Income question for I-485

[Kristy S 13]

My yearly income is 30k, I know this is a few steps ahead of the game, but I really have no friends and my family are few and paranoid, so if i will need a co-sponsor I kind of need to start on finding one now.

I have 3 kids, but they live primarily with my ex husband since i gave him the house and he has no job and i work 50 hours a week. He claims them for his food stamps and he gets my son's SSI check. My question is, will the kids count towards my household for the income requirements for the I-485 or not? and i can't seem to find the income scale either.

any help would be appreciated, you guys rock

thanks

~kristy

[JoannaV 174]

My yearly income is 30k, I know this is a few steps ahead of the game, but I really have no friends and my family are few and paranoid, so if i will need a co-sponsor I kind of need to start on finding one now.

I have 3 kids, but they live primarily with my ex husband since i gave him the house and he has no job and i work 50 hours a week. He claims them for his food stamps and he gets my son's SSI check. My question is, will the kids count towards my household for the income requirements for the I-485 or not? and i can't seem to find the income scale either.

any help would be appreciated, you guys rock

thanks

~kristy

In general, you have to include all minor children as part of your household unless you can prove that you have absolutely no legal obligation to support them.

Here are the current income requirements: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-864p.pdf For a household of 5 (you + 3 kids + immigrant) the requirement is for $32,237. If you could scrounge up, say, $6000 worth of assets then you would scrape by. It's definitely a good idea for you to have a co-sponsor ready, even if you eventually manage to get by without it. (Maybe you'll manage to finish 2010 with a slightly higher income, and it'll be accepted.) But for sure it sounds like you should start trying to sweet talk someone into being a co-sponsor. They will need to meet the income requirement by themselves.

Good luck

[Kristy S 13]

thank you, yeah, i guess i should start looking, i'm on salary, so my income won't go up (in fact, it will probably go down because my company decided to put loopholes in the bonus program to make it so that none of the managers that work for them can actually EARN it this year) and i gave my ex husband everything resembling an asset in the divorce.

[Nik+Heather 121]

Just confirmation of what Joanna said, because I thought the same as you, if you weren't claiming them as dependents, why would they count on the I-864....so I went to look it up.

Anyway, on page 7 of the detailed instructions for the I-864, line 21d:

Enter the number of unmarried children you have who are under age 21, even if you do not have legal custody of these children.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

thank you, yeah, i guess i should start looking, i'm on salary, so my income won't go up (in fact, it will probably go down because my company decided to put loopholes in the bonus program to make it so that none of the managers that work for them can actually EARN it this year) and i gave my ex husband everything resembling an asset in the divorce.

An asset is anything you can easily turn into cash. Do you have 2 cars? If so the second can be used as an asset. Do you have stocks? Bonds? Money in savings? As long as you have $6000ish (3 times the amount you're missing) in assets or savings then you'll be okay.

[Kristy S 13]

An asset is anything you can easily turn into cash. Do you have 2 cars? If so the second can be used as an asset. Do you have stocks? Bonds? Money in savings? As long as you have $6000ish (3 times the amount you're missing) in assets or savings then you'll be okay.

i wish i could say yes to any of those. but when i divorced my ex i gave him the house (5 bedroom completely paid off), gave him the extra car, let him have my son's SSI check, let him claim them for the foodstamps, and i pay his bills for him. (i know i could have reamed him, but this way i don't have to worry about where my kids are when they aren't with me).

all i took with me when i left was one couch, two dressers, one recliner, one very small very old tv, my clothes, and about 3k worth of credit card debts, oh, and one coffee table.

so yeah, i have zero assets.

Edited November 11, 2010 by Kristy S

[VanessaTony 3,567]

i wish i could say yes to any of those. but when i divorced my ex i gave him the house (5 bedroom completely paid off), gave him the extra car, let him have my son's SSI check, let him claim them for the foodstamps, and i pay his bills for him. (i know i could have reamed him, but this way i don't have to worry about where my kids are when they aren't with me).

all i took with me when i left was one couch, two dressers, one recliner, one very small very old tv, my clothes, and about 3k worth of credit card debts, oh, and one coffee table.

so yeah, i have zero assets.

You don't happen to live with anyone right now? Then you could use their income to boost yours (using an I-864A)... otherwise you will need someone earning enough to cover THEIR household size plus the immigrant. So if you pick your sister for example. Unmarried and no kids, she would only need to earn $18,212 (2 person household size).. which is much more reasonable. If you pick your married co-worker who has 4 kids she needs enough income for 7 (her, husband and kids + immigrant).. ouchies :S

[Kristy S 13]

You don't happen to live with anyone right now? Then you could use their income to boost yours (using an I-864A)... otherwise you will need someone earning enough to cover THEIR household size plus the immigrant. So if you pick your sister for example. Unmarried and no kids, she would only need to earn $18,212 (2 person household size).. which is much more reasonable. If you pick your married co-worker who has 4 kids she needs enough income for 7 (her, husband and kids + immigrant).. ouchies :S

oh crud..the one person that volunteered is married with 2 kids...so she needs to make what i make...and she is my employee, so she definitely doesn't.

another one that offered is an 18 yr old living with her mother. her mom doesn't support her though..so would she just need to be able to support two if she does?

[VanessaTony 3,567]

oh crud..the one person that volunteered is married with 2 kids...so she needs to make what i make...and she is my employee, so she definitely doesn't.

another one that offered is an 18 yr old living with her mother. her mom doesn't support her though..so would she just need to be able to support two if she does?

Yep. Friend married with 2 kids has a household size of 4 + 1 = 5.

18 year old only needs to support her household size. Someone who is her dependant, who she claims on taxes fits into her household size. So if it's just her (say living with mom to save money) then yep, only need to support herself + 1 = 2 so $18,212 needs to be her income.

Remember that you still need to complete your I-864 and so does the friend. Both include supporting tax documents and the friend must include citizenship/residency proof (you already did with the K1)