I-864 questions

[elvenshadow 19]

In regards to the I-864

This may seem like a dumb question but I just want to make sure. When sending the I-864, the "Tax Return" photo copy that we send is just photo copies of the actual 1040, 2555EZ and W2s that I physically mailed to the IRS when I filed, correct? (I live abroad and all of my income is tax exempt but so I never owed but filed every year.)

My wife and I plan to move back to the states later this year if her visa is ready in time. The current one year contract for my job ends on July 31st. I will not be employed again until we return to the US and I most likely will not have a job lined up in advance that is guaranteed. So, I will most likely be unemployed for a month or more. When I calculate my current projected income, how should I go about doing that? Is it OK to just use my current monthly salary multiplied by 12? I don't know how much I will make at my next job or when I will start it exactly.

In regards to the previous question, I currently make roughly the equivalent of $3,000 a month in yen, before taxes etc. Would using my father in the US as a co-sponsor be beneficial or is it necessary given my situation? I also have about $20,000 in assets (savings, bonds etc).

Last question. In section 4 on the I-864, I should list my mailing address as my current address in Japan, right? How about for "Sponsor's Place of Residence"? Should I list the US address that we plan to move to once she gets her visa, or do I need to list where we currently, physically live in Japan? I understand that I have to prove intent to re-establish Domicile, so I was thinking the US address is good for that, but we don't actually live there at the moment so I don't want to come off as a liar.

Thank you very much for any advice or information you can provide.

[TeaCup 65]

Last question. In section 4 on the I-864, I should list my mailing address as my current address in Japan, right? How about for "Sponsor's Place of Residence"? Should I list the US address that we plan to move to once she gets her visa, or do I need to list where we currently, physically live in Japan? I understand that I have to prove intent to re-establish Domicile, so I was thinking the US address is good for that, but we don't actually live there at the moment so I don't want to come off as a liar.

Thank you very much for any advice or information you can provide.

Mailing address and place of residence are where you are currently physically are living.

[pateldip84 3]

HI

Your question is very interesting and unique and it is not Dumn at all.

1) yes you should send the 1040 copy that you sent to IRS. I would Make sure it is signed. Yes do send W2 with it as well.

2) You have not provided more details on when you are sending i864 to NVC. but

a) if you are sending i864 now then do not worry about your job ending. Becuase they want to know what is your current income (this can be intepreted many ways but i would intepret it in my favour)

the reason for i864 is so that your spouse will not be claiming Unemploment and staff.. she should not become dependent on public tax funds basically..

b) if your file is pending and if you have to send i864 after july31 than you will defintely need a co-sponsor. Which could be any ..(eg. parents, siblings, friends, and your well wishers)

you could be earning $000 and it will not matter if you have a valid sponsor who earns above poverty line..

I highly recommed you read

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/documents/support/i-864-frequently-asked-questions.html

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864instr.pdf

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864p.pdf

[NikLR 13,227]

Any income recorded for the I-864 must continue in the USA. If your job is NOT continuing after returning to the USA then you do not have a current continuing income and would need a joint sponsor.

[elvenshadow 19]

Any income recorded for the I-864 must continue in the USA. If your job is NOT continuing after returning to the USA then you do not have a current continuing income and would need a joint sponsor.

@Pateldip: Thank you for the reply. I am still waiting for NoA2. I just got NoA1 last week but my timeline estimates that I will get NoA2 between May 27, 2014 and July 6, 2014, so as long as I don’t get any RFEs and that timeline estimate is accurate, I will most likely be sending the I-864 before July 31^st. However, according to NLR, it doesn’t seem like it will matter. I guess I will have my father be the co-sponsor then.

Regardless, I still want to make sure that I fill out everything properly so that I don’t get a checklist. The guide says:

“Current Individual Annual Income.

Enter your current individual earned or retirement annual income that you are using to meet the requirements of this

form and indicate the total on this line. You may include evidence supporting your claim about your expected income for the current year if you believe that

submitting this evidence will help you establish ability to maintain sufficient income.

You are not required to submit this evidence, however, unless specifically instructed to do so by a Government official.

For example, you may include a recent letter from your employer, showing your employer's address and telephone number, and indicating your annual salary. You may also provide pay stub(s) showing your income for the previous 6 months. If your claimed income includes alimony, child support, dividend or interest income, or income from any other source, you may also include evidence of that income. “

So technically my current annual income at this time and when I file should be $36,000 but my employment will end in August. So for Part 6, section 5, what should I input? The part in bold above is what throws me off, because as NLR said, I can’t state that income to meet the requirements of this form, but I also don’t think I should write $0, should I? Should I just write the income for January – July ($21,000) since that is all that I am guaranteed to make in this scenario?

Also, my wife currently is working in Japan as well. Should I even include her income on the form at all?

[elvenshadow 19]

Sorry but I have a few more questions about I-864.

For Part 1, I am the petitioner so I should check 1.a. My father will act as a joint sponsor. When he fills out his form, should he check 1.d? (I am just confused about 1.f. I am the petitioner and my father is a joint sponsor. 1.f is only used in the case of having ANOTHER sponsor in addition to my father and myself, is this correct? Because I can’t check both 1.a and 1.f as if I was considered a joint sponsor.)

In Part 4 under “Other Information” it asks for the telephone number. We have a Japanese phone number and it is formatted as (XXX) XXXX – XXXX but the field on the PDF file only has boxes for 3 digits in the center section. How should I fill this out? Is it OK to just write 4 digits across the 3 boxes or do I have to make a continuation sheet just for this? ….Or are they expecting a US phone number and I should use the phone number for the address we plan to live at upon moving? The instructions do not mention anything about this at all.

I will be sending copies of my tax return along with the form. When filing from Japan, I included the Japanese equivalent of a W2. I photo copied this and translated the important information simply by writing in pen on the photo copy. This is sufficient for the IRS. However, all documents sent to NVC seem to require a neater translation with a statement certifying that the translator is proficient and that it is correct. Do I need to have a more thorough and professional looking translation with a signed statement from translator of the Japanese W2 even though it wouldn’t be the original document that was submitted to the IRS?

When entering an income amount that is in a foreign currency, how should I go about converting it to US dollars? Do I need to multiply the pay for each month by the exchange rate that existed at the time of being paid and then add each month together (this is what I did on my actual taxes) or do I need to just use the current exchange rate at the time of filling out the form for all 12 months? For income that hasn’t been paid yet, I suppose we would just need to use the current rate either way?

The example PDF on this website shows the person filled in their total income value for their tax return information in Part 6 as a flat dollar amount without cents. On the actual 1040, we are supposed to write cents as well. Should I round the value of the cents to the nearest dollar or should I actually write the full value with cents included as it actually appears on the actual 1040s?

Depending on how I am actually supposed to calculate my current annual income, it will change how I test for poverty line requirements. If I use what my actual income is guaranteed to be this year in the worst case scenario that I do not work at all after my contract ends, it would be roughly $21,000 (I make about $3000 a month depending on how exchange rates are applied) and the current poverty line for 2 person household (just me and my wife) is $19,662 (taken from here http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864p.pdf).%C2'>

I am really confused. Sorry…

[pushbrk 12,616]

@Pateldip: Thank you for the reply. I am still waiting for NoA2. I just got NoA1 last week but my timeline estimates that I will get NoA2 between May 27, 2014 and July 6, 2014, so as long as I don’t get any RFEs and that timeline estimate is accurate, I will most likely be sending the I-864 before July 31^st. However, according to NLR, it doesn’t seem like it will matter. I guess I will have my father be the co-sponsor then.

Regardless, I still want to make sure that I fill out everything properly so that I don’t get a checklist. The guide says:

“Current Individual Annual Income.

Enter your current individual earned or retirement annual income that you are using to meet the requirements of this

form and indicate the total on this line. You may include evidence supporting your claim about your expected income for the current year if you believe that

submitting this evidence will help you establish ability to maintain sufficient income.

You are not required to submit this evidence, however, unless specifically instructed to do so by a Government official.

For example, you may include a recent letter from your employer, showing your employer's address and telephone number, and indicating your annual salary. You may also provide pay stub(s) showing your income for the previous 6 months. If your claimed income includes alimony, child support, dividend or interest income, or income from any other source, you may also include evidence of that income. “

So technically my current annual income at this time and when I file should be $36,000 but my employment will end in August. So for Part 6, section 5, what should I input? The part in bold above is what throws me off, because as NLR said, I can’t state that income to meet the requirements of this form, but I also don’t think I should write $0, should I? Should I just write the income for January – July ($21,000) since that is all that I am guaranteed to make in this scenario?

Also, my wife currently is working in Japan as well. Should I even include her income on the form at all?

Write zero. You correctly interpreted what you put in bold. Send a copy of whatever constitutes a COMPLETE tax return, which is everything that would be mailed if filing by mail.

You are the petitioner. Your father is the only joint sponsor. If your father is married filing a joint tax return, his wife will be the household member, providing an I-864a, whether she has income or not.

Edited April 30, 2014 by pushbrk

[elvenshadow 19]

Write zero. You correctly interpreted what you put in bold. Send a copy of whatever constitutes a COMPLETE tax return, which is everything that would be mailed if filing by mail.

You are the petitioner. Your father is the only joint sponsor. If your father is married filing a joint tax return, his wife will be the household member, providing an I-864a, whether she has income or not.

Pushbrk, thank you for the reply. You are always very helpful.

Do you happen to know the answers to my other questions?

I am still unsure about the proper way to enter an 11 digit Japanese phone number in a field that is separated into 10 distinct digit fields for US number format.

I also am still unsure about my rough partial translation of Japanese W2. If the translation didn’t require a signed statement by the IRS from the translator when originally filed in my taxes, do I still need to have one when I send a copy of the same document to NVC along with a complete translation?

The example on visajourney shows total income amounts from 1040s (Part 6 lines 13.a b c) rounded to dollars only. The amount written on my 1040s include cents. Should I write it fully like “36,926.40” or should I round?

Sorry for asking again. I just don’t want to make any mistakes.

[pushbrk 12,616]

If there isn't enough room, do it by hand.

For your question about cents, answer the question being asked. It asks for the amount you see on the tax return. Enter it. Simple as that. No need to over-think things. An "example" is an EXAMPLE.

Edited May 1, 2014 by pushbrk

[pateldip84 3]

Sorry but I have a few more questions about I-864.

For Part 1, I am the petitioner so I should check 1.a. My father will act as a joint sponsor. When he fills out his form, should he check 1.d? (I am just confused about 1.f. I am the petitioner and my father is a joint sponsor. 1.f is only used in the case of having ANOTHER sponsor in addition to my father and myself, is this correct? Because I can’t check both 1.a and 1.f as if I was considered a joint sponsor.)

you will have to file i-864 wether you make income or not and select 1a. and part 3 #1 you will choose yes. and part 5 #7 you will choose 1 for your father or who ever is sponsoring. and include thier income in part 6 Person1

Your father will fill i864a and in #8 will choose Parent.

Only thing i would suggest is you to call the NVC number and ask if the way i explained is ok. the reason i say is beucase i am not 100% sure if you can do the above if you do not live with your parents.

[elvenshadow 19]

If there isn't enough room, do it by hand.

For your question about cents, answer the question being asked. It asks for the amount you see on the tax return. Enter it. Simple as that. No need to over-think things. An "example" is an EXAMPLE.

That makes sense. However, another complication has come up. I just requested and downloaded my previous year tax transcripts online from the IRS. On the actual transcripts, the total income number is rounded to the nearest dollar. On the 1040, it is not. I was going to just go ahead and send copies of both to cover all my bases. In light of this, should I round or not on the I-864?

Since it says from the “return” am I right to assume that cents should be included as that is how it appears on the 1040?

[elvenshadow 19]

Also, my assets are not going to be enough to cover 3X the poverty line number (which is nearly $60,000 in our case). Is it OK to just not fill out Part 7 at all since I will be relying on the joint sponsor? Or do I need to still fill it in since my income is going to be listed as $0? Or would just typing N/A work in all fields?

[pushbrk 12,616]

you will have to file i-864 wether you make income or not and select 1a. and part 3 #1 you will choose yes. and part 5 #7 you will choose 1 for your father or who ever is sponsoring. and include thier income in part 6 Person1

Your father will fill i864a and in #8 will choose Parent.

Only thing i would suggest is you to call the NVC number and ask if the way i explained is ok. the reason i say is beucase i am not 100% sure if you can do the above if you do not live with your parents.

The above is wrong. Her father is not a "household member". They are not combining income. Her father provides his own i-864 as the only joint sponsor.

When you don't really know, it's best to read and learn instead of post. This issue has already been correctly addressed in the topic.

[pushbrk 12,616]

That makes sense. However, another complication has come up. I just requested and downloaded my previous year tax transcripts online from the IRS. On the actual transcripts, the total income number is rounded to the nearest dollar. On the 1040, it is not. I was going to just go ahead and send copies of both to cover all my bases. In light of this, should I round or not on the I-864?

Since it says from the “return” am I right to assume that cents should be included as that is how it appears on the 1040?

You are still over-complicating this. Send copies of tax return(s) or tax return transcripts, not both. Match the numbers on the affidavit to those on what you send with it. Note: If you don't round to nearest dollar on your return, the IRS will do it for you on their records. Nevertheless, there's a principal you're not seeming to comprehend. First read the question, then interpret it literally and answer accurately. Do this for EVERY QUESTION. Whether you put in the cents does not matter one little bit.

Also, my assets are not going to be enough to cover 3X the poverty line number (which is nearly $60,000 in our case). Is it OK to just not fill out Part 7 at all since I will be relying on the joint sponsor? Or do I need to still fill it in since my income is going to be listed as $0? Or would just typing N/A work in all fields?

Yes, when using a joint sponsor whose income is sufficient, no asset information need be entered by anybody.

[elvenshadow 19]

Thank you for the reply Pushbrk. Sorry for making things difficult.