Visa Interview & I-864 Expierence & results

This is more of an FYI of my experience/my husbands experience at his Visa Interview & our I-864 application.  Its not a vent, defamation, negative dig etc.  Its simply an FYI of possible issues one may face.  If it is deemed not appropriate, its ok I understand that it would be deleted.  

Background:  Me Laura American Sponsor/petitioner living in UK with ILR since 2003, married Brit hubby Gary.  Hubby works here in UK I dont.  I have done the spousal Visa application myself from beginning.  All went fine including interview.  Problems arouse after interview with my I-864 app.

Issues:  Interviewer wanted my W2's/$18,300.00 per yr job, even after being reminded several times I am a resident in the UK.  Also wanted proof of intent to move, as in asked why we hadnt sold our house yet.  Even though hubby mentioned it even says on their site theres no guarantee of a VISA so dont make plans.  Said we needed to prove intent to sever all ties in the UK as in shipping quotes, my USA lic, proof of home in USA, USA bank accts, etc.  Ok understandable.  But, our numbers by using assets more than exceed our min poverty amount for our household size of 2.

Answers/Advice:  US Embassy in London will not discuss Visas over phone & impossible (unless you know a contact name) to get answer via snail mail.  Insert expensive (over £200 for 45 mins) specialist lawyer in London.  Lawyer even scratching head.  Best guess we all come up with is: interviewer new, inexperienced, made some mistakes & didnt fully understand form or the situation.  Lawyers advises what documentation to provide.  Which we will send off via courier and hopefully that will be that & will get Visa.  The I-864 instructions dont state that you need to provide proof of what your assets are worth.  In hindsight I can see where that should of been obvious to me to supply such documents.  How would I expect them to take my word on what something is worth.  When relying on assets house, car, etc-make sure you have official documents to state what is owed and its value.  House: more than one surveyor valuation & intent from Estate agency to sell house.  I was surprised that lawyer felt our total assets dollar amount was borderline.  It easily calculated at even 5 times the difference.  Sell car now and replace with just something that will get hubby to work.  Lawyer said cars arent really a valuable asset, even though we will clear min £6,500/$10,725 on it as we own it free and clear.  Our purchase in 2007 of a nice one bedroom mobile home in a park valued at $15,000 lawyer says doesnt look good as an asset as it value is so LOW.  So my plan of us having a home free & clear with very very low cost of living expenses, when we arrive in the USA, seems to have back fired.  I cant say I agree with everything lawyer says, but I can see his points.  In the end I have to do what ever will help to get back to the USA.  Proving intent is fairly easy.  Home information pack for sale of house here, utility bills from home in USA, bill from phone company in USA, etc.



I hope this can be of help to someone.  Laura

I guess I don't understand why you were confused about the taxes? You have to file taxes, even if you are working in the UK, in the US. You don't have to PAY taxes in the US unless you make a certain amount. They make that very clear.

If there is an issue with assets you can always get a sponsor. And yes, you have to prove your assets, or else everyone will just say they have enough and they would have t otake everyone on their word. We had to prove our intent with the pending purchase of our home.

Sorry, I forgot to add that I havent worked in USA or UK since 2002.  Which my hubby told the interviewer. 

Yes, I know about the sponsor, but thats something I would have to ask a friend in the USA, which at this point I am leaving as the utmost last resort.

I did prove assets, except I didnt prove what the house was worth.  Thats partly what killed the application. 

I understand proving intent, just wish the instructions said something about it.

All in all, for only the I-864 to go wrong, it hasnt been that bad.  At least we saved £2,000 what the lawyer said he would of charged to do the Visa application.

Thanks!

interviewer must have been an a***.  my wife never even needed my i864 when i applied ages ago.  they said why she didn't have it, she told them it did not arrive yet.  it was in the mail.  in any case the interview just wanted to know what i did for work and that was that.  different scenario i suppose.

Thanks for the heads up, we may be doing this in the near future but won't be selling our UK home (not exactly the best time to sell!) but will be renting it out; neither of us will have US jobs to go to, though we have assets.

We'll make sure to take information from estate agents on rentability of our house, and on our other income (also from rental properties, as well as a pension from hubby's previous job he was in for 30 years).  I have been keeping on top of my taxes for at least the last 4-5 years thankfully!

Interviewer could of been having a bad day, I dont know.  All I know for sure is he didnt do his job correctly.  The rules are constantly changing, so what may have happened in the past, may not be relevant now.  One has to keep on top of the ever changing rules.  I do know the actual interview was less than 10mins.  The other 3 plus hours was the waiting for your number to be called for your interview.  I am sure each case is different & the interviewer needs to take that into consideration and apply the rules as they follow.

I had such blinders on when filling out the I864 that I didnt read into it as I should have.  Of course the Embassy being so document crazed I should of known or figured out that I needed to supply proof of what the house was worth.  I mean, what would make me think they would just take my word at what number I put on the application.  I had no problems with all the other forms, so I didnt anticipate any issues with the I864. 
We are selling our house.  We will get a profit just not as high as we would have liked.  I dont want the headaches of things back here to deal with.  I have a hard enough time dealing with our home & utilities and such in California when I am way over here.  Our home in California, though its only a 1 bedroom mobile home, its paid for in full and the lot payment & utilities mean, that our outgoings are so low.  This in turn makes the whole transition alot easier.  Once our assets here are liquidated before we leave we will have plenty of cash & not be stressed that we have to find jobs asap.  I also had my belongings in California & have spent the past 2 yrs setting up our home there.  I also made sure we saved money over the years & also we have no debt.

I just hope this is helpful and that others can avoid the mistakes I have made.