Affidavit of Support - NVC want correction

[jman0war]

while living and working abroad with my foreign spouse we applied for a green card.
No direct embassy filing here.

My petition went to the NVC and I sent in the Affidavit of Support along with a Joint Sponsor.
A few months later the NVC emaild me to say i've made an error on my form.
They said:
The income you enter must match the total (gross) income reported on your most recent Federal income tax return. If you filed Form 1040EZ, use the adjusted gross income instead.

However i wrote my total wages that was listed on my return.
I can't use a 1040EZ when filing abroad; rather a 1040. So does that mean I shouldn't use the Adjusted Gross Income?
There are no answers to such questions.

I thought about ringing the NVC but I have rang them before and found them to be just call center staff that give canned answers that would not be specific to my case. So they would most likely be useless for information.


I emailed the tax agent I used to file from abroad and he suggested I should use the Adjusted Gross Income.
Which by the way is : 1$ for 2013, and 0$ for 2012 and 2011.
Why?
Because you see, when I am filing abroad I am also filing an exemption form as well for my entire foreign earnings.
So the taxable amount really is 0$.
However when e-filing from abroad (as we did for the 2013 taxes), you can't enter a zero on the online form.
Therefore a 1 was entered.

Anyway I re-did the Affidavit of Support form and put down 1$ for 2013 and 0$ for the other 2 years. I certainly hope this is the correct answer the NVC is looking for.
It's expensive to FedEx packets to them from here.

Do you think this is the correct answer?

[jman0war]

Does anybody have experience filling out the I-864 and also file US Federal Taxes abroad using the 1040 form?

Evidently my answer in Part "Sponsor's Income and Employment"; Item 13.a.1 (2013 tax year) is wrong.


Which line on the 1040 is the correct amount to enter?
The I-864 instructions don't go near this question.

[rayb]

When reporting your tax return income on the I-864, you must use the entry for "Total Income" from line 22 of the tax return, even if -0- or negative. It is understood that filers working abroad have total income reduced by the annual income exemption, but the I-864 corrections are driven by the barcodes or manual checking against line 22 (form 1040 or form 1040A). The "Adjusted Gross Income" amount is only used if you submitted form 1040EZ (which was not your filing mode).

Though the I-864 instructions are very specific about this, I made the same mistake as you, using "Adjusted Gross Income" on several i-864 submittals for different clients and had them returned each time. When I followed the instructions and used line 22, it finally dawned on me that the instruction is very literal. One of my I-864's was returned or a $7 difference between the two line items.

--Ray B

Does anybody have experience filling out the I-864 and also file US Federal Taxes abroad using the 1040 form?

Evidently my answer in Part "Sponsor's Income and Employment"; Item 13.a.1 (2013 tax year) is wrong.


Which line on the 1040 is the correct amount to enter?
The I-864 instructions don't go near this question.

[jman0war]

When reporting your tax return income on the I-864, you must use the entry for "Total Income" from line 22 of the tax return, even if -0- or negative. It is understood that filers working abroad have total income reduced by the annual income exemption, but the I-864 corrections are driven by the barcodes or manual checking against line 22 (form 1040 or form 1040A). The "Adjusted Gross Income" amount is only used if you submitted form 1040EZ (which was not your filing mode).

Though the I-864 instructions are very specific about this, I made the same mistake as you, using "Adjusted Gross Income" on several i-864 submittals for different clients and had them returned each time. When I followed the instructions and used line 22, it finally dawned on me that the instruction is very literal. One of my I-864's was returned or a $7 difference between the two line items.

--Ray B

Wow, thanks very much for your reply.
From your response it would appear my 2nd attempt is correct.

Line 22 on my 1040 says $1, which is also the very same number for my Adjusted Gross Income.
And this is what I have put onto the form.

[rayb]

If you are saying that you entered an amount on line 13a that was exactly the same as your "Adjusted Gross Income" and "Total Income," then the NVC error description doesn't make sense. The 13a entry should be exactly what was on your line 22 of the form 1040 or 1040A.

--Ray B

Wow, thanks very much for your reply.
From your response it would appear my 2nd attempt is correct.

Line 22 on my 1040 says $1, which is also the very same number for my Adjusted Gross Income.
And this is what I have put onto the form.

[jman0war]

If you are saying that you entered an amount on line 13a that was exactly the same as your "Adjusted Gross Income" and "Total Income," then the NVC error description doesn't make sense. The 13a entry should be exactly what was on your line 22 of the form 1040 or 1040A.

--Ray B

Originally I had put Line 7 "Wages, salaries, tips, etc".
Line 22 for me, is just $1
Line 37 AGI, is also $1

Line 13 on my 1040 is blank

[Groogrux108]

Originally I had put Line 7 "Wages, salaries, tips, etc".
Line 22 for me, is just $1
Line 37 AGI, is also $1

Line 13 on my 1040 is blank

Same situation here! I've always worked abroad and when I saw that my income was next to nothing on line 22 it made no sense! thankful for this thread and RayB to the rescue as usual. Using line 22 no matter how pathetic it is! haha