Evidence of Child Support

[Noi3125 1]

We are ready to file our N-400 except one supporting evidence:

If you have a dependent spouse or child(ren) who do not live with you, send:

• Any court or government order to provide financial support; and
• Evidence of your financial support (including evidence that you have complied with any court or government order)

I am curious how people have shown evidence of child support to children living outside the US. We send money via moneygram about every 2-3 months but there is no specific court requirement and I don't know how to show that the money is going for child support. It says dependent children do we just consider the child not a dependent (we do not claim him on taxes)?

THANKS

[Ortolan 381]

I had the same question! We don't claim the child on our taxes either (can't, as he doesn't live in the U.S.). So what to do for this question? Later in the instructions it says you can get a statement from the custodial parent/guardian or something stating you comply with child support, but will that do it?

[JimmyHou 611]

See item K on this list:

https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartF-Chapter5.html

They want this information as part of the Good Moral Character requirement for naturalization.

The term "dependent" here means a child you are expected to support; it has nothing to do with the tax code definition of who you may claim as a dependent.

They want you to disclose any such responsibility and show that you are meeting it. If it is court ordered, they'll want to see a copy of the court order. A letter from the parent or relative who has custody and proof of transfer of fund should be sufficient.

Edited March 21, 2016 by JimmyHou

[Ortolan 381]

@JimmyHou Thank you! That's what we'll do (the letter from the custodial parent). In this case there is no court-order, just an agreement with which we comply fully, so that will have to suffice.

[Noi3125 1]

Thank you so much for the replies. I ended up sending in the application with a record of our bank statement showing that I sent money online (although there is nothing on the bank record that states who or what the money is sent to) also in the last 5 years we have made 8 trips there and each trip we give a lot of support in cash which I have no paper trail for. Wish I would have seen that this was a requirement we were just in my stepchild's country literally returned 3 days ago. We will work on getting a letter from my stepson's mother - I presume this will lead to a RFE (hopefully it wasn't a bad decision to send the application without it).

Thanks again for your help and for the reference to the policy. I hadn't seen that manual yet it is very interesting.

[Nancy r 3]

On 3/22/2016 at 7:53 AM, Ortolan said:

@JimmyHou Thank you! That's what we'll do (the letter from the custodial parent). In this case there is no court-order, just an agreement with which we comply fully, so that will have to suffice.

hello I am in the same situation as you were, I sent money through Ria Money transfer, does this letter need to be notarized before the embassy or consulate? I hope you can help me

[Ontarkie 14,225]

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