I-864 Question regarding Income and Joint Sponsor - Help Please :(

[AnnaMaria 68]

Hello, the NVC received our approved I-130 on August, 13th so we're getting the AoS packet together to send to my husbands mother, who is also the Joint Sponsor, so when the AoS bill is paid we can send it in immediately. We are having some issues though regarding his income and the tax transcripts.

First, my husband is a disabled USC. He receives Social Security Disability and Veteran's Affairs Disability Pension from the Army. We did as much research as we possibly can relating to these benefits and supposedly they are NOT considered a taxable income. That being said, while he did not have to file the past three years, he did so. We have the tax transcripts from the past three years so we have them for the NVC and interview. However, one problem is that while he has been receiving his Veteran's disability since 2010, he did not start receiving Social Security Disability until late 2012. Until this year, he had never received anything tax related for his Social Security, but he did get something from them this year which he reported on his 2013 taxes. We understood that in order to have your social security benefits taxed you need to make over $25,000 somehow and he barely makes half of that (Around $12,000 annually from Social Security, and less than half of that from Veteran's Affairs Disability pension) . So, why was he required to enter part of his Social Security on his taxes if he does not even make the poverty limit, and he is far under the required amount for reporting his social security as income. The problem is, on the I-864 it asks about the petitioner's income and he input it (Which is about $280 under the 125% Poverty Level), but if Social Security and Veterans Disability benefits are not considered Taxable income, how will it affect us if we enter his total annual benefit amount in the Income box and he was only required to report a portion for his taxes (We do have a copy of the tax paper Social Security sent him). If his income is not taxable, will this cause a checklist for entering annual benefit amount on the Income box of the I-864, or will it cause a conflict with the tax returns since he was only required to report a portion of it, and cause a checklist?

We are trying to avoid a check list at all costs and he is trying to coordinate things with his mother back home while he is living in Romania with me, so I understand it is very time-consuming and stressful. On the NVC Wiki page found here by Saylin, it states you can send in the most recent year OR past three year transcripts. To make things easier for our Joint Sponsor, his mother, can she just send in the 2013 tax transcript for her part or does she need to send in all three?

I'm sorry for the long read, but we got through USCIS with NO checklists due to all the amazing support on this page and we are hopeful for your continued responses as we reach the NVC page. We have a ton of questions regarding the I-864, but if we can just start with these two major issues we're having, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!!!!!

Edited August 23, 2014 by AnnaMaria