R.Tope

Hello all.

I have a quick i-864 question. I am filing with a joint sponsor, my parents, who have plenty of income and savings to meet the requirements. However, I have been living abroad for the better part of 4 years. In 2007, i filed taxes, and have a return. In 2009 I just (last week) filed taxes on my foreign income because I am well below the 90,000 dollar exception. I will be filing the 2010 taxes as soon as I can. However, in 2008 I really didn't have any taxeable income in any foreign country as I moved from Argentina to Colombia, and was studying spanish, etc... When I called the IRS they said that there was NO NEED to file any tax return for that year.

For the i864 will it matter at all if i have no tax return for that year, given that my joint sponsor can meet all the requirements?

or should i just file a tax return that says 0 dollars in income, just to have it?

thanks,

dt

Once your joint sponsor meets all the requirements all you need to do is attach a written explanation to your I-864 as to why you did not or was not required to file taxes.

Thanks all!! The interview went great

My husband and I did DCF in Trinidad in Dec of 2010. Due to the hot climate and exposure to new bacteria he was constantly getting sick and this was a major concern for us. When we applied, we explained our situation and begged for some urgency with our case, my husband ended up crying out of frustration whilst explaining and this brought tears to the eyes of most of the consular employees including the head of the consulate. Since then, amazingly this is what our timeline looked like:

Consulate Received : 2010-12-16

Packet 3 Received : 2011-01-10

Packet 3 Sent : 2011-01-14

Packet 4 Received : 2011-01-14

Interview Date : 2011-01-19

I'm very nervous for the interview tomorrow and hope we get through. I posted this to let you all know that even consular officers have a heart and a little begging goes a long way so trying it won't do any harm.

Do you mean your husband did DCF in Dec 2010?

Thanks for the info and GOOD luck!! Keep in touch.

Yes sorry I meant Dec 2010. I keep forgetting it's jan 2011 already : )

Hi all,

I just thought it was important to post this since I could not find any type of information on this site relating to questions I had about this topic. My husband does not and has never had a SSN and thus has never filed taxes (he has not been evading taxes since has been travelling most of his adult life for his family business, which he does not hold a job title for and does not get paid). We were concerned as to how this will affect our application and thus called everywhere and searched every website possible to no avail. We did a DCF in Dec 2010, was approved and received our package. The consular officer there advised us that once we receive a notarized letter from the IRS and have his parents as our sponsors nothing else is needed on his behalf.

I hope this is useful for anyone who may have any questions about this topic, though I highly doubt it as I mostly received snide remarks like my husband is an outcast or a drug cartel when previous posts were made requesting information on our situation. I pity their ignorance as a SSN is not mandatory and you can in fact have a bank account without one.

I guess I don't know how to get my timeline right. I've been here over six months and I qualify. The issue that I'm trying to bring up is how to cancel a petition because I'm sure this won't be the first time this will ever happen. I filed with the USCIS back in October.

Looks like process could take 8 to 10 months or more. I will have a chance of getting it done sooner by filing DFC. I am confident that the Jakarta Embassy can complete it quicker.

Once you apply for DCF the consulate at which you applied will send your new application for the USCIS to approve who will then cancel your pending application. I know this because my husband did DCF in Dec 2009 whilst we had a pending application at USCIS. The process is definitely faster as we have already received our package. I hope you get through soon.

this story is very weird as there's a huge lack of steady information about the petitioner. I doubt someone on here has encountered such a case as this. I think the best way to get more lawful information is to contact a reliable and experienced attorney or mail a letter to your congressman/senator in case you reached a close door.

Here's the link. choose your senate representing your husband's state.

U.S Senators

N.B: is your husband a U.S citizen but Birth, Naturalization..etc

Good luck.

Sahbi.

My husband is a US citizen by birth. It is amazing and sad that because someone does not conform to society's standards their situation is labelled weird. Thankfully, though we did not know it at first, we spoke to the head of the US consulate in my country who advised that the SSN is required for tax purposes and since he never had one and has never filed taxes all he needs to do is submit a notarized letter from the IRS.

Thank you, seems things are finally going somewhere

A social security number is used a lot when living in the US. So he has no credit? No bank account? No driver's license? There may be more to this story...

He will be the primary sponsor regardless of income. If he cannot show sufficient assets or income he may present a joint sponsor.

Two good sources of I-864 information from the State Dept. website: I-864 FAQ Preparing I-864 Forms

He has several credit cards and therefore does have credit, a bank account and a Canadian drivers licence. A SSN is indeed optional and not mandatory as many people may think. There's actually nothing more to the story. He has never worked because he has been constantly travelling since the age of 16.

Thank you very much for the links provided.

Hi guys, I know this may be unheard of but I am hoping that at least one person can shed some light on this for me.

My husband is a US citizen who does not have a social security number. I understand that the only form throughout this entire process that requires the SSN number by law is the I-864 form for financial and tax information purposes, however his parents will be the sole sponsors for me and will be providing this information.

Since he does not have a SSN and therefore no financial information in his name inclusive of filed taxes, will he still need to obtain a SSN?

I know this is very unusual but his parents left it up to their kids to experience the world and decide whether or not they wanted to apply for a SSN as they did not need to since the family runs several businesses and the children would do all the travelling necessary. This means that he has never been employed and therefore never filed taxes.

Can anyone shed some light here?

thanks much.

here goes

http://cairo.usembassy.gov/consular/iv003.htm

1- The petitioner is a resident of the consular district. The Consular section is allowed to accept I-130 petitions from U.S. citizens who reside within the consular district and have done so for the previous six months.(here is where my confusion lies in these two)

2- The petitioner must have maintained continuous residency in the consular district a minimum of the preceding six months in order to demonstrate residency.

not sure if that is saying lived here since 6 months or actually need to be a registered resident

"Continuous residency" means you must not leave the country in which you are residing for not even one day for the six month period in which you are residing there. You do not have to apply for residency but you MUST be living there LEGALLY for over six months. I found this information out from the US emabassy here in my country and they advised that the proof of this is usually the stamps on your visa. So if you left for any period of time during your stay you will not be eligible for DCF.

I hope this explanation helped : )

Does anyone know whether or not a decision has been made on this if any?

What do you believe will happen, if you had the same belief that your lawyer has, then you won't be seeking answers elsewhere. But, I will just wish you'll good luck on this journey.

Thank you, but if you read my initial post you'd realize that I am not seeking answers elsewhere but rather asking for feedback on what some of the more experienced members in this group thought of our situation. Isn't that what this site is about? people sharing their stories and appreciating the feedback they get?

Well I wish you the best of luck, God willing it works out for you!

Thank you, I hope it does also. Thankfully our lawyer is so confident everything will work out fine that we have a money back guarantee if it doesn't.

Am I understanding correctly that he is a USC?

I am confused on how he even got a US passport without a SS# it is requested right on the application see link below.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/79955.pdf?

Also if he is a USC and went to school here they ask for SS#'s for school enrollment and driver's licence, bank accounts, utility bills, student loans, medical insurance etc... it is near to impossible to live in the US without a SS#

And if he is living with you in your country have you considered Direct Consulate Filing?

He obtained his passport with his US birth certificate. The social security program is a voluntary program that was never supposed to be used for identification. With regards to school, he attended private school which did not require you to have a SS number. He is the holder of a Canadian drivers license which makes him legible to drive in the US. Never had the need for a personal bank account or medical insurance. You can only apply for T&T residency if you have been living here for more than a year which he has not and then it takes 2 years to process residency so that won't be an option for us.

Right, working at a job as an employee (or not) has nothing to do with whether he is required to file a tax return. His "income" may or may not be taxable but he needs to report it anyway. As your sponsor, he will be required to complete an I-864 affidavit of support and MUST be truthful. He'll be asked to state the income from his tax returns for the past three years and must do so truthfully. Time to file at least those tax returns. All this regardless of whether there will be a qualified joint sponsor.

To be very clear, what you have done is file a petition. No visa of any kind has been applied for. If you only filed the I-130, then you're on the CR1 or IR1 visa path, not the K3 path, so don't file any I-129F for spouse. If you already followed the I-130 with an I-129F, then expect the I-129F to die at NVC.

One cannot report income they have NEVER received right? It's quite simple, because it is a family based business inclusive of the restaurant his parents are the ones who file for income tax. His role in the family business can be seen as voluntary. It is safe to say that he has never received income in his life. I know that our situation is a very unusual one so I appreciate all the feedback that we get.

if your husband lives with you in Trinidad and Tobago, a legal resident, for more than 6 months,

then strongly suggest to

Throw out the 'K-3' concept, completely,

and file for the I-130, via Direct Consular Filing

see http://www.visajourney.com/content/dcf

re: to pay taxes - hey ! if no income in USA, then no 'requirement' to file.

However - even with that said, he's gonna have to do some extra legwork to show income

for form I-864 or I-134.

The painful bit, for you and the lawyer, alas, is that the I-129F is administratively closed - see http://www.visajourney.com/news/2010/02/07/department-of-state-to-close-k-3-visas-if-i-129f-and-i-130-petitions-approved-and-received-together/

Y'all sit down tonight and tomorrow, you and yer husband, please study this stuff, yes?

Does he still need to show income if his parents are our Joint Sponsors?

I read the link about the K3 visa but it does not state that the K3 is administratively closed, it just states that if the 129F and I-130 are both received and approved at the same time then the need for a K3 ends and that particular application will be closed and you will be asked to submit an IR-1 application.

We are patiently awaiting our case number as we are in contact with his state congress woman who needs it to follow up and advise us what our options may be if the lack of a SS number will cause problems.

If he hasn't ever paid taxes I imagine you guys are in for a bumpy ride. For 1 K3 visas are basically dinosaurs and COSTLY and you should have applied for a CR-1. Your lawyer SHOULD have explained that. Fire him as he's not up to date on current immigration process.

How will he qualify financially if he doesn't have tax records? Does he have LOTS of assets and cash in the bank?

You can't pay taxes if you've never worked right so hopefully that shouldn't be an issue.... We only recently found out about the CR-1 and by then our K3 application was filed. He does have a lot of assets but his parents would be our sponsors in our application so the financial part is covered. I'm just really worried about the effect the lack of a SS number will have on our application

Your husband has been to see you, in yer foreign country? He's got a USA Passport?

What's his 'tax paying history' look like, on him, individually, and

how were the companies formed (what legal entity type) ??

Yes he is currently living with me in my home country and does possess a US passport. He has a restaurant and work permit in Canada but because he has never had a SS number he has never had a job in the US, therefore never filed for taxes. The social security program is completely voluntary so I do not expect them to make it a mandatory requirement for this, but you never know!!

Hi everyone,

I'm new to all of this and I have read alot of other posts but none with a question quite like mine so I am eager to get your feedback on this. My husband and I have applied for a K3 visa sending all our paperwork through a lawyer. My husband has been self employed all his life running several businesses with his family but does not have a social security number which I know is very rare for most adult americans. Would this be a major problem in us getting approved??