Question about Foreign Income & Assets for AOS (I-864)

[NRobinson 2]

Hey everyone, 

 

I'm currently preparing the i-864 form for AOS (Spouse Visa). A little background: My husband is the sponsor (US Citizen), he is currently unemployed. I am the Intending Immigrant (Singapore Citizen), so we will be using my foreign income and assets for the AOS.

 

I have a couple of questions:

 

1. I am a self-employed online content creator. My work is internet-based, and my income is from advertisement revenue from Google and Facebook. After I moved to the US, I will be continuing my work online, so my income will continue from the same source. My income also meets the income requirement (approx 2x $21,550). Can I use my income in this case?

 

2. I have savings in my Singapore bank account, which is comfortably over 5x the requirement for assets (5x $21,550 for 2 people). Does my savings need to be transferred to a US bank account or can it remain in my Singapore bank account for the AOS? I would prefer my savings to remain in my bank account for now as the interest rate is pretty good. Of course, when I move to the US, I will be transferring some of my money over to my US bank account for living expenses, which can be easily done through internet banking.

 

 

Thank you!

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by NRobinson

[Hilde 381]

3 hours ago, NRobinson said:

Hey everyone, 

 

I'm currently preparing the i-864 form for AOS (Spouse Visa). A little background: My husband is the sponsor (US Citizen), he is currently unemployed. I am the Intending Immigrant (Singapore Citizen), so we will be using my foreign income and assets for the AOS.

 

I have a couple of questions:

 

1. I am a self-employed online content creator. My work is internet-based, and my income is from advertisement revenue from Google and Facebook. After I moved to the US, I will be continuing my work online, so my income will continue from the same source. My income also meets the income requirement (approx 2x $21,550). Can I use my income in this case?

 

2. I have savings in my Singapore bank account, which is comfortably over 5x the requirement for assets (5x $21,550 for 2 people). Does my savings need to be transferred to a US bank account or can it remain in my Singapore bank account for the AOS? I would prefer my savings to remain in my bank account for now as the interest rate is pretty good. Of course, when I move to the US, I will be transferring some of my money over to my US bank account for living expenses, which can be easily done through internet banking.

 

 

Thank you!

 

I am not sure that foreign based income and assets counts. It sounds ridiculous, but let me tell you about my personal experience:

 

I am petitioning for my husband to obtain his greencard via our marriage. I live abroad but have property in the US and ample savings in a foreign bank. Upon review of my application, they still requested a Joint Sponsor. 

 

We differ in that my work will not continue in the USA. 

 

As far as transfering your income... I have read here that this is frowned upon. This is because it can be easily transfered back to another account once the process is over. So what they look for is consistensy - if this money had been in a US based account for many years (and you could prove that), this would be less of an issue.

 

I am curious as to what others, with more experience, have to say here. Good luck to us!

 

 

[Chancy 6,239]

On 1/4/2021 at 10:03 PM, NRobinson said:

I am the Intending Immigrant (Singapore Citizen), so we will be using my foreign income and assets for the AOS.

 

My VJ search turned up no results for any report of the US embassy in Singapore ever allowing use of only the beneficiary's income/assets for the I-864 for spouse visa.  I recommend you and your spouse look for a qualified joint sponsor.

 

[pushbrk 12,638]

6 hours ago, Chancy said:

 

My VJ search turned up no results for any report of the US embassy in Singapore ever allowing use of only the beneficiary's income/assets for the I-864 for spouse visa.  I recommend you and your spouse look for a qualified joint sponsor.

 

That's an interesting take on that, but did you find evidence they WON'T accept the immigrant's income that will continue from the same source?  In this case, the immigrant qualifies on assets alone.  Frankly I see no problem with this scenario at all.  Consular Officers follow the Foreign Affairs Manual in evaluating affidavits of support.  Current policies allow for just the kind of scenario the OP describes.  

 

It would be good to explain in a signed letter, just how and why the foreign spouse's income will continue from the same source once in the USA.  Document this as well as possible too.

 

[pushbrk 12,638]

On 1/4/2021 at 11:53 AM, Hilde said:

I am not sure that foreign based income and assets counts. It sounds ridiculous, but let me tell you about my personal experience:

 

I am petitioning for my husband to obtain his greencard via our marriage. I live abroad but have property in the US and ample savings in a foreign bank. Upon review of my application, they still requested a Joint Sponsor. 

 

We differ in that my work will not continue in the USA. 

 

As far as transfering your income... I have read here that this is frowned upon. This is because it can be easily transfered back to another account once the process is over. So what they look for is consistensy - if this money had been in a US based account for many years (and you could prove that), this would be less of an issue.

 

I am curious as to what others, with more experience, have to say here. Good luck to us!

 

 

I'm sorry but your post seems to confuse some terms and perhaps you misinterpreted a blanket notice from NVC.

 

When you say "They requested a joint sponsor." do you mean they suggested it by saying it was one possible solution?  Did you read words indicating the Consular Officer will make the decision...?  If so, then they (NVC) absolutely did NOT request any such thing.

 

You talk about transferring income being frowned upon.  You seem to be talking about transferring funds or assets, not income.  No, it is NOT frowned upon. It's what people DO when they move to another country permanently.  Where recent transfers are a problem is when somebody else's money is transferred to the petitioner or applicant's account.

 

In my experience, the OP should be fine adding their income and assets to the Petitioner's I-864.

[darth vader 133]

10 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

I'm sorry but your post seems to confuse some terms and perhaps you misinterpreted a blanket notice from NVC.

 

When you say "They requested a joint sponsor." do you mean they suggested it by saying it was one possible solution?  Did you read words indicating the Consular Officer will make the decision...?  If so, then they (NVC) absolutely did NOT request any such thing.

 

You talk about transferring income being frowned upon.  You seem to be talking about transferring funds or assets, not income.  No, it is NOT frowned upon. It's what people DO when they move to another country permanently.  Where recent transfers are a problem is when somebody else's money is transferred to the petitioner or applicant's account.

 

In my experience, the OP should be fine adding their income and assets to the Petitioner's I-864.

I have seen a case here on VJ at Montreal consulate where beneficiary and applicant both had Canadian pensions payable to U.S. bank (and a letter from pension providers stating so), and they also had proof of funds. In the end, what CO wanted to see was a domiciled U.S. citizen to be a co-sponsor. So they may not accept it. OP line up a joint sponsor if you want to be sure.

Edited January 7, 2021 by darth vader

[pushbrk 12,638]

1 minute ago, darth vader said:

I have seen a case here on VJ at Montreal consulate where beneficiary and applicant both had Canadian pensions payable to U.S. bank (and a letter from pension providers stating so), and they also had proof of funds. In the end, what CO wanted to see was a domiciled U.S. citizen to be a co-sponsor. So they may not accept it. OP line up a joint sponsor if you want to be sure.

I'm sorry but without the full story, I would not agree with your conclusions.  Also, the OP is coming from Singapore, not Canada.

 

[NRobinson 2]

2 hours ago, pushbrk said:

That's an interesting take on that, but did you find evidence they WON'T accept the immigrant's income that will continue from the same source?  In this case, the immigrant qualifies on assets alone.  Frankly I see no problem with this scenario at all.  Consular Officers follow the Foreign Affairs Manual in evaluating affidavits of support.  Current policies allow for just the kind of scenario the OP describes.  

 

It would be good to explain in a signed letter, just how and why the foreign spouse's income will continue from the same source once in the USA.  Document this as well as possible too.

 

Thank you for your advice! I will be submitting a signed letter to explain  how and why my income will continue from the same source. I will also submit all my revenue payouts from Google and Facebook.

 

As for my savings in my singapore bank account, would that be a problem? I frequently transfer funds over to my spouse's account in the US via Internet banking. Should I show past transfers to show that it's easy for me to transfer money from my singapore bank to the bank in US?

 

Thank you once again for your advice!

 

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by NRobinson

[pushbrk 12,638]

6 hours ago, NRobinson said:

Thank you for your advice! I will be submitting a signed letter to explain  how and why my income will continue from the same source. I will also submit all my revenue payouts from Google and Facebook.

 

As for my savings in my singapore bank account, would that be a problem? I frequently transfer funds over to my spouse's account in the US via Internet banking. Should I show past transfers to show that it's easy for me to transfer money from my singapore bank to the bank in US?

 

Thank you once again for your advice!

 

 

They know how easy it is to transfer money.  The only advantage to transferring money early is that it is already USD.  It doesn't really matter in which first world country your bank is located.

[Hilde 381]

12 hours ago, pushbrk said:

I'm sorry but your post seems to confuse some terms and perhaps you misinterpreted a blanket notice from NVC.

 

When you say "They requested a joint sponsor." do you mean they suggested it by saying it was one possible solution?  Did you read words indicating the Consular Officer will make the decision...?  If so, then they (NVC) absolutely did NOT request any such thing.

 

You talk about transferring income being frowned upon.  You seem to be talking about transferring funds or assets, not income.  No, it is NOT frowned upon. It's what people DO when they move to another country permanently.  Where recent transfers are a problem is when somebody else's money is transferred to the petitioner or applicant's account.

 

In my experience, the OP should be fine adding their income and assets to the Petitioner's I-864.

Thanks for questioning. Let me try to clarify my statements in an effort to be less confusing:

 

You are absolutely right in that they did not “request” a joint sponsor but rather “highly recommend” I get one. I did receive conflicting information from NVC:  I got the blanket note from NVC and called for clarification twice. Both phone attendants said that based on the info I provided, their reviewer did not consider that I have sufficient $$ so they “highly suggested” I get a joint sponsor (over the phone). Maybe their suggestion of getting a joint sponsor is just a suggestion and it won´t be necessary, but at this point I would just like to play safe.

 

Interesting take on transferring funds/assets. Definitely makes sense to me. I had read other folks here saying not to transfer money from abroad into US accounts but maybe they were referring to other people transferring money into petitioner´s or applicant´s account? That would make more sense.

 

Thanks for the feedback

[pushbrk 12,638]

13 hours ago, Hilde said:

Thanks for questioning. Let me try to clarify my statements in an effort to be less confusing:

 

You are absolutely right in that they did not “request” a joint sponsor but rather “highly recommend” I get one. I did receive conflicting information from NVC:  I got the blanket note from NVC and called for clarification twice. Both phone attendants said that based on the info I provided, their reviewer did not consider that I have sufficient $$ so they “highly suggested” I get a joint sponsor (over the phone). Maybe their suggestion of getting a joint sponsor is just a suggestion and it won´t be necessary, but at this point I would just like to play safe.

 

Interesting take on transferring funds/assets. Definitely makes sense to me. I had read other folks here saying not to transfer money from abroad into US accounts but maybe they were referring to other people transferring money into petitioner´s or applicant´s account? That would make more sense.

 

Thanks for the feedback

Context tends to be very important here.  

[uncle_chai 3]

Hi @NRobinson would you be able to share the outcome of your I-864 filing? In a similar situation and would appreciate your insights.

[powerpuff 6,485]

Zombie thread closed for comment. OP hasn’t been back in over 2 years.

 

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