Insufficient income from joint sponsor

[britishandusa 446]

Hello all,

 

We received an RFE from USCIS today stating our joint sponsor does not meet the povery guideline. We're really stunned since our joint sponsor makes double the amount of what is needed for the required income. I'm a full time student and I am hoping this is just a mistake. Has this happen to anyone? I read a few VJ stories of how people had to spell out their joint sponsor income for this to be fixed. I'm feeling really anxious about this and would like some opinions.

 

Thanks.

 

[bad4tatt 168]

2 minutes ago, britishandusa said:

Hello all,

 

We received an RFE from USCIS today stating our joint sponsor does not meet the povery guideline. We're really stunned since our joint sponsor makes double the amount of what is needed for the required income. I'm a full time student and I am hoping this is just a mistake. Has this happen to anyone? I read a few VJ stories of how people had to spell out their joint sponsor income for this to be fixed. I'm feeling really anxious about this and would like some opinions.

 

Thanks.

 

The joint sponsor will have to meet poverty guidelines for the person being sponsored PLUS themselves and any household members they have.

[britishandusa 446]

1 minute ago, bad4tatt said:

The joint sponsor will have to meet poverty guidelines for the person being sponsored PLUS themselves and any household members they have.

And he met that. He literally makes double of what is required for the entire household plus my husband.

[ConOfficer 167]

Is he telling you he makes double of what is required or have you actually seen his tax returns?

 

Or maybe the I-864 was not filled out correctly. 

[britishandusa 446]

1 minute ago, ConOfficer said:

Is he telling you he makes double of what is required or have you actually seen his tax returns?

 

Or maybe the I-864 was not filled out correctly. 

I have. I have tax returns from 2015 - 2017 and they are more than enough. He could sponsor 6 more people if he wanted to. I can't imagine I missed anything because I included pay stubs, letter of verification, tax returns, and W2 whislt filling out both i-864. I feel like maybe they saw my income, which is very low, and I didn't explain that I'm a full time student with a part time job that they just sent us an RFE.

[Tella&T 183]

I am pretty sure what happened is what you describe happened to other VJs. You just have to spell it out to them again...

[britishandusa 446]

17 minutes ago, Martella&T said:

I am pretty sure what happened is what you describe happened to other VJs. You just have to spell it out to them again...

This is unfortunate. Well, at least I know I am not the first person to have this happen to  

[britishandusa 446]

UPDATE: Just spoke to a tier 2 officer who looked it over. Even she was very confused as to why we got an RFE and said she will send in a request for us as to why we needed one. She even said our joint sponsor makes way over the povery line requirement and shouldn't have gotten an RFE.  

[Tella&T 183]

1 minute ago, britishandusa said:

This is unfortunate. Well, at least I know I am not the first person to have this happen to  

It's not much fun but at least you know they are working on your case and hopefully you have the copy of the needed documents to send them again quickly?

2 minutes ago, britishandusa said:

UPDATE: Just spoke to a tier 2 officer who looked it over. Even she was very confused as to why we got an RFE and said she will send in a request for us as to why we needed one. She even said our joint sponsor makes way over the povery line requirement and shouldn't have gotten an RFE.  

ahhh, hopefully that gets resolved quickly!

[britishandusa 446]

1 minute ago, Martella&T said:

It's not much fun but at least you know they are working on your case and hopefully you have the copy of the needed documents to send them again quickly?

Luckily, I printed everything three times so we can send out everything again tomorrow. We just spoke to a Tier 2 officer who was confused as to why we got an RFE. She just put in a request for us to ask why. 

[mushroomspore 3,044]

Ugh so sorry this happened to you! They are notoriously bad at interpreting and looking at I-864's. A paralegal told me that the NBC often issues RFIE's for I-864's when one is not needed.

 

Is the Tier 2 officer going to call you back?? I'm not sure what the procedure is when an unnecessary RFIE is issued. Hopefully they send an official letter saying the RFIE is unnecessary and you don't need to respond. However, if you DO need to respond, just send them everything again and point out your joint sponsor's very sufficient income in the cover letter. Maybe even put a bright post-it note on the tax returns and page 6 of his I-864 where he filled out his income for the past 3 years so they can't miss it or anything like that. It sounds like you sent all the proper documents so I think this was a mistake on their part, not yours. Let us know what happens!

[britishandusa 446]

41 minutes ago, mushroomspore said:

Ugh so sorry this happened to you! They are notoriously bad at interpreting and looking at I-864's. A paralegal told me that the NBC often issues RFIE's for I-864's when one is not needed.

 

Is the Tier 2 officer going to call you back?? I'm not sure what the procedure is when an unnecessary RFIE is issued. Hopefully they send an official letter saying the RFIE is unnecessary and you don't need to respond. However, if you DO need to respond, just send them everything again and point out your joint sponsor's very sufficient income in the cover letter. Maybe even put a bright post-it note on the tax returns and page 6 of his I-864 where he filled out his income for the past 3 years so they can't miss it or anything like that. It sounds like you sent all the proper documents so I think this was a mistake on their part, not yours. Let us know what happens!

Yeah, they called me back! The officer just told me to resend everything in just in case and wished me luck. I just re-packaged everything with a letter explaining my joint sponsor makes more than enough with bolded words and numbers. Hopefully they'll correct this quickly. I'll definetly update and let you guys know!

[yuna628 9,676]

IMO: Sometimes you have a new officer... and sometimes they lose the documents you send them... and sometimes it's the documents you send. As someone who went through this with a joint sponsor, I included a letter explaining my financial situation and naming who would be the joint sponsor.

Did you send complete tax returns or tax transcripts? Less confusion seems to happen with them when a transcript is sent. In addition were employee letters included and how many months of pay stubs? Even if there is good evidence the joint sponsor makes enough, if one piece of paper from the tax return is missing... they'll toss the whole thing. Of course it is possible that it is in error, but you will still have to respond or investigate it further.

[mushroomspore 3,044]

3 hours ago, yuna628 said:

IMO: Sometimes you have a new officer... and sometimes they lose the documents you send them... and sometimes it's the documents you send. As someone who went through this with a joint sponsor, I included a letter explaining my financial situation and naming who would be the joint sponsor.

Did you send complete tax returns or tax transcripts? Less confusion seems to happen with them when a transcript is sent. In addition were employee letters included and how many months of pay stubs? Even if there is good evidence the joint sponsor makes enough, if one piece of paper from the tax return is missing... they'll toss the whole thing. Of course it is possible that it is in error, but you will still have to respond or investigate it further.

I was thinking perhaps the joint sponsor's papers in the original packet got lost as well. Not sure how because it's a lot of papers but it's not impossible either.

[britishandusa 446]

6 hours ago, yuna628 said:

IMO: Sometimes you have a new officer... and sometimes they lose the documents you send them... and sometimes it's the documents you send. As someone who went through this with a joint sponsor, I included a letter explaining my financial situation and naming who would be the joint sponsor.

Did you send complete tax returns or tax transcripts? Less confusion seems to happen with them when a transcript is sent. In addition were employee letters included and how many months of pay stubs? Even if there is good evidence the joint sponsor makes enough, if one piece of paper from the tax return is missing... they'll toss the whole thing. Of course it is possible that it is in error, but you will still have to respond or investigate it further.

I sent 2015-2017 transcripts, employee letter, 3 months of paystubs, two i-864s (joint and me) and a few other things. I honestly don't know what I missed.