RFE on I-485 in connection with I-864

[jyellajo]

Hello all,

I have filed my married to USC based AOS and we received an RFE that states:
"The petitioning sponsor, FIRST NAME AND LAST NAME, on Form I-864, Affidavit of Support,
must submit a complete Federal income tax return submitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the most recent tax year. If you submit a transcript, it must be a "Tax Return Transcript" from the IRS.
If you were not required to file a Federal income tax return under U.S. tax law, attach a written explanation of why you are not required to file. See "Filing Requirements" in the IRS Form 1040 Filing Instructions to determine whether you were required to file."

While filing the AOS, our lawyer asked for IRS transcripts. But due to personal reasons, my USC spouse did not file the tax returns for 2018, 2019 till June 2021. And when it was decided to file the taxes for 2018, 2019, it was done by paper filing and we did not have the transcripts ready with IRS (as it was late filing, they don't have control over the process). When asked our lawyer about it, they said they will use the tax returns summitted to IRS and submit them to USCIS. While submitting the tax returns to USCIS they did not submit the W-2s with it, we thing this might be a reason for the RFE..
Our questions:
- Is the RFE requesting us to submit the complete federal income tax return for most recent year, which is 2020 ? In that case, my USC spouse did submit the tax return last week and we have the entire set of documents (W-2, 1040, Schedule 1) and could we submit these ?
- Should we take any action about already submitted tax returned, which are from 2019 ?

Please help us with your experiences.

[SmithB]

When did you file? When you filled which year tax/income documents you submitted? All you had to to with your initial application is submit tax return for last tax year or explanation why you dotnt have one.

[jyellajo]

When did you file? When you filled which year tax/income documents you submitted? All you had to to with your initial application is submit tax return for last tax year or explanation why you dotnt have one.

I filed my AOS application in Aug 2021 and my USC spouse filed 2019, 2018 taxes with IRS in June 2021. With our initial application we did submit the tax returns (just 1040 and schedule forms, and not W-2s) for 2019, 2018, 2017, and tax return extension for 2020. However this RFE is asking about the complete tax return submitted, which i believe to include the complete packet that include W-2s and any 1099s along with 1040 and schedule forms. I am not sure though.

[SmithB]

So I am not sure what your attorney advised or if I am correct but in the instructions they are specific as what to submit, tax return, tax transcript, w2 forms. I do not remember seeing anything about 1040. Also according to the instructions if you submit IRS tax transcripts there is no need of w2 forms. Sounds to me they are asking for most recent year Tax return which is 2020. Also with you not submitting any tax returns or W2 for any year it almost seems that you can not confirm the income because basically you are not submitting any evidence that you made this money and paid taxes on.

[jyellajo]

So I am not sure what your attorney advised or if I am correct but in the instructions they are specific as what to submit, tax return, tax transcript, w2 forms. I do not remember seeing anything about 1040. Also according to the instructions if you submit IRS tax transcripts there is no need of w2 forms. Sounds to me they are asking for most recent year Tax return which is 2020. Also with you not submitting any tax returns or W2 for any year it almost seems that you can not confirm the income because basically you are not submitting any evidence that you made this money and paid taxes on.

Thanks for the inputs. I believe i am getting some information on where we went wrong, still waiting inputs from the lawyer. As per I-864 instructions: "You must provide either an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) transcript or a photocopy from your own records of your Federal individual income tax return for the most recent tax year.". & "If you provide a photocopy of your Federal individual income tax returns, you must include a copy of each and every Form W-2 and Form 1099 that relates to your returns. Do not include copies of these forms if you provide an IRS transcript of your Federal individual income tax returns rather than a photocopy unless you filed a joint income tax return with your spouse and are qualifying using only your income"

The mistakes we did are:
- We sent 2019 Tax return.
- We sent 2019 Tax return just the printout from H&R Block and did not attach W-2 and also did not provide the same copy that we provided to IRS.
- We did not file 2020 tax return at the time of AOS filing, so that is another one.

In response to RFE, we will include the 2020 Complete tax return and hope for the best. Still waiting to hear from my lawyer for their view.

[jyellajo]

My attorney said that we need to submit the IT Return or IRS Transcript for 2020 to USCIS. The attorney's team has submitted the RFE response (USCIS letter + Lawyer explanation + IRS transcript for 2020) last week (sometime on Monday or Tuesday). However, as of today my status still shows "Requests for Initial Evidence Sent" . Could anyone let me know, how much does it take for the status to be changed to response for RFE received or something ??

[Dori05]

My attorney said that we need to submit the IT Return or IRS Transcript for 2020 to USCIS. The attorney's team has submitted the RFE response (USCIS letter + Lawyer explanation + IRS transcript for 2020) last week (sometime on Monday or Tuesday). However, as of today my status still shows "Requests for Initial Evidence Sent" . Could anyone let me know, how much does it take for the status to be changed to response for RFE received or something ??

It’s been one month for me and still no update. I don’t know how long is gonna take.

[jyellajo]

It’s been one month for me and still no update. I don’t know how long is gonna take.

Thank you!!
I was still waiting for the update to be change from "Request for Initial Evidence Sent" to "Request for Initial Evidence Received". My lawyer did not use the online form, she sent using Fedex sometime midweek last week. I believe i might see that change this week.