featherB

More questions from me (thanks loads for the advice so far)...

I'm thinking ahead here, as we haven't even got the I-129F filed yet, but I've been trying to find some information about the financial information I'll need to provide at the visa interview.

Stupid question first - if we file an affidavit of support, what my fiance needs to show on that is that his income (before or after tax?) is at least 125% of the poverty line level for the relevant size of household, yes? Is that his entire income, without any deductions - or what he has left after tax, outgoings etc? If it's his total annual income, fine, and I'm sure that's what they're after... but just wanted to check I'm not totally misunderstanding what's required here! Oh, and the 'size of household' - that number is meant to take me into account, I guess (as the minimum size of household shown is two people) rather than 'size of household prior to my arrival'? Not that it makes much difference either way, but again, I want to make sure I understand everything properly.

Next question.... re: my debts. I have quite a considerable amount of credit card/loan debt, from years ago, when I got myself into quite a financial mess. I've been paying off a reduced amount for several years now, and my creditors are happy (ish - I mean, they're not sending bailiffs round or ringing me up every 5 minutes, although I'm sure they'd be happier to get their money back all in one go!) with this. When I move to the US I intend to keep some money in an account here to keep up the monthly payments, and to top it up (as rarely as possible as I'm sure that will cost money) when necessary, every 6 months or so, maybe. Will the fact that I have a big chunk of debt to my name count against me in my visa application? Do they need to know? (I don't mean that I'd lie, I just mean: will they ask?)

At the visa interview, I know I'll be expected to show evidence that I have sufficient funds to keep me going until I can work (I know the affidavit of support should help with this, but I'd like to have all bases covered!) - but I can't find any information as to how much money is deemed 'sufficient'. With any luck I should be getting made redundant from my job in the next six months or so (given the length of time our visa application process is likely to take, and given that we've not filed the I-129F yet, I hope it doesn't come too soon - I want to take as much of that money as possible to the US with me!), which would give me a redundancy payment of about £15,000. I'm assuming THAT would be sufficient (or am I wrong?), but I have no way of knowing whether I'll have it before or after my visa interview comes up (if at all - it's not a certainty yet). Otherwise, depending on when the interview is scheduled, I should have around £3,000 - £6,000 in savings (I'm squirrelling away every spare penny I can right now) - would that be enough? Oh, and do they offset any debts against my savings? I do hope not, as my savings balance would show up in the negative if that were the case!

Final money-related question... does anyone have any advice as to the best way of transferring what money I have, when the time comes, to the US? I'm sure there must be plenty of people here who have experience of this, and obviously I want to find the method which involves the least fleecing by banks on either side of the Atlantic!

Sorry yet again for the long post and so many questions - and thank you in advance to anyone who has any advice on any of this!

Noorah101

Hi feather,

Your debts won't be part of the picture at all, so you don't need to worry about those for immigration purposes.

If you take a look at the I-864, you'll see that it's spelled out pretty clearly on the form, the household size, the line to include you, where to put his last income tax amount, and his current earnings. After you and your fiance have taken a look at the I-864, if you have any other questions, come on back with specific ones. But basically the final number of people will be his household size plus you. And they are looking for his *current* net income (before taxes).

You don't have to show that you can support yourself in the USA. That's what the I-864 is for. Your funds don't come into the picture at all.

Best Wishes,
Rene

featherB

Thanks again, Rene - looks like I'm just finding things to worry about!

Just another quick question, though (sorry!), but re: my debts not coming into it - which is a relief - does that go for the CCJ (county court judgement) I have against me for non-payment of one of the aforementioned debts?

Thank you, again, and I promise to shut up with my incessant questions for a bit now!

andrea874

If its a criminal judgement I'd suspect it will certainly have to be mentioned.

Noorah101

I agree. If you just have debt, it won't matter. If legal action was taken, I think it should be mentioned...not sure where or on what form, though.

Rene

andrea874

Dontchya have to get court reports from your country? I dont really know anything about K1's, but it will certainly at LEAST come up when she does AOS.

featherB

It's not a criminal judgment - just the result of one creditor wanting full payment immediately, which I couldn't afford (god, in retrospect it was such a tiny amount, but not one I could scrape together at the time): I sent forms back to the court saying what I *could* afford, and they (the court) agreed that was fair, so there's a court judgment saying I have to pay X amount a month. As far as I know the only thing it should have any bearing on is my credit rating, so I'm glad to hear that that in itself is immaterial in my visa application... just wondering if the fact that there is a court judgment out there with my name on it *at all* might count against me, or if again, it's something that would never come up/would be irrelevant.

Thank you - and I'm sorry for all the questions. As soon as I get one thing sorted, some other little niggling thing crops up in my head!

featherB

According to the document checklist on the Embassy site:

"Court Record - If the applicant has been convicted of any crime in any country, a copy of the court record of each conviction is required, even if the applicant has subsequently benefited from an amnesty, pardon or other act of clemency or Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. This is in addition to the police certificate requirement."

I certainly haven't been convicted of any crimes, or charged with any crimes, or arrested in my life... so unless I'm reading that wrong I *don't* need to get a court report. The CCJ that I have is (as far as I know) purely a civil matter. I've tried a lot of Googling but can't find any answers one way or the other as to whether it's likely to be a problem. Ugh... I do hope not.

luivega

A CCJ is most definitely a civil matter and not a criminal matter, and that clause about Court records most definitely refers to criminal court. A CCJ is not a criminal conviction

I had had a house repossessed at the time I did my second app for a green card (long story but being out of the country on US government orders still nullified my first green card). There were court records for the reposession, and they never once came up in all my filings and interviews. I had all the information and paperwork to hand just in case, but I was never asked, and there was never a place on any of the forms to "declare" the repossession. This 2nd app was all around 1999.

This is anecdotal I know, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Andrea

andrea874

Ahh if its not criminal then I dont know
What I was saying about court records: when I did my AOS, they ask if you've ever been charged (or cited?) with anything at all - not necesarilly conviced. In my case I had been (as a minor, charges were dismissed), and still had to get court records about it - thats all I meant. Like I said, I dont know anything about K1 as we didn't go that route... but it sounds like ya might be okay...

Noorah101

If possible, it might not hurt the OP to get a clear court record, if they do such a thing. Just in case the question comes up, the OP can show a clear record.

Rene

featherB

Thanks, Andrea - anecdotal it maybe, but very very relevant! Not to mention reassuring...

featherB

Thank you (again), Rene & Andrea... and that's a very good idea - if the question does come up, I would (of course) mention it and explain, and it definitely wouldn't hurt to have some paperwork to hand just in case.

Again, thanks!

Verna via ImmigrationKB.com

CCJ's do not come into it. It is not a crime.

Verna

featherB wrote:
    >> If its a criminal judgement I'd suspect it will certainly have to be
    >> mentioned.
    >It's not a criminal judgment - just the result of one creditor wanting
    >full payment immediately, which I couldn't afford: I sent forms back to
    >the court saying what I *could* afford, and they (the court) agreed that
    >was fair, so there's a court judgment saying I have to pay X amount a
    >month. As far as I know the only thing it should have any bearing on is
    >my credit rating, so I'm glad to hear that that in itself is immaterial
    >in my visa application... just wondering if the fact that there is a
    >court judgment out there with my name on it *at all* might count against
    >me, or if again, it's something that would never come up/would be
    >irrelevant.
    >Thank you - and I'm sorry for all the questions. As soon as I get one
    >thing sorted, some other little niggling thing crops up in my head!

--
Message posted via ImmigrationKB.com
http://www.immigrationkb.com/Uwe/For...riage/200609/1

Andrew David Pratt

On the matter of transferring money to the US... My experience with my UK
bank is that they can set up a foreign currency account for me anytime I ask
for it - over the phone. That means that when I am about ready to move to
the US, I will transfer funds into a $US account with my UK bank - bearing
in mind that the timing regarding exchange rate will be an issue too. If
timing is not desperate for you, I would check the exchange rate and
transfer to $ when you think it is looking as good as it will get, and then
change your � to $. From there, moving funds to a US account is easy - you
just give you bank the relevant instructions with the international account
identifier etc. I did this recently, moving some money to my fiancee's
account - it took 2 days for the money to arrive and cost me �20.00.

Hope this helps

Andrew
"featherB" <member55832@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected] m...
    > More questions from me (thanks loads for the advice so far)...
    > I'm thinking ahead here, as we haven't even got the I-129F filed yet,
    > but I've been trying to find some information about the financial
    > information I'll need to provide at the visa interview.
    > Stupid question first - if we file an affidavit of support, what my
    > fiance needs to show on that is that his income (before or after tax?)
    > is at least 125% of the poverty line level for the relevant size of
    > household, yes? Is that his entire income, without any deductions - or
    > what he has left after tax, outgoings etc? If it's his total annual
    > income, fine, and I'm sure that's what they're after... but just wanted
    > to check I'm not totally misunderstanding what's required here! Oh, and
    > the 'size of household' - that number is meant to take me into account,
    > I guess (as the minimum size of household shown is two people) rather
    > than 'size of household prior to my arrival'? Not that it makes much
    > difference either way, but again, I want to make sure I understand
    > everything properly.
    > Next question.... re: my debts. I have quite a considerable amount of
    > credit card/loan debt, from years ago, when I got myself into quite a
    > financial mess. I've been paying off a reduced amount for several years
    > now, and my creditors are happy (ish - I mean, they're not sending
    > bailiffs round or ringing me up every 5 minutes, although I'm sure
    > they'd be happier to get their money back all in one go!) with this.
    > When I move to the US I intend to keep some money in account here to
    > keep up the monthly payments, and to top it up (as rarely as possible as
    > I'm sure that will cost money) when necessary, every 6 months or so,
    > maybe. Will the fact that I have a big chunk of debt to my name count
    > against me in my visa application? Do they need to know? (I don't mean
    > that I'd lie, I just mean: will they ask?)
    > At the visa interview, I know I'll be expected to show evidence that I
    > have sufficient funds to keep me going until I can work (I know the
    > affidavit of support should help with this, but I'd like to have all
    > bases covered!) - but I can't find any information as to how much money
    > is deemed 'sufficient'. With any luck I should be getting made
    > redundant from my job in the next six months or so (given the length of
    > time our visa application process is likely to take, and given that
    > we've not filed the I-129F yet, I hope it doesn't come too soon - I
    > want to take as much of that money as possible to the US with me!),
    > which would give me a redundancy payment of about £15,000. I'm
    > assuming THAT would be sufficient (or am I wrong?), but I have no way
    > of knowing whether I'll have it before or after my visa interview comes
    > up (if at all - it's not a certainty yet). Otherwise, depending on when
    > the interview is scheduled, I should have around £3,000 - £6,000 in
    > savings (I'm squirrelling away every spare penny I can right now) -
    > would that be enough? Oh, and do they offset any debts against my
    > savings? I do hope not, as my savings balance would show up in the
    > negative if that were the case!
    > Final money-related question... does anyone have any advice as to the
    > best way of transferring what money I have, when the time comes, to the
    > US? I'm sure there must be plenty of people here who have experience of
    > this, and obviously I want to find the method which involves the least
    > fleecing by banks on either side of the Atlantic!
    > Sorry yet again for the long post and so many questions - and thank you
    > in advance to anyone who has any advice on any of this!
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com