Living Maintenance Wage Loss, Workmans Comp with I-134

[jezebelseven 0]

Not sure if anyone has any experience with this, but hopefully someone out there's got some idea...

My mother is intending to be my cosponsor. As we're trying to get things together regarding the I-134, we've been gathering all the normal things, bank statements, tax returns, documents for her assets (home, two cars), etc.

The issue we're confused with at the moment, though, is a statement from her employer.

She is currently employed as a stable hand at a local horse stable. She was placed at this job as a low stress, short hour job through the bureau of workmans comp, as she was attacked on her old job and could no longer work there. The new job does not pay nearly the same amount the old job did, so my mother has been eligible for several years for Living Maintenance Wage Loss Compensation. Put simply, if her old job paid $15/hr and she used to get 40 hours, and her new one pays $7/hr and she only works 20 hours, LMWLC pays the difference. So she still makes the same amount she used to, but it comes from two different sources-- the initial payment through her current employment, and the compensation from BWC.

The only catch is that she needs an updated doctors record every 6 months or so which claims she still is not in condition to go back to her old job-- this has never been an issue as it's widely accepted there is no way she could go back. I'm nearly certain she has the records for the past which show she did earn LMWLC for the last few years.

My question is this: I assume she needs a statement from the horse stable (with date and nature of employment, salary paid, etc), which is not a problem, as this shows she is still employed, but what should we request from BWC?

Do we just need a simple statement saying that she qualifies for LMWLC and explaining how much they 'make up', or something more detailed explaining the whole situation? We don't know what to ask for or what it needs to explain-- These papers can get very thick if you include all the wage statements, so we don't want to send too much and make this even more confusing, but we don't want to miss anything that should be needed.

Any advice or ideas from anyone who's had similar issues with workmans comp or other programs would be majorly appreciated.

[rebeccajo 14]

Having gone through the London consulate, my take on this would be for your mother to explain this in an attachment to her I-134.

There was probably an initial decision on this matter. I would include that. Along with a recent letter from her doctor.

Include the letter from the stable and the most recent statement from BWC.

These in conjunction with her tax returns (which they may not want to see) seem reasonable to me.

Edited December 5, 2006 by rebeccajo

[jezebelseven 0]

Having gone through the London consulate, my take on this would be for your mother to explain this in an attachment to her I-134.

There was probably an initial decision on this matter. I would include that. Along with a recent letter from her doctor.

Include the letter from the stable and the most recent statement from BWC.

These in conjunction with her tax returns (which they may not want to see) seem reasonable to me.

Thanks I imagine it is probably loads easier for her to write out a statement versus having to attempt to get BWC to write out a letter to the specifics we need. I'm fairly sure she's got several recent statements that show she's getting paid on top of the job, so that could go to show the continuing pattern if there's any question of her statement's legitimacy. And we can definitely get the doctor to write out a note about it as well, as she's going to see him today to extend the current LMWLC as its set to expire in a few days.

Again, thanks!

[rebeccajo 14]

Does she have an initial decision from back when she first filed this claim?

As I mentioned I would include that as well.

[jezebelseven 0]

Does she have an initial decision from back when she first filed this claim?

As I mentioned I would include that as well.

I asked her and she's fairly certain she does have that filed away somewhere-- if not she believes we may be able to get a copy of that from BWC, she spoke with someone today who mentioned a letter shouldn't be a problem (I wrote out an example one that was more for my mother to write out, but worded as from BWC, and they said it was fine and would draft it up for us) and they're willing to help us get whatever records we need for it, thankfully.