I-864 Form, Part 6 (Sponsor's Income and Employment)

[lyraandmia 0]

Hi all,

Thanks for your help in advance.

My husband is the petitioner. He is currently a student in college. He is employed as a student worker by the college under the Federal Work Study Program. He earns a small pay of <$500 a month. According to him, he has not had to file taxes as his pay is not technically considered an income.

In the case of the AOS, would it make sense for us to list his:

1. Employment as a student (under Part 6.1.)

2. Employer as his college (under Part 6.1.a.)

Also as he has not filed any taxes, would he still need to submit some sort transcript of his Federal tax return? I will be preparing a cover letter explaining out financial situation and attaching it to the forms for submission.

Thanks again!

[lyraandmia 0]

He actually has W2 forms from his employer. Should we just submit that as proof of income?

[Ryan H 3,812]

What's needed is proof of current income such as a verification of employment letter showing job title and pay rate or pay stubs that show year to date pay. W2's do not show current income.

A salary of less than $500 per month is insufficient to meet the guidelines, a joint sponsor or assets will be required in order to qualify.

Edited July 28, 2015 by Ryan H

[lyraandmia 0]

What's needed is proof of current income such as a verification of employment letter showing job title and pay rate or pay stubs that show year to date pay. W2's do not show current income.

A salary of less than $500 per month is insufficient to meet the guidelines, a joint sponsor or assists will be required in order to qualify.

Thanks for the reply Ryan, much appreciated!

We do have a joint sponsor who meets the required criteria, and he has been prepping the paperwork on his end.

I hope you could help me with a couple more questions regarding our case:

With regard to my husband's AOS packet, we have the pay stubs and the employment letter you mentioned and we were going to include that as part of his submission.

What I'm wondering is, since he has not had to file taxes (we checked on the IRS website and it said that he is not required to), would this be a problem for us down the road? I was trying to look this up online and some people have said that he should have filed despite not being required to. At this point it's too late to file for 2014 and too early for 2015, so we don't know if he should just go ahead and file anyway for 2014. I'm hoping that he wouldn't have to and that it's enough for us to just submit the proof of income without a tax transcript.

Also we were wondering if it's better for us to just say that he's a student, and indicate that he has no income since his pay is insufficient and we are depending mostly on our joint sponsor anyway...

Thanks again Ryan

[newacct 688]

The only legitimate reason for not filing taxes is that his income that year is below the threshold where he must file taxes. "Not technically considered income" doesn't make sense. Income is income; but the first so many dollars of income have no tax due to deductions and exemptions.

Every year's Form 1040 instructions has a section near the beginning about who must file. If he was not required to file because he was below the threshold, and he did not file, then everything is fine. (If he was below the threshold, it means he would have 0 tax even if he filled out the form anyway; but he might potentially qualify for some credits, i.e. he might be able to get money back, depending on the circumstances; that's why it might be a good idea to fill out the tax form anyway and see.)

[lyraandmia 0]

Hi newacct,

I get what your saying that income is income either way and it didn't make sense to have put it that way :/

But yes, in his case he was well below the annual min. of $3,950 and was not required to file. He has documents that show that his income was below the threshold for 2014.

The USCIS website states that:

If you were not required to file a tax return in any of these years you must provide an explanation. Failure to provide the tax return or evidence establishing that you were not required to file will delay action on your relative's application for permanent residence.

Would the pay stubs (and any documents that show annual income of less than the required threshold) + a cover letter be enough evidence to establish that he was not required to file taxes?

Thanks

[newacct 688]

Would the pay stubs (and any documents that show annual income of less than the required threshold) + a cover letter be enough evidence to establish that he was not required to file taxes?

Thanks

Attaching pay stubs is evidence for the current income question.

That is unrelated to the question about past taxes. The written statement explaining his income was below the threshold plus his W2s from that year should be enough for showing he wasn't required to file taxes.