Let's talk about assets. And cars.

[Lindseybug 0]

I've come to understand that me owning one car doesn't really mean anything, in the asset category. Alright, understandable, but I need ~$30k in assets and we will probably only get to 27-28k (at ~25k now, in cash and stocks) by the time the affidavit of support request comes around. My car is worth about 9k, which would be a big help.

So, who has input on the act of buying a cheap second car, in order to make the first car count as an asset? Even if I bought one for 1.5k, that would still net 7.5k, which would push us over the edge just fine.

On another note, how do the bureaucrats investigate the money issues? Would a gift of a couple grand from my parents (which I would give back to them afterward, for the record) toward the end be very frowned upon?

I'm a student who made 10k last year, and live at home. Parents can't even cosign because they have a recent couple years of taxes they haven't filed. Trying to figure out a way around this without putting off the AOS for months. Any tips or links you guys have would be greatly appreciated, I've did some digging in the search already, but nothing that really answered my question well.

[mallafri76 1,012]

You can also add assets from the intended immigrant, i.e. your spouse.

What about your home? If you own it, you can have it evaluated and use that as part of your assets too.

You can also add assets from the intended immigrant, i.e. your spouse.

What about your home? If you own it, you can have it evaluated and use that as part of your assets too.

[CowBoE 429]

I've come to understand that me owning one car doesn't really mean anything, in the asset category. Alright, understandable, but I need ~$30k in assets and we will probably only get to 27-28k (at ~25k now, in cash and stocks) by the time the affidavit of support request comes around. My car is worth about 9k, which would be a big help.

So, who has input on the act of buying a cheap second car, in order to make the first car count as an asset? Even if I bought one for 1.5k, that would still net 7.5k, which would push us over the edge just fine.

On another note, how do the bureaucrats investigate the money issues? Would a gift of a couple grand from my parents (which I would give back to them afterward, for the record) toward the end be very frowned upon?

I'm a student who made 10k last year, and live at home. Parents can't even cosign because they have a recent couple years of taxes they haven't filed. Trying to figure out a way around this without putting off the AOS for months. Any tips or links you guys have would be greatly appreciated, I've did some digging in the search already, but nothing that really answered my question well.

They will look at a sudden lump sum deposit prior to filing, but for couple of grand...I'm not sure.

That's not that much. Can you get a part time job to boost your income level?

You can also add assets from the intended immigrant, i.e. your spouse.

What about your home? If you own it, you can have it evaluated and use that as part of your assets too.

You can also add assets from the intended immigrant, i.e. your spouse.

What about your home? If you own it, you can have it evaluated and use that as part of your assets too.

He says he's a student so I doubt he owns a home.

Also, I'm not sure every embassy allows foreign beneficiary's assets.

Edited April 7, 2015 by DualityOneness

[Ryan H 3,812]

For starters, CO's have complete discretion when reviewing an I-864 and making a determination on whether or not to count certain assets.

As a general rule of thumb, they want to see cash in the bank for a significant period of time. A loan from your parents (you said you would pay it back so it is not a gift) of 2K would be a recent bump that would be detected and likely not considered.

While the I-864 instructions do say you can use the value of home, it may be disallowed when the form is reviewed if it is a primary home. It would be disallowed because the possible liquidation within one year would cause undue hardship to the owner in the event the terms of the I-864 were not met.

No comment on buying the second car, it may work, it may not; I simply don't know to answer definitively.

[Lindseybug 0]

Thank you, good information here.

Picking up a second job isn't particularly practical at the moment for my situation. I've been trying to figure out how to make it work, but I keep coming back to the conclusion that it won't, not unless I find one that is unusually accommodating. I am keeping my eye out for something like that, though.

Husband is a bit of a nomad and doesn't have tangible assets besides his wage, which is already going to me. That's a whole nother fun topic. He likes the ability of investing from an American company as he's had bad experiences with ones from his home country, so I started an account here which now he funnels most of his income into- it was our only good idea to combine assets, seeing as I had much less than him. I'm pretty afraid of that being misconstrued as "payment," but we will see how it's interpreted.

Ryan, I appreciate the feedback a lot. I'm thinking of dividing the "gift" (yes, it's not one) into bits and doing it irregularly over the next few months, so it's not quite as blatant, if this is what we do.

The more I think about the car though, the more I think about the included costs of insurance and the necessity to store it somewhere, and still drive it time to time- it's a bit too impractical.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Lindseybug

[Ryan H 3,812]

**Hijack post removed.**