I-130 For Wife with Low-Income Sponsor Husband

• Mrs. Wu could not come into the office to get in-person guidance on her case
• Low income by the petitioner, her husband, at the time of the petition
• Worried she would be deported and would have to leave her husband
• Mrs. Wu’s case received a Request for Evidence, due to her husband’s low income

BACKGROUND

When students come to the United States from abroad, they are often here on what is called an F-1 student visa. It is designed so that the student is here to be a full-time student, they cannot legally work in the United States. However, some students don’t come here to just study. Some find love along the way. That was the case for Mrs. Wu, who couldn’t believe she was able to come to America as a student. Although she was in the United States to study and she was dedicated to her work, she ended up falling in love with a U.S. citizen. She did not intend to fall for him so fast and so hard, but she couldn’t even imagine her life without him after she met him. Thus, when she finished school, she wanted to stay and they got married. In order to do so, she had to file for an I-485 Adjustment of Status as well as an I-130 petition for a green card. However, this is when she hit a snag. Her husband’s income was not at the level that United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) looks for when determining if the U.S. citizen can support the person who is being petitioned financially.

Mrs. Wu was worried her husband’s finances were the only thing that was going to stop her from staying in the United States. She had built a life here by having friends and her husband living here, she was determined to stay here. Mrs. Wu did not want to take any risk with her case, so she needed to find a law firm that was experienced and dedicated enough to get her case approved. She was scared she could not find law firms like this until she contacted Tsang & Associates.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

One of the initial challenges for Mrs. Wu’s case was that she could not come into the office. Normally we see our clients fairly often, to better assure them of the work that we are doing and to give them in-person guidance as to the next step that they need to take and to answer questions from them. Mrs. Wu was not able to come into the office and all of our communication was done through phone or email. Mrs. Wu was unique in this way, but she was able to trust our expertise and experience handling these cases, so she didn’t necessarily require the in-person check-ins we like to have. She was also quite prompt with responding to emails asking for certain documentation, another helpful aspect in overcoming the physical distance between Mrs. Wu and our office.

Part of Mrs. Wu’s process was easy. USCIS always has to be on the lookout for fraud regarding I-130 cases, but Mrs. Wu and her husband had plenty of proof that USCIS tends to look for as to whether or not their marriage was a legitimate, loving relationship. They had joint economic resources and had lived together for quite some time. Where they ran into trouble was that her husband’s salary was not at the level that USCIS deemed appropriate for a two-person household. We included in our initial document package a letter from his employer stating that he was a valuable member of their company and that he would likely be receiving a raise in the near future. However, when they went in for their interview, that letter was not enough. Several months after their interview, the caseworker issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) with the specific purpose of needing to see more income from Mrs. Wu’s husband.

“Her husband’s company had to provide not one but two employment letters in this case. There are other firms that might have taken the RFE as a failure, especially after trying to persuade USCIS about his income in the first place. We took it as just another roadblock, not the end of the road.” – Cathy Hsu, Account Manager

Fortunately, the company had been truthful about her husband’s status within their organization. By the time the deadline to respond to the RFE came around, her husband had increased his income fairly dramatically.

OUTCOME

With a further letter from Mrs. Wu’s husband’s company and his raised income level, Mrs. Wu’s Wue in status and I-130 petition for a green card were both approved. Mrs. Wu was free to continue living in the United States with her husband, and now she is free to work and establish an even deeper life here without the weight of possibly being forced to leave hanging over her head.