What do I send for I134

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

In Texas child support is not taxable. Also, 2 of my children are disabled and receive disability which is also not taxable. The total of those things is over $30,000 a year. If you figure that in with my total income we are far above poverty guidelines & that is after almost all of our expenses are deducted because I am self employed. There has to be someway to get over this. The crazy thing is that he has his degree & works in a field that is highly needed here & will start out making over 100k a year, which of course will benefit the government as well as it will send our tax bracket up so much. Frustrating.

It's not just Texas. Child support recipients don't pay taxes on that income in any state that I'm aware of. The money actually is taxable, but just not in the way you're probably thinking about it. The parent who is paying the child support cannot deduct these payments from their own taxes, and must pay income tax on that money. Therefore, the money has been taxed, but it was taxed before you ever got it.

Anyway, I've never heard of a state that orders child support payments to be paid to the child. They always order the support to be paid to the parent. I'm also not aware of any state that requires you to use the money exclusively for the support of the child. It's usually meant to offset the fact that one parent has higher household expenses because they have to provide for their children. Those expenses may be required because the parent is supporting the children, but those expenses may be for things that benefit and are used by everyone in the household.

Child support can be considered income, but the consular officer will take into account the age of the children and the fact that the payments will end when the children reach the age of majority. Since the payments will end someday, the consular officer may choose to give that income less weight or even ignore it entirely, especially if the children are older.

If the disability benefits come from private insurance than that may also be considered income, subject to the age limits mentioned above. If it comes from the Social Security Administration then it's SSI, which is a means tested benefit, and it cannot be considered income for an affidavit of support. The intent of the affidavit of support is to provide some assurance to the US government that your fiance will not become a public charge in the US. If your children will be receiving SSI disability benefits for the rest of their lives then your household already includes two people whom the government would consider to be a public charge.

The US government considers whatever is listed on line 22 of your 1040 to be your personal income - the amount of money you have to live on. You get some pretty liberal business deductions on schedule C. The upside of this is that it saves you a lot in taxes. The downside is that it makes your personal income look very low.

Most consulates will pretty much ignore the financial status of the petitioner if they can provide a sufficient joint sponsor. However, consulates have wide discretion with an I-134 affidavit of support because there are no hard rules for qualifying. Some consulates use this discretion when they are digging for a reason to deny a visa. For instance, consulates in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands are known to rarely accept a joint sponsor for a K visa simply because there are some circumstances where a petitioner with a low income is an indicator of potential visa fraud, and their discretion when making the public charge determination gives them an additional tool in fighting fraud. The consulate in Lagos is known to be very tough - probably the toughest in the world. If they're digging for a reason to deny then the affidavit of support would be a perfectly valid reason.

Provide whatever evidence you're able to provide. Include an affidavit of support and supporting evidence from a well qualified joint sponsor. After that, hope for the best. If they ultimately deny for the public charge determination then I suggest you get married and file a petition for a spousal visa. Immigrant visas use the I-864 affidavit of support, which gives you much more flexibility in meeting the requirements and using a joint sponsor, and it also provides much less discretion to the consular officer.

Good luck!

[jenkatx 52]

@ JimVaPhuong- Thank you! We (my fiancée & I) have decided not to worry about this. We will provide all of the evidence regarding our income, our sponsors, & pray about it. I have full faith that everything will be fine, as we have a mountain of evidence that we do have a real relationship. We have $20,000 in travel expenses, $10,000 in calling, and over 1,200 emails & chats. If they deny us for this issue even with a co-sponsor who clearly qualifies then we will deal with it at that time. I don't think we truly have anything to fret about, I just had a moment of fear.

[Gosia & Tito 199]

I actually just pulled numbers out of the sky for the income. I am self employed out of my home so much of my mortgage, utilities, etc are tax deductible for me, however I am still below the income guidelines if you look at my bottom line. My children have their own forms of income which are not taxed, therefore they don't reflect on my tax statement. Should I include that information as well? statements from social security & trusts for my kids? Because that is not MY income but theirs, however some of it goes toward living expenses. Maybe I should just write a letter regarding how we meet our monthly expenses & the fact that the income reflected on my return is all disposable income? I think our situation is a little more complicated then the norm. Now I am very worried, even though my co-sponsor makes well more then needed to support 2 people I am worried they will deny us due to what my tax returns show.

Outside of what the other posts here have commented, I would provide a past 1-year (2 would be better) balance sheet statement that is: the money coming in to you and your children, how is that used, inclusive the part towards living expenses, savings, etc; then a detailed list of all recurring expenses, inclusive to medical items (since you mentioned two of your children in disability). Cross reference that to bank statements and any other investments, and that should show that there is 'disposable' income, sufficient to cover fiance. Now this on top of the co-sponsoring. The key here is to show that tax statements and bank statement are not sufficient to give a true picture of your finances. You might need to be super detailed here, and from the posts, seems you are. To round it better, I would even add a tentative 1-year forward budget, which will include your fiance expenses/support, with realistic projections.

Can't guarantee this will solve the problem, but if the CO sees that amount of work and detail you have put into this, with factual information for past 2 years and 1 year budget forward that should correlate to the balance sheet; he/she would have a very hard time taking a position that your fiance could become a burden. At best, you'll have your approval, at worst, you are introducing evidence for an appeal.

Good luck!