British Expatriate Network

Before coming to the USA I had a thriving business in the UK. Well, some pretty awful things happened when my accountant made some fairly drastic mistakes, and I ended up losing everything and having a terrible credit history. Also, I am sure I still owe the Inland Revenue some money. I was never made bankrupt, but I probably should have been. I am married to an American who has a pretty good job and we are now relatively financially stable - we pay all our bills on time and have a tiny bit left over.

So, when they check me out for my green card, will they credit check me or check with the Inland Revenue, and if they come back with negative info is this going to cause me a problem?

Oh, after seeing this 125% of poverty line figure mentioned, I thought I'd better mention that my wife earns about $40k-$43k or so per year. Is that 125% over the poverty line? I don't have a clue how much that is.

Although last year she only made about $37k because she had a lot of maternity leave when expecting our first baby. eek)

You are safe. The data protection act prevents ANY credit history, good or bad, from being divulged. We had this problem only in reverse!! It took us 2 years to get credit cards even though we had over $500,000 of assets in the US.

Thanks Monty, that's quite a relief.

Assuming that it's just you and your wife the poverty guideline is $11,940.
125% of that is $14,925 so you're well in line with her earnings.
If you have any children or any more people in your household who come into the equation
have a look at
http//www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/howdoi/affsupp.htm
It gives a break down for the 2002 poverty guidelines.