Spaceball

Hi all,
Thanks in advance for reading this thread - I am quite anxious about the I-864 aspect of the DCF Visa process for my UKC wife.

Before the questions, here are some quick background facts:

• I am a USC and my wife is the UKC.
• We have two young sons, both which were taken to the US Consulate in Belfast shortly after each was born and acquired their USC status with passports and SS#'s.
• I have been living in UK since early 2003 and to date am still in FT employment here in the UK.
• I intend to be the sole Sponsor for my UKC wife.

With regard to the I-864 paperwork, not only does the main Sponsor (me) have to demonstrate that the principal immigrant (my UKC wife) will be sufficiently able to NOT become a burden on the State, but the main Sponsor also has to prove domicile in the States.

OK - now here are the questions:

1. If I have been living/working in the UK for the last 8-odd years, how can I best prove domicle in these circumstances?
2. Would documents such as email exchanges on my requesting my overseas ballot; my intending to back-file taxes @ the IRS desk at the US Embassy at the time of my wife's interview (even though I fell under the threshold each year) be acceptable and enough for me to prove domicile - OR are the Consular Officers more stringent than that?
3. IF they were to ask me instead to prove that I want to re-establish principal domicile in the States (Texas), would the aforementioned docs PLUS things such as bank statements to prove that I have sold (by interview time) our UK property with the money ready for bank transfer to the US; email exchanges with realtors to demonstrate that while we may not have necessarily chosen where exactly in San Antonio we would intend to live that we have actively been scrutinizing rentals; email exchanges with professional contacts/friends regarding networking or otherwise exploring employment opportunities in the San Antonio area; would such documents be proof enough that we ARE intending to establish permanent domicile in the States?

The reason why I am SO anxious about this is because I want to make sure that I would not be disqualified as a viable Sponsor for my own spouse.

My rationale is that all our actions to this stage point to us slowly casting away the anchors that make up our life in the UK, with the aim of collecting ourselves and 'our stuff' and looking towards setting ourselves up in the States.

A person would not just get rid of their life here in the UK, piece by piece, if they were not planning to go elsewhere, right? But - would a Consular Officer also see things in this same perspective?

Can anyone out there shed some light on these concerns for us?

I would be especially grateful to hear from people who are/were in the same circumstances as we are, where both the USC and UKC are both living/working in the UK at the time of application - and with the USC not being physically in the States for the past several years, the family took steps to leave their UK lives behind and move fresh to the U.S. And that these circumstances were feasible in helping you to acquire the visa for your spouse.

What type of proof did you find useful or not useful in proving domicile in the States while not actually being physically present over the previous years?

Did you encounter any difficulties if you as the USC did NOT already have a job waiting for you?

And also - how do our two boys figure into this sponsorship equation? They already have their US Citizenship and passports - so they don't need individual I-864s of their own, right? They are our dependants - but they are also alreadu USCs.

We got our LND # on Friday Oct 7th - but time constraints have meant that we intend to mail our DS-230 I & II and DS-2001 this coming Monday Oct 17th. I really hope we have NOT delayed in returning these docs too long already.

We have all our paperwork in order other than having the I-864 and my back-file tax returns completed in advance of the interview.

I am SO concerned about dropping the ball when it comes to being prepared correctly with regard to the I-864, where I get disqualified for something stupid OR because I am plainly ineligible for consideration as a viable sponsor.

I wonder where I really stand - given that throughout the time of this application process, I will still be in full-time employment (albeit here in the UK and not in the States), so I will have an income and we will be in posession of substantial assets from the sale of our UK property.

OK - I hope all of this makes sense to you, the reader. It is late and I am tired and confused and anxious and everything in-between.

Any advice offered is very much appreciated.

Thank you for reading - and posting your replies!
Sal and Clare

Noorah101

Your questions are good. Let me see what I can address.

• You only have to show "intent to domicile". This includes the things you listed...job hunting in the USA, house/apartment hunting in the USA, the steps taken to sell your place in the UK, research on schooling for the kids in the USA, banking in the USA, etc.
  
  
• You say you do NOT intend to use a joint sponsor, but it doesn't sound like your current UK income will continue from the same source once inside the USA (since you mention job hunting). Do you have sufficient assets to use in place of income? Assets need to equal 3x the amount you would have needed in income, and cash in the bank works best. If you need the exact figure, go to www.uscis.gov, look at Form I-864P, 125% column for a family of 4. Then multiply that number by 3. That is the amount of savings you should have in the bank in order to qualify without using a joint sponsor.
  
  
• The 2 kids will be included in the household size on your I-864, but they don't need anything else because they are USCs and will be entering the USA using their US passports. Only your wife is immigrating.

Rene

rpjs

You don't have to prove actual domicile in the US, just intent to re-establish it.

My wife (the USC) had been living in the UK for ten years when we went through my visa process, and the re-establishing domicile part was not a big issue. She provided copies of her US student loan statements (that she'd been paying off from the UK), a US bank account statement that she'd opened on a visit back a year or two ago with only $25 in it (!) and evidence of job applications to the US, plus a covering letter where she wrote out her intent to re-establish with references to the evidence. The ConOff had no problems with this.

In your case I'm pretty sure I've seen registering to vote as an overseas voter as something ConOffs accept as evidence of maintaining/re-establishing domicile.

You do have to be the sponsor on the I-864 irrespective of whether you have sufficient income/assets. If you don't cover it then you can get a relative or friend in the US to be a joint sponsor with an I-864A. Your current UK income does not count if it will end when you return to the US (e.g. because it's through employment which will end when you leave the UK), but will count if it will continue. In my case I was in the fairly unusual situation of being my own joint-sponsor as my income was continuing in the US as I transferred to the US arm of my UK employer.

NB you may have been under the threshold for paying tax to the US, but if you were working you almost certainly were over the reporting threshold so you definitely need to get your last three years' returns filed at least. Check out the wiki on this site for the definitive guide on how to do so.

If the assets from your house sale are realised by the time of time of the interview and come to more than 3x the amount required in the I-864P, then that will be all you will need.

if your children are USCs then no, they don't need to be sponsored at all, but presumably if they're dependents who will be living with you they may count towards the household size for calculating the I-864P value. (We don't have any kids so not an issue for us.)

Good luck! it's a lot of form filling and paperwork but it's a very "do-able" process really.

Noorah101

Usually, a joint sponsor will fill out Form I-864 (not I-864A). The exception would be if the USC and immigrant are going to live in the same household as the joint sponsor when they arrive in the USA...and when this is the case, *sometimes* the ConOff prefers to see an I-864A instead of a separate I-864...but I'd say it's not the norm.

I understand what you mean here, but there's no such thing as "my own joint sponsor". You were the sponsor, period. You didn't have a joint sponsor at all.

Rene

rpjs

Uh, no, I am the UKC, so my wife was my sponsor. I know when I first reported my situation here last year there was some debate as to whether I 'should" be submitting an I-864 or an I-864A for my continuing income along with my wife's I-864. In my case I specifically queried a ConOff about it in one of the US Embassy's web chats and was told to submit an I-864A, so that's what I did. The ConOff I saw at my interview didn't bat an eyelid.

Noorah101

Ohhh you are right, I'm sorry. Since your income was continuing, it could be added to your wife's I-864, and you did an I-864A. I'm very sorry, I had forgotten your details.

Still, you weren't "my own joint sponsor", you were a contributing household member on your wife's I-864.



Rene

rpjs

Fair enough!

Spaceball

Hey Rene and Roy,
Thanks very much for your quick replies - I'm glad my questions/narrative did make sense after all!

OK - so I see that the domcile issue is not as big of an issue as I thought it may be if it is only to prove the intent to democile back in the States. Great - I think I should be OK with that.

Now, as regards the financial sponsorship question...

Multiply the baseline 3x?!
Jeez - that would be just over 80 grand.

I'll have to work out where we will be at following the realtor and lawyer taking their cuts from the sale of our house.

Thanks for the excellent advice, Rene and Roy.
This I-864 thing is going to be a pain to deal with.

I'll be sure to follow-up in this thread if any other questions arise. For example, page 2 of the I-864 form has some confusing box exercises, at least at first read earlier today.

Thank you both again for the advice!

Noorah101

Yep. Income is at the 125% figure, but assets must be 3x that amount. I looked it up, and you are right, it's about $83,000 for you. The equity in your home *can* be used as an asset, and it *used to* be a good one...but with the declining market, the ConOffs are getting picky about using home equity as an asset, and prefer to see cash in the bank. However, it's also good advice NOT to actually sell any property until you have your visa in hand.

Rene

Spaceball

OK guys, back with a little follow-up:

Can you all just provide a little more clarity:

As the UKC, how concrete must the steps for me to prove re-establishing domicile back in the U.S., for the purposes of this Visa process for my UKC wife?

Is it the case that I only have to demonstrate basic actions like:

• a timeline of email exchanges between me and a realtor or home/apartment rental place where we are developing a relationship with a view to working with them to help us find a temporary home?
• a set of email exchanges with friends/professional contacts to demonstrate my sounding out employment opportunities AND applying, as appropriate, for specific vacancies (despite not having had other than a standard email template to demonstrate my application was sent and not an actual rejection letter or any other form of reply)?
• previous correspondence between me and my hometown electoral office of my requesting my overseas ballot to vote in the last Presidential election?
• a receipt of my transaction with the Texas DPS for the recent renewal of my TX driver's license?
• my back-filed tax returns?

OR do I have to demonstrate more hard evidence such as:

• an actual paid-for receipt for a lease on an apartment or rental home?
• a actual job offer from a specific employer?
• bank account with a substantial amount of money already deposited or ready for wire transfer?

I just want to reassure ourselves that we will not be disqualified for something stupid like that we should have had more substantial evidence to demonstrate the intent to re-domicile, as opposed to just 'soft' evidence like what we presume the first set of bullet points I listed may be seen as?

Thanks again for your help with this request, y'all.

rpjs

I think what you've got should be fine - it's at least as good as what we had, probably better, and unless things have changed drastically from this time last year (in which case I'm sure it'd've come up here) then you should have no problems. In our case Suzanne only had email print-outs relating to her job hunting and it wasn't a problem. Should you have any of the "more concrete" items by the time of your wife's interview, then by all means submit them - they can't hurt - but you won't need them.

Noorah101

This one.

Don't forget you can include research on schools for the kids...getting them enrolled...getting them prepared for enrollment...that's a biggie.
Also you can show quotes you received for moving your stuff to the USA.

Rene

ian-mstm

Worst case scenario, you travel to the US ahead of your family. The moment you land in the US with the intent to remain, the issue of domicile becomes moot. While it's perhaps not the ideal travel situation, it's the easiest of all solutions.

I'm just throwing this out as an option... people just seem to get so hung up on travelling as a single unit that they miss the most obvious solution.

Ian

paulpur

also as a point that doesnt seem to have been mentioned yet...if you are eligible , you might want to get UK citizenship , that way if you change your mind or something else comes up you dont have any worries about visa's and you will also have the same dual nationalities that your kids do....