I864A Married Filing Jointly

[Ed&Y 0]

I recently uploaded some of my documents to the NVC and had a question about the I864A. My father must file the I864A since he is a household member as I live with my parents after returning to the US, if I understand this correctly. He files his taxes jointly with my mother who has been retired for the last 4 years or so, making her individual income zero. I have seen many people say that the I864A will still be required from her due to their taxes being filed jointly even though she has no income. Reading through the I864A instructions, I have found this:

 

 

I have not found anything directly stating both of my parents will need to file the I864A, just include every related W-2 and Form 1099 which would only include my father's.

 

I have two questions related to this:

1. Will I need to include my mother in part 5-7 of the I864 which relates to household members I am combining my income with? I currently have only included my father as she has no income so I figured it would be unnecessary.

2. If it truly is necessary for me to upload an I864A for my mother as well, will I need to create another household member item in CEAC separately from the one I created for my father, or will I need to upload her I864A in the same section I have uploaded my fathers along with tax information, their marriage certificate, etc.?

[Holly&Andreas 38]

Is your father a joint sponsor? If your mother has no income then she wouldn't qualify to be a joint sponsor and wouldn't need to fill out the I-864A (from what I understand based on the instructions in the document). Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong on this. But unless your father is a joint sponsor then I don't think he's considered to be part of your household. 

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-864ainstr.pdf

 

 

[Ed&Y 0]

I have included my father as a household member, not a joint sponsor, since we live together. I have been seeing that maybe the way to do this is include him as a joint sponsor and have him fill out the form I864 and my mother fill out I864A instead. The only part I get confused with is that we all live together, but maybe that doesn't matter, only for him and my mother. 

 

If this is the case, I have already also put my father as a household member in CEAC and we are not able to change that. Do you think I would I just have to upload a document asking NVC to remove him as a household member and then add him as a joint sponsor?

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ed&Y

[Villanelle 4,122]

Because you live together and he qualifies as a household member as Dad you have 2 ways of doing the 864.

 

One is what you did. A household member. You did it correctly by filing the 864a for him only. Provided your household count is you, your spouse, and dad = 3, you need to show combined income for household size 3.

 

If you add mom as household member you would then be size 4 and need income for 4.

 

If Dad was used as a joint sponsor then you would have your 864 size 2 that wouldn't be sufficient and Dad would have to fill out his own 864. On it he would count his household size and include the immigrant. If it's just mom, dad + immigrant = 3. He should include an 864a from mom even if she doesn't have income in that scenario. 

 

I understand your concern because it is sort of a loophole when someone can be used as a household member. As a household member you can count their income but you don't need to count people who may be in their household but are not in yours.  

 

You should leave it as is. If they want dad to be a joint rather then a household member they will tell you but I don't forsee such.