Questions!

[ladyynara 0]

Hopefully I am posting this in the correct place. Here is a quick low down of our situation:

I am a British citizen, he is a USC.

We married in the US in 1998. We went through the green card process for me, and I had my 10 year card, eventually. We foolishly decided on the spur of the moment to move back to the UK in 2003. I moved over while we sorted out his UK visa, and once I got here discovered I was pregnant.

We've been here 4.5 years now and have had two children.

This summer we decided to move back to the US, partly for financial reasons and partly to support his mother whom we intend to live with. Having been out of the US so long, I "abandoned" my green card. We have filed I-130 with the London Embassy and should get word on that any time in the next couple of weeks.

Here are my questions.

1) Yesterday I realised I could just download the next form to be filling out in the meantime, DS-230. I am filling it out and there is a part that tells you to list your children, which is fine. Then later on, it asks if the children will be accompanying to the US. Well, they are, but they are US citizens (we got them registered at the London Embassy and they both have their US passports), so they are not *immigrating* with me, should I still put them down?

2) I read yesterday on the Embassy site that I will need a police certificate to go with this form. Is this something I should be working on getting now to save on time once I have our I-130 approval?

3) Since being in the UK my husband hasn't filed any taxes in the US except for the partial year we both worked in the US before moving over. He earns under the threshold for foreign earnings, but I'm a little confused as to how we go about filing these. Is it something he definitely needs to have done as part of our application? Do we need to file these at the London Embassy or to the US Inland Revenue?

4) The DS-230 form asks for addresses in the US for the greencard to be mailed. I can use my mother-in-law's address as she is the one we plan on living with, but there is a strong possibility that she will be moving to another state next summer before we get to the US (we will be going wherever she goes) and her current house will be sold. Will I be able to change that address directly prior to my immigration closer to the time when I know where we will be going?

5) As husband lives here in the UK with me, I assume he cannot be my financial sponsor. This leaves my mother in law, which she is happy to do, but I'm confused by the requirements. She is a teacher and currently earns around $32k. I looked at the US immigration website for the guide on how a person would need to earn depending on family size. But should we include my children and husband in that, or her family size now (which is just her)

6) Shot in the dark, but does anyone know if I will keep my A number and SS number from before or issued new ones?

Thanks for any help.

[MargotDarko 0]

Hopefully I am posting this in the correct place. Here is a quick low down of our situation:

I am a British citizen, he is a USC.

We married in the US in 1998. We went through the green card process for me, and I had my 10 year card, eventually. We foolishly decided on the spur of the moment to move back to the UK in 2003. I moved over while we sorted out his UK visa, and once I got here discovered I was pregnant.

We've been here 4.5 years now and have had two children.

This summer we decided to move back to the US, partly for financial reasons and partly to support his mother whom we intend to live with. Having been out of the US so long, I "abandoned" my green card. We have filed I-130 with the London Embassy and should get word on that any time in the next couple of weeks.

Here are my questions.

1) Yesterday I realised I could just download the next form to be filling out in the meantime, DS-230. I am filling it out and there is a part that tells you to list your children, which is fine. Then later on, it asks if the children will be accompanying to the US. Well, they are, but they are US citizens (we got them registered at the London Embassy and they both have their US passports), so they are not *immigrating* with me, should I still put them down?

2) I read yesterday on the Embassy site that I will need a police certificate to go with this form. Is this something I should be working on getting now to save on time once I have our I-130 approval?

3) Since being in the UK my husband hasn't filed any taxes in the US except for the partial year we both worked in the US before moving over. He earns under the threshold for foreign earnings, but I'm a little confused as to how we go about filing these. Is it something he definitely needs to have done as part of our application? Do we need to file these at the London Embassy or to the US Inland Revenue?

4) The DS-230 form asks for addresses in the US for the greencard to be mailed. I can use my mother-in-law's address as she is the one we plan on living with, but there is a strong possibility that she will be moving to another state next summer before we get to the US (we will be going wherever she goes) and her current house will be sold. Will I be able to change that address directly prior to my immigration closer to the time when I know where we will be going?

5) As husband lives here in the UK with me, I assume he cannot be my financial sponsor. This leaves my mother in law, which she is happy to do, but I'm confused by the requirements. She is a teacher and currently earns around $32k. I looked at the US immigration website for the guide on how a person would need to earn depending on family size. But should we include my children and husband in that, or her family size now (which is just her)

6) Shot in the dark, but does anyone know if I will keep my A number and SS number from before or issued new ones?

Thanks for any help.

Hello! I can answer most of your questions.

1. I don't think this truly matters. For my husband's form, I ended up putting that I was accompanying him to the US, but then I learned that it is technically more likely to be referring to who is immigrating at the same time. No one said anything about how I was down in that section even though I was the USC. So I would say either way should be fine.

2. Definitely. It almost always takes the allowed 40 days to arrive. I would start by googling for your local police and see if they have a website set up and that site would probably have instructions on how to request the subject access form. It will probably cost something like 10 GBP and you'll have to provide an original piece of identification. We're in Thames Valley and with them we had to do it by post. They returned my hubby's birth certificate right away but the subject access paper took 40 days. With some police stations, you can apply in person. As long as you make it know that it is for immigration purposes, you should get the right piece of paper.

3. Definitely needs to file if he's made over the threshhold for filing even if it's under the threshold for foreign income. It's pretty easy though. They don't even require proof of his UK earnings. He would just fill out a 1040 for each of the years along with a 2555 for each year. Then it would be sent to the service center in Texas. Alternatively, you can arrange to have the embassy help him file. He'll need to show at least 2006 at the visa interview even though it won't be counting towards the required minimum.

4. Is there possibly anyone else in your family whose address you could use? It's possible to change the address, but I would feel safer if it were an address that wasn't going to change. On a related side note, whenever you move or whenever your sponsor/joint sponsor moves, you'll need to report it. You would use the AR-11 form online and your mom-in-law and husband would use the I-865. Both are free but are required to be done within 11 days of moving.

5. Yep, that's correct if his income won't continue without change and if he does not have enough assets. Your husband will still fill out an I-864 as he is the main sponsor. Your mom-in-law would fill out the I-864 as the only joint sponsor. Your husband's household size is 4. Your mom-in-law's household size is only 2 actually as she is not married and does not have any dependants. She only has to support herself and the immigrant. Your husband and children would not be included as they are USCs and not dependent on her. So her income of $32,000 is plenty. The actual requirment for 2 people is about $17,500.

6. You will definitely keep your SSN. I am not positive but I believe the alien number will also remain the same.

EDIT - Also, the requirement for a family of 5 (all you plus your mother-in-law) is only $30,163. So you're fine even if they think of that way, but filling out the form in a literal way will only come up with two people in her household size.

Edited November 29, 2007 by MargotDarko

[ladyynara 0]

Great info, thankyou! I'm in the Thames Valley so I'll look into doing that asap.