I-134A home assessment vs. appraisal?

[K-9 Visa 11]

I'm filling out I-134A. Under evidence of assets it asks for "a recent appraisal by a licensed appraiser" of my home. Can I use the county tax assessment instead? The assessment is free and on the county website. An appraisal takes weeks and costs hundreds of dollars. 

[Sam Burns 157]

Do you have to list all assets though if you have a full time job that more than covers the requirement?

[K-9 Visa 11]

38 minutes ago, Sam Burns said:

Do you have to list all assets though if you have a full time job that more than covers the requirement?

Well that's a good question. 🙂 

 

I'm self-employed so I don't have a salary and my taxes are complicated. The house is 90% of my wealth so I want to list it. You can attach notes to questions so I attached this note to the assessment:

 

Quote

I attached the county's assessment of my home instead of an appraisal. Can the USCIS change Form I-134A to allow either an appraisal or an assessment? Both are valid legal documents with the same information. Appraisals take weeks and cost hundreds of dollars. Assessments are free to download from county websites. Please let me know if the attached assessment isn't acceptable and I will hire an appraiser.

 

This is after another note suggesting that the bank statement listing deposits be changed to "deposits minus transfers between accounts." I provided both. The former is bad accounting practices, it's how Enron got in trouble.

 

[Chancy 6,243]

*** Moved from K1 Progress Reports to the Carribean regional forum -- topic is about the I-134A for the process for Cubans as part of the CHNV program ***

 

[wazzujoel 76]

I am not an expert on self-employment immigration cases, however with this process you still need to submit your tax transcripts. Even if you are self-employed you are still filing taxes on the money you earn from being self-employed. Is this income you generate below the poverty line for sponsoring? Personally, I subscribe to the KISS philosophy of life (Keep It Simple Stupid), and try not to make my applications unnecessarily complicated if they don't need to be. 

[Kyleandandrea 16]

22 hours ago, wazzujoel said:

I am not an expert on self-employment immigration cases, however with this process you still need to submit your tax transcripts. Even if you are self-employed you are still filing taxes on the money you earn from being self-employed. Is this income you generate below the poverty line for sponsoring? Personally, I subscribe to the KISS philosophy of life (Keep It Simple Stupid), and try not to make my applications unnecessarily complicated if they don't need to be. 

I am guessing what he is saying is he is self employed and writes everything off so he basically pays 0 taxes but also shows almost nothing in wages, aka complicated. Just my guess.

[K-9 Visa 11]

2 minutes ago, Kyleandandrea said:

I am guessing what he is saying is he is self employed and writes everything off so he basically pays 0 taxes but also shows almost nothing in wages, aka complicated. Just my guess.

You are so right. Elizabeth Warren says that people who 1) own a business; 2) owns securities; 3) own a house build wealth without paying taxes, while the people who work for salaries and wages pay all the taxes. It's amazing how much the IRS lets me write off. The problem is that in 2020 and 2021 my business lost money so the USCIS could judge me unable to support my lovely fiancee. I'm going to the IRS website now and see if I can print out the last five years of tax data.

 

And I just got a call from a real estate appraiser. He looked at I-134A and said that in his opinion the USCIS should allow tax assessments or appraisals. He said that the county tax assessment is a legal document that shows the value of the home, and that's what the USCIS is looking for. He said that paying $650 and waiting two weeks for an appraisal shouldn't be required. Appraisals are usually more accurate but the USCIS doesn't need accuracy.

[ExtremeLove 0]

On 1/17/2023 at 12:23 PM, K-9 Visa said:

You are so right. Elizabeth Warren says that people who 1) own a business; 2) owns securities; 3) own a house build wealth without paying taxes, while the people who work for salaries and wages pay all the taxes. It's amazing how much the IRS lets me write off. The problem is that in 2020 and 2021 my business lost money so the USCIS could judge me unable to support my lovely fiancee. I'm going to the IRS website now and see if I can print out the last five years of tax data.

 

And I just got a call from a real estate appraiser. He looked at I-134A and said that in his opinion the USCIS should allow tax assessments or appraisals. He said that the county tax assessment is a legal document that shows the value of the home, and that's what the USCIS is looking for. He said that paying $650 and waiting two weeks for an appraisal shouldn't be required. Appraisals are usually more accurate but the USCIS doesn't need accuracy.

I did my k1 with only assets and I used a print out of the tax assessment value showing as much information as possible. Name, address, value. 
Then I got a copy of my bank payoff letter.

The deed. 
With this information I did my own

Appraisal, showing the value of other homes like mine selling in the area, and wrote a small letter of my Assets verses Market value of the one home, to show that I could liquidate the money very easily if needed. 
 

I also sent in my transcripts so they can see what I’m explaining in the letter. 

Bank account statements for the last 6 mths. In case they wanted to see them. 
a bank letter signed by the manager. 

and to top it all off and not take any chances, I included all my other assets just in case they didn’t want me to be homeless. 
 

Sounds silly, but the more you can show that your beneficiary will not need government assistance, the easier it will be for everyone. 
 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2023 by ExtremeLove