azulniew

My Wife who is American has been living in the UK with me, I am British, since 2002. We have started the process of returning to the USA by filing the I130 in London.

The second stage of the process requires me to have a sponsor and complete an Affidavit of support I-864. We started to fill this in with my wife sponsoring me but it seems that the 'sponsor' needs to be someone living in the USA?

Could we continue with the scenario that my wife does sponsor me and we use our assets, which are sufficient, to gaurantee the sponsorship?

Thanks for your help

Noorah101

Your wife fills out the I-864, and she is your sponsor, even if she lives in the UK. If you have joint assets which meet the required amount (3 x the 125% column for a family of your size), then yes, she can use the joint assets to qualify on the I-864.

Best Wishes,
Rene

txbound

Thanks Rene, I had exactly the same question. the guidance info on the forms that are sent and on the website are incredibly confusing. cheers
TXbound

Noorah101

You're welcome. The other thing to read up on is the issue of "domicile". The USC has to show domicile in the USA, or intent to domicile in the USA. Domicile is not the same as "living in". If a USC has lived in the UK for some time, they need to show something which proves they are actually domiciled, or will be become domiciled in the USA...this can include proof of filing tax returns, being registered to vote in the USA, having a US address, US bank accounts, US ID such as drivers license or state ID, proof that she's been job hunting, house hunting, apartment hunting, researching schools for the kids, etc.

Rene

meauxna

Your wife 'will be' living in the US (she must enter with you or ahead of you) which is sufficient for the I-864.
However, a UK job or income must follow her to be used as 'income' on the I-864.
Since most people aren't in that situation, they use assets. If your assets are 3X the poverty guideline for your household, that is sufficient for your wife to be your Sponsor alone.

ExcitedCouple

we had exactly the same situation, as I (USC) have been living in the UK for almost 20 years...and now i am married to a UK guy.

So i had to show my 'intent to re-establish domicile' in order to support him on the I-864. It is worth making the effort to show you are taking steps to do this - as per the post above.

Our evidence of these steps was a letter from a friend offering us a room to rent in their house in CA, job hunting via monster.com, termination letter on our UK rental property and my resignation letter from my UK job. This was sufficient but we did need to show all of this and it seems that domicile is something that does get asked about at the interview...very easy to prove - just needs a little organisation.

ExcitedCouple

Plus, as Rene says, the USC must file tax returns for the last 3 years. I had to do this all in one go as i hadn't been filing while living in the UK...but you must do this as the I864 will not be complete without tax returns...

azulniew

Thanks everyone

Just done the Tax returns too!

BritishGuy36

Good, well done - filing taxes in arrears is one of the more difficult jobs - if you've accomplished that everything else should be easier.

For domicile, we plan to show:

Bank statement from a new bank account the USC just opened
Proof of last 3 year's tax returns
Letter from USC's father stating we can live with them when we move