jleebeane

Hi everyone,

I've been reading a lot on here for the past couple weeks and decided it was finally time to introduce myself and ask the questions I haven't found answers to yet. (It somehow took me awhile to find the "advanced search" option, which really slowed the whole process!)

I'm a US citizen and my boyfriend (still boyfriend - just planning ahead) is a UK citizen. We currently live in our respective countries. We've of course met in person, and in fact he's due to arrive here (Boston area) next week for two months, as long as the ash cloud allows it. I'm currently in nursing school and set to graduate this December.

Assuming things proceed as hoped and we begin the process for the K-1 visa, my understanding is the first step is the I-129F and its accompanying paperwork, which then takes approximately four months to be processed. This seems to be the easy part.

Once that's approved, we begin the actual visa. My first real question concerns the I-134 affidavit of support at this point. If we submit the I-129F while I'm still in school but I'm working by the time we need to submit the I-134, will current pay stubs be sufficient evidence? How long would I need to have worked to feel confident that it would be sufficient? I assume that as a nurse I'll make enough to support a household of two, since neither of us has any dependents, but I won't have had significant income for the two years during which I was in school.

Let's continue to assume all goes well, K-1 is approved, he comes here, we get married. Yay! Now we need to file a whole bunch more paperwork including the I-684 affidavit of support. Again, I'm hoping that my nursing salary will be more than sufficient (both to the government and to actually support us until he can work and finds a job), but this time they want three years of tax returns. I've filed and can provide them but 2009 and 2010 won't show much income - figure under $10K/year from my part time job. Will that be a problem?

I guess my questions boil down to: do they care more about current income or past/consistent income? I believe my mother would be willing to be a cosponsor, but she's been so supportive of me financially while I've been in school I'd prefer not to ask her if I don't need to.

I feel like that's an awfully long post to basically ask if it's ok if I don't have a job until halfway through the process! It's been great reading all of the other threads and seeing how helpful everyone is. Hopefully you'll be able to assuage my needlessly-far-ahead-of-myself worries. Thanks in advance!

Noorah101

Hi and welcome to BE.

In general, they are more concerned with *current* income. If your current income is right on the income margin, they might look at past income to see if it's been steady. Being a student is a valid reason for not having income or filing tax returns. But be aware that the ConOff or the AOS interviewing officer have the right to say you don't qualify and request a joint sponsor.

So really there's no way to predict your particular outcome, you just have to try and hope for approval, and have a joint sponsor lined up just in case.

Rene

jleebeane

Thanks for the speedy response! By "lined up", would you recommend asking my mom in advance or actually having her fill out all necessary paperwork and provide documentation so it's ready if needed?

Noorah101

Just ask her in advance, for now, to make sure she'll be willing. When it gets closer to the time to submit the I-134 (or the I-864 when the time comes), then ask her to fill out the appropriate paperwork.

Rene