Affidavit from graduate student

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Gottlob

Registered Users (C)
Hi,

I'm new: I wonder if anyone here knows the answer to this question. It is probably easy!

My wife is a graduate student and US Citizen. Her income for the past few as reported on her tax returns is enough to sponsor me. But the form says that I also have to submit `proof of her current employment'. Since she is a graduate student, her income is from a combination of stipends (she has a large stipend) and work on campus (about another 30% of her stipend income again). So the _work_ that she does doesn't earn her enough money alone to satisfy the sponsoring requirements. Should I just submit a paystub/letter from her on-campus employer, or should I have somebody write a letter explaining the stipend income? Is it OK to count stipend income?

Also, given that the GC process seems to take so very long, there is a chance her stipend might expire before my case is considered (This might be the same as if a sponsor loses her job before the case is considered). Like all graduate students, we will muddle by at this point, but might it be troublesome for my application?

Thanks!

Gottlob.
 
I would recommend getting a letter from the Financial Aid office, stating the total amount received from the stipend and on-campus employment. As long as that number is over 125% of the poverty level, there should not be an issue. Send paystubs in addition to the letter.

Good luck!
 
I'm a graduate student on leave (so no stipend) and my husband, who is the petitioner, is in law school. He doesn't get a stipend, but does have a small fellowship (far less than the amount required). What we did was get a letter from the financial aid office at his school mentioning that he is a full-time student and giving the amount of the fellowship for the academic year. Luckily, we also had enough in assets to make up 3x the difference between income and 125% of the poverty level (which is what is required in the case of sponsoring a spouse). We showed these assets and attached documentation to show where they came from. It looks like they accepted this, since we didn't get an RFE and have been scheduled for an interview.

But, because we're obsessively paranoid, we also got my mother-in-law to be a joint sponsor. We have a new I-864 from her (with all the supporting documents) that we will be taking to the interview -- just in case the Immigration Officer is not happy with our original evidence.

I don't know how many of these things are options in your case -- nor how risk-averse you are -- but, if I were you, I would see if I could attach evidence of assets or see if I could get a joint sponsor. This might mitigate the effect of the job's being contingent. Also be sure to get a letter from someone at your spouse's university detailing her stipend and employment income.

All the best!
 
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Sunhany,
I actually have a question for you. Since you are on F1 and took a leave aren't you considered to be out of status?
The way I understood it is that F1 on leave must leave U.S. after 2 weeks of going on a leave.

Could you share your experience with this?
 
Thanks Sudhany,

I read somewhere that even if the income of the sponsor is 125% of the poverty line for the year the application is filed (and the three years before), if there is reason to think that this income might change, they can deny the application. Since a stipend failing to be renewed is possible in this case, I think I will persuade my mother-in-law to file as a joint sponsor. I don't see how that can hurt.
 
mermaid06--

I went on leave _after_ filing for adjustment of status. When you're pending AOS, that's considered being in status. In fact, even if I had an F1, my F1 would no longer be valid after I filed for AOS, especially since the F1 is a non-immigrant visa.

Also, overstays are supposed to be forgiven for spouses of US citizens; so even if I had gone on leave earlier, and thus incurred an overstay, I would probably still have been okay. But we didn't want to take that risk.

Hope this helps.
 
Gottlob,

Yes, it sounds like a good idea to ask your MIL. We were a little awkward about asking the in-laws, but they seemed surprised that we would consider asking anyone else, and were very eager to help. I hope things work out for you.
 
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