Any other Military Members have this happen?

[Miew-Miew 9]

Okay, (and apologies upfront for talking salaries, but anyone can pick up a military pay chart, no surprise here) so I got my first RFE for my I-485: said my documents listed me as below the Fed poverty line and that I can't support my wife.

Problem is that I am NOT below the line, I was deployed all last year, so my reported ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME for last year was only $2,491.

Thank God there is a Military section on this website as anyone else reading this (appearently like the USCIS) thought I made only $2,491 for the year. But my W2 says I made over 61,000 in box 3&5. In fact, I took advantage of the Deployment TSP rule and put $30,000 into my TSP (when deployed you can go upto 49k instead of the usual 16,500.

As far as I can tell, they don't understand that I had very little taxable income last year (deployed) and put most of it in my TSP.

The RFE is asking me to submit evidence of assets or get a joint sponsor.

has anyone sent in their TSP docs? or a letter explaining their taxable income after an deployment?

Also, they ask for proof of my current income, a letter of employment, dates, wages etc... I'm active duty! Who writes that, me?

background info: I have no payroll deductions, no automatic deductions, no children. Just my wife and I...and have been active duty for 8 years.

[Ms C 5]

This might help:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/236549-letter-of-employment-military-aos/

[Miew-Miew 9]

This might help:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/236549-letter-of-employment-military-aos/

Thanks, I will call Finance and ask about getting a "Proof of service" letter (that's what it's called?) as well as more tax docs which I have all saved so it shouldn't be hard. I lso have digital copies of all my LESs and W2s for the last 5 years.

But what are Tax 'transcripts'? Is that the same thing as my 1040s? (I have those as well, I keep everything, just don't know what they need...)

[Messybrownhair 251]

You can order tax transcripts from irs.gov. They take about 2 weeks to arrive. It's like a 1 page summary of your tax return

[Miew-Miew 9]

Thanks, I found this for future reference:

Difference between Tax Returns and Tax Transcripts-

http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=232219,00.html

[Miew-Miew 9]

FYI-Went for the Service Record tday and got it at the S1 not finance office...

Sent the packet out today- here's to no more RFEs...

[jaydark 1]

Don’t know what branch of the military you’re in but the Air Force has the Air Force Portal, where you can log into your account and access all sorts of information that previously only your personnel unit could do. I’m sure all branches have a similar system. You should be able to easily print out your proof of service letter. Also send them a copy of your Personal Statement of Military Compensation. That should clear up any questions they might have about the way your income is organized. Lastly, I don’t participate in the TSP, but there should be a statement you could generate showing your contributions for the past year.

Edited August 14, 2012 by jaydark

[Choo.143 3]

Try using your LES it shows total YTD earnings, thats what I did for our I-864, no issues with that

[Miew-Miew 9]

I ended up going with three years of full transcrips, several recent LESs and the last three Dec LESs, which shows totals for the years.. I also added W2, a good explanation letter and the codes from the W2 that explain that Q= deployment pay and that D/E? were TSP payments.. Srely, they will figure this out, nw.. do they really think i made $1200 Adjusted for an entire year while active duty in Afghanistan? Finally I added the Servive Support Letter showing my status a a highlighted 2012 Military pay chart.

Mailed it all in 2 days ago...

[Robert&Karen 264]

I had a similar issue, I was deployed for three years and had almost no income to show for that time. I simply added a cover letter saying that my income was not taxable and showed evidence of deployment. No RFE at all.

[Miew-Miew 9]

I had a similar issue, I was deployed for three years and had almost no income to show for that time. I simply added a cover letter saying that my income was not taxable and showed evidence of deployment. No RFE at all.

Update question- just received a notice yesterday that her EAD is now in production and that we should receive it within 30 days. Does this mean that it's more than likely the other evidence I submitted for the I485 were reviewed (received last month) and deemed acceptable? Or is the EAD production completely seperate?

I wouldn't think they'd send the EAD if they were just going to deny my 485 after the RFE, but what do I know?

[flutter95 4]

The EAD is separate to the 485. I do hope they accepted your RFE I know how frustrating those are. However LES and proof of everything you sent in should be enough. Just because your tax return doesn't show it doesn't mean it wasn't there. Seems you got someone who truly doesn't understand how the

Military system works. If you continue to have issues it may be worthwhile finding the written govt paperwork about non taxable pay and why this happens and what an LES is. Although this is not immigration related a similar type of situation we dealt with was using service members relief act to get out of a car lease - the company argued what the verbiage states and tried to put their own definition of what active duty means. Clearly they had no idea what military words meant and had to write a letter of explaination and print out glossary terms from DOD for them to believe

Me! Don't worry too much though because you honesty do

Make thatMoney. Keep us updated

[Deb+Steve 13]

Here's hoping that is enough. We used tax transcripts and had no issues. He came off an 18 month deployment when we filed. Best of luck!

[ecg19 7]

Thanks for this information guys.

We are about to have the same issue, when we get to that stage. My husband spent the majority of the last 3 years overseas, so we were concerned about what to provide so the USCIS doesn't say he's under the poverty level.

We'll be referring to this thread over the next couple of months so we can prepare for that when it arises!