Using combined (petitioner and immigrant) assets

[Koni10 22]

Hi, we are going to file an AOS for me soon. Husband is USC. I've been working on H1B on term contract. H1B to GC through marriage.

 

1. Husband is going to school using VA benefit, and does receive BAH, which counts as an income. Is this right? He has post-9/11 benefit. 

 

Assuming that his BAH count as an income, that's still not enough income, so we are trying to fill the gap. We can't use my income, even though I make good amount of money, because my contract is annual. We do have some savings, but they are mostly in my (immigrant's) personal bank account and our joint bank account. All accounts are in the US. We do plan to save 3x more than the gap together soon. And we live together.

 

2. The question is whether it matters which account the money is in. I've read somewhere that the assets in the immigrant's account are not counted as it is, but has less value. Or does this apply only to the case where the immigrant's money is in a foreign account? We have 3 bank accounts, all in the US: his, mine, and ours. Most of the money we plan to use are in mine and ours. Do they consider the value as it is even though it is in "mine" and "ours"? 

 

3. I also read that, when using assets to qualify, you should be comfortably over the x3 (in case of spouse petition) the gap between your income and the poverty line. We highly prefer not asking someone to be a co-sponsor. How "comfortably" should we be above the x3? Our gap is about $6000, so we plan to save $18000, but that's minimum. How much would you call "comfortably above" in this case? Do you think $20000 could work? I know at the end it'll be up to whoever making the decision, but we want to hear opinions from people who have similar experiences.

 

Thank you so much in advance,

[Koni10 22]

Anyone willing to provide an input on this topic?