Bomjeito

My UK husband and I are doing DCF in London.

We are pulling together the information for later, and looking at the 864.

What is a best option?

1. I earned enough $ the past 5 years to prove able to complete 864. However, since I married a year ago, I have no income. I do not work.

2. Joint sponsor - with my Dad. He has the assets/domicile, you name it.

3. Joint sponsor - with my UK husband. He has assets (here) and makes $$ as an engineer in the oil industry. We are moving to Houston.

As we are in our 40s, I kind of wanted to keep my dad out of it. (Dad is more than happy to do it, though, and even offered before I ventured asking him.)

Also, must I get transcripts from IRS or is returns/W2s/1099s enough?

Thanks in advance!

Noorah101

That's fine, you know you still have to fill out an I-864 anyway, as the sponsor. You will also need to provide copies of your most recent 3 years of tax returns.

This sounds good, assuming his assets equal 5x what you would have needed to show in income. He's using assets for sure (not income)? If using income, it does not need to be 5x. And also, the best asset right now is cash in the bank.

You husband's income can't be used unless it's going to continue from the same source once he's in the USA. If he has assets to use, they need to be 3x the amount you would have needed in income, but be aware that London is cracking down on using your home as an asset. The best asset to use is cash in the bank.

Photocopies of your return plus W2s/1099s should be fine. Transcripts are *preferred* but not required.

Rene

Bomjeito

I have $40,000 in the bank. Can I sponsor him myself? But I have no income.

My dad can use assets or income, he has all necessary to fulfill sponsorship.

Noorah101

Here are the poverty guidelines: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-864p.pdf

If it's just the 2 of you, no children, then you'd need to be earning income of $18,212 to qualify financially on the I-864 (more if you live in Alaska or Hawaii). If using assets, you'll need 3x that amount, which comes to $54,636.

So your $40,000 savings won't be enough, no.

Looks like you'll be using your dad as a Joint Sponsor. He needs to be earning enough income to cover his household size plus the immigrant (so for example, if your dad and mom live together, your dad will need to earn enough for 3, which is at least $22,887 per year).

Also keep in mind these figures will go up around April of this year, so if you're going to the interview around that time, double check the link above to see the most current guidelines.

Rene

meauxna

Does your husband have assets in excess of your 40K? It's not clear.
If so, you can combine them to reach the figure Rene looked up for you.

meauxna

You don't have to get the transcripts, but they are easier & preferred.
I had my mom call in to order them for me while I was away. It's all done over the phone without speaking to a person and they take less than a couple of weeks to get.
Perhaps your dad would do this for you.

Bomjeito

Ahhh, so I see that it is figured as a household. My dad makes more than enough. The $40,000 is my savings in a US bank. But I also have an additional $40,000 in mutual funds. Does that count? Also $80,000 in a 401k.

But no house.

When we sell the house in UK, it'll be lots of £/$ - husband has big income but few savings as its tied to the house here.

meauxna

For a marriage-based I-864, I like to say what's his is yours.
Your husband's qualifying income and assets can be included on your I-864.. he is the 'intending immigrant' and a 'household member'. (he does not however need to complete I-864A)

Each case is different, and market conditions are different now than when I did my I-864, but I used cash assets + investment (IRAs & freefloating mutual funds + pension account funds) + real estate equity. Like you, it added up to well over the required assets amount (actually we needed 5X under the rules at the time) but I was trying to show *clearly* that we financially met the spirit & letter of the law.

If you have $160K spread over those items, I would call that a strong asset picture for your purpose.

Because you're married, your DH's $$ can be counted as "your own".

Noorah101

The assets must be convertable to cash within 12 months. I don't know if mutual funds or 401K are able to do that. You can try to find out.

First you say "no house", but then you refer to your "house in the UK". So you DO have a house? It might work out if you show your $40,000 savings in cash (always a plus), and then add the value of the UK house. ConOffs sometimes don't like to use a home as an asset because of the bad market right now, but since you're less than $15,000 short, maybe they'll take it into consideration. That is, if you can show you have $15,000 equity in the home.

Otherwise, dad can be the joint sponsor.

Rene