Reporting $0.00 Income on I-864

[Villanelle 4,122]

@Nelly_M Check your spam folder, VJ notifications can end up there. If they are not you can try to troubleshoot the issue yourself by unsubscribing and resubscribing to various threads as well as checking the email you entered is correct. Lastly you can post in the site discussion/issues thread what your problem is and Capt Ewok can maybe look on VJs end to see if theres a glitch or offer you a solution to fix it. 

 

Tax transcripts can take a while to appear in the IRS system. Theres no way to get IRS to enter you into the transcript system sooner, you would just have to wait. But you dont need to wait for the transcripts for this- you can send the tax return +supporting documents. As I said just make sure you submit the actual 1040 + all the supporting documents. That means all IRS forms, schedules, worksheets. 1099s and any other numbered or lettered form like that (heres a wiki link that lists out forms and schedules you can look through-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_tax_forms ) if theres something in the file not on the link most likely its not IRS paperwork and is the tax preparers creation or the tax payers.  You can ask for the sponsors help with this as its their tax return and they should be familiar with its contents. Just explain to them you need to shrink down the file size a bit to upload it and USCIS is only interested in the actual tax return +supporting documents- not the records they generated on their own and gave to the tax preparer, nor any worksheets they filled out for the tax preparer. Any information they gave to the tax preparer the preparer would transfer on to the IRS forms. The IRS does not want your self generated records. You generate records yourself through out the year and then when you file you transfer all your information on to the actual IRS forms. Your tax preparer will tell you to keep your records with your IRS filing records as if you are ever audited you will need to show where you came up with those numbers to the IRS. But USCIS is not auditing you. They just want to see what you are sending them is what you actually sent to IRS so you need to send them all the supporting documents so they can add it up and make sure its all legit. 

 

Please keep us posted as to the outcome and if you still are having trouble shrinking/uploading it. 

[Nelly_M 7]

@David Borgeson and @Villanelle thank you both so much for sharing your experience and knowledge on this issue. This thread has been very helpful for me. 
 

I checked my spam folder, and there is nothing there. However, I did realize this morning that I haven’t been following this thread, which might be the reason why I wasn’t receiving any notifications, so now that I hit the follow button, that should resolve the problem (I hope). 
 

I will keep you posted how everything goes. Thank you again. 

[Nelly_M 7]

When it comes to interview, I understand that the applicant needs to have original civil documents which makes sense, but what about AOS? Reading their instructions in ceac, it sounds like the applicant should also have original AOS, is this true or not? Obviously, the petitioner and joint sponsor both reside in US, so how can the applicant have the original AOS unless we mail it to them? 

[David Borgeson 5]

3 hours ago, Nelly_M said:

When it comes to interview, I understand that the applicant needs to have original civil documents which makes sense, but what about AOS? Reading their instructions in ceac, it sounds like the applicant should also have original AOS, is this true or not? Obviously, the petitioner and joint sponsor both reside in US, so how can the applicant have the original AOS unless we mail it to them? 

I read somewhere, I think elsewhere on this forum, that documents like bank account statements, i-864 and taxes from your Joint Sponsor who lives in another country, and other documents like these that are in another country are not expected to be mailed from country to country for the interview. You should bring printouts of the pdfs/jpgs of any non-original documents you uploaded as part of AOS, but originals are required only for documents in your reasonable possession like passports, your original i-864 etc.

[Nelly_M 7]

14 hours ago, David Borgeson said:

I read somewhere, I think elsewhere on this forum, that documents like bank account statements, i-864 and taxes from your Joint Sponsor who lives in another country, and other documents like these that are in another country are not expected to be mailed from country to country for the interview. You should bring printouts of the pdfs/jpgs of any non-original documents you uploaded as part of AOS, but originals are required only for documents in your reasonable possession like passports, your original i-864 etc.

That makes sense. Thanks David. 

[David Borgeson 5]

Good news to report - we got our interview at the Embassy in Tokyo and passed everything successfully. My wife now has her temporary I-551 stamp in her passport and we will be traveling to immigrate to the US in about two weeks.

 

About our experience with the Embassy portion of this process: for better or for worse, the day at the Embassy was quick and painless.

 

For better, obviously because it was quick and painless (and successful!).

 

But for the purposes of this forum and for helping others, we did not get a chance to talk with any officers in any detail nor get any feedback of any kind about the effect our several decisions (e.g. to claim 0.00 in income; to claim personal assets that were close but didn't quite satisfy the financial requirements; the inclusion of our joint sponsor's wife as a household member; perhaps others that I can't think of right now) had on the outcome. My wife's interview lasted about 90 seconds, and contained a total of two questions, which were "How long have you been married?" and "Do you have any questions?".

 

My big takeaway from our experience here is that whatever we did worked, though I don't know exactly why, and that our thoroughness and honestly throughout the process, as well as of course our relatively straightforward situation (IR1 visa with no issues), made the final day at the Embassy quick and smooth.

 

This has been our experience and everyone's situation will be different, and unfortunately I did not get clarity I was hoping for, so I don't think anyone should take this as a blanket endorsement of our decisions or assume what worked for us will necessary work in your situation.

 

Best wishes to you all!