Potential problems for me?

[JFH 12,190]

8 hours ago, Gaiden79 said:

So even if i have a sponsor i am required to have filed taxes? 

Immigration and IRS are two separate issues here. Every USC anywhere in the world who earns above $6350 a year must file taxes. Even if you don’t have to pay any, you must still file unless your income is below that threshold. If you were below that amount (and it’s likely you were if you were overseas and not working), you must include a statement confirming that you were not required to file. 

[hm139 55]

You don't have to notarize the statement that you were not required to file. I guess you might have to be prepared for a question on how you supported yourself during that time, though -- i.e. you were a student on student loans, your spouse supported you, etc.

 

My "new" income will be about a year's worth by the time my husband gets to his interview, but my "really good" new income (got a nice promotion) will be about eight months' worth and my contract is only until the end of 2019. I wasn't sure if that would look good enough to the CO so that's why I provided a joint sponsor. Not a whole ton of info out there on our embassy so I just wanted to play it safe.

[kris&me 572]

11 hours ago, debbiedoo said:

you need to file taxes even if you have no income to file. so do that.

 

as far as child support goes .... yeah you need to get that sorted out and caught up or on a court approved payment plan. Seems sketchy to me you can come up with the thousands necessary to bring a new bride to the US, but not support your kids. just my 2 cents. As far as the technicalities of child support and immigration go, im not sure how arrears are dealt with, but they will be counted as dependents for your financials even if you do not have custody (reason being if their mom died, they would come to live with you if they are minors). So your income will have to take that into account.

the exclusion for income for outside the US is high so you may not owe anything

The U.S. government has increased the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion for 2017to $102,100, up from $101,300 in 2016. ... The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion for 2017 is the amount of salary or business income you can exclude from your United States taxes while living abroad.Nov 1, 2016

 

however, u need to make arrangements to pay child support especially if there is a court order

unpaid support (if she appeared before juvenile court while u were absent) can show up on the initial stage when the USCIS does your background check

 

and you know California is all about the former wife and children 

Edited September 23, 2018 by kris&me

[carmel34 3,639]

1 minute ago, kris&me said:

 

however, u need to make arrangements to pay child support especially if there is a court order

unpaid support (if she appeared before juvenile court while u were absent) can show up on the initial stage when the USCIS does your background check

The child support issue may also come up at any stage of the CR-1 process, because it will be stated on the divorce decree, which has to be submitted with the initial I-130 petition package.

[WandY 430]

Under California law, your passport can be seized and your driver's license suspended if you owe more than $2,500 in back child support. Not sure if  you can be jailed, but in many states you can. It's not going to look good that you don't have assets, no job (yet), and owe child support. You need to get the child support issue on track - especially in California.

[pushbrk 12,969]

13 hours ago, Gaiden79 said:

Hello, 

 

I recently got back from a 2 year stay in the Philippines, now back to California.

 

While living in the Philippines I was unable to pay all the child support and now owe arrears.

 

My question would be, will owing a lot of child support cause problems with my petition? 

 

 

The answer to your question is "probably not" unless your income is low and you don't catch up on your child support substantially before the visa interview.

 

HOWEVER, you will probably find that your passport is already suspended and will stay unusable for international travel until your child support is entirely caught up.  Assuming you want to see your new wife again anytime soon, paying your child support is going to need to be job one.  How long it's going to take you to catch up, may well determine when it will be practical for you to file a petition for your current spouse.

[Gaiden79 14]

9 hours ago, kris&me said:

the exclusion for income for outside the US is high so you may not owe anything

The U.S. government has increased the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion for 2017to $102,100, up from $101,300 in 2016. ... The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion for 2017 is the amount of salary or business income you can exclude from your United States taxes while living abroad.Nov 1, 2016

 

however, u need to make arrangements to pay child support especially if there is a court order

unpaid support (if she appeared before juvenile court while u were absent) can show up on the initial stage when the USCIS does your background check

 

and you know California is all about the former wife and children 

Yeah that might be a problem if it shows up on background check. Thank you. 

[pushbrk 12,969]

17 minutes ago, Gaiden79 said:

Yeah that might be a problem if it shows up on background check. Thank you. 

As I said, I think you will find that your passport is no longer usable and will not be until your child support arrears are entirely erased.

[JFH 12,190]

Moral of the story - get up to date with your financial obligations to wife number 1 before starting anything for wife number 2. 

[Gaiden79 14]

3 hours ago, pushbrk said:

As I said, I think you will find that your passport is no longer usable and will not be until your child support arrears are entirely erased.

You mean that i cannot renew or apply for new one? How would they stop me from using my current one? 

[Boiler 45,657]

I know it is done in Colorado, how it is done I do not know. State notifies the Feds presumably.

[Orangesapples 1,954]

1 hour ago, Gaiden79 said:

 

Won't USCIS look very unfavorably to the fact that this grown man abandoned his kids from a previous marriage to go live abroad and didn't make any effort to help with their expenses? Did OP even stay in contact with his kids or did he completely forget about them? Did he at least call on their birthdays? If I were a CO I would be very wary of letting this man bring in another wife and have more children with her and then abandon them, too, if things don't work out again. 

[debbiedoo 2,339]

15 minutes ago, Orangesapples said:

Won't USCIS look very unfavorably to the fact that this grown man abandoned his kids from a previous marriage to go live abroad and didn't make any effort to help with their expenses? Did OP even stay in contact with his kids or did he completely forget about them? Did he at least call on their birthdays? If I were a CO I would be very wary of letting this man bring in another wife and have more children with her and then abandon them, too, if things don't work out again. 

im not sure that that's how it works, but, imo, thats how it SHOULD work...

 

1 hour ago, Gaiden79 said:

You mean that i cannot renew or apply for new one? How would they stop me from using my current one? 

They will block your passport if you are in arrears, which will prevent international travel. If you can afford to travel, you can afford your child support....

 

1 hour ago, JFH said:

Moral of the story - get up to date with your financial obligations to wife number 1 before starting anything for wife number 2. 

<< all of this >>

[JFH 12,190]

35 minutes ago, Orangesapples said:

Won't USCIS look very unfavorably to the fact that this grown man abandoned his kids from a previous marriage to go live abroad and didn't make any effort to help with their expenses? Did OP even stay in contact with his kids or did he completely forget about them? Did he at least call on their birthdays? If I were a CO I would be very wary of letting this man bring in another wife and have more children with her and then abandon them, too, if things don't work out again. 

No, USCIS is concerned only with the legal eligibility requirements for the petition. They are specifically instructed not to base their judgement on the “track record” of either party in terms of marital beaks-ups or whether they think the couple are a good match and whether they think the relationship will last. 

 

The past actions of the petitioner during his first marriage are irrelevant unless anything illegal happened (domestic violence, immigration fraud, etc). The CO at the interview cannot base his decision on whether to grant or refuse a visa on the marital problems of the petitioner’ first marriage. 

 

That said, the beneficiary should know all about the first marriage. 

Edited September 23, 2018 by JFH

[Orangesapples 1,954]

1 hour ago, JFH said:

No, USCIS is concerned only with the legal eligibility requirements for the petition. They are specifically instructed not to base their judgement on the “track record” of either party in terms of marital beaks-ups or whether they think the couple are a good match and whether they think the relationship will last. 

 

The past actions of the petitioner during his first marriage are irrelevant unless anything illegal happened (domestic violence, immigration fraud, etc). The CO at the interview cannot base his decision on whether to grant or refuse a visa on the marital problems of the petitioner’ first marriage. 

 

That said, the beneficiary should know all about the first marriage. 

It's not his past actions though, it's his current actions of not taking care of his minor children and letting them rely on a single income. It's his current obligations that he's avoiding. Why would he even consider international travel if he owes money to his children? A ticket to the Philippines is quite expensive, if he can pay for it he should pay for his kids to eat.