I-864: a complication

[Christi85 86]

Hello,

As neither my husband nor I currently live in the US, we can't claim any US income on the I-864, so we need a co-sponsor. This is not a problem in itself, as his mom is happy to be our co-sponsor and her individual income is way beyond the poverty line. However, up until now, she has been filing jointly with her husband. As of May 2010, they are in divorce proceedings and I believe they are already legally separated (but not yet officially divorced), and the husband has now moved out of the house. However their most recent tax statements (for 2009) are still joint showing them as a married couple.

My question is: does my father in-law still have to fill out an I-864A giving his consent for his "wife" and household member(as appears on the 2009 tax forms - when they were still married) to be our sponsor? Or will a copy of their legal separation documents suffice to show that they are not members of the same household anymore? I doubt that the divorce will be finalized for the next several months, as they are still in financial negotiations, so probably it will still be pending at the time of the interview. I supsect that going with the first option would be simpler and would raise less questions, but then again it would essentially be a lie, and I'm not comfortable with that either.

Just to clarify: my mother in-law will be our only co-sponsor. We are not using both of them as sponsors.

Your views will be much appreciated!

[Songer 1]

I'm not a tax or legal guy so I have no idea if the Husband needs to sign anything.

But a conservative view of this situation would be to question if the Mother In Law will have enough income by herself in 2010 if she is financially independent from her husband. Meaning, maybe the husband made all the money for the family and now she has no income.

If I were you, I would (A) find another co-sponsor with a cleaner profile or if you cannot, then (B) use the joint 2009 Tax return and include a YTD June or July Pay Statement showing her income for the first half of 2010 is enough to cover the minimum requirement.

[engineer21 51]

I would say write a short statement to explain the recent separation, hence tax return was still jointly filed, and send along the separation documents.

Also send a letter from her employer + pay stubs just to show without a doubt that her income alone is enough.

Good luck!

[Christi85 86]

Thank you both!

Engineer21 - sounds like a good idea. We're doing DCF at the London Consulate so we'll be required to present the documents at the interview. We won't be sending them in advance. At least that will give us the opportunity to explain in person if need be, but I'll include the statement too.

Songer- thanks for the advice about the YTD pay statement. It may come in handy. As I said in my first post, her salary alone is more than enough (she's in a senior management position in her department and organization). She doesn't need the husband's income to qualify. I believe they ask either for IRS transcripts (which clearly show individual incomes), or otherwise a simple copy of their tax return accompanied by W2/pay stubs etc. So her individual income can be identified either way.

Thanks - the other option obviously (which we've considered) would be to wait till she files individually for 2010 (from early 2011 if I'm correct), but that could slow us down significantly