Hi,

I'm married to a USA citizen (9 months) and we are currently living in the UK.

We are considering moving to the USA in the near future. At the moment the plan would be for my wife to get accepted as a first year resident and for me to apply for a job once we are in the USA (difficult for me to apply for a job until we know where my wifes residency will be).

My questions are:

My wife has not maintained a residence in the USA and we will not be buying anything until we get there, can she still be my SPONSOR?

We will not have any USA tax returns etc... How will that affect the application (we will have savings that we will be taking to the USA)?

If any one has any answers to the above or has been through something similar, we would be very grateful for any responses.

Thanks in advance

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She has to sponsor you. You may also need a US-based co-sponsor. (I don't know how
happy they are about income that'll vanish when you both move; we didn't try it.)
She will also have to show plausible, credible steps of meaning to move back to the
USA with you.

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Why won't you have any USA tax returns? US citizens still have a filing requirement
even when they live abroad. I think there is some way around this (apart from filing
the back years) which involves something about affirming that you didn't need to
file, if that's true, but I forget any details. The US Embassy in London does have
some IRS people though who may be able to help.

Sorry I'm not giving more detail. Hopefully someone else can!

-- Mark

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I should be clearer. Your wife does the I-130 and an I-864. You may need someone else
doing an I-864 too.

-- Mark

Mark Carroll wrote:

Do you know how long it takes to get through the I130 thing ?

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[usenetquote2]> >She has to sponsor you. You may also need a US-based co-sponsor. (I[/usenetquote2]
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It's now a bit out of date, but my timeline is at
http://www.chaos.x-philes.com/home/m...30-london.html

About three months in my case.

-- Mark

I am an American husband that filed a 130 petition for my New Zealander wife... and
we have 2 kids with dual Australian / US citizenship. Things are the same in whatever
country you are in as far as US policy is concerned so it doesnt matter that I filed
from NZ and your wife will file in the UK. The time it takes to process does vary. It
took us 3 months the first time (1989) and 6 months the second (2000). You say that
your wife has not maintained residency, (which is important), but she may have. Does
she have a US bank account? Does she have a US mailing address, (like at a relative's
address?) If so, this may be all the evidence required to show that she was
maintaining her "residency" or "US domicile".

Your wife should have been completing US Tax returns even though she probably did
not have to pay any taxes. The INS only requires the last 3 years so I would
recommend you having her do them for that period only. She'll need to do a 1040 and
a 2555 for each year. The tax return is supposed to verify that the US citizen has a
US based income that is 125% of the poverty line inthe US to show that the
"pertitioner" can support the immigrant. After you go through all effort - and if
you actually meet that requirement you will find it is all for naught because if the
income is not US based they wont consider it anyway. That said, the tax returns are
still required for the INS.

Someone has to sponsor you and that is usually the spouse. If the spouse can not show
that he/she can support the immigrant they can bring in a co-sponsor, (a father
in-law for example, that is willing to take on the risk of saying "I will support
this guy if his appilication is successful but then he cant get a job").

If you need to do this alone (w/out co sponsor) you will need to show you have 4
times the US poverty level IN THE BANK. Poverty level is about $US 25k a year. So you
all are looking at about 75k pounds to do it without a co-sponsor. Another way around
this is a JOB OFFER that meets the requirement. So if your wife is going to get her
residency assignment before your interview and you know the pay exceeds about 30k a
year - you just bring that letter to the interview and all is well.

The process works, in simple terms, works like this: Your wife files a petition to
have you recognised as her spouse. (I130) Based on this, you ask for an
appointment/interview to receive a spousal immigrant visa (green card) - They give
you a heap of forms - including: An affidavit of support, and a list of
requirements.... like telling where you have been all your life and getting police
record checks from all the countries you spent 6 months or more in.... When you tell
them that you have all that stuff ready - they give you an interview date. (even if
you actually havent done it all yet!)

The Affidavit of support is the important piece of this puzzle. They want you to
show that the immigrant can be supported without gov't assistance. In order to be
the "sponsor" you must have US residency. Often, a spouse has to return to the USA
alone to re-establish it buy getting a house, bank account etc... They call this
maintaining DOMICILE. If your wife can convince the interviewer that she intended
all along to return to the USA (kept a bank account, a mailing address, etc..) you
will be fine.

My situation was that I wanted to do this alone. I completed 6 years of US tax
returns and we had a house paid off in NZ. I showed up with 3 years US tax returns
that exceeded 125% of the poverty line only to have the consular officer throw them
out. The interviewer said that the income doesnt count if it is NON USA BASED INCOME.
In short... all the effort with the US tax returns was a waste of my time. All they
cared about after that was our assets. We were able to show we had $110K US in assets
and that got us by. I was very angry that they would not accept my tax return income
amounts. but that is the way it is. From what I have heard - a US job offer goes a
long long way in this process. Let me tell you - it IS alot of work. It is a PAIN in
the ARSE. It IS expensive and taxing .. BUT - its worth it. You guys should DO IT!

In physical terms what I did was this.... We filed the I130, got the appointment
date, and then got all the rest ["rest" means - I864, tax returns, background &
police cheks, and medical checks), in order.When the appointment came and we got it I
put my house on the market. When it sold I quit my job and booked our flights. We
organized a shipping company to move our stuff and left! Thats it!

Good luck Brian!

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