I-864 as Self-employed, Only Joint Sponsor Required

[Propelen 0]

Dear fellow immigrants,

What we have: Self-employed Petitioner with sufficient current individual annual GROSS income (without subtracted business expenses) to support beneficiary (spouse) on I-864. However, this would demonstration a significant difference in numbers between current individual annual income and latest (2014) Individual Income Tax return (1040 line 22). Tax returns figure is much lower than required 125% of the federal poverty guidelines. This potentially could raise additional questions and result in RFE.

Petitioner has a parent who is US citizen without dependents, residing in the same household with petitioner and beneficiary that has sufficient income to be qualified as a joint sponsor for the spouse.

Knowing that I-864 can get very complicated for someone who is self-employed, how this should be approached straightforward with least amount of pain?

Scenario I: Petitioner files I-864 and shows his current annual income to match his latest tax return from previous year and Parent files I-864A to add to the petitioner’s insufficient income or:

Scenario II: Petitioner files his Affidavit of Support and Parent files as “only joint sponsor” on a separate I-864. Therefore, parent income supersedes petitioner’s insufficient income. That seems to be a cleaner process. Thoughts/ suggestions?

I hope that this will help someone else that has similar situation.

[Anh map 2,098]

The joint sponsor does not supersede. The petitioner is always the primary sponsor and is first in line if there is every any money to be recovered.

The petitioner files the I-864 and shows line 22 as the income amount.

The joint sponsor also completes an I-864.

[Propelen 0]

Thank you Anh map for prompt response. Would you agree that having a joint sponsor is better than having household member filing I-864A along ? Also, I-864 of joint sponsor should be submitted in the same I-485 package ?

Would it make sense to file concurrently for I-131, Application for Travel Document. I have read that it is not recommended to travel while your file is being reviewed by immigration?

Thank you.

[Raccoon_CA 5]

Petitioner and Joint Sponsor each file their own Forms I-864. In your scenario, the Petitioner's parent would not file Form I-864A as a household member unless the petitioner was listed as a dependent on that parent's most recent federal tax return. The Household Member's Form I-864A would only apply if the Petitioner's parent was married. The parent's spouse would then need to submit an I-864A to sign off on the joint sponsorship.

The Joint Sponsor's I-864 packet is part of the main I-485 application.

As far as the I-131, it would only make sense if the applicant needed to travel while the application is pending or is likely to have an emergency to attend to while the application is pending. As long as USCIS grants it, it is the applicant's right to travel in and out of the country with an approved I-765/I-131, although being granted an advance parole document does not give any guarantee of admission upon entry.

[Propelen 0]

Raccoon_CA, this is great, straight to the point.

Thank you !!!