Starting DCF in Japan, some quick questions

[jtnihon 0]

Hello all,

I have a few questions concerning my upcoming visa application process. Sorry if these questions have been asked before.

I'm a USC recently married to a Japanese citizen. We both live in Japan, I've been here for almost 3 years now. We are moving to the US at the end of August and are beginning the process of applying for a green card through DCF here in Japan. We were legally married early this month, but we will not have our wedding ceremony until July--in order to get started on the visa application now. My questions:

1. Affidavit of support: Regarding my own income/assets to show I can support my wife, my current job will end in July before we return to the US. I assume this means I should not include this income on the I-864 form?

2. As my job will end when I return to the US, my own income will be 0. I have assets enough to meet the required 5x the poverty limit on my own, so I was not planning on asking my parents to co-sponsor. Will assets + 0 income be ok, as long as the total meets the requirements? The form states that assets may supplement income, so I wasn't sure if the case was always that you needed a co-sponsor if you had no individual/household income of your own, regardless of assets.

3. Travel: We will leave Japan for the US in August, but we are planning to go on our honeymoon between leaving Japan and entering the US. Since our wedding ceremony is in July, it makes financial sense to leave Japan for our honeymoon and go directly from there to the US. Will this cause any problems as we will not be entering the US from the country we applied for the visa?

Thanks for the help. They probably seem like trivial questions, but we want to avoid any annoying snags in the process, as it is already time-consuming enough. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions later, too...

jon

[MargotDarko 0]

Hello all,

I have a few questions concerning my upcoming visa application process. Sorry if these questions have been asked before.

I'm a USC recently married to a Japanese citizen. We both live in Japan, I've been here for almost 3 years now. We are moving to the US at the end of August and are beginning the process of applying for a green card through DCF here in Japan. We were legally married early this month, but we will not have our wedding ceremony until July--in order to get started on the visa application now. My questions:

1. Affidavit of support: Regarding my own income/assets to show I can support my wife, my current job will end in July before we return to the US. I assume this means I should not include this income on the I-864 form?

2. As my job will end when I return to the US, my own income will be 0. I have assets enough to meet the required 5x the poverty limit on my own, so I was not planning on asking my parents to co-sponsor. Will assets + 0 income be ok, as long as the total meets the requirements? The form states that assets may supplement income, so I wasn't sure if the case was always that you needed a co-sponsor if you had no individual/household income of your own, regardless of assets.

3. Travel: We will leave Japan for the US in August, but we are planning to go on our honeymoon between leaving Japan and entering the US. Since our wedding ceremony is in July, it makes financial sense to leave Japan for our honeymoon and go directly from there to the US. Will this cause any problems as we will not be entering the US from the country we applied for the visa?

Thanks for the help. They probably seem like trivial questions, but we want to avoid any annoying snags in the process, as it is already time-consuming enough. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions later, too...

jon

Hello there! You're right that your current income will not count, but if you're still earning it on the date you fill out the form, you should include it in USD equiv - it just won't count towards the income requirement. For a spouse, it's actually only 3x 125% that you would need in assets, so 5x should mean that you're fine with just assets - perhaps someone with experience specific to Japan would know better how it's seen there. Assets need to be able to be made into cash within one year and you should take into account any penalties involved in turning into cash.

When you say you would like to go straight to the US after the honeymoon, do you mean in July or do you mean you wouldn't take the honeymoon until the end of August and then go on to the US from there? It's perfectly fine to go other countries before entering the US with the visa, but I don't think you'd be able to get the visa by July and your wife needs to be in Japan for the interview and having the visa placed in her passport.

Hope that helps!