SSDI and Income Requirements

[Villanelle 4,122]

Item Number 4. Type or print the number of unmarried children you have who are under 21 years of age, even if you do not have legal custody of these children. You may exclude any unmarried children under 21 years of age, if these children have reached majority under the law of their place of domicile and you do not claim them as dependents on your Federal income tax returns.

 

So no you do not count unmarried under 21 child as long as they are 18+ (age of majority most places) AND you are not claiming them on taxes. And NO. They will not go back in 7 years and ask you to re-verify your 864.  Once again you are safe to count all of your SSDI income- and your family size seems to be 5 for looking at the poverty guidelines.

 

Also please keep in mind this is a public forum where anyone can post. Sometimes inaccurate info is posted (not intentionally) or people post what sounds logical but is not policy. 

[geowrian 22,337]

14 minutes ago, Sonotony said:

So let me get this straight. My oldest child is 15. When he turns 18, he will move in with his mother to help her, but he will still count against me as a household member, even though his mother will claim him on her taxes?

If they meet the conditions, yes. If not, then no. idk the age of majority in your state, so I can't say for certain either way.

 

Quote

My youngest is 11. Her benefits will end in 7 years. Are you saying that they will look 7 years in the future and calculate my income requirements  for a family of three and not count my child’s benefit? 

 

Where are you getting this information from?

Nothing of that sort was stated.

What was stated is the CO (and later IO) can consider the children as part of the public charge consideration, as well as the source of income. Your plan for them at that time is not something the CO has to anticipate.

I'm not too concerned personally about how they will treat it, but it is a factor.

 

Anyway, my actual point was that your household size is not directly tied to who lives in the same residence as you. You claimed that when they move out, they are no longer part of your household. That may or may not be the actual case (see above), but it is not a blanketly accurate statement.

 

Quote

I have spoken to two immigration attorneys today and both said I can count their benefit as family income and have no concern for worrying about what happens in 3 or 7 years.

Yes it can be counted. I stated this previously as well.

Failure to plan is a plan to fail.

Edited September 25, 2019 by geowrian

[Sonotony 82]

19 minutes ago, Villanelle said:

Item Number 4. Type or print the number of unmarried children you have who are under 21 years of age, even if you do not have legal custody of these children. You may exclude any unmarried children under 21 years of age, if these children have reached majority under the law of their place of domicile and you do not claim them as dependents on your Federal income tax returns.

 

So no you do not count unmarried under 21 child as long as they are 18+ (age of majority most places) AND you are not claiming them on taxes. And NO. They will not go back in 7 years and ask you to re-verify your 864.  Once again you are safe to count all of your SSDI income- and your family size seems to be 5 for looking at the poverty guidelines.

 

Also please keep in mind this is a public forum where anyone can post. Sometimes inaccurate info is posted (not intentionally) or people post what sounds logical but is not policy. 

Thanks again for your sound advice. I will be more cautious listening to anyone and everyone on here. I don’t need to borrow trouble. My fiancé is an emotional mess over false statements that are not factors in our situation. I don’t want to make things worse by coming on here.

 

Thank you for the wake up call!

[Villanelle 4,122]

What kind of false statements? You can't just throw that out there and disappear! Now I have to know lol.

[Sonotony 82]

You can PM me if you want to know... I don’t want to start a conflict with anyone. I usually try to avoid forums in general because I hate forum drama... I don’t want to start any lol. I just need help with this process.  Thank you for your help!

[MjC772 94]

On 9/24/2019 at 10:53 PM, Villanelle said:

Income for the 864 does not have to be earned income. For the 864 you count all your income, earned or otherwise with the only exception being illegally gained funds.

9 FAM 302.8-2(C)(4)  (U) Required Supporting Evidence

(CT:VISA-626;   07-10-2018)

a. (U) In General:

(1) (U) Use of the Term Sponsor: The sponsor is the petitioner; anyone else is a joint or co-sponsor.  All references to requirements for the sponsor or sponsors would apply not only to the petitioner sponsor, but also to any co-sponsor household members executing Form I-864A and joint sponsors submitting a supplementary Form I-864. 

(2)  (U) What is Income?  Income, for the purpose of Form I-864, means the total unadjusted income as shown on the tax return, before deductions.  Total unadjusted income includes not only salary (if any) but also monetary gains from any other source, such as rent, interest, dividends, etc.

 

Anyway this is the last cut and paste policy I am going to provide. You are free to do your own research and provide any links you find that state something differently then I posted.

Well, my apologies for asking invalid questions. I had a true interest in knowing the answer. It was just my thought that, since payments of SSDI for a child beneficiary actually are dispersed in the child's name, they could not be used for income without filing an I-864A as cosponsor (which they can't do since they are under 18).

 

However, it seems to me that since the OP's income is $2500 he would qualify for two (income@ $30,000 and requirement of $26,662) because he can use his income for anything he wants. However, and maybe I should have been more clear at the time, if he received $2000 a month and his 3 children received $1000 in total what then? Would the children's income still count towards sponsorship? (he wouldn't, by himself, earn enough to cover himself and the intending immigrant).

 

Villenelle,  I apologize, I believe I just asked some questions which I thought this forum was for (and wasn't giving anybody advice)...but I guess asking questions will be something I will think twice about doing on this forum in the future. Thanks.    

 

 

[Villanelle 4,122]

@MjC772 Dont ever be afraid to ask questions. Thats how you learn things! Its just preferred for people to post accurate information about policies rather then speculation because when an OP posts a question and multiple conflicting answers are given it can confuse them more. The whole point of VJ is to help others not give them more confusion-- but of course everyone is free to post whatever they want, and is under no obligation to add any disclaimers...

When someone is disabled and has a qualifying child the child can be eligible for benefits. The parent is the payee. SSA will send a form yearly asking for verification on how the money was spent. For the 864 the benefit amount the parent receives is considered "income" similar to how child support payments are viewed. The money is intended for the childs use and benefit however it still gets counted in the 'household total' because the child is also a member of the household. Does that make sense? If they didnt have a child their household size would be reduced bringing the poverty guideline requirement down. So adding the child and having income coming in specifically for the child balances itself out. It would be unfair to say they have a higher household size counting the child but then to not take into consideration the children receive income for their needs. That income can be child support or SSDI payments. 

[MjC772 94]

5 minutes ago, Villanelle said:

@MjC772 Dont ever be afraid to ask questions. Thats how you learn things! Its just preferred for people to post accurate information about policies rather then speculation because when an OP posts a question and multiple conflicting answers are given it can confuse them more. The whole point of VJ is to help others not give them more confusion-- but of course everyone is free to post whatever they want, and is under no obligation to add any disclaimers...

When someone is disabled and has a qualifying child the child can be eligible for benefits. The parent is the payee. SSA will send a form yearly asking for verification on how the money was spent. For the 864 the benefit amount the parent receives is considered "income" similar to how child support payments are viewed. The money is intended for the childs use and benefit however it still gets counted in the 'household total' because the child is also a member of the household. Does that make sense? If they didnt have a child their household size would be reduced bringing the poverty guideline requirement down. So adding the child and having income coming in specifically for the child balances itself out. It would be unfair to say they have a higher household size counting the child but then to not take into consideration the children receive income for their needs. That income can be child support or SSDI payments. 

I didn't really give information though, I merely said it's complicated and was pondering/questioning some of the possibilities. Bureaucracy is often difficult to navigate, especially in immigration. I understand all your points 100% but, unfortunately, things don't always seem to be common sense these days, particularly when it comes to immigration policy. I do thank you for your reply and the info you provided. It is very beneficial. Thank you.  

[CaliforniaDream86 1]

My last 5 years of tax returns I was over the limit by $15,000. My house burned down in 2017 so I received SSDI for part of 2018 and was under the limit for taxable income. My fiancé took the payments to show my SSDI combined with tax returns showing my income when I went back to work. This put me about $8,000 over the income limit. He was given a 221g because they wanted a joint sponsor. The point of this is; it’s up to the CO if they accept your SSDI as valid income or not. For us, they wanted working income and would not look at SSDI payment history (original copies).

[Hank_ 9,174]

Did you present a Benefits Letter or just copies of payment history?

[geowrian 22,337]

Unless the CO specifically state that they won’t consider SSDI, it’s impossible to know if they didn’t do so or if it just wasn’t enough to satisfy them on the public charge concern.

[MjC772 94]

6 hours ago, CaliforniaDream86 said:

My last 5 years of tax returns I was over the limit by $15,000. My house burned down in 2017 so I received SSDI for part of 2018 and was under the limit for taxable income. My fiancé took the payments to show my SSDI combined with tax returns showing my income when I went back to work. This put me about $8,000 over the income limit. He was given a 221g because they wanted a joint sponsor. The point of this is; it’s up to the CO if they accept your SSDI as valid income or not. For us, they wanted working income and would not look at SSDI payment history (original copies).

could you give some clarification here: your house burned down so you received SSDI? 

[CaliforniaDream86 1]

1 hour ago, MjC772 said:

could you give some clarification here: your house burned down so you received SSDI? 

My mistake it was SDI not SSDI. It was from PTSD. I wasn’t able to work for months after the incident. I’ve always worked, it was a short blip that I didn’t due to the traumatic nature of what happened (California wildfire, came through my city at 2am, lost EVERYTHING). I wrote a 1 page letter explaining the situation accompanied with a letter from my therapist and original payment forms. The only thing they would accept was tax returns. In my case they didn’t care about other income received unless it was claimed on taxes with the latest tax return deciding everything. My other 5+ years I was way over the $26,000 I needed to prove. A family member is a joint sponsor and our case is almost done. I’ve already made the income limit this year.

[SalishSea 17,836]

12 hours ago, CaliforniaDream86 said:

California wildfire, came through my city at 2am, lost EVERYTHING

Oh man.  So sorry to hear.  Take care of yourself.

[ujones 148]

On 9/24/2019 at 9:38 PM, Villanelle said:

Its actually not complicated. 

As for your questions- I really cant answer them because none of them are valid. SSDI is short for Social Security Disability. As mentioned it is not the same as SSI. It has been discussed on VJ in the past and confirmed that SS payments made to a parent on behalf of a child is considered "income" for the parent. So Sonotony can count his payment as well as payments made to him for his children as his income. His household size will be 3 children + him + immigrant, so total of 5. He needs to have at least the 125% poverty guideline and the closer he is to 250% the better. 

 

@Villanelle, @MjC772 I had posted a similar question a few days ago as I got an RFE for AOS . My income was considered sufficient for K1 but seems like for AOS they are not counting the beneficiary payment of kids as towards household ,even though it’s send to my account. Bcoz if that wasn’t the case then my total household income is way above poverty guideline but I still received RFE. I actually had even shown enough liquid cash in my account too but still they didn’t think it was sufficient. Consulted a lawyer & per her as kids are still minor their income will not be counted towards household. So I got all confused & got a joint sponsor to avoid all the what if’s... so my point is it’s not 100 % sure if USCIS really consider beneficiary payment  towards household when it comes to AOS . Also she said most people with an income within 10k above poverty guideline are getting RFE . Not sure if this info helps op but that has been my experience with SSDI & USCIS 

Edited December 16, 2019 by ujones