Difficulty in getting an employment letter

[Todd-Leah 0]

My husband is preparing the AOS package and has hit the road bump in the road with getting an employment letter. The corporate office of my husband's company said they cannot write a letter stating his wages or hourly rate without valid evidence for the request, as stated in the bylaws within the company's guidelines or whatever codes.

As my husband lived oversea in the last few years, his tax transcripts for 2005-2007 do not reflect income above 125% of the poverty guideline. But, his current income does. That's why it's essential and we want to include an employment letter that reflects his current employment and current income.

1) What kind of evidence(s) he should show the company that he "needs" an employment letter?

2) Is it really necessarily to have 'salary' stated on the employment letter since his pay stubs do show his weekly wages and year-to-date wages?

Would it be alright if he gets an employment letter stating all the essentials information i.e. starting date, permanent staff, position, without the mention of "salary" ? (He doesn't know yet whether he can get such a letter or not.)

Leah

[thirdsjen 0]

wow.. all i did was email my HR and stated the reason why i needed an employer letter and i got it the next day.. she even told me that if the letter wasn't good enough to just let her know and she will make another one.. i work at a hospital. i basically emailed them a template on what the employment letter should look like and presto.. got it the next day.

that's a ridiculous policy! it's your husbands personal information. he should be able to get that in writing if he wants to! it's not like it's medical records..

[cmnb 0]

My husband is preparing the AOS package and has hit the road bump in the road with getting an employment letter. The corporate office of my husband's company said they cannot write a letter stating his wages or hourly rate without valid evidence for the request, as stated in the bylaws within the company's guidelines or whatever codes.

As my husband lived oversea in the last few years, his tax transcripts for 2005-2007 do not reflect income above 125% of the poverty guideline. But, his current income does. That's why it's essential and we want to include an employment letter that reflects his current employment and current income.

1) What kind of evidence(s) he should show the company that he "needs" an employment letter?

2) Is it really necessarily to have 'salary' stated on the employment letter since his pay stubs do show his weekly wages and year-to-date wages?

Would it be alright if he gets an employment letter stating all the essentials information i.e. starting date, permanent staff, position, without the mention of "salary" ? (He doesn't know yet whether he can get such a letter or not.)

Leah

thats just ridiculous...ur husband has the right to get such a letter....ask him to talk to his boss or someone else at HR...doesnt look like the person he spoke with knows much...ive never heard of such nonsense...good luck Leah!!

[Todd-Leah 0]

My husband is preparing the AOS package and has hit the road bump in the road with getting an employment letter. The corporate office of my husband's company said they cannot write a letter stating his wages or hourly rate without valid evidence for the request, as stated in the bylaws within the company's guidelines or whatever codes.

As my husband lived oversea in the last few years, his tax transcripts for 2005-2007 do not reflect income above 125% of the poverty guideline. But, his current income does. That's why it's essential and we want to include an employment letter that reflects his current employment and current income.

1) What kind of evidence(s) he should show the company that he "needs" an employment letter?

2) Is it really necessarily to have 'salary' stated on the employment letter since his pay stubs do show his weekly wages and year-to-date wages?

Would it be alright if he gets an employment letter stating all the essentials information i.e. starting date, permanent staff, position, without the mention of "salary" ? (He doesn't know yet whether he can get such a letter or not.)

Leah

thats just ridiculous...ur husband has the right to get such a letter....ask him to talk to his boss or someone else at HR...doesnt look like the person he spoke with knows much...ive never heard of such nonsense...good luck Leah!!

Tell me about it, I don't know why they are so ridiculously paranoid about giving out a letter!

Leah

[t0+ 1]

Not an expert by any means, but from what I have read on this :

1. Your "proof" that you require the letter is in the instructions for the I-864, as it states, "You may submit this information for the most recent three taxyears , pay stub(s) from the most recent six months, and/or a letter from your employer if you believe any of theseitems will help you qualify." You can have your husband show these to his employer. Given your situation it seems it would be a good idea to have that additional evidence.
2. The income you can prove with the paystubs, so getting the salary stated on the letter should not be a big deal. They will consider anticipated income. What is important is getting the letter to convey whether there exists the possibility that your husbands employment will continue. For example, it should say something about being a Regular Full-time employee. I think they just want to see this is not a temporary or seasonal job/pay.

Most employers are worried about giving these letters mainly because if not worded properly they can be used against them as a gurantee of employment or salary. It may also help if you put together a template to use as a starting point that can be modified and re-worded to meet their needs. Just have them put the final result on company letter head.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Edited July 23, 2008 by t0+

[CaNdiD wiTcH 0]

I was wondering why your husband's company has this ridiculous guidelines. Is it really written in the company's rules and regulations? Or the HR department is just making an excuse not to do so? An employee has a right to request and obtain employment certificate. If they are quite afraid that your husband will use it somewhere else then they could just put "This certification has been issued for US immigration or NVC purposes only". Goodness!!

Edited July 23, 2008 by CaNdiD wiTcH

[Todd-Leah 0]

Not an expert by any means, but from what I have read on this :

1. Your "proof" that you require the letter is in the instructions for the I-864, as it states, "You may submit this information for the most recent three taxyears , pay stub(s) from the most recent six months, and/or a letter from your employer if you believe any of theseitems will help you qualify." You can have your husband show these to his employer. Given your situation it seems it would be a good idea to have that additional evidence.
2. The income you can prove with the paystubs, so getting the salary stated on the letter should not be a big deal. They will consider anticipated income. What is important is getting the letter to convey whether there exists the possibility that your husbands employment will continue. For example, it should say something about being a Regular Full-time employee. I think they just want to see this is not a temporary or seasonal job/pay.

Most employers are worried about giving these letters mainly because if not worded properly they can be used against them as a gurantee of employment or salary. It may also help if you put together a template to use as a starting point that can be modified and re-worded to meet their needs. Just have them put the final result on company letter head.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

The HR person asked for a copy of the I-864, and my husband is going to highlight that part.

Yeah, I can understand the fear of it being used against the company, especially litigations are quite rampant.

Leah

I was wondering why your husband's company has this ridiculous guidelines. Is it really written in the company's rules and regulations? Or the HR department is just making an excuse not to do so? An employee has a right to request and obtain employment certificate. If they are quite afraid that your husband will use it somewhere else then they could just put "This certification has been issued for US immigration or NVC purposes only". Goodness!!

I have suggested to my husband to get the HR person to put a disclaimer or a sentence like you suggested, we will see what comes out from that.

Leah

[trailmix 77]

If they want more you can always print this out for them:

Adjudicator's Field Manual - Redacted Public Version \ Chapter 20 Immigrants in General \ Enforceable Affidavits of Support

If you want to be kind you can just print out:

(2) Job Letters and Proof of Income . Pay stub(s) showing income for the most recent 6 months and letters from all current employers are no longer required as initial evidence. The applicant, however, may submit either or both of these items (1) in response to a request for additional evidence (RFE), or (2) with a Form I-864 if the applicant believes doing so would help establish that the sponsor meets the governing income/assets threshold.

If submitted, letters from current employers should show dates of employment, the nature of the job, wages or salary earned, number of hours/weeks worked, and prospects for future employment and advancement. It should be sufficient for the employer to say that the employment is of indefinite duration or words of similar effect. Promises of future employment are not required.

[Todd-Leah 0]

If they want more you can always print this out for them:

Adjudicator's Field Manual - Redacted Public Version \ Chapter 20 Immigrants in General \ Enforceable Affidavits of Support

If you want to be kind you can just print out:

(2) Job Letters and Proof of Income . Pay stub(s) showing income for the most recent 6 months and letters from all current employers are no longer required as initial evidence. The applicant, however, may submit either or both of these items (1) in response to a request for additional evidence (RFE), or (2) with a Form I-864 if the applicant believes doing so would help establish that the sponsor meets the governing income/assets threshold.

If submitted, letters from current employers should show dates of employment, the nature of the job, wages or salary earned, number of hours/weeks worked, and prospects for future employment and advancement. It should be sufficient for the employer to say that the employment is of indefinite duration or words of similar effect. Promises of future employment are not required.

Thank you for the head up to the USCIS's publication. I just forwarded that to my husband, so he can forward it to the HR lady.

Leah

[nunyab 0]

I just started a new job that pays considerably higher.... not sure if it will take 6 months to get to I864 any suggestions???

[MsZ 6]

What kind of company does he work for that they'd be afraid to document that he works for them since a certain date and that his annual compensation is such and such? We get one every year as a matter of course after they announce raises. And since we all signed a paper that agrees that the company can fire us at any time for any reason (or no reason), we certainly can't take a letter stating our annual salary as a promise of anything.

I work for a major pharmaceutical company. And they are very litigation-averse. But they're not ridiculous about fulfilling reasonable requests from their employees.