Helping family friend bring spouse to USA

[jen10001 0]

Hello all.

I have recently been approached by a longtime family friend for help with the last steps of bringing his wife from MX to the USA.

Current situation:

"Eric" is a legal permanent resident alien (2.5 years) living in the US. His wife of 3 years lives in Mexico (they have no dependents).

His immigration attorney told him that he needs a co-sponsor for the I-864. My SO and I are the only people he knows who make enough to do so. However, I do not relish the idea of taking on a 5-10 year (possible) financial commitment for someone I have never met. In addition, Eric currently makes $2K/month, which is well over the 125% poverty line. The reasons that the attorney advised him to get a co-sponsor are obviously due to the issues laid out below:

In trying to assist him with completing his I-864, it has come to my attention that his long-time employer has been paying him as an independent contractor, which he is *very* clearly not. He is a full-time gardener for a well-off family, never receives paystubs, and has not yet received a W-2 or 1099 for 2015. He received a 1099 from this employer in 2014. I make no excuses for Eric's ignorance of tax laws, and have told him it could jeopardize his own status. He is very hesitant to report his employer to the IRS as it would jeopardize his job as well as his coworkers' jobs.

I offered Eric a regular full-time job 4 months ago (I run a small business), which pays $32K/year. He didn't want to rock the boat and upset his application for his wife's Visa by accepting a different job or moving across country, but has stated his intentions to accept this job as soon as his wife arrives in the US.

I have instructed him to immediately order his TY2014 tax transcript. He did make a lump sum payment ~$900 to the IRS for TY2014, after grossing $9K that year (he moved to the US in the middle of that year so made much less money). I have told him that his employer needs to pay/treat him as an employee immediately, or he needs to get a new "normal" job so that he can prove regular income for the I-864.

Taking this into account, what should our next step be? I am willing to employ him immediately, and he will be paying all normal taxes (fed tax/ss/medicare etc) like any W-4 employee. I am also going to assist him in filing his taxes to show his actual 2015 income (~$24K), even if that means I have to lend him money to pay the taxes he clearly owes. He will need a tax professional for this obviously. Will 1-2 paystubs from his new job (obviously he won't have that until 1-1.5 months from now), an offer letter from me for full-time employment, along with the 2015 taxes showing $24K in self-employment income be suitable for the I-864? I want to get him out of his current employment situation immediately, for obvious reasons. Am I missing something obvious that will cause issues?

Sorry for the very long treatise, due to language barriers it is hard to get the exact gist of things from him at first go, however, he has realized he definitely needs help, and that I am much better situated/informed because of language, professional experience, and internet access issues. Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

Edited February 5, 2016 by jen10001

[R2B 2]

I-864 might not be necessary for filing I-130 petition, so you still have more than a year to plan for that,

BTW, this thread should be in the forum of

Bringing Family Members of Permanent Residents to America

[jen10001 0]

Sorry, I didn't mean to post in the incorrect forum, will delete and repost there. Also, they are well into the process of bringing his wife to the US, and his immigration attorney has stated that the I-864 is the next step in the process (along with numerous other supporting documents). The "Document Cover Sheet" was dated January 20. Thanks for the suggestion.

[aleful 1,905]

hi

when did he file for him exactly, because spouses of LPR can take around 2 years, so if he just filed the i130, he will need the i864 maybe for next year, or maybe even 2018, so he can fix his financial things and not even need a joint sponsor

[jen10001 0]

I am waiting for more information regarding what exactly has been filed, but the attorney told him that her interview will happen in the next 1-3 months (Please note that I very much suspect that the attorney is stringing him along a bit to get his hopes up so he pays up). I know he has been working on this for 18-24 months, but obviously he isn't on top of things as much as he could/should be, quite simply due to lack of good information and always having to wait for the attorney in order to get things done. I am trying to change that.

Assuming that her interview *is* due in 2-3 months, would you advise that he take on a new W-2 job making significantly more $ per year, or to continue on with his current self-employment/independent contractor position? On the one hand, his IC status is very stable making exactly $2K/month, on the other, his status as an IC is obviously very iffy. Thanks for your help.

[JFH 12,191]

He won't have an interview date or be anywhere near interview stage if he hasn't done the Affidavit of Support yet. The attorney is telling him what he wants to hear (that his wife will soon have her interview). Nothing will move forward until he completes this step. The embassy doesn't even know about them yet. This stage takes several months and then the file is sent to the local embassy in Mexico and a few months after they get the file is when she gets the interview. He's actually still in an early stage, relatively speaking.

[Ryan H 3,834]

I-864 might not be necessary for filing I-130 petition, so you still have more than a year to plan for that,

BTW, this thread should be in the forum of

Bringing Family Members of Permanent Residents to America

~~Thread moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to above mentioned forum.~~