JANETandLYLE

boiler, no Trucks. I have Mopar Collector Cars. I can not come up with a sponsor, I doubt, hence the post. Yes, even after deduction, I am above the 125 percent above poverty level. I should be ok, ty.

Lemonslice, I read all that, ty. My Attorney talks a bit different though, that's why I wanted to ask here. Being SELF EMPLOYED seems to create a few more issues for us that are self employed.

pushbrk, I appreciate that. That's how I thought it would work. If I was willing to pay all the taxes on what I claimed, but this attorney seemed to say they don't always believe you self employed people, as you could of inflated your income on your tax return. So, I would need to show all my 1099's along with the return. Since not all my business is insurance companies where i get a 1099 at the end of the year, it would be hard to prove what I actually take in fund wise, except through bank deposits. That is what has had me upset.

Yes, I have an accountant doing the taxes, Yes. I guess I was understanding being self employed i would need to prove every last penny I am claiming on my taxes. My Attorney was making it sound like USCIS doesn't necessarily beleiv eus self employed people and what we show on taxes, as we might be trying to inflate our income to get approced as sponser's. Even if so, i have even three of my vehicles that show a value of over 150k through JD Powers if I had to go that route. This attorney scares me at times. I appreciate all the feedback. Yes, I guess I am getting confused. I show gross sales, labor profit, and totasl profit after all deductions. I am sure when the accountant is done it will show different. TY Does anyone know what line item it is that USCIS will be looking at for me to be approved as a sponsor? schedule C if it matters. I beleive it is line 9, Total Income.

So we have a immigration attorney doing our paperwork. I had my Brother being a sponsor, and he had initially filled out the paper work. We had to wait to submit, due to issues with obtaning clear copy etc of Wife's birth certificate, now brother and his wife have decided they can't be a sponsor (His Wife apparently is not on board with doing it now for some reason and re-filling out the pawer work). I did not have enough income at the time to do it myself. I now do have enough income, but being self employed its hard to prove all that income because many of my jobs are for customers who don't issue 1099's or W2. Some of my work is insurance company work, so yes, they do the 1099's. I have a auto repair shop and have had this for decades. So out of a report on taxes 77K and then deductions leave me at 27K profit. While this is enough and meets the threshold of 25,500 for two, how do I prove the rest of my income? I can show about 29K on 1099's, but the rest was checks or cash. What I did do is print off bank deposits of my business account for the year 2023, and that is enough to show my gross sales in my business. I have cash and check deposts each month. Will Immigration accept those deposts as income since I can't show them all 1099's? If they have my tax returns for 2023 and about 1/3 of my gross income in 1099's, will they generally accept the bank depost statements as proof of my income? My Attorney says at times they don't want to go through bank statements, but how do us self employed people get this approved? Do we always have to a sponsor or co-sponsor? My concern is I don't know that I can come up with another sponsor/co-sponsor. I also have several collector cars that maybe I could use to make up what they say I would be short if I need to. Any advice? Attorney says lets just run with it, and see if it gets approved. If not, we get one chance to get it right, then I don't know what after that. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN AFTER THAT?

"Your wife came to the US without her own copy of her foreign BC?" To answer this, first off, paperwork was misplaced or lost. She did have a copy of her foreign BC. At this point we are trying to get a replacement copy. There is some confusion apparently on what I am asking. Since march we have been working on obtaining a freedom of information act on my Wife through our Attorney. We had hired an Attorney to do the AOS, so much involved there. He has been paid in full, so that is all handled. I now need to figure our how to obtain a copy of her birth certificate that is legible. We had been waiting on this to come back, hoping the copy the US had would be more legible, but it is not. Attorney didn't feel the one we have now would be accepted, and we would be denied or trying to come up with a legible copy, from somewhere. I meant to say PSA, sorry. What I am seeing on their website is for them to issue my Wife a copy of her birth certificate, they want her to show or produce a valid ID. She doesn't have one to show. What she does have at this point is am expired PH Passport with pic, and a marriage license from the USA. My understanding now is if you can not produce either, they are open to accepting two affidavit's from two people who actually know her. I am understanding there is a form to fill out and submit to PSA to then be able to obtain a copy of her birth certificate. Anyone know about this? Maybe her Sister and Niece in the Philippines can submit affidavit's to knowing Janet. Other than her birth certificate, we have everything else to file for her AOS.

Mike, I have already read all that, but ty. That doesn't really answer my question I posted, but thanks, anyway.

We hired an attorney here in the USA to do my Wife's AOS. Her passport has expired, and her paperwork was lost or mis-placed. Our Attorney request a Freedom of Information Act from the USA hoping to get NSO copy of my Wife's Birth Certificate. It came back, anbd that copy is also not legible. How did they not have a legible copy of my Wife's Birth Certificate? Anyway, her Sister in the Philippines tried to go and get a copy of my Wife's birth certificate. Of course they want my Wife's valid ID, which she does not have. All we have now that the Attorney was able to get from the Freedom Of Information act in the USA was a copy of her now expired passport from the Philippine's, which does show who she is. So how do we go about getting a copy of her NSO Birth Certificate without a valid ID, when all her paperwork is missing? There has to be a way around this. We can show the now valid Philippine Passport for her, her marriage license in the USA from me. I read something that said that an affidavit from two individuals with personal knowledge is generally accepted if there is no primary or secondary evidence. Anyone know anything about this? Can her Sister who lives in the Philippines and Myself living in the USA do this. Could I show our marriage license and maybe some of her fiancée paperwork that got her to the USA? There has to be a way for people in this same situation to obtain a copy of their birth certificate without having a VALID ID. As I mentioned, she has an COPY of her expired passport ID from the Philippines, but that is all. Am I going to have to hire an Attorney from the Philippines to attempt to get a copy of her NSO Birth Certificate? Please advise. I am frustrated. Our USA Attorney seems to be lost at this point on how to get a copy of her Philippine Birth certificate. I do have another copy of one, but he says he never seen that kind before, and it doesn't look authentic. He says if we submit it, they may kick it back on us and deny the AOS. Could this copy that is legible be used to show NSO maybe as proof of who my Wife is? Our Attorney ahs already been paid in full to handle this AOS, but I am assuming he won't chase paperwork. Any advice is appreciated.

To answer a previous question, Wife's copy we have is blurry and would be unacceptable. I will see what I can do. Not much for family there that can help with this matter.

I will check again with them, thanks

We need to obtain a copy of my Wife's birth certificate from the Philippines. My Attorney gave us a link. I think I may have ordered a copy at some point from them, but it is missing. Anyway, it seems they wanna send it through DHL. The quote I was given for one birth certificate sent to the USA through DHL is like $167.80. Does this sound right? Can't these be sent through like Fed Ex? I could of sworn last time we got one for like $30.00 mailed to the us. it took like a month to get, but was sent in a normal type envelope of some kind. Any suggestions?

Thank you for the replies, everyone.

Thanks for the reply. My Wife would only be filing taxes with me as married, as she won't be working. I will be the only one working in my auto business. We tired filing before previous years taxes, but they kicked it back as she didn't have a social security number So it takes five years for her to become a citizen? They won't ask for taxes after the AOS, only right now? Don't they want to know as this plays out and she is waiting to become a permanent citizen that I have enough income to still be supporting her?

Well, just got off the phone with my Brother. He is going to co-sponsor. he makes around 60k a year, and said he was more than willing to help. Yes, sometimes being self employed is not so good. I could of bought less in supplies and parts etc for my business and been fine to be able to show more than the 125% above poverty level, but I thought they only needed one year of back taxes. Moving forward, I know now what needs to happen. I have retained an Immigration Attorney also at 5k, and he will handle almost all of the paperwork, etc. I am feeling much better right now. I had considered trying to use collector cars as assets. I have 38 old cars in all different stages of restoration, but did not want to go that route if possible. I want to say thank you to all of you for the suggestions and advice. So moving forward do I need to show (and submit) sufficient income for at least the next five years, until my Wife gets her citizenship?

Ok, I have a question on a joint sponsor. Do they need to be able to show at least $22,887 a year on their taxes for the three years to be able to assist me? I can only show good for 2022. Both 2021 and 2020 I showed a loss both years at my self employed business of roughly $5000.00. It was all due to covid and in my area, people kind of stopped spending much money. We lost many businesses around town. I admit, my income for the past three years does not look good. Two years with losses, and 2022 will show above what is required, but this still won't work as far as getting approved. Was just curious about finding a co-sponsor and what they would have to be able to show in gross income after deduction's. as the two I am thinking of are also self employed. Sorry for the rambling on. Just thought I had this all covered. Come to find out, I don't.

I appreciate all the advice, everyone, thank you.

So I will need to show income for each year individually or just show a total of income for the last three years? 2022, was a great year for my business. So to be clear for the AOS, I need to just show 2022? By the time I get the AOS submitted, 2022 taxes would be completed. Since 2020, and 2021 i showed losses, would it be beneficial for me to also use assets (old collector cars) to make up for the losses in 2020, and 2021. I have several old collector type cars that seem to have a high value according to NADA dollar amount figures. Just curious, if that would even be necessary if we are concerned with income over a three year period.

To do the AOS, adjusted gross income is required to show (I am self employed). This whole covid thing really kept me from making the money I needed to make, but I did finally recover in 2022. How many year's back taxes do we need to show to do my Wife's AOS? Would 2022 alone be sufficient, or do we need to show 3 years of back taxes. She is not planning to work anywhere, so basically at this point, we just want to do a AOS, if more than last years taxes would be required. I had a loss for 2019, 2020, and 2021. Again, 2022 I did well and am quite a above the 125% of poverty level. Just me and the Wife here. Will I need a co-sponsor to get this done?