Filing I-864: Sponsor wife didn't recent year's file tax returns, joint sponsor did

[rivfader 0]

Hi guys!

Thanks for reading. Here's my situation: I am an immigrant and my wife filed an I-130 for me, along with all the necessary forms. We did not file the I-864 for her, because she did not meet the requirements; however we did file a joint sponsor I-864 and included his 3 recent tax returns files. We got an RFE (of course) for not filing the I-864 for my wife. At the moment, my wife has filled out her I-864, but she didn't include 2015's tax returns because she was a student and did not work. So her income was 0. She did file taxes for 2014, 2013 and she is able to include those.

Here's my question: part (18a) of the I-864 says: "Have you filed the Federal income tax return for each of the three most recent years?" answer is "No" since my wife had filed only 2013,2014 but not 2015. Then it says "NOTE: You MUST attach a photocopy of the transcript of your Federal income tax return for only the most recent tax year." So from that we infer that my wife does not have to go back and file the tax returns for 2015, right? Moreover, our joint sponsor did supply his most recent tax returns from 2015,2014,2013.

Any thoughts guys?

Thank you!

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

Your wife should supply a short statement as to why there is no 2015 tax return. Something like

To whom it may concern. My name is X, I am the petitioner and primary sponsor for my husband, (your name). I did not file taxes for the 2015 tax year, as I was a full time student all year. I did not work at all, and made no taxable income. Thus, as per IRS policy, I was not required to file a tax return for the 2015 tax year

[rivfader 0]

Your wife should supply a short statement as to why there is no 2015 tax return. Something like

To whom it may concern. My name is X, I am the petitioner and primary sponsor for my husband, (your name). I did not file taxes for the 2015 tax year, as I was a full time student all year. I did not work at all, and made no taxable income. Thus, as per IRS policy, I was not required to file a tax return for the 2015 tax year

Thank you so much, this is very helpful!

Should my wife add her 2013,2014 tax transcripts though?

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

I would, yes.

[KayDeeCee 4,896]

As stated in the instructions, if you did not file a return for any of the last 3 years, you must include a statement explaining why you were not required to file any of the years you did not. You are using a joint sponsor, so it doesn't matter if you include her previous tax transcripts showing past income. She has no current anyway, and they will be approving based on the joint sponsor. You can if you wish though.

~ Moved from AOS from Family Based Visas to AOS from Work, Student & Tourist Visas -AOS not from K visa(filed I-130) ~