To file ROC with only 2012 year tax Returns???

[ClassyBee 19]

Please excuse my questions not being simple or events not be chronologically arranged.

So we have only the 2012 tax transcripts as married.

My window opens on February 7, 2013. We want to send our ROC but I have not read where people only send tax transcripts for just one year.

So my questions are:

Do I wait till we file 2013 taxes and send returns & W-2s with ROC package? ( I definitely won’t wait for transcripts to be available J) ???

Do I send the ROC with just the 2012 transcripts and other evidence???

Will the latter choice (with only 2012 tax returns) prompt RFE later by past April 15, 2014 (I don’t think it should lead to that given my AOS (read details below)???

By the way, we are waiting on just one of the W-2s to file 2013 taxes but I don’t know when that will arrive in the mail as the W-2 is not available online.

Now, additional background info.

Married January 2012

Filed AOS February 2012 with I-864 affidavit of support filed with Spouse’s tax transcripts for 2008,2009 & 2010 because her 2011 taxes were not yet filed until late March 2012. Of course receive no RFE and we were not even asked at interview (May 2012). Even though we tendered all additional documents including her 2011 Tax transcripts at the end.

So ROC with one year tax(2012) or two (2012 & 2013)????

All suggestions welcome J

[kzielu 1,149]

Why do you want to send full tax return ? What would be the point ? It is not used to verify you're paying/filing taxes, it is used to establish whether bona-fide relationship exists between you and your spouse.

I send two first pages from 2012 tax returns (mine and my wife's) that showed we filed married filing separately and each of the returns had spouses name and SSN. That's it - nothing else. I was approved in less than 3 months with no problems at all.

[victorian221b 12]

First of all, take the last response with a grain of salt because not all cases are treated the same. There were some people here who had submitted only the first few pages of their tax return and got an RFE requesting for more evidences supporting their tax filings - whether because it was incomplete or the adjudicator did not believe that was enough evidence. Tax transcripts are great because you don't need to submit so many pages.

Second of all, there have been cases on VJ that people was only able to submit one year of tax info as they are in the same situation as you. I remembered clearly one lady here submitted around this time last year and was able to provide only one year of tax transcript and received an RFE for the second year of tax transcript. Now, whether or not you will get an RFE for the same reason will be hard to say because some people were able to have no issues with only one year of tax transcript. But this could be because they had other evidences to support their marriage or the adjudicator understands that the window for submission falls before they could file for taxes.

If I were you, I would go ahead and submit now and if the adjudicator has an issue they will send you an RFE. It just means you have to wait longer. But at the end of the day, it's your choice.

Good luck.

Please excuse my questions not being simple or events not be chronologically arranged.

So we have only the 2012 tax transcripts as married.

My window opens on February 7, 2013. We want to send our ROC but I have not read where people only send tax transcripts for just one year.

So my questions are:

Do I wait till we file 2013 taxes and send returns & W-2s with ROC package? ( I definitely won’t wait for transcripts to be available J) ???

Do I send the ROC with just the 2012 transcripts and other evidence???

Will the latter choice (with only 2012 tax returns) prompt RFE later by past April 15, 2014 (I don’t think it should lead to that given my AOS (read details below)???

By the way, we are waiting on just one of the W-2s to file 2013 taxes but I don’t know when that will arrive in the mail as the W-2 is not available online.

Now, additional background info.

Married January 2012

Filed AOS February 2012 with I-864 affidavit of support filed with Spouse’s tax transcripts for 2008,2009 & 2010 because her 2011 taxes were not yet filed until late March 2012. Of course receive no RFE and we were not even asked at interview (May 2012). Even though we tendered all additional documents including her 2011 Tax transcripts at the end.

So ROC with one year tax(2012) or two (2012 & 2013)????

All suggestions welcome J

[ClassyBee 19]

Why do you want to send full tax return ? What would be the point ? It is not used to verify you're paying/filing taxes, it is used to establish whether bona-fide relationship exists between you and your spouse.

I send two first pages from 2012 tax returns (mine and my wife's) that showed we filed married filing separately and each of the returns had spouses name and SSN. That's it - nothing else. I was approved in less than 3 months with no problems at all.

I'm not sure which of my questions you answered.

I asked at least 3 questions. Please expatiate a bit more on the response if you may

So maybe i should ask you a simple direct one since you wrote you filed using 2012 tax.

Did you file for ROC using only 2012 tax returns?

(whether what you sent was full returns, first page, transcripts etc is irrelevant to me).

Most people file for ROC using at least 2 years tax returns covering period of their marriage

Edited February 3, 2014 by ClassyBee

[ClassyBee 19]

First of all, take the last response with a grain of salt because not all cases are treated the same. There were some people here who had submitted only the first few pages of their tax return and got an RFE requesting for more evidences supporting their tax filings - whether because it was incomplete or the adjudicator did not believe that was enough evidence. Tax transcripts are great because you don't need to submit so many pages.

Second of all, there have been cases on VJ that people was only able to submit one year of tax info as they are in the same situation as you. I remembered clearly one lady here submitted around this time last year and was able to provide only one year of tax transcript and received an RFE for the second year of tax transcript. Now, whether or not you will get an RFE for the same reason will be hard to say because some people were able to have no issues with only one year of tax transcript. But this could be because they had other evidences to support their marriage or the adjudicator understands that the window for submission falls before they could file for taxes.

If I were you, I would go ahead and submit now and if the adjudicator has an issue they will send you an RFE. It just means you have to wait longer. But at the end of the day, it's your choice.

Good luck.

Well Written, I will heed your advice

Send with just the 2012 taxes and hopefully have the 2013 ready for if /when they request for that.

Thank you!

Edited February 3, 2014 by ClassyBee

[kzielu 1,149]

I'm not sure which of my questions you answered.

I asked at least 3 questions. Please expatiate a bit more on the response if you may

So maybe i should ask you a simple direct one since you wrote you filed using 2012 tax.

Did you file for ROC using only 2012 tax returns?

(whether what you sent was full returns, first page, transcripts etc is irrelevant to me).

Most people file for ROC using at least 2 years tax returns covering period of their marriage

Good luck with sending tax returns, whatever year you decide to send.

[ClassyBee 19]

Good luck with sending tax returns, whatever year you decide to send.

Thank you!

However, my last post suggest that I may even have transcripts ready for if/when they request for the 2013 tax.

So please, did you file for ROC using only 2012 tax?

[kzielu 1,149]

I did not send any other tax data beyond "I sent two first pages from 2012 tax returns (mine and my wife's)".

[ClassyBee 19]

I did not send any other tax data beyond "I sent two first pages from 2012 tax returns (mine and my wife's)".

Thanks for answering that but I'm a bit curious about your case, Why didn't you send the 2011 tax alongside the 2012 given you were already married in 2011?

[kzielu 1,149]

Thanks for answering that but I'm a bit curious about your case, Why didn't you send the 2011 tax alongside the 2012 given you were already married in 2011?

I tried to explain reasons in my very first post, but you got hung up on me not answering your questions. Key reason - is why would I ?

You need to provide evidence of bona fide relationship, not support documentation for affidavit of support. Beyond two first pages of a tax return, there is absolutely else in its multiple pages that would be relationship related.

Note I also filed married filing separately for both years which is against nonsense VJ "truth" that you have to file jointly or your RoC will be denied - this way I ended up getting about ~$3k more in tax returns.

Overall I tried to make my packages as much adjudicator friendly as I only could - and I adding multiple pages of multiple years of tax returns would be the opposite. I keep thinking this helped in getting my conditional GC approved in 2 months and RoC in less than 3. But maybe it was just pure luck and I am completely wrong on that - not that it really matters.

[ClassyBee 19]

I tried to explain reasons in my very first post, but you got hung up on me not answering your questions. Key reason - is why would I ?

You need to provide evidence of bona fide relationship, not support documentation for affidavit of support. Beyond two first pages of a tax return, there is absolutely else in its multiple pages that would be relationship related.

Note I also filed married filing separately for both years which is against nonsense VJ "truth" that you have to file jointly or your RoC will be denied - this way I ended up getting about ~$3k more in tax returns.

Overall I tried to make my packages as much adjudicator friendly as I only could - and I adding multiple pages of multiple years of tax returns would be the opposite. I keep thinking this helped in getting my conditional GC approved in 2 months and RoC in less than 3. But maybe it was just pure luck and I am completely wrong on that - not that it really matters.

I'm sorry for mixing things up but maybe I understand your "English" differently (But then again, I'm a bloody immigrant right? )

The questions were never about filling jointly or separately (most folks here know none of that matters (that's the real VJ "truth") nor was it about using for affidavit of support. Most folks here know that for ROC it is to show co-mingly of finances which again, doesn't imply joint filing.

Another VJ "truth" would be sending tax transcripts is better option. As this eliminates the 1st, 2nd or all pages of tax returns and I would think USCIS prefers that since that is official 'summary' of your taxes from IRS

My questions was should I send ROC with 2012 taxes only which is what is available now with 2013 taxes yet to be filed .

Your analogy would have been ideal if you didn't file/send any of 2011 & 2012 but you did file for both of them so I just get confused the more on what exactly the point you are trying to make. But I must be really dull

In all, I appreciate you taking your time to help.

Edited February 3, 2014 by ClassyBee

[flora01 37]

Since you got married in 2012,you dont have tax return for 2011.Also your window for ROC opens in february.

You are left with the choice of sending 2012 tax return only,all i think you should send copies of w2 for both for 2013 and you should be fine.

Getting rfe or not depends on other documents and luck so you should not worry about it.(getting transcript from irs takes around 2 to 3 weeks after processing of tax return,so there is no question of waiting for transcript in february)

[Dave&Roza 748]

You have two options as to what to send in tax wise: 1) send in only the 2012 tax transcript as that is the current last year return as required by the USCIS, or 2) file your 2013 tax return now and either wait for the IRS to process it and get a copy of the transcript or include a copy of the complete return with your ROC package.

I would send in the ROC with the 2012 tax year, file my 2013 taxes and get a transcript just to cover myself should the USCIS want to see the 2013 tax return. I would want to get the ROC started ASAP and not have to wait for a tax return. We had 3 years worth of returns due to timing, but most have two if they are lucky, and some fall into your situation where there is only one year of joint returns.

Do not get hung up on taxes that you forget other important evidence of a bona fide marriage.

Good luck,

Dave

[ryna 132]

What you "need to" send depends on several factors, such as: what other evidence you have, who your adjudicator is, etc. You really have no way of knowing exactly what any one adjudicator will want to see in combination with your other evidence. My wife and I only sent a copy of 1 tax return, not transcript, and we had no problem. We also sent a lot of other evidence - insurances, joint car loan and registration docs, beneficiaries on retirement accounts utilities in both names, DLs of both of us, joint bank statements (but not too many - only one or two from each year.)

Some people got RFEs for not having any and/or all of the above - none of which is an absolute requirement. Some people didn't receive an RFE for a supposed "required" doc because the sum total of the rest of their evidence was enough (for their adjudicator.)

The best advice I can give is: send what you have readily available, cover as many different avenues as possible (utilities, banks, insurance, autos, IRA/401(k), joint taxes) and be ready to send them more, if they ask.

Take it for what it's worth, but I sometimes think those who send 30lbs of paperwork appear to be trying too hard and USCIS gives them more scrutiny.

Best of luck!

[ClassyBee 19]

Since you got married in 2012,you dont have tax return for 2011.Also your window for ROC opens in february.

You are left with the choice of sending only,all i think you should send copies of w2 for both for 2013 and you should be fine.

Getting rfe or not depends on other documents and luck so you should not worry about it.(getting transcript from irs takes around 2 to 3 weeks after processing of tax return,so there is no question of waiting for transcript in february)

Thanks Flora01. W-2s are in place now. we will file this week and send tax transcripts for 2012 & Returns/W-2s for 2013

You have two options as to what to send in tax wise: 1) send in only the 2012 tax transcript as that is the current last year return as required by the USCIS, or 2) file your 2013 tax return now and either wait for the IRS to process it and get a copy of the transcript or include a copy of the complete return with your ROC package.

I would send in the ROC with the 2012 tax year, file my 2013 taxes and get a transcript just to cover myself should the USCIS want to see the 2013 tax return. I would want to get the ROC started ASAP and not have to wait for a tax return. We had 3 years worth of returns due to timing, but most have two if they are lucky, and some fall into your situation where there is only one year of joint returns.

Do not get hung up on taxes that you forget other important evidence of a bona fide marriage.

Good luck,

Dave

Thanks Dave, Yeah, We have a fairly decent evidence including Health, dental, Auto, Rental & life insurances as well as 401K, Bank Statement, Leases and tax returns. Utilities & other work benefits like term life, accidental etc Not forgetting drivers licences(old address & new),forms Ar-11 & i-865 for when we moved in 2012 which I'm hoping will be enough.

What you "need to" send depends on several factors, such as: what other evidence you have, who your adjudicator is, etc. You really have no way of knowing exactly what any one adjudicator will want to see in combination with your other evidence. My wife and I only sent a copy of 1 tax return, not transcript, and we had no problem. We also sent a lot of other evidence - insurances, joint car loan and registration docs, beneficiaries on retirement accounts utilities in both names, DLs of both of us, joint bank statements (but not too many - only one or two from each year.)

Some people got RFEs for not having any and/or all of the above - none of which is an absolute requirement. Some people didn't receive an RFE for a supposed "required" doc because the sum total of the rest of their evidence was enough (for their adjudicator.)

The best advice I can give is: send what you have readily available, cover as many different avenues as possible (utilities, banks, insurance, autos, IRA/401(k), joint taxes) and be ready to send them more, if they ask.

Take it for what it's worth, but I sometimes think those who send 30lbs of paperwork appear to be trying too hard and USCIS gives them more scrutiny.

Best of luck!

Thanks Ryna, I'm hoping mine doesn't add up to 30lbs so I'm not so keen on affidavits, pictures, addressed mails etc but if the 'core' ones amounts to 50lbs, then I may have no choice

Edited February 4, 2014 by ClassyBee