I-864, Bringing Parents to the USA, Married filing Jointly?

[bruceschaller 0]

Hi there,

Currently, my wife and I are in the process of sponsoring her parents for permanent residency. I am a USC and my wife immigrated and is now a USC also. We file our taxes married, jointly. We have no kids or other dependents.

My in laws are from Colombia. They each have a B1/B2 visa in good standing, and we are just before the interview step, however, or I-864s have been returned twice, and I really need to get it right for the interview. Their filings are separate.

First and foremost, I guess that this means that we need two I-864's filed, and two I-864A's filed

- My wife for her mother (I-864)

- My wife for her father (I-864)

- Me for my father in law (I-864A)

- Me for my mother in law (I-864A)

I-864, Part 5:

Because of the separate filings, how do we count our household size? Is it 3 (Me + My Wife + intending immigrant, father or mother) or is it 4 (Me + My wife + Father-in-law + Mother-In-Law)? I think this is 3.

I-864, Part 6, #5:

Because we file our taxes jointly, we have tried a couple of different things here. We used each of our respective incomes which added up to our current annual household income (Item 10). This was returned. What goes here? Our Joint income, line 22 on our 1040? Something else? Any pointers would be a huge help! Our case is not covered in the instructions, which is a huge disappointment.

I-864, Part 6, #6:

Because we file our taxes jointly, our income is counted together, am I person 1 on my wife's I-864? How do I show that our incomes are joint? Do I place myself with an income of 0? How do I get my wife's income alone if we file our taxes jointly?

I-864, Part 6, #10:

The instructions state "If you included the income of your spouse listed in Part 5, Item 3, or any child listed in part 5, item 4, or any dependent listed in part 5, item 5, or any other relative listed in part 5 item 7, each one of these individuals must be over 18 years of age and complete I-864A." The form says we should add the incomes on lines 5, 6c, 7c, 8c & 9c. If I use the same income for both of us (because we file jointly) it misrepresents our income. I think I've got this one, this is line 22 from my 1040.

I-864, Part 6, #13:

Total income: we have filed jointly each year for the past 3 years. The form says: MY TOTAL INCOME. What do I enter here? Do I make this my wife's income alone? Is this our joint income?

Ugh! I find this very frustrating.

Thanks so much for your help in advance!

The Schallers

[TBoneTX 46,161]

*** Thread moved from "What Visa Do I Need" forum to "Bringing Family Members of U.S. Citizens to America" forum. ***