I864 and I864A forms and petitioner's docs

[nickoxxy 2]

It's been a while since I visited VJ, so feels like I'm back to 2011 (when I was dealing with the paperwork for my wife).

Now I got different situation. One of my friends has asked me for the help to walk through the IR-5 process (she's sponsoring her parents, both mom and dad).

She has a case (petition) opened by USCIS and now we're collecting paper work for the NVC's stage. I took a look at docs required at NVC and now we're doing AOS (affidavit of support).

Her both cases are being proceeded for Madrid, Spain (MDD).

I got some questions.

1. What goes first: AOS or DS-260? I know from my past experience, AOS comes first, then DS-260 with the supporting docs. But the NVC's site says about DS-260 (Submit Visa Form Application) first, then AOS.

2. Which tax year is considered for the immigration purpose: 2013 or 2014 in terms of IRS transcripts/1040?

3. The petitioner is unemployed (they have 2 kids), her husband only works. They do joint tax return.

Based on http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/documents/Step_4_Collect_Financial_Documents.html their before tax income (considering 2 kids as family members) is below poverty line.

It looks like, she'll need a co-sponsor (since her husband's income has been already included in joint 1040). Correct?

4. Under the section for petiioner's docs (for IR-5) http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/documents/Supporting_documents.html it asks for originals/certified copies of: birth certificate and marriage certificate. Both those docs are in Ukrainian. Does she still have to send to the NVC her Ukrainian originals? Certified copies are not available for Ukraine (according to the NVC's site).

Do these originals need to be sent along with the translation? And also there's no guarantee that NVC won't loose it (I've heard about these situations in the past). So it's kinda scary to send these docs out. Is it possible to contact NVC and ask for the copies? Or what's the other way to work it out?

So far these are the most critical questions which I'm trying to get answer/help for.

Any help/inputs would be highly appreciated.

Thank you, guys.