i-864 AOS

[mpdeakin 0]

I know you guys probably get this a lot, but it's so stressful looking through all the different questions and answers specific to other peoples situations and never finding anything related to ours! Hope you understand.

Just a few questions.

1. Me and my spouse live in the same household as our joint-sponsor (her mother). My spouse works part-time and doesn't earn enough to sponsor me alone. Do we get her mom to fill out the i-864a to combine their income (we have no solid way to prove my spouses income since she's only had the job for about 3 months), or should her mother provide another i-864?

2. My spouse has no recent tax returns since she didn't have a job last year. I think she had tax returns for 2011 and 2010 though so even though they're not really relevant, do I have to provide them or should I just write an explanation letter as to why she has no tax return for the most recent year? Also should I check the box, on part 6 q. 13 when it asks if she's filed tax returns, even if I don't provide any?

3. When filling out the section about the household size, I assume we put my spouses household size as 2 (me and her), and her mothers at 3 (me, her and my spouse)?

Thanks for your time, hope you can help.

[NikLR 13,227]

To be honest I generally recommend that unless the parent claims the USC spouse on their taxes, that they each file an I-864. That way the household count actually stays low. Household count is not the people living in a house but a separate family group. If your MIL signs a completed I-864 to combine income, then your spouse has 3 people on her household count instead of 2. Same with your MIL. However if your MIL doesn't claim your spouse as a dependant on her taxes, the MIL household count is only 2, her and you.

Your spouse needs to provide a reason for why she didn't file taxes.

[LaVegano 12]

I believe your wife still needs to file a tax return even though she did not work. I could be wrong but I would look into this.

[mpdeakin 0]

She didn't file taxes last year because she spent 6 months in England with me, and couldn't find a job when she got back.

My spouse is still considered a dependent on her moms tax returns, but she makes enough to take care of both of us whilst still being above the poverty level. If we didn't have to include my spouse as the primary sponsor, we'd just use her mom as the primary with no joint sponsor, but since my spouse has to be the primary sponsor it's a little confusing.

I don't want to get it wrong and make it look like we think that my spouse can sponsor me on her own.

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

Why does she have no way to prove her income? Is she self-employed? If not, proof of her current income is with a letter from her employer and/or recent pay stubs. Only the most recent tax transcript is required to be sent with the I-864 but you need to list the total income from the last 3 years on the form. If she did not file in 2012, then you need to provide a statement as to why she was not legally required to file that year,

In your situation, the mother can fill out an I-864A and combine her income with your wife's. The mother needs to provide her most recent tax transcript, letter from employer and/or recent pay stubs or other proof of her current income. She also needs to provide proof of being a USC or LPR.

[mpdeakin 0]

Not that she can't prove she isn't employed as of right now, it's just that we have no way of knowing how much she'll make this year due to the job being part-time. Can I just estimate how much she'll make by averaging out pay checks?

So i-864a it is. I'll provide a tax transcript with her mother's app, along with a copy of her birth certificate for USC proof, and a few recent pay stubs.

With my wife's I'll send the i-864 with a letter stating that she did not earn anything last year, letter of employment, and recent pay stubs to prove she is working as of now.

Does that sound good?

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

Yes, you can get the annualized income by taking her hourly pay times how many hours she works a week, then multiply that by 52 weeks to get the annual amount. OR, average the pay checks for a close estimate. And yes, that sounds good.