Poverty Guidelines, Taxes & Change of Residence Questions

[arcueil_1 0]

Hello Everyone:

I was married in China in January of 2004. I came back from to the USA 7 months ago in order to resettle and bring my wife here (she's still in the PRC). It's been nothing but a steep climb since I returned but I'm almost ready to start the process. I'm fairly familiar with what I need to do and we're already filling out certain forms and such. Although I haven't sent anything yet, forms I-130 and G-325A are ready to go). We're going for the K-3 visa.

The biggest issues that I'm dealing with now are the following:

1) I need to know in plain English what is the minimum income I need; in other words, what exactly is 125% above the poverty line. I just need a number. I keep getting different answers from what I have been reading, even on this site and on the same post! I will not be getting a co-sponsor because everyone in my family is dead. I have no-one and frankly my "friends" don't give a hoot (this is Southern California after all). It's all up to me, and that's fine. I have a modest but steady income. Also, what is this "assests" thing? I have at least 8K worth of stuff in storage (books, collectible records, etc.; a huge personal library). Does that count in some way?

2) I did not fill out any taxes while I was in China because I was not making enough to justify doing so. I will be preparing my taxes this year, however; now that I'm back, I make enough to account to Uncle Sam. Question: do I only need to show *one* tax return on the I-864 and/or the I-134? Do they mind if you didn't fill out taxes for a number of years because you didn't make enough during that time? I didn't even live in the US from 10/02 until 7/06; I made pretty decent money as far as the Chinese yuan is concerned but when you convert that to US dollars, I was definitely poor (well below 10K$ per year)!

3) Last but not least, I have been rooming with an old student of mine since my return (in order to save money during my transition back to the States) but it's time to move fairly soon. The problem is that I want to start the process now but I'll be living in this apartment for another three or four months. That means that I'll be moving to my own place halfway through the process. Is this bad or really problematic? Should I wait until I have my own apartment again? My wife and I have an extremely solid marriage but we miss each other enormously! Having to wait an extra three or four months sounds pretty crappy. We could easily do it, but geez, we want to be with each other! Four more months would be nearly a year of separation, and that would be just to begin the visa process! Not cool.

That's it for now.

Thanx for reading guys! I'm looking forward to your answers. BTW, this site is great; lots and lots of info and good posts.

cheers,

arcueil_1

[YuAndDan 153]

1) Poverty guideline can be found here: Poverty Guidelines

Assets are liquid assets, what can be converted to cash quickly and are only worth 1/3 of income, so 3000 in assets are only counted as 1000 of income, so if your income is 1000 less than poverty you need to show 3000 in assets.

2) You may be exempt from paying taxes, but you still need to file returns even when out of the country. This is one thing that causes the most problems, they can and do ask for past 3 years returns, you need to explain why your were exempt from filing returns.

SEE: http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq13.html

As long as your current year's return shows making enough then you should be fine.

3) Moving is always bad for the USCIS while they are processing a petition, it is very hard to get your address changed while they are processing, US post office will not forward the mail from USCIS. You may want to use an address that wont change for correspondence, like a PO box, or a relatives home.

One last thing you may want also to check out "A Candle for Love" great board for Chinese / American visa and relationship discussion, as well as Guangzhou consulate discussions.

http://candleforlove.com

[arcueil_1 0]

Hi. Thanx for your answers.

In China, earned salaries are weird because no-one (local or foreign) ever uses checks for any transactions or payments. Maybe in a small handful of very large cities, but even there it's probably rare. In the four years that I was there, I didn't see a person use or receive a check -- not one. Basically, you have a contract and you get paid in cash every month, in yuan. You almost never receive a document saying that you received such-and-such amount -- nothing, just cold cash (at least for expat teachers). This is how it works in practically the entire country. I suspect that in many cases this is done in order for your employer to cheat on *their* taxes. To top it off, the schools you work for will almost invariably take care of your taxes in the PRC. Basically, what you receive is entirely your and in cash. I didn't even convert my money until I passed through Hong Kong on my way back to the States, and it was well below what the US considers poverty line. To make a long story short, I would not even know how to fill out tax returns for my China years. This is the single biggest issue I'm having with bringing my wife here! If Uncle Sam wants the three most recent returns, I have a bit of a problem. I can provide the one that's coming up ('07) but the last two are a complete enigma to me.

Regarding moving, I guess that I'll have to wait until I have my own place again (sometime in April) before I start sending things to the government because I have no relatives at all here. Maybe a PO Box will be fine, like you suggested, but I have to make absolutely sure that that is OK will the Uncle.

The poverty line level of $16,500 is OK. I make just above that working about 20 hours a week. It should be OK.

thanx,

arcueil_1

[arcueil_1 0]

I don't see an edit button anywhere, so I'll fix a couple of lines with a new post:

"To top it off, the schools you work for will almost invariably take care of your taxes in the PRC. Basically, what you receive is entirely your and in cash."

should be:

"To top it off, the schools you work for will almost invariably take care of your PRC taxes. Basically, what you receive is entirely yours and in cash."

Seems like a small change but it makes all the difference, especially the first sentence!

arcueil_1