Re. Prior years of income

[morocco4ever 63]

When we did ours they required a 3 year history of adequate wages. Perhaps they have loosened up their requirements. Just to be on the safe side I think I would include a cover letter explaining your prior student status.

There's place on the I-864 to indicate three years of income history but there are no direct requirements related to the history. The I-134 has no such information request. I'm saying the case is likely to be approved based on the recent new job contract following the completion of a post graduate program. The issue is whether the intending immigrant is likely to become a public charge. I'm confident anybody evaluating the case will be convinced there's no public charge issue of concern.

There have been cases in the past of members that met the current requirement but not in the past. They were requested to have a co sponsor. I agree that the case looks good, and the reason for the lack of prior income is explainable, but I stand by my suggestion. Why take chances just because some members here (who are not consular officers) think all is hunky dory? Why not just take that extra step that might take an additional 5 minutes? Foresight is better than hindsight.

Explaining the prior student status is fine but is probably already clear from the petition and G325a. I took no exception to the cover letter, but needed to correct the assertion about a "requirement" for three years prior income.

I would assume that if the I-864 requests 3 years then you sure as heck better be prepared to show 3 years worth, don't you think? And yes, they did ask for all 3 years for mine. Besides if you had read what I stated you would have understood that this is what was required when I went through it, and maybe they have eased up on the requirements. If the form requests 3 years worth of income don't you think the wise person would be prepared to either provide 3 years or an explanation as to why it wasn't there? One other note, the petition and G325a is what you send to the USCIS not the consulate. Do you know for a fact that they send it to them with the approval notice? And if so, are you confident that that would be enough to satisfy them? I have heard in the past, granted only what I have been told, that since the USCIS is the Department of Homeland Security and the Consulate is the Department of State, that they struggle with each other, and to count on them to share anything further to assist is adjudicating would be foolish on our parts.

Final note, better to be prepared than sorry. None of us commenting here are immigration lawyers, and no 2 cases are the same, so use your best judgement. It does sound like your case should be pretty simple, but never fall into the over confident trap.

I responded directly to the following statement.

When we did ours they required a 3 year history of adequate wages. Perhaps they have loosened up their requirements. Just to be on the safe side I think I would include a cover letter explaining your prior student status.

There has never been a hard requiremnt to have three years of adequate wages. There's only a place to provide information about three prior years of income. This petitioner, if filing an I-864 three months from now would show inadequate income for all three years, while showing an adequate current income supported by a contract and pay stubs. Three years of adequate income are not now and never have been a general requirement for approval of an I-864 or I134.

I agree with the cover letter idea but your assertion of a three year requirement is simply inaccurate, so I corrected it. Ok?

Pushbrk are you an immigration lawyer or consulate officer? Has it occured to you that each consulate is different? They did in fact request me to send 3 years of my tax returns. I doubt you were there, so when I state that they requested it why can't you just take my word for it and simply say that they didn't request it from you? Like I stated, each case is different. GEEZ...done with you.

To the OP, sorry that we derailed your thread and best wishes. I am sure all will turn out fine.

[Zahra23 0]

I did see where to write in the three prior years of income on the I-864, but if providing proof of the second and third years there is an optional box to check. However, I do agree to be overly confident (heck, this applies to all areas of life ) is not a good thing; therefore, all advice/tips have been well taken.

[Zahra23 0]

morocco4ever, no problem at all. Your information has been very informative and I will walk on the side of caution, because no two cases are the same no matter the similarities, or even when dealing with the same consulate...stories here alone have proven this matter. Best regards to you.

When we did ours they required a 3 year history of adequate wages. Perhaps they have loosened up their requirements. Just to be on the safe side I think I would include a cover letter explaining your prior student status.

There's place on the I-864 to indicate three years of income history but there are no direct requirements related to the history. The I-134 has no such information request. I'm saying the case is likely to be approved based on the recent new job contract following the completion of a post graduate program. The issue is whether the intending immigrant is likely to become a public charge. I'm confident anybody evaluating the case will be convinced there's no public charge issue of concern.

There have been cases in the past of members that met the current requirement but not in the past. They were requested to have a co sponsor. I agree that the case looks good, and the reason for the lack of prior income is explainable, but I stand by my suggestion. Why take chances just because some members here (who are not consular officers) think all is hunky dory? Why not just take that extra step that might take an additional 5 minutes? Foresight is better than hindsight.

Explaining the prior student status is fine but is probably already clear from the petition and G325a. I took no exception to the cover letter, but needed to correct the assertion about a "requirement" for three years prior income.

I would assume that if the I-864 requests 3 years then you sure as heck better be prepared to show 3 years worth, don't you think? And yes, they did ask for all 3 years for mine. Besides if you had read what I stated you would have understood that this is what was required when I went through it, and maybe they have eased up on the requirements. If the form requests 3 years worth of income don't you think the wise person would be prepared to either provide 3 years or an explanation as to why it wasn't there? One other note, the petition and G325a is what you send to the USCIS not the consulate. Do you know for a fact that they send it to them with the approval notice? And if so, are you confident that that would be enough to satisfy them? I have heard in the past, granted only what I have been told, that since the USCIS is the Department of Homeland Security and the Consulate is the Department of State, that they struggle with each other, and to count on them to share anything further to assist is adjudicating would be foolish on our parts.

Final note, better to be prepared than sorry. None of us commenting here are immigration lawyers, and no 2 cases are the same, so use your best judgement. It does sound like your case should be pretty simple, but never fall into the over confident trap.

I responded directly to the following statement.

When we did ours they required a 3 year history of adequate wages. Perhaps they have loosened up their requirements. Just to be on the safe side I think I would include a cover letter explaining your prior student status.

There has never been a hard requiremnt to have three years of adequate wages. There's only a place to provide information about three prior years of income. This petitioner, if filing an I-864 three months from now would show inadequate income for all three years, while showing an adequate current income supported by a contract and pay stubs. Three years of adequate income are not now and never have been a general requirement for approval of an I-864 or I134.

I agree with the cover letter idea but your assertion of a three year requirement is simply inaccurate, so I corrected it. Ok?

Pushbrk are you an immigration lawyer or consulate officer? Has it occured to you that each consulate is different? They did in fact request me to send 3 years of my tax returns. I doubt you were there, so when I state that they requested it why can't you just take my word for it and simply say that they didn't request it from you? Like I stated, each case is different. GEEZ...done with you.

To the OP, sorry that we derailed your thread and best wishes. I am sure all will turn out fine.

[pushbrk 13,067]

I did see where to write in the three prior years of income on the I-864, but if providing proof of the second and third years there is an optional box to check. However, I do agree to be overly confident (heck, this applies to all areas of life ) is not a good thing; therefore, all advice/tips have been well taken.

At any time, there can be case specific requirements and sometimes Consulate specific requirements wrt financial documents. It would be helpful if you would complete enough of your profile to target responses to your Consulate. You are not planning to petition for an N/A visa and N/A is not a country.

As for your financial picture, there's really nothing you can do to change it that you haven't already done. It is my considered opinion you can be successful qualifying as a sponsor under those circumstances even if later asked for documentation that would appear "weak". This is because the current circumstances are the most important and with rare exception all that is really "required" to be adequate. A cover letter and good supporting documentation is always a good idea.

In our case, I provide a cover sheet in both English and Chinese for the financial documents. It was not a letter but a simple list in 24 point font of what was included, such as I-134, Employer Letter, Tax Transcripts and Pay Stubs. The CO could clearly see it was a complete package and gave it the briefest of looks before adding it to his file.

[Zahra23 0]

Yes pushbrk, the bullet point format is quite an efficient way to detail a packet of documents...straight to the point and easier on the eyes .

Although optional, I do see where there is an area to list the sponsored immigrants' assets. This would be an additional way to enhance the case a bit or a lot, because my husband has a decent savings account in his country of origin, and also owns some land.

[pushbrk 13,067]

Yes pushbrk, the bullet point format is quite an efficient way to detail a packet of documents...straight to the point and easier on the eyes .

Although optional, I do see where there is an area to list the sponsored immigrants' assets. This would be an additional way to enhance the case a bit or a lot, because my husband has a decent savings account in his country of origin, and also owns some land.

Sorta like bullet point, I suppose but not really.

[Zahra23 0]

Thank you pushbrk for the example.