Income Requirements not met?

[Cathi 5,747]

Why on Earth did she quit her job to move there? I get that you want her to experience your country and culture, but doing it in the midst of you immigrating to the U.S was not the best move. Obviously neither of you has done much research into just how expensive the K-1 process is. It would be best if your fiancé joined VJ as the U.S citizen and sponsor.

[Seino 2]

10 hours ago, beloved_dingo said:

This is correct. @Seino you and your fiancée need to make sure you calculate the household size correctly, as step one, so you know how much income is needed to satisfy the requirements. There's a huge difference between what is required for a household of 5 vs. a household of 2. 

 

You can delay things a bit, if needed, at this stage. We did that with our K-1 because my partner was visiting me in the U.S. when we received "Packet 3". See my timeline below. We waited until the day he was flying home to send Packet 3 back (2 months later), which helped with the timing of everything. Now this was Australia and all consulates are a little different, but I've heard it's possible to delay this way pretty consistently across the board. 

 

If I were her, I would go ahead and reach out to her old employer to get the ball rolling there. Considering she is a former employee in good standing, she made be able to get "rehired" and get a start date before she even leaves the UK. Then fly back to the U.S. to restart her job and start getting paystubs.

 

You can also use a joint sponsor, as previously noted. I would still encourage her to pursue getting her job back, and use a joint sponsor as a Plan B. 

Absolutely, so this was pretty much the plan. We were expecting to have about 6 more months based on the timeframe we were quoted and so we weren't exactly ready when the approval arrived. I was wondering if you could help with delaying though; do you have any idea how long i can delay? And how I might go about doing so?
We got our approval and my fiancee has received a letter in the mail. From what I've read; I now have to wait on a letter from the Embassy in the UK, before I can book an interview and medical, is that right?
Can anyone tell me the window we have to do these things and what our best option to delay it is?

She's already looking at getting her job back and we're both fully prepared to get back to it, we just aren't quite sure how long we have 😅

Also, thank you so much for the advice and being constructive; there appears to be a lot of people who'd rather just take the opportunity to point out how incredibly stupid and unprepared we are and I really appreciate your help and understanding. A lot of negativity surrounding this almost made us give up on the whole thing and just cancel our application. 

 

13 hours ago, Redro said:

How many people does your partner include when they file taxes?

Or are they a dependent on someone else's taxes? 

Household members if they file taxes separately do not need to be counted in the affidavit of support. 

 

In other advice, I would have your partner move back to the US ASAP and get a job. 

If you do not have substantial savings how are you going to afford the move to the US (plane ticket, maybe a second car or paying for uber to get around (if you cant drive), living expenses and adjustment of status packet)?

 

My partner actually only files for herself, so this is incredibly good news, and very helpful, thank you. We had come across so much information essentially stating that my fiancee would need to earn enough to support a household of 5; which is an especially daunting undertaking.

Otherwise she is booked to go back to the US as soon as possible, and she's already in contact and making sure there'll be employment waiting for her. Hopefully we can delay for long enough that her current income will be enough to cover the, now much more manageable amount.

Thank you again for your help.

 

Plane tickets are affordable enough and with our timeframe we'll be alright. My partner owns a car and is living in an owned house, with her working and earning as she has been, along with my savings and living with family, I am fairly confident we'll get by. Though being unemployed for a year does sound terrifying for me personally 😅

[Redro 4,611]

12 hours ago, Seino said:

Absolutely, so this was pretty much the plan. We were expecting to have about 6 more months based on the timeframe we were quoted and so we weren't exactly ready when the approval arrived. I was wondering if you could help with delaying though; do you have any idea how long i can delay? And how I might go about doing so?
We got our approval and my fiancee has received a letter in the mail. From what I've read; I now have to wait on a letter from the Embassy in the UK, before I can book an interview and medical, is that right?
Can anyone tell me the window we have to do these things and what our best option to delay it is?

She's already looking at getting her job back and we're both fully prepared to get back to it, we just aren't quite sure how long we have 😅Check UK timelines here. Generally people are able to make an appointment 4 months after USCIS approval. So, I would think if your partner has one or two paystubs from her job that should be sufficient for the K1 stage. You should really have no issue getting approved at the K1 stage. 

Also, thank you so much for the advice and being constructive; there appears to be a lot of people who'd rather just take the opportunity to point out how incredibly stupid and unprepared we are and I really appreciate your help and understanding. A lot of negativity surrounding this almost made us give up on the whole thing and just cancel our application. Don't give up! This is just a little hiccup. A lot of UK/US couples like to live in each other's countries.... 

 

My partner actually only files for herself, so this is incredibly good news, and very helpful, thank you. We had come across so much information essentially stating that my fiancee would need to earn enough to support a household of 5; which is an especially daunting undertaking.

Otherwise she is booked to go back to the US as soon as possible, and she's already in contact and making sure there'll be employment waiting for her. Hopefully we can delay for long enough that her current income will be enough to cover the, now much more manageable amount.

Thank you again for your help.- If she is hopping on a plane right now and will start work in the next month. You probably won't have to delay anything. 

 

Plane tickets are affordable enough and with our timeframe we'll be alright. My partner owns a car and is living in an owned house, with her working and earning as she has been, along with my savings and living with family, I am fairly confident we'll get by. Though being unemployed for a year does sound terrifying for me personally 😅 That's great to hear! Being unemployed for a year is worst case scenario. Check out this post. The OP applied for adjustment of status December 2021 and only received EAD in February 2023!  But, USCIS seems to be speeding up their processing times and quite a few people are receiving their EADs after a month or two and the green cards before a year is up.This couple applied in February 2023 and received EAD in June! So, just 4 months of waiting...  VJ has a tendency to be extremely negative to prepare people for the worst case scenario. Costs for K! interview will cost $265 for the DS160 and £380 for the medical. Your next step will cost between $1225 - $2820 (depending on when USCIS fees increase). 

I would follow the UK forum to see what people applying for K1 visas are doing and tips for the medical. 

Then after you arrived to the US join the month you filed AOS to see how your peers are doing here.

Good luck! Don't give up and congratulations on your petition approval! This is good news not bad~ 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Redro
Check quoted post for comments

[Redro 4,611]

One more thing: US Embassy UK is one of the easier consulates and they have a great website. 

You can probably send them a message about potentially delaying the process and they should be able to guide you~ 

But as I said above... you are probably about 4 months out from interview so the need to delay is probably not necessary. 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Redro

[Seino 2]

12 hours ago, Redro said:

I would follow the UK forum to see what people applying for K1 visas are doing and tips for the medical. 

Then after you arrived to the US join the month you filed AOS to see how your peers are doing here.

Good luck! Don't give up and congratulations on your petition approval! This is good news not bad~ 

Thank you so much for your kind and helpful comments, unfortunately the only point we could get her back home is in late August but she's looking at slipping right back into her old job so it should hopefully be a plenty smooth transition. 

Things can get quite dark and worrying along the path and we just gotta keep remembering why we're doing this 😁

Also my fiancee's joint sponsor said he has a lawyer friend who could give us some quick pro bono advice some time so if we need anything desperately, we at least have an avenue for that kind of advice 
It's all looking up a bit, and thank you for helping us!

[Redro 4,611]

17 minutes ago, Seino said:

Thank you so much for your kind and helpful comments, unfortunately the only point we could get her back home is in late August but she's looking at slipping right back into her old job so it should hopefully be a plenty smooth transition. 

Things can get quite dark and worrying along the path and we just gotta keep remembering why we're doing this 😁

Also my fiancee's joint sponsor said he has a lawyer friend who could give us some quick pro bono advice some time so if we need anything desperately, we at least have an avenue for that kind of advice 
It's all looking up a bit, and thank you for helping us!

Still… you’ll probably only interview in October or November… if she has a job by the time you interview everything should be fine. You shouldn’t have any concerns with being approved.