andywj

Thanks to all the people here like Rene who provided really good
answers to many questions, I certainly learned a lot from reading
early posts.
My wife ( US citizen) and I will have the AOS (I-485) interview on
next Tuesday the 27th, and I have some lingering questions that I hope
to get some clarification from the experts and other wonderful people
here.. I will list them here in the order of importance to me:

Q1.
There is some changes in my job, wondering if and how I should update
the I-864 (financial support) :

My wife works in her family business and I was working on H-1B. On the
original I-864 we had filed in April, we estimated my wife's income at
$ 15,600, which is short of the required minimum $17,000 implied by
the poverty line of two-person household. So I also listed my income
(well over the requirement) ...

I have left my old firm around the time we married and filed our
application, now am waiting to join a new start-up company that I am
not sure when exactly I will start working again.
Now I can't provide pay-stubs/letter to support my old income claim
while my wife can get evidence to claim a $20,000 salary for this year...
So we are thinking of filling out a new I-864 form with only her
income, plus our bank savings, my 401K and apartment as assets...

Is this the right thing to do? Should we notify the interview officer
right away of this change, or should we mention and submit it only
when he questions about the old form?
Is it beneficial to list our assets here since some of them like real-
estate will be hard to estimate the current liquid value?
Will the interview officer be able to know exactly when I left my old-
firm, and will that raise doubt in his/her mind regarding the marriage
motivation ( although it certainly is not the reason we get married,
the job-change has contributed to the timing of our marriage) ?

Q2.
My old firm had applied PERM successfully for me although I think they
kept the approval notice, I have the rest application materials...Do I
need to bring anything regarding this?


Q3.
Do we need to notarize any copy such as marriage license (the
interview notice says to bring "certified copy of marriage license",
we married in US)?


Q4.
My wife said I need to apply replacement of social security card (the
little paper with my SSN that I first got when I came here as student
in 2000)..Is it true and necessary?

Q5.
Is it better to put each original document with its copy together, or
should we keep all original documents together with all copies in
another bundle?

As you can see, it is really the first question that bothers me; I
hope to hear what you think before my interview date next Tuesday...
Thanks a bunch and have a good weekend!!

Noorah101

If you used your income on the initial I-864, and your employment has changed since then, you will need to submit a new I-864. If your wife makes enough on her own now, via her own income, just use that. If she doesn't, and you're not working yet, you can use assets at 3x the amount needed to make up the difference. But if you use assets, you will need to show proof of them, and their value. I would mention it to the officer, yes...and give the officer the new I-864 and backup documents (your wife's letter of employment, paystubs, 1 year of tax return). That way the most current I-864 will be in your file.

Photocopies of evidence do not need to be notarized. The Certified Copy of Marriage License is already the correct document to bring. A copy of this should already be in your file, but have the original handy in case you need to show it. Bring the original of anything you sent along with the AOS package.

I don't think you need to get a new SS card. Yours should have a legend which says "valid for work only with DHS authorization", right? This is correct. Getting a new card now will not change anything. Once you have your green card in hand, then you can change your SS card to an unrestricted one, without that legend.

It's up to you how to bring your evidence and copies to the AOS interview. Just arrange it whichever way is easier for you to find the copies the officer will need for your file. Personally, I used an accordian file (expandable folder), and separated items according to what they were. For example, in one slot I put original bank statments, with the copies held together with a paper clip right behind the originals. That way, if she asked for something specific, it was already in a separate slot, and I wouldn't have to dig through everything to find bank statements in particular.

Best Wishes,
Rene

tamms_1965

The 27th is Monday....we have Biometrics appt. Make sure you check your appt.. . . you do not want to show up a day late!
Tamms

ian-mstm

Good catch! Well done.

Ian