't currently have a job.. He receives Social Security every month and we are also currently receiving unemployment.. Can i put that in there as proof that we do have an income and how? Is that going to hurt my chances at being approved? My sponsor makes over the 125% poverty level so does that help me out as well?

for us we just typed them up and printed them out. then sent them out for our family to sign.

we just used a generic letter (stating their name, address, DOB), and then added some personal details about our relationship with the family member and how they know about us and our relationship, make sure to add important dates... vacations together, celebrations, wedding/reception.

we didnt even get them notarized! hope this helps. good luck

hey payxibika, all we did was make a copy (photocopy) of our original marriage certificate. we didnt spend extra money on getting extra marriage certificates. that was all we needed, and then just showed the IO our original at the interview

good luck

I adjusted from an F1 visa also, Well to prove your eligibility, you need to prove you are married and there is a co-mingling of your finances. There are documents (you don't have, to have them all, but the more the better!) with both your names on it that the interviewing officer would may ask to see, such as a lease, house deeds, car insurance, health insurance, 401k, credit cards, bills, cell phone, bank account (VERY IMPORTANT) and joint tax returns (ALSO IMPORTANT), we even had a copy of out vet records for our dog! Another thing they might want to see are letters addressed to you both from friends and family.

About proving ur spouses citizenship, your correct in saying that her birth certificate is proof, also her US passport and also this doesn't apply to you but also citizenship papers would be proof too!

Hope this helps a little, good luck

I adjusted from an F1 visa also, Well to prove your eligibility, you need to prove you are married and there is a co-mingling of your finances. There are documents (you don't have, to have them all, but the more the better!) with both your names on it, such as a lease, house deeds, car insurance, health insurance, 401k, credit cards, bills, cell phone, bank account (VERY IMPORTANT) and joint tax returns (ALSO IMPORTANT), we even had a copy of out vet records for our dog! Another thing they might want to see are letters addressed to you both from friends and family.

About proving ur spouses citizenship, your correct in saying that her birth certificate is proof, also her US passport and also this doesn't apply to you but also citizenship papers would be proof too!

Hope this helps a little, good luck

YAY, just got my 10 year Green Card in the mail! Thank God i dont have to renew in 2 years!

Good luck to everyone, the end is near and well worth it!

yup, i just used the earlier version (one before the recent edition) where all my information fit! worked perfectly!

good luck!

Guys & gals,

I am about to send out my I-130/485 packages today. Yesterday I checked the version of each of my forms against the latest on the USCIS web site as I initially filled these out in May of this year. They were all still the latest except the G325. No biggie, I just downloaded the latest version and began completion for my wife and myself last night by typing everything in. The problem is that the formatting of the later version is terrible. I can't even fit some of the information like my employers' information in the form without some serious abbreviation and using two lines for each employer. In the old form I was able to do so. I also don't think I can change the text size so that does not seem to be an option. Does anyone know how to do this?

The USCIS web site states that "Edition Date: 6/12/09. Previous versions accepted".

Can I just use the earlier version of the form without worry about it being rejected?

Thanks again for all of your help,

W.

Congrratulations to you Mister Jeeves!!

Here come the Brits

Hey kittyfang... What we did was send my husbands 'single' tax return forms from the last 3 years for the initial pacakge and then once I got my EAD, go to get a SSN asap. Didn't take more than a week to recieve it, then we were able to refile my husbands taxes for the last three years 'jointly'. Mind you this was a week before our interview, doesn't take long and you get the proof right away! Our IO was pleased that we were able to do that! So don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to refile before you go to ur interview!

Good luck

dont worry too much about the online thing. i couldnt even see my I-130 and I-485 online (said it was invalid number) until they approved me last friday! also the I-485 is still on "initial review" from august 5th. so i wouldnt even worry about it!

well i just got my green card but we're already starting to think about the future. my husband who is a USC has said that he wants to have dual citizenship with the UK, but i have no idea whether we will qualify or even how to apply?

any general information would be a great help. thanks guys

i was told by our IO that you should wait at least 90 days before you try and contact them about the status of your AOS.

good luck to you, i'm sure it will be ok!

i was able to get a joint bank account without using a SSN. as long as your husband is a USC you can go into most banks (we chose wells fargo) and be added as a beneficiary for the account. other things that you can get without a SSN, add your name to certain bills, i dont know if you are able to add your name to all the bills you have... but we certainly were able to add my name to the ATT and our tmobile bill.

anything joint is the key, we even sent our dogs vet records. at least you will have something to show in your AOS package and try and build on that before your interview!

thanks again guys, i'll be waiting for my greencard before i go to the SS office to have my status changed!

ok cool, also do i have to have my GC in hand when i visit the SS office or i can just go there to reapply?

You have to go in to ssn office and get that changed now that you have your green card and they will send a new card without that writen on it.

hey guys i have a quick question... about the SSN card.

ok so i just got approved for my greencard yesterday, and i got my SSN a couple of weeks back using my EAD. so on the card it says "VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION".

i know that my SSN will not change, but do i have to go back to the SS office to update my status or does it matter that i still have that on SS card?