Joint Sponsorship anxiety

[DevinB 1]

My wife has just received her notice to schedule her interview at the embassy. Currently I don't have taxable income so we have a joint sponsor to help us get my wife home after us being separated for two years. On December 22nd we received a notice that our income wasn't enough and we need to add an additional joint sponsor.

 

My current joint sponsor has an additional job they began working in June of last year and should pretty easily pass the guidelines. The current Guideline for Sponsorship is $45,725 for a household of 5, on of those 5 being my wife. Their Tax returns for 2024 show them having $49,358 which doesn't include a whole year of the additional income (as it started in June and therefore only represents half a year). Now that seemingly clears the guidelines unless I misunderstand something but I still worry. The additional half year of income would add at least another 20k to the income bringing us up to around 70k which again seems sufficient.

 

The notice we received worried me so I spoke to our attorney and was told that sometimes second job income can be accidently ignored and that since the tax return we submitted was 23, that the second job wasn't on there making it look like we don't have enough but that the proof of employment  and paystubs we sent in should be enough to prove we have enough. I recently sent the attorney the aforementioned 2024 returns, W2s and paystubs just in case. The attorney told me not to worry and that If I can, find an additional joint sponsor so I can feel confident but that he doesn't believe its necessary.

 

I still worry immensely that this will all end up in a mess or a rejection or any other catastrophic outcome im sure we all have feared for ourselves. I wanted to know if anyone else has been through something similar and could give me some insight? I already sent the income documents via email for my wife to print up and show in the interview as evidence just in case. One final thing, our case was recently approved for expedite and so I am trying to make sure it all works as quick as possible to get my wife home and get things back to normal.

[Crazy Cat 42,293]

For employees, sponsorship qualification is determined by CURRENT annual income....not last year tax return returns.  Current annual income is calculated as follows:

Employees- Latest pay period gross income multiplied times number of pay periods per 12 months.

Calculate that for each job and add together.

Self employed people- Determined by documentable income (last tax year Schedule C, Profit/Loss schedule, etc)

 

If you need a joint sponsor, I would opt for a single well-qualified joint sponsor.  Good luck.

[JeanneAdil 6,651]

your wife will need the original documents for the interview so hopefully your attorney knows this or u sent him copies / many do not know embassy want originals

and with her country in so much strife,  i would get them to her ASAP even if your wait for interview is long

[pushbrk 13,114]

38 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

your wife will need the original documents for the interview so hopefully your attorney knows this or u sent him copies / many do not know embassy want originals

and with her country in so much strife,  i would get them to her ASAP even if your wait for interview is long

Financial documents need not be original.  Civil documents need to be original certified copies.  Original civil documents are owned by the government agency that holds the records.

[DevinB 1]

59 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

For employees, sponsorship qualification is determined by CURRENT annual income....not last year tax return returns.  Current annual income is calculated as follows:

Employees- Latest pay period gross income multiplied times number of pay periods per 12 months.

Calculate that for each job and add together.

Self employed people- Determined by documentable income (last tax year Schedule C, Profit/Loss schedule, etc)

 

If you need a joint sponsor, I would opt for a single well-qualified joint sponsor.  Good luck.

I calculated it and the end result was 72,723.19. I got this by multiplying the two most recent pay periods of 995.20 and 2,034.93 by 24 each as both have 2 pay periods a month. With this it looks like we should be perfectly fine, I'll send an email with the latest pay period for both to my wife print out and bring to the interview 

[pushbrk 13,114]

2 hours ago, DevinB said:

I calculated it and the end result was 72,723.19. I got this by multiplying the two most recent pay periods of 995.20 and 2,034.93 by 24 each as both have 2 pay periods a month. With this it looks like we should be perfectly fine, I'll send an email with the latest pay period for both to my wife print out and bring to the interview 

Probably right, but remember if a person is paid every two weeks, that's 26 pay periods.  Twice a month is rare nowadays.

 

[DevinB 1]

1 hour ago, pushbrk said:

Probably right, but remember if a person is paid every two weeks, that's 26 pay periods.  Twice a month is rare nowadays.

 

In that case it would be $78,783.38 so I think we are ok but I won't stop worrying until I see her walk down the stars at the airport.

[pushbrk 13,114]

1 hour ago, DevinB said:

In that case it would be $78,783.38 so I think we are ok but I won't stop worrying until I see her walk down the stars at the airport.

Either way, it is enough.  Is it 26 pay periods or 24?  Count the days between start and end date of the pay period. If it's 14 days, multiply by 26.