Sleep? What's that?

Alright, as you know, we received our application last Friday from the American Consulate General. Richard has paperwork to fill out and it seems to be pretty straight forward. Once completed, he mails his application to the Consulate, they will complete all necessary administrative processing of his immigrant visa application and approximately one month before his scheduled interview appointment, he'll receive an appointment letter containing the date and time of his visa interview along with instructions for obtaining a medical examination.

What we need to do now is prepare for the appointment of his visa interview in which we need to gather some documents required for his application; birth certificate, police certificate, passport, deportation papers, court or prison records, military records, marriage certificate .. sure sounds like alot! After all this is obtained, we'll need to bring them to the visa interview.

I have paperwork to fill out as well .. although mine is going to be along the difficult side; I'm in charge of something called "Affidavit of Support" (form I-864) documents. As a petitioner (or sponsor), you must show that an intending immigrant has adequate means of financial support and is not likely to become a public charge. I need to show that my household income must equal or exceed 125% of the Federal poverty line for my household size, which according to the 2004 Poverty Guidelines would be $11,638 as I'm considered a household size of 1.

Examples of what I need to provide:

1.) Evidence of Income. I need to submit my Federal income tax returns for the most RECENT 3 tax years, or an explanation if fewer are submitted. 2001, 2002, 2003 - this is going to be fun!

• 2001, unemployed - due to my Ovarian Cancer diagnosis in 2000, treatment and recovery.
• 2002, I did work this year but the first few months were part time until I was eligible for full time in July. I quit right before leaving for the Netherlands in November.
• 2003, being illegal and waiting for a court decision to appeal a denial makes for an awkward way to gain employment and safe employment at that!

2.) Evidence of Assets. This is used only when you haven't sufficient enough income to meet the requirements. It just so happens I own a home .. my father left his home to me via 'Living Will' and I will have to provide documentation establishing location, ownership, date of acquisition and value. I have nothing stating the home is mine .. all I have is the Deed which my sister handed over to me and my name isn't on it .. having your name entered was done away with for some reason or another.
I wrote to the Chief @ the Immigrant Visa branch to let them know of my dilemna with my Fed. tax returns. What I'm afraid of is I'll need to find a joint sponsor .. and I hate to rely on anyone for anything but, if that's the case, I'm gonna have to break down and do so. Perhaps my Mom will help .. she wants us in America bad enough to kill someone or at least do some type of damage! We can only ask ..
Perhaps I'm worried over nothing .. with everything we've already gone through, how could I begin to imagine that this process would be easy? Some more sleepless nights to follow until I get some answers ..