Dreaded I-864 tax RFE - Need advice

[diyeverything 0]

Hi VJ'ers,

 

So we got an RFE for our I-864, apparently my wife (USC) did not meet the poverty guideline blah blah blah standard  message. 

The problem really is, I think, she did not file for tax in the 2017 tax year because we were living together in South Africa and she was earning no income whatsoever. We moved back to the US in April and she took a job as an RN, her salary is way more than the required figure. I think the IO probably didn't examine our letter explaining why she didn't file that year and just saw the 2017 box as blank and immediately sent out the RFE. We also provided a letter of employment and 6 of the most recent pay stubs to substantiate our annual household income for 2018. Further we submitted  her 2016 and 2015 income tax copies along with W-2s etc, which were all comfortably over the guideline requirement. 

 

Anyway, I don't think it worth trying to fight USCIS we would rather just add her mother as a joint sponsor and avoid our application potentially being denied as suggested in the RFE.  So I have a few questions on how to go about this:

 

Her mother (a nurse) earns roughly 64k, she files jointly with her husband (my wife's father) but he is retired and only earns about 6K in taxable SS benefits and another 3k in dividends and interest as stated on his schedule B.

So should I do a I-864A form for him just because they are married and file together, or would you only do I-864 for the joint sponsor since her income is sufficient and she has W2's for 2017,16,15 to prove it? Bear in mind her household income will show less than the 1040 line 22 figure since her husband files some income too.

 

Also do you suggest my wife sends in her I-864 again along with the joint sponsor I-864 and potential household member I-864A. Since originally filing we have moved to the West coast and she has taken on new employment with even better pay, we have already updated our new address with USCIS, but since we just moved she hasn't received any pay stubs as of yet. I am sure she could get HR to write something up for her, but wondering if its necessary to send anything at all concerning her because we are relying on her mother, the joint sponsor?

 

Thank you for reading, appreciate any insights on how to proceed.

 

 

[Sarah&Facundo 595]

As a USC, you are required to file taxes no matter where in the world you are living. You may not owe, but you absolutely must file.

[diyeverything 0]

2 minutes ago, Sarah&Facundo said:

As a USC, you are required to file taxes no matter where in the world you are living. You may not owe, but you absolutely must file.

Okay thanks, we will look into sorting that out, did not know, I am sure there is some late filing penalty or something. How does this affect our application going forward, do we need to sort this out first or can we use the joint sponsor option in the meantime?

 

[Sarah&Facundo 595]

28 minutes ago, diyeverything said:

Okay thanks, we will look into sorting that out, did not know, I am sure there is some late filing penalty or something. How does this affect our application going forward, do we need to sort this out first or can we use the joint sponsor option in the meantime?

 

I do not know 100%, so I do not want to accidentally provide false information. I only know about the filing taxes because I have lived abroad myself and know that can the lack of filing can factor into this process. Hopefully someone else will chime in with better information.

[diyeverything 0]

BTW I told my wife about you must file no matter what rule and she said that it wasn't so according to the IRS website, will have to look into it some more, but I bet if she had this whole mess wouldn't be happening now.

 

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

[Sarah&Facundo 595]

To my understanding, you must always file as a USC. If you are outside the country more than 330 days in a year, you may not have to pay anything if you make under a certain amount, which I believe is something like $90k. 

[diyeverything 0]

Thanks Sarah&Facundo, I guess for now I would like to focus on the joint sponsor part of my question, any advice anyone?