Dekka's Angel

Hi! This is my first time posting on this wonderful forum, which I found when desperately mining the 'Net trying to discern the reason that CSC had suddenly upped my I-129F processing time from 34-64 days to 205-235. This forum is a major reason I've kept my sanity and remained only slightly weepy since. Even though I am an attorney and *know* that the government has a great deal of power to make this type of change for any reason it asserts is necessary, it has been very hard emotionally. It feels like forever since I've seen my beloved Derek, who lives in Western Australia. We, like everyone else here, just want our life together to begin as quickly as possible. For myself, I am very frustrated that trying to do things the right way has resulted in us having such uncertainty because of the projected delay, while others in our situation skirt the law and its intent (or outright violate it), marry and often get to remain in the US and lead happy lives together despite their conduct.

Since I saw that CSC has issued an approval in the past week, I now have more hope than I did that I might have my Dekka here with me again before my youngest child leaves the nest in 6 years for college Unfortunately, being the advance planning/anal retentive type, the fact that things are now again moving -- albeit slowly -- has caused me to feel that I need to get the answers to some of my questions sooner rather than later. I'm not an immigration attorney, so wading through the law and regulations and discerning the practical implications of them is definitely a challenge.

My first questions are related to the I-134 that I need to prepare:

1) Do I need to wait for our NOA-2 before ordering my bank statements for the I-134, or can I get those now while waiting for NOA-2 approval even though it might be months before that comes? I was hoping to send my I-134 to Australia early so my fiance could have it all ready to go, but with the new 200+ day estimated timeline for processing, I am worried that if I get it too far in advance of when he is interviewed, the Sydney consulate will reject my evidence as stale. Any experience with this? How current do bank statements need to be in relation to the actual date of the consular interview?

2) Does the INS, when reviewing the I-134, look at gross income, or adjusted gross income, to evaluate whether someone meets the 125% requirement (without assets)? Last year, I went out on my own and frankly had a horrid business year (at least in terms of collections) with the death of the dot-com economy here in California. Since I have always made a decent living even when in nonprofit law, I had savings to tide me over. I haven't done my 2002 taxes yet but my gross income will be just around the 125%. With adjustments, however, it will definitely be under that. Will there be a problem with the I-134?

3) Can any problems with my 2002 gross income be offset by sending in my 2001 and 2000 tax returns along with the I-134? Each shows income substantially higher -- by orders of magnitude -- than that which I made in 2002. Does it matter that income from those years, other than the last month in 2001, was employment income and not self-employment income?

4) My primary asset (in addition to business bank accounts) is the equity in my home - which is around $150,000. This is more than enough to meet the differential between my 2002 income and the 125% limit if needed, but my question is: how recent does the appraisal have to be to support my equity estimate? I refinanced my home last fall in October. Do I need to have a new appraisal done immediately before the consular interview? If not, what's an acceptable aging for the appraisal, in people's experience?

5) When sending in the I-134, does the INS want the entire tax return (including self-employment/business expense schedule, child care credits, itemized deductions, etc), or just the 1040 form without attachments?

Finally, my fiance has a question about police certificates: Can he order his now, or does it also have to wait until we actually have our NOA-2 in hand? He was told it takes about 4-6 weeks to get the certificate he needs, and obviously we don't want to wait for the NOA-2 if it means any additional delay can be avoided. What have people's experiences been, particularly with the Sydney consulate?

I'm sorry that my very first post is so lengthy. Thanks in advance for any guidance/advice anyone can provide and thanks especially for just existing -- it has made an emotionally draining process much more bearable.

meauxna

Heheh, DA, the length of your post gave you away

I'll stick the ones I can answer

Can you make photocopies of your bank statements to include with your I-134? Do you need to order them? I know some banks have gone paperless like mine. I just printed out my account statements from my internet banking (it was a different Aff o S, I-864) and included an original from back in the paper days to make it look more legitimate.

They are interested in your gross income.

You are showing a good pattern of your ability to earn 125% poverty. I actually had zero income when I successfully passed my I-864 through this year.

I did not use an appraisal when using my home equity. I found an online 'neighborhood valuation' on the web, used my property tax bill and my mortgage statements to establish value and equity. The actual tax bill was nearly a year old by the time they used it.

Since you have a fairly recent appraisal, I think it would help your case.

I'm pretty sure you need at least your schedule C. To shortcut, I used transcripts which have all the info and are nice and tidy.


I believe you can order your plice record up to one year ahead.

I'm sure if any of this info is incorrect, our Sydney friends or other K1ers will chime in. Have you considered setting up a DCF ahead of time (which you can do in Sydney), flying over, marrying, filing for DCF and bringing your intended home to the US with an Immigrant Visa instead? I ask because this option may be available to you and is lightning fast with a superior outcome.