Advice/Experience: Whole family living abroad, no U.S. income

[Henry357 70]

11 hours ago, pushbrk said:

You are wrong to use the absolute term "never".  The applicant's income can be considered if it will continue from the same source, such as in an international job transfer.  Not rare at all, when the immigrant is the breadwinner and works abroad for a company that also has employees in the USA.

I have seen this happen a number of times. (Maybe 5) it’s actually very common.

[AJMC 1]

7 hours ago, OrihimeandIchigo said:

Besides the Joint Sponsor. You could apply for jobs before you move out of the country and keep all the emails for record to show the NVC. Also find a relative who will give you a notarized letter of accommodation that says you and your family may live with them free of charge while you find your own place to buy or rent and submit that to NVC. That should help you stay with your family abroad. 

Great Tips, thank you for sharing!!

[AJMC 1]

4 hours ago, fewstee said:

Do you have enough assets to apply with assets in lieu of income? I believe it would be 125% of the poverty guidelines for your family x3 (x5 for any sponsor except for spouse is x3). 

 

Someone said 'better sooner than later' move and get a job but actually I disagree. If you don't have enough assets, or a joint sponsor, and need to get a job, wait until you have I-130 approval which is the longest part of the process and doesn't require any proof of assets/income. Stay in Germany during this time. Then when you need to you can move and complete the NVC/embassy process which is usually much shorter. If you have assets you probably won't need a lot of income, might be able to even fall back on McDonalds or something if you are already halfway there. Not suggesting that but just giving you the sense you have a lot of options. 

 

Your wife doesn't need to be super employable. Does she speak English? Have an education of any kind? To answer your question yes it's still "worth it" as long as your wife comes across as also being able to get a job at Mcdonalds. It's a family visa not a work visa the requirements are not super strict. 

The assets / cash aren't quite at that level, maybe 2x.

 

Thanks for that advice! True the I-130 will take some time as well to process.

Yes she has all that, I guess she will be fine as long as my income is sorted.

 

I will also be trying to get a hold of someone at our consulate who makes these decisions and try to ask them how situations like ours work out.

[AJMC 1]

17 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

Main sponsor is a USC and income abroad should have been reported by filing US tax returns for all the years outside the US / that is one thing needed

If the income will not continue when you come to the US, only thing to do is come now to establish US residency and get a new job

has to be done sooner or later and the sooner the better /spouse visa will take about a year 

Are children USC's? 

Tax situation is being sorted.  I will also try to ask someone at the consulate about the situation.

One child is USC and one is not.

[AJMC 1]

17 hours ago, JFH said:

The petitioner (in this case that’s you) is ALWAYS the sponsor, even if they are unemployed, a student, retired, etc. If you don’t have sufficient US-based income or sufficient assets, then you can use a joint sponsor. They must be able to accommodate all of the immigrating party themselves, there’s no “half and half” between the sponsors. If the joint sponsor is married and his/her spouse also works or has assets they can pool their household resources. But you can’t have the joint sponsor covering part of the requirement and you covering the rest. It’s all or nothing. 
 

The joint sponsor needs to be fully aware of the responsibilities that come with it. They could potentially be sued by the government if your wife or step-son take advantage of public assistance. Since your wife is not planning on working, the joint sponsors responsibility *could* be for the rest of their natural life. The joint sponsor responsibility ends when one of the following happens:

 

- the immigrant can be credited with 40 quarters of employment 

- the immigrant becomes a USC

- the immigrant dies

- the immigrant permanently leaves the country and relinquishes their residency here 

 

 

only one of the above is 100% certain to happen (the immigrant dies). All of the others may or may not ever happen, 

Thanks for the info, I have looked that up already.

[pushbrk 13,187]

7 hours ago, AJMC said:

 

I will also be trying to get a hold of someone at our consulate who makes these decisions and try to ask them how situations like ours work out.

You could try that, but unless you have some connections, I doubt you'll get any useful information.  Even if you do, there are some of us here that can tell you what to expect.  We already have.  Dealing with the public charge issue and affidavit of support tends to be the most difficult/complicated part of the process for many people.  Yes, you have a special situation.  It requires good planning by you, not special attention from the Consular Immigrant Visa Unit.  The sooner you get your head around that, the better.