Which income line from the federal tax return is used for income determination

[brunette1130]

Which income line from the jointly filed federal tax return is used for income determination for I-864? My husband USC is self employed, and we filed jointly. Line 22 on the form 1040 shows the total of his and my income. Is that the income that they will consider to determine eligibility or they will subtrack my income from line 22 then I will have to file I-864a to use my income to cover the diference between my husbands income and the required income. I am very confused, pls someone help, Thanks

 

[ari4u]

Which income line from the jointly filed federal tax return is used for income determination for I-864? My husband USC is self employed, and we filed jointly. Line 22 on the form 1040 shows the total of his and my income. Is that the income that they will consider to determine eligibility or they will subtrack my income from line 22 then I will have to file I-864a to use my income to cover the diference between my husbands income and the required income. I am very confused, pls someone help, Thanks

The line for gross (total) income on IRS Forms 1040 and 1040A (line 22) is used to determine income. The line for adjusted gross income is used for persons filing IRS Form 1040 EZ (line 4).

If in any of the most recent 3 tax years, you (the sponsor) and your spouse each reported income on a joint income tax return, but you want to use only your own income to qualify as you meet/exceed the minimum requirement (and your spouse is not submitting a Form I-864A), you may provide a separate breakout of your individual income for these years. Your individual income will be based on the earnings from your W-2 forms, Wage and Tax Statement, submitted to IRS for any such years.

A household member who is the immigrant you are sponsoring only need complete Form I-864A if you dont meet the minimum income requirement and if his or her income will be used to determine your ability to meet or exceed the minimum income requirement

In short, if you are submitting a I-864 and I-864A, the line 22 is used as it is seen on the return. If sponsor alone qualifies and only I-864 is filed, the income reported on the W-2 of sponsor is used (i.e line 22 - immigrant spouses' income)

 

[brunette1130]

Thank you very much Ari4u for your reply. I am still confused My husband ( sponsor) wants to quilfy by using my income. I understand the part I have to file I-864a. My question is how do we calculate how much money we made. We simply take the line 22 on 1040 and put that income or subtruck my income from the line 22 and divide by 5 and then add to my husband's income to quilify. Any idea? thanks.

 

[ari4u]

Thank you very much Ari4u for your reply. I am still confused My husband ( sponsor) wants to quilfy by using my income. I understand the part I have to file I-864a. My question is how do we calculate how much money we made. We simply take the line 22 on 1040 and put that income or subtruck my income from the line 22 and divide by 5 and then add to my husband's income to quilify. Any idea? thanks.

It is pretty simple. If you plan to use your income along with your husband's, you should use the amount mentioned in line 22 of the jointly filed 1040. There is no dividing by 5 (i am still confused as to why you would wanna do that). You file I-864A along with your husband's I-864.

 

[lakelady]

Dividing by 5 is for assets! It means that if you use your assets to suport yourself, you should be able to do that for 5 years, because normally taht is how long it takes for the person to become a citizen. For those that qualify by marriage can divide by 3.

It is pretty simple. If you plan to use your income along with your husband's, you should use the amount mentioned in line 22 of the jointly filed 1040. There is no dividing by 5 (i am still confused as to why you would wanna do that). You file I-864A along with your husband's I-864.

 

[ari4u]

Dividing by 5 is for assets! It means that if you use your assets to suport yourself, you should be able to do that for 5 years, because normally taht is how long it takes for the person to become a citizen. For those that qualify by marriage can divide by 3.

Can you show me a link on the USCIS website or a CFR that explains this dividing by 3 or 5 concept? I have only heard of multiplying by 5 and not sure where you are getting your information from, unless i am missing something here.

Regarding usage of assets... this is the requirement from USCIS.
If a sponsor does not have sufficient income to meet the income requirement for the number of persons supported, he or she may list assets which are readily convertible to cash within one year for support of the sponsored immigrant(s). To qualify, the net worth of these assets needs to be five times the difference between the sponsor's income and the poverty line for the sponsor's household size.

 

[brunette1130]

Ari4u, I thought, my income can not be combined with my husband thats why I said divede by 5 and use it as asset ( as Lakelady mentioned). I have one more concern, pls comment if you can. I filed I-485 in Sepember 2003, My lawyer said we dont need to file I-864 along my AOS. So now I am ready to file my I-864 as the interview will be coming up soon. Do I have to show last 3 years of tax return, or only one most recent tax return would be enugh as the rule changed in December 2005. Because only our 2005 tax return will quilfy. My DO nyc. thanks

 

[ari4u]

Ari4u, I thought, my income can not be combined with my husband thats why I said divede by 5 and use it as asset ( as Lakelady mentioned). I have one more concern, pls comment if you can. I filed I-485 in Sepember 2003, My lawyer said we dont need to file I-864 along my AOS. So now I am ready to file my I-864 as the interview will be coming up soon. Do I have to show last 3 years of tax return, or only one most recent tax return would be enugh as the rule changed in December 2005. Because only our 2005 tax return will quilfy. My DO nyc. thanks

read here http://uscis.gov/graphics//howdoi/affsupp.htm to understand how assets can be used to meet requirements. I have not come across the divide by 5 method to calculate assets.

The current USCIS requirement is to submit the tax returns for only the most recent tax year. For the interview, take returns from the previous 3 years, but the weightage would be given to the most recent tax year.

 

[lakelady]

That's it Ari, you found the answer: "To qualify, the net worth of these assets needs to be five times the difference between the sponsor's income and the poverty line for the sponsor's household size."
Say the sponsor's income is $10K under the requirement, but the sponsor has assets that can be converted to cash within a year that are worth $50K, so he/she can use that asset to fulfill the requirement, that translates it into that person being able to provide the remaining $10K every year for 5 years after selling that asset or combination of assets. The 3 year thing I don't remember where I read, but I called the 1-800 one time and they told me that.

 

[ari4u]

This is an example quoted from the USCIS website.
http://uscis.gov/graphics//howdoi/affsupp.htm look under the poverty guidelines table.


If a sponsor does not have sufficient income to meet the income requirement for the number of persons supported, he or she may list assets which are readily convertible to cash within one year for support of the sponsored immigrant(s)

If you cannot meet the minimum income requirements using your earned income, you have various options:
*You may add the cash value of your assets such as money in savings accounts, stocks, bonds, and property. To determine the amount of assets required to qualify, subtract your household income from the minimum income requirement (125 percent of the poverty level for your family size). You must prove the cash value of your assets is worth five times this difference (the amount left over).

Example for a household size of 4:

125 percent of 2006 poverty guideline		= $25,000
sponsor's income				= $19,500
Difference					=  $5,500
Multiply by 5					      x 5
					      ---------------
Minimum Required Cash Value of Assets		= $27,500

This means, that you need to show assets equivalent to $27500 or more at the time of submitting your application in order to qualify. I dont see how dividing the assets by 5 would help you qualify as it brings down the number back to $5500. Also, the requirement is for the assets to be readily converted into cash within ONE year and not three or five as you mentioned.

Dividing by 5 is for assets! It means that if you use your assets to suport yourself, you should be able to do that for 5 years, because normally taht is how long it takes for the person to become a citizen. For those that qualify by marriage can divide by 3.

There is no requirement that states assets should support immigrants for 3/5 years. The only strong requirement for affidavit of support is the sponsor's obligation towards the immigrant. The sponsorship obligation continues until the sponsored alien naturalizes, has worked or can be credited with 40 quarters of work, leaves the United States permanently, or dies. However, a sponsor or the sponsor's estate remains liable for any support or requests for repayment of benefits that arose before the support obligation ended. . So whatever you wrote doesnt make sense at all.


I agree that it is your understanding that you need to divide by 5, but you are wrong. I have never trusted USCIS customer support's advice in the past (I remember once i was told that i dont need an EAD or any work visa as i am the immediate relative of a USC and i could work without EAD while my GC is pending. That was the biggest b.s i ever heard from the 1-800 rep)

 

[lakelady]

Yes, you are right. I just can't believe some moron form the 1800 said you didn't need EAD, duh!
Sorry, I didn't explain thoroughly like you did. It's a math thing, not immigration law
when I said that for example the sponsor needed $10K to qualify and that person had an asset that was worth $50K, that person would then qualify as a sponsor bc he/she divided the $50K by 5 and that means they meet the requirement. $10K per year times 5. We just did the math a little different!
Using your example: asset is worth $27,500 and the sponsor's income is $5,500 under the requirement. 27,500/5 = 5,500, bingo, he/she qualifies!
As for the 3/5 year thing I have to see if I read it somewhere, I just remember someone from the 1800 say that to me.

This is an example quoted from the USCIS website.
http://uscis.gov/graphics//howdoi/affsupp.htm look under the poverty guidelines table.


If a sponsor does not have sufficient income to meet the income requirement for the number of persons supported, he or she may list assets which are readily convertible to cash within one year for support of the sponsored immigrant(s)

If you cannot meet the minimum income requirements using your earned income, you have various options:
*You may add the cash value of your assets such as money in savings accounts, stocks, bonds, and property. To determine the amount of assets required to qualify, subtract your household income from the minimum income requirement (125 percent of the poverty level for your family size). You must prove the cash value of your assets is worth five times this difference (the amount left over).

Example for a household size of 4:

125 percent of 2006 poverty guideline		= $25,000
sponsor's income				= $19,500
Difference					=  $5,500
Multiply by 5					      x 5
					      ---------------
Minimum Required Cash Value of Assets		= $27,500

This means, that you need to show assets equivalent to $27500 or more at the time of submitting your application in order to qualify. I dont see how dividing the assets by 5 would help you qualify as it brings down the number back to $5500. Also, the requirement is for the assets to be readily converted into cash within ONE year and not three or five as you mentioned.



There is no requirement that states assets should support immigrants for 3/5 years. The only strong requirement for affidavit of support is the sponsor's obligation towards the immigrant. The sponsorship obligation continues until the sponsored alien naturalizes, has worked or can be credited with 40 quarters of work, leaves the United States permanently, or dies. However, a sponsor or the sponsor's estate remains liable for any support or requests for repayment of benefits that arose before the support obligation ended. . So whatever you wrote doesnt make sense at all.


I agree that it is your understanding that you need to divide by 5, but you are wrong. I have never trusted USCIS customer support's advice in the past (I remember once i was told that i dont need an EAD or any work visa as i am the immediate relative of a USC and i could work without EAD while my GC is pending. That was the biggest b.s i ever heard from the 1-800 rep)

 

[Anahit]

Using your example: asset is worth $27,500 and the sponsor's income is $5,500 under the requirement. 27,500/5 = 5,500, bingo, he/she qualifies!

Lakelady, maybe you do understand it, but you definitely don't explain it correctly. Here is how the above paragraph should have been worded:
"Using your example: asset is worth $27,500 and the insufficient income is $5,500 under the requirement. 27,500/5 = 5,500, bingo, he/she qualifies!".
And, I don't think the number 5 has anything to do with providing support for 5 years. They just came up with that number for calculating the cash from assets.
Ari, I have a question to you.
On this page: http://uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/i-864a.htm, the "Purpose of Form" for I-864A states:
"By signing this form, a household member who is not a sponsored immigrant, agrees to make his or her income and/or assets available to the sponsor to help support the immigrant for whom the sponsor has filed an affidavit of support."
Doesn't this mean that the immigrant who's being sponsored can't fill out I-864A?

 

[lakelady]

I am not absolutely sure the #5 means five years, that is what a customer service representative form teh 1800# told me. One thing I know, I am good at math
They also said that if you qualify for AOS bc of marriage, that number will be 3 bc in 3 years that alien can become a citizen. But Ari said that those ppl from the 1800 sometimes say stupid things, so I am not sure, however, that is a good guess.

 

[ari4u]

Ari, I have a question to you.
On this page: http://uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/i-864a.htm, the "Purpose of Form" for I-864A states:
"By signing this form, a household member who is not a sponsored immigrant, agrees to make his or her income and/or assets available to the sponsor to help support the immigrant for whom the sponsor has filed an affidavit of support."
Doesn't this mean that the immigrant who's being sponsored can't fill out I-864A?

Hi Anahit,
I-864A has a separate section for household member/ sponsored immigrant. If the sponsored immigrant qualifies to be a household member and wishes to use his/her income to meet/exceed the requirements, then he/she should file the I-864A.

I know the requirements are not exactly clear and ask the sponsored immgrant not to file I-864 if no other dependents are immigrating with him/her. I ignored that part and filed the form anyway. I figured if they need it, they look at it, if they dont want it, they'll trash it. (I hope they shred it as i dont want my SSN and other information to fall in the hands of ID thieves )

 

[Anahit]

Hi Anahit,
I-864A has a separate section for household member/ sponsored immigrant. If the sponsored immigrant qualifies to be a household member and wishes to use his/her income to meet/exceed the requirements, then he/she should file the I-864A.

I know the requirements are not exactly clear and ask the sponsored immgrant not to file I-864 if no other dependents are immigrating with him/her. I ignored that part and filed the form anyway. I figured if they need it, they look at it, if they dont want it, they'll trash it. (I hope they shred it as i dont want my SSN and other information to fall in the hands of ID thieves )

Thanks, Ari.