RFE letter received

[Silver 0]

I am so stumped - got a letter today regarding the I864 which, I might add,we went to great lengths getting all the documents for. It's not clear from the letter exactly what they want from us so I tried calling the helpline.

The first lady I spoke to was unable to help me so she transferred me to someone else who was so very rude and extremely patronising. I was made to feel like a complete idiot. I was so angry when I came off the telephone and unfortunately took my frustration out on my dear husband by yelling at him - bless him.

My husband owns his own business and we submitted the following documents with our application:

Duly notarized Affidavit of Support (I-864) executed by my husband, with the following supporting documents attached:

i. Copy of my husband’s Federal Income Tax Returns for the year

2005 (Personal and his company return) - his personal return showed that he was under the

required limit so we submitted house documents as assets. Also profit and loss balance sheet from

his CPA.

ii. Copy of my husband’s 1099 for the year 2005 (for himself and the company which showed a profit)

iii. Copy bank statements for last 12 months (amount in more than one account amounting to several

hundred thousand dollars) and a letter explaining all the accounts from the bank manager.

iv. Copy of house papers showing the value of the house

This is what was on the letter - thank goodness for copy and paste!

Request for Additional Evidence (1-485)

This office is unable to complete the processing of your Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, (Form 1-485) without additional information. Please submit the information requested below. You must submit the information within 87 (eighty

seven) days to the following address: u.s. Department of Homeland Security, PO Box 648006, Lee's Summit, MO 64064. Failure to do so will result in a denial. Please include this letter with vour response.

You are ineligible for interim employment authorization pursuant to Title 8, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 103.2( )(IO)(ii) until ninety (90) days after the missing initial evidence is received.

All copies must be clear and legible. If you submit a document in any language other than English, it must be submitted with a full English translation. The translator must certifY that the translation is complete and accurate, and that he or she is competent to translate. You must submit both the foreign language document and the English translation.

F.0

(II) We are unable to determine if your household income meets or exceeds 125% of the federal poverty line for the household size claimed on Form 1-864 based on the documents submitted with Form 1-864. Submit proof that the petitioner's household income meets or exceeds 125% of the federal poverty line. If the petitioner's household income does not meet or exceed 125% of the federal poverty line, you must obtain one joint sponsor whose household income meets or exceeds 125% of the federal poverty line for the joint sponsor's household size. If required, the joint sponsor must submit the documents listed below and a completed and signed Form 1-864.

. Federal income tax returns and W-2s for the most recent tax year or certified Internal Revenue Service (IRS) copies. To obtain return transcripts of your income tax records 1T0m the IRS, you may complete Form 4506- T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, found on the Internet at http://www.irs.gov/ or call toll-lTee (800) 829-1040 to order a "Return Transcript." If the sponsor was not required to file a federal tax return for the most recent tax year, the sponsor must provide an explanation as to why slhe was not required to file federal income taxes.

. Evidence of current employment or self-employment including a letter 1T0m each employer on business stationery, showing beginning date of employment, type of work performed, number of hours worked per week, and salary or wages paid. If you are self-employed, submit a recently dated letter on business letterhead or a business license.

Basically the guy I spoke to didnt want to hear what we had sent and when I said that we had included the house valuation etc as assets he said that you cannot submit your primary residence or your primary vehicle as assets. Has anyone else ever came across this?

He said that he suggests we send the whole lot back in again as it could be something as simple as they have lost the documentation.

Can anyone see what we might have missed out?

Do you think we should do this and risk having another RFE for the same thing or do you suggest an infopass appointment to show what we sent and then see what they suggest we need?

Or do you think we should just find ourselves a sponser as well just to be on the safe side??

Thanks for taking the time to read this and sorry for the length of this post! I appreciate all your suggestions.

[camaleon 0]

Hi Silver.

If I was u, I will get a sponsor just to be on the safe side because everytime thay send a RFE your process will delay.

Maybe u can try an infopass but that is gonna take a while and u might have get another sponsor anyway so it's up to u.

c u later.

btw our timeline is almost the same

[bamdame 0]

Hello

Here is my two cents

Re gather all the information, double check the instructions. Do you need to include the last 3 years of tax returns?

Look at getting a sponsor, it can't hurt.

See how fast you can get an infopass date or just resend the info and roll the dice.

Hope it helps

Cheers

[sukie175 0]

We were in the exact same position.....

Hubby has his own business

2004 tax return was under the poverty line, but only due to a big business depreciation (so that means the figure was only below because the depreciation lowered the total income taxable)

We included a ton of assets - 2 homes & the commercial premises, vehicles, savings, bonds - all to no avail!

We had way more then 5 x the difference in assets you need.

I also called them and got nowhere as well, they are basically dumbasses who don't understand depreciation in our case.

We were asked to submit 2005 tax return and we had to wait for it, but we were then way over the poverty line and ok.

Do not try and reason with them in a letter, others have done this after RFE's for different things (like another medical, when they already had one) and they got Denied judgements.

The only way you can get around this if his personal income is not high enough, is to get a co-cponsor. When you do please ensure everything you send meets the requirements or they will probably issue a Denial!

The bottom line here seems to be your hubby does not have enough income on his last tax return, the only way to solve this is a co-sponsor.

Good Luck

Edited May 17, 2006 by sukie175

[Silver 0]

Thanks for all the replies.

I have noticed after going through the copy of the form that we submitted we copied the income after adjustments from the tax return and not the total income before any adjustments - we have spoken to my husbands CPA who has said that he will write a letter giving a breakdown of the tax return and showing the correct amount of income before adjustments. My husband sold a farm and made a loss on it and therefore this pulled his total adjusted income down. The amount of income before adjustments is many times above the 125% poverty level - do you think if we submit another form showing the correct amount we should be ok?

We will probably struggle to get a sponser as my husband has no family and we might struggle getting one of his friends to agree to be sponsers.

We are really worried that if we can't prove that my husband can afford to sponser me that we will find ourselves in a real predicament.

[Yodrak 7]

Silver,

The people at the USCIS National Customer [Dis]Service Center have no way of knowing the specifics underlying the RFE. Although the place is aptly nick-named The Misinformation Line, in this case it's not their fault that they couldn't help you. (Which is not to say that they shouldn't have been polite about it.)

Recognize that there's a need to distinguish between your husband's income and his business' income. It's not clear from your post if this was done, or done clearly enough for the case officer to make the distinction. The case officer is not a CPA.

You say that your husband's income fell short of the requirement. You should be showing Total Income, Line 22, from his Form 1040, not Adjusted Gross Income, Line 37.

The bank account with several hundred thousand dollars - is that your husband's personal account or a business account? It's your husband who is sponsoring you, not his business.

Yodrak

I am so stumped - got a letter today regarding the I864 which, I might add,we went to great lengths getting all the documents for. It's not clear from the letter exactly what they want from us so I tried calling the helpline.

The first lady I spoke to was unable to help me so she transferred me to someone else who was so very rude and extremely patronising. I was made to feel like a complete idiot. I was so angry when I came off the telephone and unfortunately took my frustration out on my dear husband by yelling at him - bless him.

My husband owns his own business and we submitted the following documents with our application:

Duly notarized Affidavit of Support (I-864) executed by my husband, with the following supporting documents attached:

i. Copy of my husband's Federal Income Tax Returns for the year

2005 (Personal and his company return) - his personal return showed that he was under the

required limit so we submitted house documents as assets. Also profit and loss balance sheet from

his CPA.

ii. Copy of my husband's 1099 for the year 2005 (for himself and the company which showed a profit)

iii. Copy bank statements for last 12 months (amount in more than one account amounting to several

hundred thousand dollars) and a letter explaining all the accounts from the bank manager.

iv. Copy of house papers showing the value of the house

This is what was on the letter - thank goodness for copy and paste!

Request for Additional Evidence (1-485)

This office is unable to complete the processing of your Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, (Form 1-485) without additional information. Please submit the information requested below. You must submit the information within 87 (eighty

seven) days to the following address: u.s. Department of Homeland Security, PO Box 648006, Lee's Summit, MO 64064. Failure to do so will result in a denial. Please include this letter with vour response.

You are ineligible for interim employment authorization pursuant to Title 8, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 103.2( )(IO)(ii) until ninety (90) days after the missing initial evidence is received.

All copies must be clear and legible. If you submit a document in any language other than English, it must be submitted with a full English translation. The translator must certifY that the translation is complete and accurate, and that he or she is competent to translate. You must submit both the foreign language document and the English translation.

F.0

(II) We are unable to determine if your household income meets or exceeds 125% of the federal poverty line for the household size claimed on Form 1-864 based on the documents submitted with Form 1-864. Submit proof that the petitioner's household income meets or exceeds 125% of the federal poverty line. If the petitioner's household income does not meet or exceed 125% of the federal poverty line, you must obtain one joint sponsor whose household income meets or exceeds 125% of the federal poverty line for the joint sponsor's household size. If required, the joint sponsor must submit the documents listed below and a completed and signed Form 1-864.

. Federal income tax returns and W-2s for the most recent tax year or certified Internal Revenue Service (IRS) copies. To obtain return transcripts of your income tax records 1T0m the IRS, you may complete Form 4506- T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, found on the Internet at http://www.irs.gov/ or call toll-lTee (800) 829-1040 to order a "Return Transcript." If the sponsor was not required to file a federal tax return for the most recent tax year, the sponsor must provide an explanation as to why slhe was not required to file federal income taxes.

. Evidence of current employment or self-employment including a letter 1T0m each employer on business stationery, showing beginning date of employment, type of work performed, number of hours worked per week, and salary or wages paid. If you are self-employed, submit a recently dated letter on business letterhead or a business license.

Basically the guy I spoke to didnt want to hear what we had sent and when I said that we had included the house valuation etc as assets he said that you cannot submit your primary residence or your primary vehicle as assets. Has anyone else ever came across this?

He said that he suggests we send the whole lot back in again as it could be something as simple as they have lost the documentation.

Can anyone see what we might have missed out?

Do you think we should do this and risk having another RFE for the same thing or do you suggest an infopass appointment to show what we sent and then see what they suggest we need?

Or do you think we should just find ourselves a sponser as well just to be on the safe side??

Thanks for taking the time to read this and sorry for the length of this post! I appreciate all your suggestions.

[camaleon 0]

Hi.

Silver, my lawyer told that I should use the income after adjustments for affidavit purpose so if i was u, i will get some kind professional advice.

c u later.

[zyggy 9]

Silver,

The people at the USCIS National Customer [Dis]Service Center have no way of knowing the specifics underlying the RFE. Although the place is aptly nick-named The Misinformation Line, in this case it's not their fault that they couldn't help you. (Which is not to say that they shouldn't have been polite about it.)

Recognize that there's a need to distinguish between your husband's income and his business' income. It's not clear from your post if this was done, or done clearly enough for the case officer to make the distinction. The case officer is not a CPA.

You say that your husband's income fell short of the requirement. You should be showing Total Income, Line 22, from his Form 1040, not Adjusted Gross Income, Line 37.

The bank account with several hundred thousand dollars - is that your husband's personal account or a business account? It's your husband who is sponsoring you, not his business.

Yodrak

I am so stumped - got a letter today regarding the I864 which, I might add,we went to great lengths getting all the documents for. It's not clear from the letter exactly what they want from us so I tried calling the helpline.

The first lady I spoke to was unable to help me so she transferred me to someone else who was so very rude and extremely patronising. I was made to feel like a complete idiot. I was so angry when I came off the telephone and unfortunately took my frustration out on my dear husband by yelling at him - bless him.

My husband owns his own business and we submitted the following documents with our application:

Duly notarized Affidavit of Support (I-864) executed by my husband, with the following supporting documents attached:

i. Copy of my husband's Federal Income Tax Returns for the year

2005 (Personal and his company return) - his personal return showed that he was under the

required limit so we submitted house documents as assets. Also profit and loss balance sheet from

his CPA.

ii. Copy of my husband's 1099 for the year 2005 (for himself and the company which showed a profit)

iii. Copy bank statements for last 12 months (amount in more than one account amounting to several

hundred thousand dollars) and a letter explaining all the accounts from the bank manager.

iv. Copy of house papers showing the value of the house

This is what was on the letter - thank goodness for copy and paste!

Request for Additional Evidence (1-485)

This office is unable to complete the processing of your Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, (Form 1-485) without additional information. Please submit the information requested below. You must submit the information within 87 (eighty

seven) days to the following address: u.s. Department of Homeland Security, PO Box 648006, Lee's Summit, MO 64064. Failure to do so will result in a denial. Please include this letter with vour response.

You are ineligible for interim employment authorization pursuant to Title 8, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 103.2( )(IO)(ii) until ninety (90) days after the missing initial evidence is received.

All copies must be clear and legible. If you submit a document in any language other than English, it must be submitted with a full English translation. The translator must certifY that the translation is complete and accurate, and that he or she is competent to translate. You must submit both the foreign language document and the English translation.

F.0

(II) We are unable to determine if your household income meets or exceeds 125% of the federal poverty line for the household size claimed on Form 1-864 based on the documents submitted with Form 1-864. Submit proof that the petitioner's household income meets or exceeds 125% of the federal poverty line. If the petitioner's household income does not meet or exceed 125% of the federal poverty line, you must obtain one joint sponsor whose household income meets or exceeds 125% of the federal poverty line for the joint sponsor's household size. If required, the joint sponsor must submit the documents listed below and a completed and signed Form 1-864.

. Federal income tax returns and W-2s for the most recent tax year or certified Internal Revenue Service (IRS) copies. To obtain return transcripts of your income tax records 1T0m the IRS, you may complete Form 4506- T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, found on the Internet at http://www.irs.gov/ or call toll-lTee (800) 829-1040 to order a "Return Transcript." If the sponsor was not required to file a federal tax return for the most recent tax year, the sponsor must provide an explanation as to why slhe was not required to file federal income taxes.

. Evidence of current employment or self-employment including a letter 1T0m each employer on business stationery, showing beginning date of employment, type of work performed, number of hours worked per week, and salary or wages paid. If you are self-employed, submit a recently dated letter on business letterhead or a business license.

Basically the guy I spoke to didnt want to hear what we had sent and when I said that we had included the house valuation etc as assets he said that you cannot submit your primary residence or your primary vehicle as assets. Has anyone else ever came across this?

He said that he suggests we send the whole lot back in again as it could be something as simple as they have lost the documentation.

Can anyone see what we might have missed out?

Do you think we should do this and risk having another RFE for the same thing or do you suggest an infopass appointment to show what we sent and then see what they suggest we need?

Or do you think we should just find ourselves a sponser as well just to be on the safe side??

Thanks for taking the time to read this and sorry for the length of this post! I appreciate all your suggestions.

Agree with Yodrak... The USCIS does not care about the business or business income. If the 1040 shows an income that is less than 125% of poverty line, then a joint sponsor is required. The business cannot be used as an asset nor any funds that are the property of the business can be used as an asset.

Is the house in the name of the business or a trust.. if so, that cannot be used as a personal asset either...

Sorry, but it appears that your husband screwed up by not listing his income for 2005 on his 1040 as above the poverty line. It does not appear that the I-864 will be approved without a co-sponsor...

Agree with others, it is better to get the co-sponsor than to fight the USCIS on this...

[Yodrak 7]

Before coming to this conslusion let's wait and get clarification on what income - what line of 1040 - was declared as the income for comparison with the requirement. And who or what owns the bank accounts. If the submission was as unclear as the post it may be that they're OK. Perhaps the case officer issued the RFE to get the sponsor to sort out the figures rather than have to wade through it himself.

Yodrak

...

Sorry, but it appears that your husband screwed up by not listing his income for 2005 on his 1040 as above the poverty line. It does not appear that the I-864 will be approved without a co-sponsor...

...

[sukie175 0]

Hi.

Silver, my lawyer told that I should use the income after adjustments for affidavit purpose so if i was u, i will get some kind professional advice.

c u later.

This is wrong, Yodrak is correct it is line 22 you use.

[Silver 0]

I think the best thing is for us to find a co-sponsor, this might be a tough one but it seems like it would be the best way to go.

My husbands income is on line 17 of his tax return as his income is from his S corporation - but because of the loss of the farm he sold this has given a deficit which is reflected in line 22. We were going to get an explanation letter from his CPA but we dont think we are going to risk getting denied.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and advice.

[canucker18 0]

If you've already sent back your RFE, how are you going to add this additional info?? This is what we would do as well. Get a co-sponsor just to be certain, but then how do you amend your RFE response that you've already sent to include your now co-sponsor?

Would an Infopass have the authority to add that to your case???

[Silver 0]

If you've already sent back your RFE, how are you going to add this additional info?? This is what we would do as well. Get a co-sponsor just to be certain, but then how do you amend your RFE response that you've already sent to include your now co-sponsor?

Would an Infopass have the authority to add that to your case???

We havent sent anything back yet and we are looking for a co-sponsor - husband has no living family so we are in a bit of a predicament we have asked a close friend if he will agree to sponsor but haven't had a response from him yet. We aren't going to bother with an infopass appointment as it might be a waste of time. I dont know if an infopass appointment would be able to add info/authority to our case.

[canucker18 0]

Hi Silver, I just updated my post. I was able to speak to an Immigration Officer on the phone.

I really do hope you can get everything settled and sorted. I know how you feel and it's not good.

Let us know how it all goes for you.

[chuckandkim 0]

I have kinda mix feeling about this thread... the OP's husband has hundreds of thousands of dollar, has assets, owns properties, a business. And just sold a FARM but took a loss on his tax return so that now he's ended up showing that he earns below the poverty guideline...

I don't know OP's husband's business or tax filing method but seems as if something isn't straight here. Remember, USCIS isn't your typical CPA, they are not train to understand your Tax situation. When they receive your financial support documents, they go after your "INCOME" whatever you have shown them was below and that's how they sent you your RFE.

Don't like the CPA too much at this point, IMO... Husband should have known better to file his tax in anticipation of the AOS.

Can OP ask her husband's CPA to file an Admend Tax Return which will show some kind of income??? I don't see why one has 100's of thousand dollars in the bank and one's dispossal but can still be under poverty guideline... Fixing this should be easy if one is not hiding something from the IRS.

Disclaimer: I do not know your exact situation but reading this thread gives me this kind of feeling...

Good luck either way,

Chuck and Kim