Tweet
So I'm a US citizen petitioning for my wife, who is here as a pending political asylee(I-589) from China. The first time we tried was in May, but I made a stupid omission on her I-485 by leaving all the options blank in the first section, where it asks you on what grounds you are seeking adjustment of status. Our application and supporting evidence were sent back to us in late June with some of the documentation (including the results of my wife's medical checkup) sealed in a plastic bag by USCIS.
By this time, my wife and I were in the process of moving, and we are now at our new address. We started gathering materials for the new application, but now we have some issues that were not present when we filed previously:
1. My wife no longer has a valid work card, so she has no income to add to mine. We do have between $5,000 and $10,000 in immediately recoverable assets. My own income is $18,000 yearly, but I am not sure if this is really the case because about $2,000 is taken away by taxes. While I've seen that what USCIS cares about is your adjusted gross income, I have not been able to confirm this with the USCIS site, where on documents like the I-864 instructions it simply says "income." Therefore, while I'd like to believe that I'm just $2,000 short of making the $20,025 requirement for making or owning enough savings to break the 125% of poverty line, I'm not certain this is the case. I'm also worried that even if we do just barely make it, USCIS will be suspicious because we are constantly losing and gaining hundreds of dollars through various small online jobs and subletting our old apartment.
1b. I looked into the possibility that my parents could fill out 1-864 alongside mine, but they live across the country and not, as USCIS seems to want, in my household. Would it work if they sent me a large sum and clarified that it's a gift?
2. Our earlier application was made with our old address in mind, and this is reflected in the documents sealed in the plastic bag USCIS sent back with us. This includes my wife's medical results. When I called USCIS, they said to file a new application with the new address, but use the old materials. However, I am not sure the guy really understood my situation, since the phone line was kind of unclear and his attitude was very impatient. Is what he said correct, and should I write a note with my application clarifying that the old evidence is carried over from the old rejected application? Or do I have to get new copies of all the sealed documents, including the medical results?
2b. USCIS says that you have to report a change of address within ten days; however, even though we intend to submit form AR-11 (change of address) with the new application, it will be about 60 days between our move and our report. Will this be a problem?
tl;dr: basically my main hang-up is on how income is defined. The rest is possibly just my paranoia getting the better of me.
By this time, my wife and I were in the process of moving, and we are now at our new address. We started gathering materials for the new application, but now we have some issues that were not present when we filed previously:
1. My wife no longer has a valid work card, so she has no income to add to mine. We do have between $5,000 and $10,000 in immediately recoverable assets. My own income is $18,000 yearly, but I am not sure if this is really the case because about $2,000 is taken away by taxes. While I've seen that what USCIS cares about is your adjusted gross income, I have not been able to confirm this with the USCIS site, where on documents like the I-864 instructions it simply says "income." Therefore, while I'd like to believe that I'm just $2,000 short of making the $20,025 requirement for making or owning enough savings to break the 125% of poverty line, I'm not certain this is the case. I'm also worried that even if we do just barely make it, USCIS will be suspicious because we are constantly losing and gaining hundreds of dollars through various small online jobs and subletting our old apartment.
1b. I looked into the possibility that my parents could fill out 1-864 alongside mine, but they live across the country and not, as USCIS seems to want, in my household. Would it work if they sent me a large sum and clarified that it's a gift?
2. Our earlier application was made with our old address in mind, and this is reflected in the documents sealed in the plastic bag USCIS sent back with us. This includes my wife's medical results. When I called USCIS, they said to file a new application with the new address, but use the old materials. However, I am not sure the guy really understood my situation, since the phone line was kind of unclear and his attitude was very impatient. Is what he said correct, and should I write a note with my application clarifying that the old evidence is carried over from the old rejected application? Or do I have to get new copies of all the sealed documents, including the medical results?
2b. USCIS says that you have to report a change of address within ten days; however, even though we intend to submit form AR-11 (change of address) with the new application, it will be about 60 days between our move and our report. Will this be a problem?
tl;dr: basically my main hang-up is on how income is defined. The rest is possibly just my paranoia getting the better of me.
