Friday, December 29, 2006

Visa Form I-864

...continued from previous post...

After about a month I got the receipt from Homeland Security for the $170 processing fee that was submitted with the Form I-129F fiance petition. A couple of weeks after this, I was mailed another bill, asking for a $70 processing fee for them to send me the affidavit of support paperwork.

This would have been a complete surprise to me, except that I had helped Steve fill out his affidavit of support paperwork a month earlier. He really is a crystal ball. I see what he has to do, and then I know what is coming next for me - much more reliable than calling USCIS with visa questions.

Before I go any further, it should be noted that the affidavit of support for those of you doing a fiance entry is different from what those of us doing the spousal visa must fill out. We have to do a very detailed Form I-864, whereas those doing the fiance visa have a more simplified form. I think it is called I-364, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

Anyway, when I got the bill for $70, it was paid promptly, and a couple of weeks later I recieved US Immigration Form I-864 - Affidavit of support. This form is essentially a contract where the petitioner (myself) agrees to be financially responsible for the beneficiary (foreign spouse), and is also a contract with the Government where you agree that if the spouse should ever require means tested benefits (such as unemployment), that you will be accountable and have to repay these funds to the Government. It is a complicated set of papers that is basically meant to make sure the spouse will not be a burdon on the US economy, which is a good thing I suppose.

White Water Rafting
White Water Rafting On the Davao River - Guess which one is me

The I-864 form is a follow up to the Form I-130 that was originally submitted for the spousal visa. When you get the form, it says that this form is issued when your spousal visa is in the upcoming que, which they define as being available at some point in the next 12 months. This is really when I began to realize that the Form I-129F is really just a scam to get my $170, but what can you do.

Remember, they say you do the 129F to get your spouse into the country while you wait years for the 130 to be processed, but here we are only a month later being told that the 130 is in the que. What a mixed up money guzzling system, but at least things are progressing. Actually, it is progressing quite fast for us. Steve had submitted his paperwork before we were even married, and now we're somehow only 30 days behind him, so I can only take that as a good sign.

It took me a couple of weeks to complete the Form I-864 and to get it mailed in, but this is purely because it is next to impossible to get in contact with the National Visa Center to get answers to even simple questions.

Lapu Lapu
Lapu Lapu is a delicious fish named after the Visayan indian who killed Magellan

In order to meet the requirements of the form, your income must exceed 125% of the defined poverty line (100% if you are active duty military). In order to prove this, they ask you to submit a tax transcript from the IRS. I had a problem here, because I had been abroad since before tax time, I had a 6 month extention and my taxes were not due until Oct 15 (about two weeks prior to getting the form), and the IRS said they would not be able to get me a transcript until the end of the year.

I wanted to know if a photocopy of my tax return was sufficient. I tried calling the National Visa Center many dozens of times. No operator was ever available. It would tell me to call back after 6pm and then disconnect, but if I called back after 6pm it was no different.

Finally I emailed them, and after waiting more than a week I got a reply that told me if I did not file taxes I would need to. That didn't answer my question, so I wrote again, and after another week got another nonsense answer. All this time I continued trying to call, unsuccessfully. Once it did say that it was transferring me, but after listening to the phone ring off the hook for 15 minutes I hung up. Another time I did reach someone, who said they could not hear me and hung up. You would think that with all the money they are charging they could at least be available, but they are not, and if you need to ask them a question I wish you luck in getting an answer.

Lechon
A trip to the Philippines is not complete without the occassional Lechon (Roasted Pig) feast

I finally discovered that a copy of the tax return is sufficient, so after almost 3 weeks I had the form filled out and mailed in. For those who worry if they do not meet the poverty guidelines, do not worry about that. If you have 5 times the difference in savings or other assets, then you qualify, or if you can have someone be a joint applicant (sort of like being a co-signer on a loan), then you're good.

About the same time I received the bill for $70, my wife had also received a form asking if mail should come directly to her, or if she wanted to name someone else as her agent. We marked it to send directly to her. At the time I was getting ready to mail in my Form I-864, the National Visa Center sent me an email mentioning this. They confirmed that they had just received her form and would be sending me the bill for the next step in the process.

So, a few weeks pass and we received a bill for $380 for the processing fee for the next form. The form is available online. I do not see why I can not just print it, fill it out, and send it in with the fee to get a jump on things, but they implicitly state to not do this because it will cause delays. Go figure.

We literally just mailed in the $380 payment, and are now waiting to receive Form DS-230, which I believe is the last form in this mountain of paperwork. Steve received his in about 2 weeks time, but with the holidays and new year, etc, I do not expect to receive mine so quickly. But I can always hold out hope.

2 comments:

m said...

I feel for you! And that is precisely why my husband and I choose to live abroad.

Good luck with the whole process!

Googleheimer said...

Thanks montchan.

I know other people who made the exact same decision you did. I have one friend who is Thai origin, but born and raised in California. His wife is from Thailand, and they had such difficulties that they decided to just stay there. Same thing with another friend I have who married someone from China. Getting a US visa from China is a 7 year wait, so they figured why bother.

If I had known it was going to be such a pain in the butt, I would have just flown to Tijuana and walked across the same way everyone else does. lol