i864 Joint Sponsor - Joint Tax Return Issues

[OnThePath87 2]

Hi Guys,

I am finally at the end of replying to my RFE. I have a joint sponsor who makes well over the limit (my wifes aunt), her entire tax return and recent pay stubs for the last six months. I'd normally be confident with this.

However, she files a joint return with her husband which makes things slightly more complicated.

The issue I can see is the RFE mentions provide copies of all supporting tax documents (W-2's, 1099s, Form 2555 and Tax Schedules). We have everything with the exception of Form 1099, which I initially assumed was not needed as my wife's aunt does not claim a pension or any other miscellaneous income. However, upon reviewing the 1040 I notice there has been income from a pension (to her husband).

They have kindly supplied their entire tax return, schedules etc and within it there is a form 5329 which matches the amount in Form 1040 16b. This form 5329 relates exclusively to my wife's aunts husband. My first question is:

A) Do I even need to file a 1099 if said 1099 has nothing to do with my sponsor, as she is not claiming a pension or any other miscellaneous income?

B) If I am required to file a 1099, is Form 5329 adequate to cover it? To put it simply, if you've submitted a Form 5329, is form 1099 irrelevant?

My second question is:

The last note on the RFE states "The total income (line 22) on the IRS Form 1040 is used to determine qualifying income for a sponsor, not the "Gross Receipts" (line 1).

I suspect this RFE relates to an old tax return form as line 1 on the 2015 return is "Single". However line 22 is the total income of both my wife's aunt and her husband (the wife makes more). Do I just use the figure on the aunts W-2's or the payslips (they are different) to answer part 6 question 15 on the i-864? Surely this would constitute a 'gross receipt'?

Many thanks for all your help.

Best,

OnThePath

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

The Required tax return submitted must include everything that is part of that return, including Uncle's 1099-R or it's not a "complete tax return". Order a free transcript and it works all by itself without worrying about what pages and things to include.

The tax return lumps aunt and uncle together so USCIS does not know who earned what by looking at Line 22. They can not determine if Aunt qualifies on her own. A way around this is have Aunt list Uncle as Person 1 on her I-864 whose income she will use. Whatever he earns in pension or Social Security is listed by Person 1. Then there is a line for total household income which is the sum of Aunt+Person 1 (Uncle).

If she adds Uncle to her I-864, then he signs an I-864A. It's like his permission form to let her pledge his money.

Or Aunt can provide separate and clear evidence of her own income in addition to the tax return. Even a statement following the tax return saying I am providing optional evidence to show my separate income is sufficient. I have included a letter from my employer stating my salary is $XXXXX and six months of pay stubs showing I earn $XXXXX per month. That might make the point more evident that she has documentation to show she qualifies on her own.

Don't forget proof that Auntie is a USC or permanent resident.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Nich-Nick

[OnThePath87 2]

Nick,

Many thanks for your reply. I will try and get that transcript. For the benefit of anyone reading this in the future, would this mean the husbands w-2s have to be included as well?

Also, do the Aunts w-2s not differentiate her income?

Thanks for the USC heads up, I have a birth certificate.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Nick,

Many thanks for your reply. I will try and get that transcript. For the benefit of anyone reading this in the future, would this mean the husbands w-2s have to be included as well?

Also, do the Aunts w-2s not differentiate her income?

Thanks for the USC heads up, I have a birth certificate.

A complete tax return has to include every form, schedule, W2, or 1099 associated with that return. Anything that belongs to either spouse on a joint return, is part of the return.

You would think they could easily see her name on a W2 that proves she alone is over the limit. Don't count on them doing something obviously logical. They RFE all the time for that.

Many just have the other spouse do the I-864A to basically get both spouses signed on. That is why I said try to keep the evidence separate if proving separate income.

1) Tax return just because without it, they won't even look at the rest. It's a required element.

2) Proof of separate individual income--letter, pay stubs, and even a repeat of the W2 that is with #1.

Tax return transcripts are easiest because you can't forget bits.

[OnThePath87 2]

A complete tax return has to include every form, schedule, W2, or 1099 associated with that return. Anything that belongs to either spouse on a joint return, is part of the return.

You would think they could easily see her name on a W2 that proves she alone is over the limit. Don't count on them doing something obviously logical. They RFE all the time for that.

Many just have the other spouse do the I-864A to basically get both spouses signed on. That is why I said try to keep the evidence separate if proving separate income.

1) Tax return just because without it, they won't even look at the rest. It's a required element.

2) Proof of separate individual income--letter, pay stubs, and even a repeat of the W2 that is with #1.

Tax return transcripts are easiest because you can't forget bits.

Nick,

Many thanks again for your reply. I left replying to this one late as I anticipated there could be complications and would appreciate your input.

I have attempted to get a transcript but she isn't very computer literate and unfortunately lives a while away. We tried to do the IRS online get your transcript over the phone but it's not working (says we are locked out of the IRS website for 24 hours). It also says in the instructions for the I-864 that if you file a joint tax return, a transcript will not be sufficient (w-2's and 1099's must still be included) if you are using one persons income to qualify.

Tax related documents we have: Form 1040, Schedule A, Schedule B, Form 5329, Form 6251, Form 8960, Form 2106, Form 8283, Federal Statements, W-2's for Aunt, W-2's for Uncle. Combined, these total over $240,000 (with aunts W-2 being $130,000).

We have the "Form-IT-1099R" which are a related to the New York State Tax Return, this is a summary of the Federal Form-1099R (which is for $20,000) which details the state taxes were taken out of the 1099R income. I am aware that in the instructions it says do not send your state tax return. However, we do not have the actual form 1099-R sent by the pension provider.

So this leaves us two options a) overcome the transcript issue and get the uncle to sign off too or b) send above and pray for the best. (Or find another sponsor - we have six weeks to respond).

I have a feeling what you're going to say about b, but is it a big deal? Will form IT-Form-1099 be alright considering even without the $20,000 it relates to we are at least 6 times over the limit? Or do USCIS insist on seeing the form 1099-R from the pension provider as further evidence that this is not a forged tax return?

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

I really don't have an answer because you would think that instruction about send W2 if you filed a joint return and are qualifying one individual would mean they could see by the W2 alone that she qualifies.

1099-R is the form you need. I really don't know if the other would substitute. Is that the only thing you didn't send before? Can the pension department fax or email a duplicate 1099-R?

[OnThePath87 2]

Nick,

Thanks for getting back to me.

We didnt get RFE'd for the joint sponsor, we got RFE'd for something else and there was a message at the end saying we should get a joint sponsor so we did but its proving complicated.

We're trying to get it using your suggestion. Fingers crossed.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Do you think you have enough income to qualify without a joint sponsor? What were the exact words of your RFE? If you get anything wrong or leave out something, they tend to tack on the joint sponsor thing when you don't actually need one.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Nich-Nick

[tindera 2]

I'm kind of in a similar position. I just submitted by AOS package so Idk if I will get an RFE. I have my Aunt as my joint sponsor and her husband recently died in January. The the tax return still include her husband and in the line asking for annual income we just used her expected income for the year. We also submitted her employment letter and payslips.

[OnThePath87 2]

Do you think you have enough income to qualify without a joint sponsor? What were the exact words of your RFE? If you get anything wrong or leave out something, they tend to tack on the joint sponsor thing when you don't actually need one.

Nick,

We messed up on the household size, it autofilled out to 1. So the RFE requested we update/correct it. I think you are correct in that the RFE may have been lumped on the end as a generic warning but it didn't specify why we needed one.

It could have been for a number of reasons:

A) As the household size was not valid, they can't calculate how much the income is, therefore they added a generic RFE

B) My wifes job was newish (even though we sent in tax transcripts above 125% of the poverty level for the last 3 years for my wife) and she was pregnant at the time, so they may have wanted to see additional support.

C) In the income part of the i864, my wife wrote her income ($42,000 - with paystubs, contract etc) but we missed the "total household income" box that amalgamates all supporting incomes as we were only using hers and assumed that was only required if you had more than one sponsor in the same household. So there's a chance that they could have calculated that as $0.

My wife did make comfortably enough, but unfortunately it wasn't specified why they added the information other than the documents provided didn't make enough to cover the level. So for our own personal sanity we decided to reply with a joint sponsor in addition to the RFE.

In any event, we managed to get the 1099R yesterday and everythings getting sent off today!

Thanks again for all your help, it was really appreciated.

[OnThePath87 2]

I'm kind of in a similar position. I just submitted by AOS package so Idk if I will get an RFE. I have my Aunt as my joint sponsor and her husband recently died in January. The the tax return still include her husband and in the line asking for annual income we just used her expected income for the year. We also submitted her employment letter and payslips.

I'm sorry to hear about your aunt's husband.

I don't think this will be an issue and you'll be just fine. Based on what you've said I believe you followed correct procedure so long as your aunt makes enough on her own to cover the limits (as well as W-2's etc).

One thing I did not understand as a foreigner but do now is that anyone can just grab a 1040 and say they make millions of dollars, therefore the USCIS request documentation from a third party, such as an employers W-2's to back it up.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

My wife did make comfortably enough, but unfortunately it wasn't specified why they added the information other than the documents provided didn't make enough to cover the level. So for our own personal sanity we decided to reply with a joint sponsor in addition to the RFE.

In any event, we managed to get the 1099R yesterday and everythings getting sent off today!

Thanks again for all your help, it was really appreciated.

You don't need a joint sponsor. You need to fix your form and her income will be approved.