Aaarrrggg

Here's the situation: My husband (sponsor) and I (immigrant) do the odd freelance job but not enough to meet the minimum household income.

Instead we have been supported by dividends from my investments which will continue when we get to the states. I also own our house outright.

Questions:
"#23. My current individual annual income is"
As my husband works freelance on and off we don't have a definite figure to put here. Shall we go by last years earnings or make a guess at the last few years average? Basically I don't want to get in trouble for guessing(!)

"#25. Federal income tax return information"
My husband has been living in the UK since he was young and never filed a tax return (we didn't know he even needed to until recently.) To complicate matters, we've just been counting his earnings as mine and filed a UK tax return for the lot (9yrs now, although we only got married in March this year.) We always shared any money we had so it was never a problem.

He contacted an online tax site and they said that his individual earnings have always been so low that he wouldn't have had to file a tax return. Apparently the money he received from me would be considered a gift so that would not have to be declared. They even said the IRS get annoyed if you bother them with pointless returns for insufficient funds.

Is this true? I really hope it is, but it sounds too good!
Where does that leave us for this section of the form?

Thankyou in advance for any help you can offer. I know we've made a bit of a mess out of this one...

Noorah101

Regarding the I-864 income/assets: USC's income won't count anyway, unless it's going to continue from the same source once inside the USA. So you'd be using your dividend assets to qualify. Your assets must be 3x the amount (or perhaps 5x) the amount you would have needed in income. The minimum income needed for 2 people is around $18,000. Therefore, your dividend amount available must be $54,000 or perhaps $90,000, and be able to be liquidated within 12 months. I doubt if your house will help you right now, although you can certainly try listing it also as an asset. But the London consulate is getting picky with people using their house as an asset, with the declining market.

As for the USC's tax returns: If he indeed did not earn enough to warrant filing a US tax return, he doesn't need to. But if he earned over that amount, he should file back taxes. USC's are required to file a US tax return every year, and report their worldwide income, no matter where they live. The London embassy has a very good IRS Department that can help him with that. Do some searching on their website and contact them.

Rene

meauxna

Dividends are the monies the funds (investments) pay out, not the asset.

bbl...

jeffreyhy

I beg to disagree. Dividend income is income, and if that income is $18,212 of more she meets the income requirement.

The market value of the investments is what has to be 3 (or 5) times the difference between the actual income and $18,212.

I'm not clear on whether it's considered 'double dipping' to show the income from the investments as income while simultaneously showing the investments themselves as assets. (If the investments have to be cashed out to supplement insufficient income, the income becomes even more insufficient.)

I'm not ready to comment too much on the house until she tells us what she plans to do with it. If she plans to sell it for whatever she can get it might well count for enough to meet the asset requirement. Alternatively, if she can get a renter in there she's got more income.

Regards, JEff

Noorah101

Oops....guess I wasn't quite sure what a "dividend" was. Obviously I don't have any. LOL

Thanks for the clarifications!

Rene

Aaarrrggg

Oh whew I got scared there for a second needing 90K divys!

The dividends are payouts from my investments and would cover the $17,500 Minimum Income Requirement for the both of us. I have documentation about them so hopefully that will be enough to qualify(?)

We're planning on renting the house in the UK for a year while we rent in Austin and then selling it to buy one over there. I'm considering selling now and investing the money so we don't have the hassle of tenants, but as we all know its not a great time for selling.

I found the uk embassy IRS number so I'll get him to give them a ring tomorrow... thanks for the tip!
Oh my, that might mean we're ready to book our interview, yippee!!

Oh 1 last thing... for "Country of Domicile" am I right in thinking he should put "USA"? We both live in the UK, but as soon as the visa goes through we'll be moving to the US, so from what I understand the 'intent' to move there is enough. Is that right? It seems like a bit of a trick question!

Noorah101

Nope. According to the Poverty Guidelines here: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-864P.pdf the minimum for a household of 2 is currently $18,212. You are just a bit short of the minimum.

If it's not going to be available to sell within 12 months, you can't use it as an asset.

Yes, he will need to show intent to domicile in the USA.

Rene

meauxna

Because your husband has never lived in the US as an adult, he'll want to show strong signs that he is leaving the UK and strong signs that he is settling in the US. A home, job, other ties are the things they'll be looking for. If he doesn't have them yet, he should have evidence that he's trying to get settled in the US.
It's not really a trick question, it's just that the form is used for many situations, most of them nothing like yours. You (he) are the exception, and need to work around the limitations.
This is also part of the reason he must travel to the US with you or ahead of you. They are trying to avoid people going to the US without their citizen/PR sponsor actually living in the US, to comply with the contract I-864.

jeffreyhy

Wrong number, it's currently $18,212 for the continental USA.

Tough decsision. You won't be able to claim any rental income until, at a minimum, you have a signed lease. On the other hand, get an appraisal and you may be able to use that value as an assset. See the I-864 instructions for guidance on using a home as an asset.

See 9 FAM 40.41 N6.1-2 for guidance on intent to establish domicile. Historically the consular section in London has been rather easy going in this regard, but don't be too casual about it.

Aaarrrggg

Oh whoops, I was looking at last years guidelines. Thats rather mean of them to put the amounts up as the economy goes down. I think we might just squeak past, I'll have to do some number crunching to check.

Ahh I was worried about that. Well hopefully I won't need to use it, but good info to know just in case.

I think we have things stacked in our favour here;
- We visited Austin last year and looked at some houses
- Most of his family live in the US, and a lot of them in Tx
- His Dad is the only one in the UK and he's moving to Austin with us (his house is on the market atm and then he'll be buying over there)
- We've had an estate agent round to value our house for sale and renting
- We're both artists and Austin will be perfect for us... not sure if that counts or not, but we both get big smiles on our faces when we talk about the place hehe

Are these the sort of things we need 'proof' of or will they take our word for it? I'll try and get as much physical evidence together as possible (letter from the estate agents perhaps?) but its quite a tricky thing to prove. We currently work freelance over the internet so that will continue uninterrupted... we'll just be able to get more of it over there and stop relying on divys.

Thank you so much for all this help, you guys are awesome and I really appreciate your time!
I've tried ringing the embassy hotline and only ever come away with obvious info or stuff thats just plain wrong... oh and a big phonebill of course. Thankyou so much!

Noorah101

The poverty minimum goes up every April, as far as I can tell, regardless of how the economy is doing.

Hopefully you kept proof of this, or can show current proof that you're house-hunting.

Neither of these shows your husband's intent to domicile in the USA.

Good, proof of this is helpful.

It doesn't count for much unless you can provide proof that you have some clients or contracts or commissions lined up in the USA. Perhaps if you look into renting an art studio, that will be helpful.

They won't take your word for it. You'll need to show some sort of proof.

Rene

meauxna

I don't normally like to do this, but I just read an interesting post about a visa denial (probably a hold) due to lack of USC domicile. Further reading hints that there might be one vigilant CO at that particular Consulate (not London) but it's not bad information to have.

Just because it was insufficient evidence for this person doesn't mean that is a standard answer (specifically about 'maintained accounts'). However, it can, and does happen. Simply be prepared.

Aaarrrggg

Yikes I was afraid of that!

Hmmm... well he might be able to visit over there and get some of those boxes ticked. Its tricky because we don't want to make any moves towards the US until we have the visa sorted... but they might not give us a visa until we do... so frustrating!

Thanks for the warning, we'll see what we can do about getting some more proof together.

meauxna

Barring any obvious visa ineligibilities, it might be that you're over-cautious. It's a delicate balance between committing funds and showing that he definitely intends to live there.
I already owned a house in the US, which helped us quite a bit, I imagine.

Aaarrrggg

"Over-cautious" is definitely right. I guess it's because we've wanted to move there for so many years now but haven't been able to because of one thing or another. Its gone on for so long now that it feels like its never going to happen. We were just waiting for the visa to prove to ourselves that it was... if that makes any sense!

Looks like we need realize that it really is happening and just go for it. *feels a new surge of confidence* Thanks!