Need help in understanding Affidavit of support - family sponsorship

J

jefkorn

Registered Users (C)
Hello All,
I'm trying to figure out if there's an easy online calculator that allows one to input the combined income of husband and wife (both US citizens), the number of kids and then the number of adult siblings and their kids to find out if the income of the sponsoring family is sufficient?

- If one spouse has sponsored his siblings and now the other spouse wants to sponsor her siblings with kids, how should one look at the affidavit of support?
- I'm assuming that any sponsored individuals (regardless of when they were sponsored) should be included/counted when calculating the income sufficient for sponsoring more family members.

I know it's a little vague but let's start the conversation and we can keep adding details. Hoping this may help all future sponsors (especially who may have relatively large overseas families). Thank you for your help!
 
Let's put some numbers to make it easy to answer:

US Citizen Spouse A:
- Income: $120,000
- Overseas Siblings sponsored: 2
- 1 married with 2 kids
- 1 unmarried
US Citizen Spouse B:
- Income : $100,000
- Overseas Siblings sponsored: 3
- 3 married with kids: 2
US Family Size: husband + wife + 2 kids = 4

Can someone please help with the math? Thank you!
 
First of all, I-864 is only needed at the stage when a visa number becomes available (I-864 is filed with I-485 for Adjustment of Status or asked for by NVC/consulate during the Consular Processing stage). The household size for the I-864 includes the petitioner, the petitioner's spouse, the petitioner's dependent children, the beneficiaries of that particular petition, and the number of people who have already become permanent residents based on I-864s by the same sponsor. So the ordering matters. If all Consular Processing cases proceed in parallel simultaneously, the I-864 for one petition would not count the beneficiaries of other petitions, since they have not yet become permanent residents. But if one case finishes before a second one begins, then you would have to count the number of beneficiaries sponsored in the first case in the household size for the I-864 for the second case.
 
Thank you @newacct for your reply. I don't know why I thought that affidavit of support was needed at the time of applying for I-130. So if I'm understanding it correctly, here's how the situation may look like:
1. Spouse A (USC) sponsored 2 siblings in 2010
2. Spouse B(USC) sponsored 3 siblings in 2020

It's highly likely that Spouse A's siblings will be approved and would have traveled to US to become permanent residents before spouse B's siblings' turn comes. In this scenario, an affidavit of support for spouse B's siblings will have to account for spouse A's siblings (and their dependants I assume) in the number of beneficiaries sponsored.

In other words, an affidavit of support will need to be submitted only after an immigrant visa becomes available. This would be 10+ years from the time of applying I-130 for the siblings overseas.

It appears that the form I-864 (https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-864.pdf) , if the income of the sponsoring USC (Spouse A) is not enough to sponsor all the relatives, income from the spouse (B) can be counted as household income but spouse B will need to fill out I-864 A form: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-864a.pdf

If spouse A and spouse B file taxes jointly as married, I'm wondering what income will spouse B enter there as it's 1040 form and it's going to be the total income (spouse A and spouse B) ..confused on how this needs to be handled!

Thoughts? Thank you!
 
The question about current individual income is answered with the current salary of the person's current job. It has nothing to do with income on tax returns. Similarly, the spouse's current individual income is the current salary of the spouse's current job. Those add up to the current household income.

The question about the "total income" number on the tax returns for the last 3 years should be answered with the exact number from that line of the tax return, no matter how they failed. So if they filed jointly, the I-864 and I-864A should have the same number listed for that question.
 
Thank you @newacct! One more question, in terms of documents needed to file the I-130 petition for siblings, one just needs the birth certificate of the sibling that shows common parent (mother or father)?

Also if the sibling is married and has kids, is the marriage certificate or birth certificates of siblings' children needed at the time of filing I-130 or when the beneficiaries are called for an immigrant visa interview down the road? I assume neither is needed but wanted to double-check.

The sponsor's income and affidavit come into the picture only when the visa number becomes available ... arguably in 10 years or longer time.
 
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Yes, if it's a common mother then birth certificate of the petitioning sibling and principal beneficiary sibling should be sufficient. If it's father then I think marriage certificate of the parents is necessary.

Proof of relationship for the spouse and children will only be needed when applying for the immigrant visa down the road.
 
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