What do I send for I134

[jenkatx 52]

I am trying to get everything together to send to my finance. I have phone records, emails, pictures, the original packet, travel info, letter of intent. I am having a co-sponsor for the I134. I am still confused about what documentation they need. I have read the form countless times & since they are not self employed it looks like I don't need to send the tax returns. SO what exactly will they need? Also, I AM self employed so I know I will send my tax returns and bank info. Does my co-sponsor need to be able to support myself, my children, my finance, and themselves? Or do they count my income as well? I hope this is clear, I am seriously tired...

One last question, can someone tell us what other fees we have coming up? I thought we were supposed to pay the NVC but I have yet to receive a bill. I know we have the medical fee, police cert fee, and the actual visa fee. Is there a fee for the appointment? Any other fees? I want to make sure we have enough money put aside for all of this. Last minute surprises are not so fun. Thanks!!!

[jenkatx 52]

After re reading I do not think my question about co-sponsor & income is clear. Say I show an adjusted gross income of 20,000 & my co sponsor shows 50,000. There are 7 of us including my children. If the income required is 60,000 are we ok? Or do I need a different sponsor?

[Inky 1,110]

K-1 visa does NOT pay the NVC.

You have a visa fee coming up which is paid to a special bank or the embassy in USD.

You will have a 1070$ fee coming up for AOS once in the USA and married.

[patient2010 93]

After re reading I do not think my question about co-sponsor & income is clear. Say I show an adjusted gross income of 20,000 & my co sponsor shows 50,000. There are 7 of us including my children. If the income required is 60,000 are we ok? Or do I need a different sponsor?

No u will not need another sponsor in this scenario bcuz u only need 60 and uf u have 20 and the co sponsor 50 then that totals to be 70 so u then would meet the income level.......

[Que Saudade 284]

After re reading I do not think my question about co-sponsor & income is clear. Say I show an adjusted gross income of 20,000 & my co sponsor shows 50,000. There are 7 of us including my children. If the income required is 60,000 are we ok? Or do I need a different sponsor?

It is my understanding that they do not add the salaries together. This is for the I-134.

Someone please correct this if I am wrong.....

Edited June 5, 2011 by John & Mari

[patient2010 93]

Also since u filed K1 u wont pay the NVC anything......good luck to u......

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

After re reading I do not think my question about co-sponsor & income is clear. Say I show an adjusted gross income of 20,000 & my co sponsor shows 50,000. There are 7 of us including my children. If the income required is 60,000 are we ok? Or do I need a different sponsor?

First, ignore the I-134 form instructions. They were written by USCIS, and USCIS rarely uses the I-134 anymore. You'll be submitting the form to a US consulate, and they have their own requirements for evidence. They usually want at least the most recent tax return. They may also want a letter of employment. They usually give some guidelines for what evidence they require with the interview instructions. Read those instructions and provide what they ask for.

You need one sponsor who qualifies for their own household size. If you don't qualify then you need a joint sponsor who does. Your children are included in your household, but they're not included in your joint sponsor's household size unless you and your joint sponsor live together.

You and your joint sponsor do not combine income to qualify. You have to qualify on your own income. If you don't then your joint sponsor has to qualify on their own income. There are narrow circumstances where two sponsors can combine income with an I-864 affidavit of support, but not with an I-134.

Lagos is a tough consulate, and your income is far below the poverty guidelines for your current household size. I suspect this could end up being a problem for you. Even with a joint sponsor, the consulate is going to wonder how you can afford to support so many people on such a low income. It's not the income, per se, but the fact that you have kids to support.

No u will not need another sponsor in this scenario bcuz u only need 60 and uf u have 20 and the co sponsor 50 then that totals to be 70 so u then would meet the income level.......

No, wrong. Sponsors do not combine income with the I-134. If the petitioner has 20K of total income, and requires over $42K (according to the OP for a household size of 7) then they need a joint sponsor who has enough income to qualify on their own for their own household size.

[jenkatx 52]

I actually just pulled numbers out of the sky for the income. I am self employed out of my home so much of my mortgage, utilities, etc are tax deductible for me, however I am still below the income guidelines if you look at my bottom line. My children have their own forms of income which are not taxed, therefore they don't reflect on my tax statement. Should I include that information as well? statements from social security & trusts for my kids? Because that is not MY income but theirs, however some of it goes toward living expenses. Maybe I should just write a letter regarding how we meet our monthly expenses & the fact that the income reflected on my return is all disposable income? I think our situation is a little more complicated then the norm. Now I am very worried, even though my co-sponsor makes well more then needed to support 2 people I am worried they will deny us due to what my tax returns show.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

I actually just pulled numbers out of the sky for the income. I am self employed out of my home so much of my mortgage, utilities, etc are tax deductible for me, however I am still below the income guidelines if you look at my bottom line. My children have their own forms of income which are not taxed, therefore they don't reflect on my tax statement. Should I include that information as well? statements from social security & trusts for my kids? Because that is not MY income but theirs, however some of it goes toward living expenses. Maybe I should just write a letter regarding how we meet our monthly expenses & the fact that the income reflected on my return is all disposable income? I think our situation is a little more complicated then the norm. Now I am very worried, even though my co-sponsor makes well more then needed to support 2 people I am worried they will deny us due to what my tax returns show.

If you file a 1040 or 1040A then they go by the "Total Income" line on your tax return. If you file a 1040EZ then they go by the "Adjusted Gross Income" line. Since you are self-employed then you likely have a lot of expenses (schedule C) that are deducted from your gross revenues, and then the net is carried over to your 1040 before line 22. It's your line 22 total income that will count - not your gross revenues. This is AFTER you've deducted your business expenses on schedule C, but BEFORE you've deducted your mortgage interest or other personal exemptions or deductions.

How can your kids have income that is not taxable? How old are your kids? Anyway, since you don't receive that income in your name then you can't include it.

The consulate will deny for the "public charge" requirement if it looks to them like there's no way you can support your family without getting public assistance. They have the discretion to do this even if you have a joint sponsor. They're far less likely to use their discretion to deny if your household consists only of you and your fiance, and you've got a sufficient joint sponsor. In that case, they figure someone will help you until you get on your feet. They're more likely to use their discretion to deny when you have minor children to support, and your income is far below the poverty line.

Edited June 5, 2011 by JimVaPhuong

[jenkatx 52]

In Texas child support is not taxable. Also, 2 of my children are disabled and receive disability which is also not taxable. The total of those things is over $30,000 a year. If you figure that in with my total income we are far above poverty guidelines & that is after almost all of our expenses are deducted because I am self employed. There has to be someway to get over this. The crazy thing is that he has his degree & works in a field that is highly needed here & will start out making over 100k a year, which of course will benefit the government as well as it will send our tax bracket up so much. Frustrating.

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

In Texas child support is not taxable. Also, 2 of my children are disabled and receive disability which is also not taxable. The total of those things is over $30,000 a year. If you figure that in with my total income we are far above poverty guidelines & that is after almost all of our expenses are deducted because I am self employed. There has to be someway to get over this. The crazy thing is that he has his degree & works in a field that is highly needed here & will start out making over 100k a year, which of course will benefit the government as well as it will send our tax bracket up so much. Frustrating.

Child support is generally given to the parent and not directly to the children. If this is the case for you, then you can list it as income. You might also be able to list the disability as income for your household, if your children are minors. You just need to provide proof of all the income.

You could always contact the consulate and ask if those would work as income for you and your household.

Edited June 5, 2011 by Jay-Kay

[VanessaTony 3,567]

I am trying to get everything together to send to my finance. I have phone records, emails, pictures, the original packet, travel info, letter of intent. I am having a co-sponsor for the I134. I am still confused about what documentation they need. I have read the form countless times & since they are not self employed it looks like I don't need to send the tax returns. SO what exactly will they need? Also, I AM self employed so I know I will send my tax returns and bank info. Does my co-sponsor need to be able to support myself, my children, my finance, and themselves? Or do they count my income as well? I hope this is clear, I am seriously tired...

One last question, can someone tell us what other fees we have coming up? I thought we were supposed to pay the NVC but I have yet to receive a bill. I know we have the medical fee, police cert fee, and the actual visa fee. Is there a fee for the appointment? Any other fees? I want to make sure we have enough money put aside for all of this. Last minute surprises are not so fun. Thanks!!!

No NVC fee.

Household size for YOU is your kids plus immigrant plus yourself.

Household size for your CO-SPONSOR is their kids (if under 18), themselves and any spouse plus the immigrant. The co-sponsor doesn't need to support YOU or YOUR kids if your kids are USC's. They only need to support their household size plus the immigrant.

The household stuff is better explained in the I-864.

[Que Saudade 284]

Child support is generally given to the parent and not directly to the children. If this is the case for you, then you can list it as income. You might also be able to list the disability as income for your household, if your children are minors. You just need to provide proof of all the income.

You could always contact the consulate and ask if those would work as income for you and your household.

There will be a court order for the child support. It should be listed in the final divorce decree. And yes, the money is generally given to the custodial parent not the the child. Seeing how the IRS does not make anyone report child support income, it is not listed anywhere on income taxes. This leaves bank statements showing the amount coming in along with the court order to verify where this monthly amount is coming from. However, this money is suppose to be for the welfare of the children, not diverted to use for the possibility of sponsoring another individual. It will be interesting to see if this counts or not.

Just a curious question for the OP, "Why are you sending letter of intent to the beneficiary? Is this a specific requirement for your consulate?"

Edited June 5, 2011 by John & Mari

[Alcheringa 39]

I can't wait to see what Pushbrk has to say about this one...

You are overcomplicating things. There isn't necessarily a "way to get over this" as the stipulations for meeting the requirements of the initial affidavit of support are relatively clear.

You keep speaking of "we" and "us," but in terms of recognized support this is not the case. If you yourself cannot legitimately show tax records (or sufficient liquid assets) which meet the guidelines for your household size, then you need to find a cosponsor that can do so standing alone. Period.

Adding up the incomes of everyone living in the house is not a viable solution, nor is it to stitch to it the income of anyone else. It's either you or your cosponsor, and if you approach it that way it'll make much, much more sense.

Point is, there is nothing to bend or wiggle around. And given you are going through Lagos, that absolutely is not the right mentality to have if you actually intend to have this visa granted -- and quite possibly WHY it is so difficult there, if this is any reflection of the folks they are dealing with.

Good luck. You might need it.

[jenkatx 52]

@ John & Mari- I read (somewhere here on VJ) that we are to send the original letter of intent we sent with our filing as well as an updated one. I have no idea if that is true or not but better safe then sorry. Re. the child support I totally agree, which is why I would have never thought to send in that information until JimVaPhuong said that they will deny us even with a co-sponsor because I can not show how we live without public assistance. I am going to contact the consulate on Monday to see what their rules are.

@ Alcheringa- I am hoping that I have misunderstood your post, but I do not think that I am. I would guess that you did not read through all of the posts before coming to your conclusion that I (and Nigerians) am not an honest person. First I am always 100% honest about my assets and income, I do not even cheat on my taxes like 80% of other Americans. My comments were in response to a post saying that we will not get approved even with a co-sponsor, which we have. I was upset at the prospect of someone not taking our whole situation into account and I was trying to figure out what I should send to prove that we do not need public assistance. We all face our specific hurtles when it comes to this process & we all need luck and prayer to get through it. You saying that Lagos is a particularly hard consulate to deal with because of people like me trying to play the system is judgmental and uncalled for. It would be like me saying that men just go to the Philippines to get a young submissive wife because they can not get an American woman. A bit judgmental right? Totally uncalled for right? Especially since I do not know your situation in full. By the way, I know that is not true because I have 2 friends who did marry women from there & that was not the case either time, but you get my point right?