Affidavit of Support, I-130 & An Awkward Question!

[janamaria 0]

This forum is just so helpful, I really appreciate all the people so far who have offered up their opinions and knowledge to my past questions.

I have a couple more things that I would love an answer or some advice to if anyone could help me out that would be amazing! If it makes a difference I will be using the London embassy.

1) I am struggling with the affidavit of support. I am a dual citizen (UK and US) and have lived in the UK my whole life (apart from 5 months in the US) When we plan on living in the states it will hopefully be California. Does this mean that I should use the Californian poverty guidelines to make sure I am viable to financially support my spouse (he is the one I am trying to get the greencard for)?

2) I doubt very much that I will ever be able to meet the poverty guidelines, so I was looking into a joint sponsor/s. However, I have learnt that a joint sponsor must be a USC and also be living in the states (correct me if I'm wrong here!) I do not have any family in the states I would feel comfortable asking to do this for us and the UK family I have that would be happy to do it would not qualify due to not being American. I was wondering if to meet the poverty guidelines I could simply try to persuade a UK family member to transfer the required amount of money into mine or my husbands bank account. Would this work? And secondly, even if it could not stay there permanently?

3) Awkward... I am looking to do various things (opening bank accounts) and also need a US address for various different parts of the process. The family I am closest to in US who I would prefer to choose for this are awesome, but they were also arrested and charged for a drug crime. It was quite a big case in the local area. The charges ended up being dropped. My question is, will this make any difference to the process? Will we be less likely to succeed? Should I find another USC family member/friend to use instead?

4) Question 18 on the I-130 is 'Address in the states where your relative intends to live' What shall I put for this if we are both currently living in the UK and still haven't decided where we are going to live when we get to the US?

Thank you all so much in advance!! Really, really appreciate all the help and advice.

[kdn103 1]

For #1, California is no different. It falls under 48 Contiguous states:

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864p.pdf

For #2, they have to be USC or PR and living in the US.

Edited March 27, 2016 by kdn103

[Anh map 2,098]

Dropping money into an account would not be accepted as an asset for the I-864 for exactly the reason you stated: it wouldn't stay there.

The family member's legal troubles wouldn't be an issue. They would need to meet the income requirement for their household plus the intending immigrant.

If your income would continue (you've stated that you are self employed) and line 22 on your 2015 US tax return meets the requirement then you could meet the guidelines on your own. It's up to the interviewing CO and London has a reputation of not being tough on the affidavit of support. If that fails, then have your relative waiting in the wings to be the joint sponsor. Or have their docs literally in hand to present if the CO says no to your income.

You need to pick a US address. Often people will use a relative's address until they get settled.

[janamaria 0]

For #1, California is no different. It falls under 48 Contiguous states:

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864p.pdf

For #2, they have to be USC or PR and living in the US.

Thanks for the reply! I did suspect as much for those two things.

Dropping money into an account would not be accepted as an asset for the I-864 for exactly the reason you stated: it wouldn't stay there.

The family member's legal troubles wouldn't be an issue. They would need to meet the income requirement for their household plus the intending immigrant.

If your income would continue (you've stated that you are self employed) and line 22 on your 2015 US tax return meets the requirement then you could meet the guidelines on your own. It's up to the interviewing CO and London has a reputation of not being tough on the affidavit of support. If that fails, then have your relative waiting in the wings to be the joint sponsor. Or have their docs literally in hand to present if the CO says no to your income.

You need to pick a US address. Often people will use a relative's address until they get settled.

Thanks for the detailed reply! In terms of my family with the legal trouble, I was just going to use them for the address of where we are going to stay/use their address to open bank accounts etc, I was not planning on using them as co-sponsors as I don't feel comfortable asking them such a huge thing. I am guessing then that they wouldn't need to meet any income requirement?

In terms of the family giving us money, it may be possible that my Mother-In-Law would be happy to give the money to my husband/us and let us keep it. Would this then count towards the requirements I need to reach?

Goodness, the tax return thing. That's a whole other huge thing I just find incredibly confusing! Could you explain a little more to me about line 22? We are putting out feelers and trying to book some jobs over in the US but it is still early days so I am not sure we could prove that our income could continue. Also, I have never filed a tax return as I have always lived in the UK (apart from 5 months in the US) and have never worked in the US. I have heard though that I still need to do this however? Sorry to be so clueless about it!

[Penguin_ie 5,995]

A recently transfered large sum will be suspicious, and in many US embassies, wil not count even if you get to keep it. However, London is one of the most easy going embassies when it comes to the afffadavit of support, so you may be in luck.

[Anh map 2,098]

For a self employed person the income shown on line 22 of their form 1040 tax return is the amount considered as income. If you show enough income to meet the requirement and this income will continue then that may solve your sponsorship problem.

An amount dropped into your account from another person won't be accepted.

[janamaria 0]

For a self employed person the income shown on line 22 of their form 1040 tax return is the amount considered as income. If you show enough income to meet the requirement and this income will continue then that may solve your sponsorship problem.

An amount dropped into your account from another person won't be accepted.

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. I will look into the self-employed tax return stuff and see if that would work for us, though I am just not sure we would be able to prove that our income would continue. If I changed our plans slightly and found myself a proper job offer there, could I count the expected income of that towards reaching the minimum income?

In terms of the money being put into my account. Yes, it's tricky because it's basically just because our supportive family who would happily be co-sponsors aren't USC so can't co-sponsor, so they would help just with a cash sum if it would work. Would it make a difference as to when they put the money in? For example if they did it now even before we have sent off our I-130?

Sorry to bombard you with questions, you just seem very knowledgeable!

I am putting off sending off the i-130 until we have our domicile and affidavit of support stuff sorted. Is this a mistake? What would happen if we did the I-30 but couldn't get the rest of the stuff sorted in time? Would we have to pay any fees/submit any forms again?

A recently transfered large sum will be suspicious, and in many US embassies, wil not count even if you get to keep it. However, London is one of the most easy going embassies when it comes to the afffadavit of support, so you may be in luck.

Thanks so much for your reply! I agree it may seem suspicious, it's just that they can't co-sponsor us (not USC) and want to support us. I am glad to hear that the London embassy is one of the most easy going though!