What qualifies as "40 Qualifying Quarters"?

[Mayday 0]

I’m sponsoring my husband for a 130 green card. He’s worked in the US for over twenty years and would seem to have reached the threshold for “40 qualifying quarters” of work, in order to waive the 864. My question is this: What qualifies as a “qualifying quarter”? Is it a minimum dollar amount earned? If so, how do I determine what that threshold is?

Thanks.

[novedsac 355]

For the purposes of a waiver of the H864, a qualifying quarter can be met by either:

1) Beneficiary earned at least $1200 and received no means-tested federal assistance

2) For quarters during the marriage, the beneficiary's spouse earned $1200 and received no means-tested federal assistance.

The $1200 quarterly minimum is for 2014 ... would need to look up data tables to determine qualifying amounts for earlier years. This information is available on the Social Security Administration website.

For the purpose of receiving SS benefits, qualifying quarters must be with work for which social security taxes are deducted, ie. being a teacher in a public school does not pay social security and, therefore, does not qualify. Not really sure if this distinction is important for H864 waiver. I would assume that if SS taxes are taken out of your paycheck, then it is qualifying as long as the minimum quarterly requirements are met and no means-tested federal assistance is received.

Edited February 10, 2014 by novedsac

[aaron2020 11,651]

Im sponsoring my husband for a 130 green card. Hes worked in the US for over twenty years and would seem to have reached the threshold for 40 qualifying quarters of work, in order to waive the 864. My question is this: What qualifies as a qualifying quarter? Is it a minimum dollar amount earned? If so, how do I determine what that threshold is?

Thanks.

Here's the sloppy calculations.

If your husband has more than $5000 in annual reported income to Social Security for at least 10 years, then he has the 40 quarters of work to qualify for the I-864w.