I-134f Graduate Student Financial Support Question

[nlafarge 10]

Hi All,

 

I have a bit of an atypical situation for the i-134f and I was hoping to get some advice here for proving financial support. I am a graduate student pursuing a PhD. Last year I made above the 125% mark, however the income is from different sources and I don't have one steady job I can point to. In particular, here is my particular sources of income:

 

• Co-op at a government agency: You can think of this like an internship that reoccurs whenever I so-please. I did this Fall 2018 and am currently doing this until August. This pays well above the guidelines, however I don't work here all year (about $55k/year if I were to work all year). Usually people do 10-12 weeks/year of this.
• Teaching Assistant: I did this during this past Spring 2019 term. Pay wasn't great (about $1000/month), but it remitted tuition, so I didn't have to pay tuition this Spring. I will not be doing this in the future (see fellowship information below).
• Grader: I was a grader during Spring 2018 at a rate of $10/hr. This is declared in my income taxes, but I will not be doing this again going forward
• Graduate Student Grant: I received a $5000 grant for graduate students for Spring 2018. Again, this came up in my taxes, but I will not receive this again.

 

Funding going forward:

Then, complicating things further, I just received a government fellowship that will pay like full-time employment for the next 1-4 years (starting in August). This pays about 45k/year and covers health insurance, tuition, and summer employment.

 

 

Given all this, for income, I assume I should just put down whatever I declared in the last tax cycle. For supporting documents, I am less sure. Should I get a letter from the government agency I work for to prove both my current position over the summer, as well as another supporting document for the fellowship beginning in the fall? If these put me on shaky ground, I own my own house, so I can always use that as well.

 

Any input would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

[Pitaya 2,577]

The I-134 is a walk in the park in comparison to the I-864 that you will encounter later on in the process.  Basically follow the instructions, don't overthink stuff, provide your tax transcripts, fill in the blanks as necessary. They primarily are looking for past records as a likely predictor of future results. If you make over the mark, you are good to go.

 

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript

 

Good luck on your immigration journey.