I-134 Financial Status Proof

[SunflowerSweet 1,321]

Hello all!

I am currently gathering the required proof for the I-134. I know the guides say to start gathering this while you are waiting for the NOA-2. We already have our NOA-2 (received it the 27th of October).

I'm just a little worried about the proof because he probably won't have his interview for another month or so. I know that's a pretty standard wait time but I'm concerned that since the bank statements and such will be older that they won't be very good proof.

Does anyone have experience with this?

If you already had your interview, how long before that date is your proof dated for? Was it accepted with out question?

Thanks!

[Ash.1101 1,756]

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend gathering the financial documents at NOA2. Some places could have a long wait between NOA2 and interview so you'd end up turning around getting more recent documents anyways. You can gather other things you may need, divorce decrees, Police clearances, anything that has a long time to have or 6 months expiration is good, but anything that has more validity because it's more recent should be as recent as possible.

I personally would go with having the documents on hand a month before the scheduled interview.

With that said, I sent my fiance the financial info and anything he needed from me like the letter of intent, proof of domicille, about 3 weeks before his interview.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Hello all!

I am currently gathering the required proof for the I-134. I know the guides say to start gathering this while you are waiting for the NOA-2. We already have our NOA-2 (received it the 27th of October).

I'm just a little worried about the proof because he probably won't have his interview for another month or so. I know that's a pretty standard wait time but I'm concerned that since the bank statements and such will be older that they won't be very good proof.

Does anyone have experience with this?

If you already had your interview, how long before that date is your proof dated for? Was it accepted with out question?

Thanks!

Seven years of following London here. My advice--

You will not have your interview before January/ February I would estimate.

It is not too early to gather and snail mail your affidavit of support proofs.

You do not need bank statements.

London will approve on just an employer letter if you can get that.

Add a tax return or pay stubs if you want an additional proof. They don't need to see you qualify in five different ways.

A London interview is not as hard as you are imagining.

In regard to timing,..your fiance is not even going to be eligible to get in the queue for a London interview until he reports to London via a form, that he has all documents in hand. That means the I-134 as well. They understand they will be several months old.

[yuna628 9,676]

Since you've just reached NOA2 status, you've got a little while to go yet... which includes the NVC stage and getting it over to London.. and then arranging for a medical even before you have an interview. You can check our timeline to see how fast things went for us. We delayed slightly for the medical date because of work. Certainly no problem in collecting your documents now, and as Nich-Nick said they will accept the I-134 with an employer letter or tax transcript alone. I sent those out to him a few days before his medical. With all the holidays coming up, I'd get whatever mail out internationally as quickly as you can, because things tend to get sluggish. London should have no problems with it.

[SunflowerSweet 1,321]

Since you've just reached NOA2 status, you've got a little while to go yet... which includes the NVC stage and getting it over to London.. and then arranging for a medical even before you have an interview. You can check our timeline to see how fast things went for us. We delayed slightly for the medical date because of work. Certainly no problem in collecting your documents now, and as Nich-Nick said they will accept the I-134 with an employer letter or tax transcript alone. I sent those out to him a few days before his medical. With all the holidays coming up, I'd get whatever mail out internationally as quickly as you can, because things tend to get sluggish. London should have no problems with it.

Thank you. Yeah I know we have a lot of steps ahead of us still before the interview but since the guides here said to start collecting everything while waiting on the NOA-2 (which I ignored and did it even later) I was confused. My gut says I don't need to rush it as much and that waiting a but to have more accurate financial info would be better. My father, who is going to be a joint sponsor since I am a full time student and don't make enough on my own, already gave me his employment letter. I may ask him to get a more updated one later but he has been at this company for years (which the letter explains) so I think even if it was a little out of date it's good proof that he has stable income that is very much above the requirement.

[SunflowerSweet 1,321]

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend gathering the financial documents at NOA2. Some places could have a long wait between NOA2 and interview so you'd end up turning around getting more recent documents anyways. You can gather other things you may need, divorce decrees, Police clearances, anything that has a long time to have or 6 months expiration is good, but anything that has more validity because it's more recent should be as recent as possible.

I personally would go with having the documents on hand a month before the scheduled interview.

With that said, I sent my fiance the financial info and anything he needed from me like the letter of intent, proof of domicille, about 3 weeks before his interview.

Yeah I felt in my gut that I should wait a bit too. Since the guides mentioned preparing it WHILE you are waiting for the NOA-2 I thought I should see what other people have done or how they felt in order to get a more accurate feel of which was more effective.

[SunflowerSweet 1,321]

Seven years of following London here. My advice--

You will not have your interview before January/ February I would estimate.

It is not too early to gather and snail mail your affidavit of support proofs.

You do not need bank statements.

London will approve on just an employer letter if you can get that.

Add a tax return or pay stubs if you want an additional proof. They don't need to see you qualify in five different ways.

A London interview is not as hard as you are imagining.

In regard to timing,..your fiance is not even going to be eligible to get in the queue for a London interview until he reports to London via a form, that he has all documents in hand. That means the I-134 as well. They understand they will be several months old.

Yeah London seemed relatively lax for the financial stuff in comparison to other consulates so that makes me feel better. I do still want to send as much info as I can along with my fiancé just for back up because it would make me feel better. My father is going to be helping sponsor and he got his employment letter from his boss on Friday. Should I expect to ask him to get another one closer to the if our interview does end up being in February or later? If it makes any difference, he has been working at this place for over 10 years and the letter explains this and is very detailed. His bos actually came to America on a K-1 visa so he made sure it had everything it needed to!

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

(For London interviews only. I don't know what other consulates typically want.)

No your father does not need a new letter. 1000% positive. They aren't that strict. They won't even need anything from you since you don't qualify to sponsor. The sponsor does not have to be the fiance. Your father's I-134 and letter would be enough based on what others have reported. So you fretting over your own proof of not earning enough is wasted energy. But send the kitchen sink if that makes you feel more secure.

FWIW my own stuff was four months old at my fiance's interview. Dated March and interview very end of July. I sent way too much because I too believed everything I read in the K1 forum. There wasn't much London help at the time. The document collector handed it all back and the interviewer saw one letter. I understand why it's in your head that you need a lot of proofs.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Nich-Nick

[yuna628 9,676]

Yeah London seemed relatively lax for the financial stuff in comparison to other consulates so that makes me feel better. I do still want to send as much info as I can along with my fiancé just for back up because it would make me feel better. My father is going to be helping sponsor and he got his employment letter from his boss on Friday. Should I expect to ask him to get another one closer to the if our interview does end up being in February or later? If it makes any difference, he has been working at this place for over 10 years and the letter explains this and is very detailed. His bos actually came to America on a K-1 visa so he made sure it had everything it needed to!

Personal experience here needing a co-sponsor: the letter does not need to be of any great detail, my sister's employer gave a letter of approx. two sentences stating length of employment, job description, and salary. They'll only want info from your dad, and his employer letter should be fine. My sister was a little too proactive and had one dated the month we sent off the original petition lol, we scrapped that in favor of one to a closer date obviously, but one with a date a few months out isn't a problem.

You'll be just fine.

[mollenne 11]

My experience (though our consulate was in Jerusalem), was that we were prepared with Affidavits of Support from each of my banks (account transcripts from each of my banks showing when the account was opened, how much was deposited within a year, how much is currently in it). This is great proof because not only does it show what's in your accounts, it is proof that you have consistently kept money in there (not good proof if someone just lent you $10,000 - for example - just to make your accounts look good on paper).

One bank knew exactly what this was and it took them a few business days to complete and email it to me. The other bank I had to talk to customer support and tell them what I needed exactly for the document to say and it took them nearly a week to return to me (since it was a custom document). Neither cost me anything to obtain, the banks provided this as a customer service to me.

Those were dated from August (when we received our NOA2) and the interview was on November 4 (approved!). I also gave my fiance copies of my paystubs (which we get through an online portal at my work) from the past year and a half. I did not give him every single pay stub, but just about 6-7 throughout the months to show consistency, included the absolute most recent one.

If you have any investments (a college fund, bonds, trust money - anything) be sure to also claim that on your I-134 and supply the statement information.

Since paystubs don't necessarily have a signature on them, why not scan it and email it to your fiance if you're not together physically, rather than mailing it through post? Most likely the Consulate will only want to see copies anyway.

[yuna628 9,676]

Mollenne, every consulate is different. Since this consulate is London specific, they only require the individual to have certain things. If using a co-sponsor, they only want to see info from the co-sponsor, and *only* the relevant information that will be used on the I-134 (such as salary) is needed.