Foreign Assets

[Siam Sam 6]

More good info and advice above, and I thank you. We've about decided now to sell and be done with it. We've located some appraisers and will get one done soon. We filed last week and so still have a little time. Fortunately, we own outright and have no loans on anything.

[Siam Sam 6]

I had the same problem about getting my house appraised and went to the land office. The appraised price they give is far below what the house can be sold for. In my case, at least half. Bare land was appraised at about 1/8th of the local selling price. This next piece of info is not to get your hopes up. But someone I know put over $50,000 that he borrowed into his US bank account in one deposit. Maybe the interviewers slipped up and didn't notice it but it was excepted as an asset.

This was in Bangkok

Geez, you weren't kidding. My wife went to the Land Office, and the appraisal they gave was just that, half what it's worth. We've learned that, as per their name, they're just giving the value of the land. The figure they gave is supposedly our share of the land the condo building is standing on. So a professional appraiser will be needed for the unit itself.

[Siam Sam 6]

Not all embassies seem to accept assets in the foreign spouse's name, so maybe check in the Thailand specific forum. Also, some embassies want the foreign spouse to fill out an i-864a (even though the instructions says this shouldn't be done), whereas other embassies doesn't.

This is what happened at my wife's interview today here in Bangkok. She was told she had to fill out the I-864A. And you're right, the instructions say if it's a spouse, then it can be included in the I-864. But the interviewer did not accept that.

Nope, if the assets are for a spouse then the ratio is 3:1 regardless of whether the assets are in the US or abroad. The key is also that any assets must be easily converted into cash within I believe a year, should it be needed. So you should be able to use the property in your wife's name and you don't have to sell it unless you need the money to live on once you're in the US.

Correct. The 3:1 ratio was used today for our assets in Bangkok. They would have been accepted had they accepted the I-864 like they should have. But now we have to fill out an I-864A for the wife. But there's some other stuff needed too -- such as reestablishing my domicile -- so it's not the biggest thing holding us up.

Edited April 7, 2016 by Siam Sam

[Siam Sam 6]

This is what happened at my wife's interview today here in Bangkok. She was told she had to fill out the I-864A. And you're right, the instructions say if it's a spouse, then it can be included in the I-864. But the interviewer did not accept that.

I sent a message to the Bangkok IV Unit yesterday querying this and received a response today saying yes, we do have to fill out the I-864a. So obviously it's true some embassies will require this despite what the instructions say. Be sure to find out if a particular one is going to insist on that.