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- Next question comes from Jorge.
Can a K1 beneficiary add his or her assets
with the petitioners assets?
Well, the short answer is yes they can.
Unfortunately, there's quite a few hoops to jump through
when using qualifying assets.
And also, I want to just add one caveat or one note,
is that everything comes down to the discretion
of the consular officer or the adjudicating officer
that's reviewing your case.
What that means is that it's up to them
whether they accept the assets.
Back to the part where they do accept assets,
it comes down to what type of assets
you're going to use.
If it's cash, gold or stocks, bonds, things like that,
something that you can liquidate rather quickly,
usually within a 12-month period,
at least the instructions in the affidavit of support
state that you can use those assets.
If you're using property such as a house, a condo
or something like that, that's a little more challenging,
a little more difficult because first of all
you have to prove that you have ownership in said property.
You also have to provide documents
from the mortgage company,
if you have a loan or a lien on the property.
You have to provide a copy of the deed.
Also, if you owe a certain amount on the property,
you can only use the difference between
what you, I guess the equity that you have in the property.
But I can tell you from experience,
we've processed quite a few of these
and many consular officers out there,
many adjudicating officers at USCIS
do not always accept these assets.
And also, keep in mind you have to have a third party,
an assessment of the property.
They have to appraise it.
And you can't just put down on paper
what you think the property is worth.
It actually has to be appraised.
And then again, like I said,
you have to provide all of the documents
showing you own the property.
It's really best to probably just come out
and meet the income requirements.
And if you don't, you may consider using
what is called a joint sponsor.
That is someone else that signs an affidavit of support
that meets the income requirements.
The reason why I bring that up is, like I said,
we've seen folks try to use assets
and it's a bumpy road to go down at best.
- Yeah, one thing I would add is that assets
aren't valued as highly as income.
They're going to count if it's for a child,
minor child or a spouse.
They're gonna value it at 1/3.
So for example, if you have a $75,000, say,
equity in your home, they're only gonna
credit you with 25.
So that's equal to about 25,000 in income, 75,000.
If it's for a parent or somebody else, a sibling,
it's even worse, it's 1/5 of the values.
So that same $75,000 asset is only worth $15,000
towards the meeting threshold.
So assets are tricky, as Rick says.
It's always best to get a joint sponsor if that's possible.
Now we do have, we have had people use assets.
But the assets that seem to sail through
are the ones that are very liquid
and are very easily verified through third party evidence
such as your mortgage statement
and a recent certified appraisal
showing that you've got 100,000 equity in your home,
or your TD Ameritrade statement
showing that you've got some investment accounts,
those kind of things.
And since your specific question
was about the foreign spouse, that's even harder.
It's gonna depend on the country and a lot of things.
But yes, the spouse's income can be used,
or assets can be used if it's the intending spouse's,
is the intending immigrant,
but they're gonna count as 1/3 and they've got to be legit.
Now one thing I'll also throw in there
that we actually saw happen, it's been four
or five years ago now but we had a couple,
it happened to be a young couple from the UK
and the parents were very much in favor
of the union and so on.
And so they transferred some money,
it was 50,000 or something to the account of the couple
so they could say, look at this,
assets we got in the bank.
Well, the adjudicator didn't buy it.
They're not dumb is the bottom line.
You can't have your mom or somebody that trusts you,
stick a bunch of money in your account
while you get approved and then of course
they're gonna take it back later.
They're gonna see right through that,
which is in fact what happened,
that the money was on deposit for a year
and so they refused to count it.
The couple did end up getting approved
and it all got worked out,
but they were not able to use that particular money
because the adjudicator saw right through that ruse.
So don't try to trick these guys.
You're not gonna come up with something
they haven't thought of.
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