Household Size & Bona Fide Relationship - Anyone have problems with this?

[Verde is Scrabble 0]

The Embassy is questioning my household size (as Sponsor), even though I am single, have a college aged son who files separate taxes, and have no other children and/or dependents. I attested to my household size in my I-864 (signed under penalty of perjury) and the number of dependents I claim is shown on my tax returns. I am so tempted to ask them how they plan to prove that I have "additional dependents" or how I can prove that I don't - or ask if they believe I just picked up a few homeless people off the street to support them, but ...

Another question I had was regarding proof of a "bona fide" relationship. Many posts and lists I see say evidence such as having children together, having joint loans together, purchasing property together is good evidence of a bona fide marriage. The problem is, my spouse and I have only been married for less than a year, and live in two different countries. Although we do have a joint lease and evidence of almost daily communication, as well as evidence of my visits to see him, photographs, our marriage certificate, etc. ; we don't have evidence that one would normally not acquire until you were actually residing together.

Requiring that kind of evidence before your visa is even approved seems bizarre to me. It's a Catch-22.

Besides, it seems to me that getting pregnant in order to improve our chances for a visa would not a wise or ethical decision, although my husband and I would definitely like to have children together - what if the visa were not approved, and you were then not only separated from your spouse, but one of you would be separated from your children as well. Also, it would almost certainly mean going through most of the pregnancy alone, and possibly even going through childbirth alone.

Any advice on these two issues (proving household size and bona fide marriage)? I'm new here, and need all the help I can get!

Edited December 1, 2009 by scrabble

[natt141 0]

The Embassy is questioning my household size (as Sponsor), even though I am single, have a college aged son who files separate taxes, and have no other children and/or dependents. I attested to my household size in my I-864 (signed under penalty of perjury) and the number of dependents I claim is shown on my tax returns. I am so tempted to ask them how they plan to prove that I have "additional dependents" or how I can prove that I don't - or ask if they believe I just picked up a few homeless people off the street to support them, but ...

Another question I had was regarding proof of a "bona fide" relationship. Many posts and lists I see say evidence such as having children together, having joint loans together, purchasing property together is good evidence of a bona fide marriage. The problem is, my spouse and I have only been married for less than a year, and live in two different countries. Although we do have a joint lease and evidence of almost daily communication, as well as evidence of my visits to see him, photographs, our marriage certificate, etc. ; we don't have evidence that one would normally not acquire until you were actually residing together.

Requiring that kind of evidence before your visa is even approved seems bizarre to me. It's a Catch-22.

Besides, it seems to me that getting pregnant in order to improve our chances for a visa would not a wise or ethical decision, although my husband and I would definitely like to have children together - what if the visa were not approved, and you were then not only separated from your spouse, but one of you would be separated from your children as well. Also, it would almost certainly mean going through most of the pregnancy alone, and possibly even going through childbirth alone.

Any advice on these two issues (proving household size and bona fide marriage)? I'm new here, and need all the help I can get!

Like you said, you guys have been married less than a year. I'm not sure..normally for the tax, my husband put my name and my son on that.

For the bona fide evidences like you said again, you visited him, got photos, or even marriage cert, you need to save the msn chat log or whatever log, phone bills, your life insurance, or bona fide letters from your friends or your relatives to prove that your married is real.

I dont know what to explain, I guess, you just have to wait what other ppl are goin to say on here.

G'luck

[christeen 966]

Regarding the household size, you said your son files his own taxes??? Then confirm with them that he files his own taxes by sending them a copy of his 1040... Also be sure that you send in your tax forms showing that you only claim yourself (sine you have not filed married filing seperatly yet being married less than a year)... You should be fine. Include a cover sheet saying that your son is over 18, lives in a seperate household, in college and files his own taxes and you have no other household members etc...

As far as the bonified marriage, just collect the photos, communication proof, lease and whatever you have.. if you have been married less than a year then they will not expect to see other things and your spouse cannot open a bank account or be added to your accounts or loans without a SSN, so they will not expect to see that... They will however want to see proof of an ongoing relationship and your photos, visits, plane tickets, photos with family, family affadavits etc.. should be adequate. Getting someone pregnant is not proof of an ongoing relationship as it takes one moment to concieve a child. Having a baby does not guarantee nor prove anything of what the gov't want to see...

Good luck