I-864, I-864A, and Personal Household Size

[m1chu]

I'm an American woman married to a Chinese man and we're DCF-ing from Beijing. We've scheduled our interview (hooray!) and are gathering the documents for my husband to bring to his interview. I've been doing some research but am confused about the I-864 because I am seeing different answers.

 

I filled out an I-864 form as the petitioner and primary sponsor for my Chinese husband. However, I don't meet the poverty guidelines, so my mom will be the joint sponsor. I included her in our personal household size (just me, my husband, and my mom) because we will be living with her when we move back to California. I have a driver's license and bank statements to prove that my mom and I reside at the same address. In this situation, where we are from the same household and she is my joint sponsor, does she fill out the I-864A or the I-864? I originally thought that the joint sponsor who's in my household fills out the I-864A to supplement my income, but now I am going over the instructions again and wondering if I misread them. Please clarify!

[m1chu]

Also, I read on VisaJourney that there were some cases (possibly different from my situation) where the VO rejected the I-864A forms and required a I-864 from the joint sponsor. Like I said, those could have been cases where the joint sponsor was from a different household than the primary sponsor/petitioner. Has anyone come across a situation similar to mine? Where the petitioner/primary sponsor is in the same household as the joint sponsor, and the joint sponsor just fills out the I-864A?

[dnoblett]

Here is the deal, is mom living with you in China and do you support her? If not then do not count her on your I-864 your household only is you and your husband. (2)

 

As for your mother, she should also be filing an I-864 as a joint-sponsor, not an I-864A due to her not being a member of your household. She would only count herself, your spouse as the sponsored immigrant, and probably not count you in her household because you are not counted as a dependent. So (2)

 

I-864A is only used in cases where a sponsor or joint-sponsor needs to add the income of household member(s) to their income, for example if you had a couple siblings living with your mother your siblings could add their income to your mother's income by providing additional I-864A forms, and your mother would provide an I-864 as a joint sponsor.

[newacct]

You need to get some terminology straight. If you count your mother as a household member, then she is not a "joint sponsor". Basically, you are talking about two separate options:

 

* Your mom as a household member of you, the primary sponsor. Then you would have a household size of 3. And she would fill out an I-864A, and she would combine income with you on your I-864. To do this, she would need to either live with you or be listed on your tax return. I am not sure if "planning to move in with her when we move to the U.S." is sufficient for her to count as a household member.

* Your mom as a "joint sponsor". She would fill out a separate I-864 of her own. Her income would by itself (not combined with you) be sufficient to meet the guidelines for the household size of her household + 1 (so e.g. if she is married and has no dependent children, it would be 3: her, her husband, and the immigrant). If that is not sufficient then her husband could also be a household member of her, and fill out I-864A, etc. You would then just have a household size of 2 on your own I-864.

 

Since you are living outside the U.S., your income is probably from outside the U.S., and thus doesn't count anyway. So there's probably no benefit to combining income with your mom, even if that were possible. So it would probably be best to just have your mom be a joint sponsor.

[m1chu]

Thanks for the detailed replies! I think I have a better understanding now, and I contacted my mom to get her to send me the I-864 form instead of the I-864A. Crossing my fingers that that's the only thing I misread...

[kdavid3]

I have a question regarding household size.

 

On Part 5, I've entered "1" for sections 1 - 4. I have myself, a spouse, which is my wife (the beneficiary), and our son, so our total adds up to 4, not three, because this form is counting my wife twice--once as the person I'm sponsoring, and then again as my spouse.

 

Is this right?

 

There should only be three people in my household: me, my wife, and my son.

[Randy W]

I have a question regarding household size.

 

On Part 5, I've entered "1" for sections 1 - 4. I have myself, a spouse, which is my wife (the beneficiary), and our son, so our total adds up to 4, not three, because this form is counting my wife twice--once as the person I'm sponsoring, and then again as my spouse.

 

Is this right?

 

There should only be three people in my household: me, my wife, and my son.

 

 

 

From the instructions

Make sure you do not count any individual more than once, since in some cases the same person could fit into two categories.

 

[kdavid3]

That makes plenty of sense, so do I not have a wife? I don't see where I can annotate this on the form....

[Randy W]

That makes plenty of sense, so do I not have a wife? I don't see where I can annotate this on the form....

 

 

This is one case where 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 3

 

Get creative. Put a dash, or "N/A".

[kdavid3]

This is one case where 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 3

 

 

Good idea. Thanks!

[dnoblett]

Yes is your wife, however is also the person you are sponsoring, in this case sponsored person takes presidence and is not counted as wife.

 

The wife line is there for cases where you are sponsoring another immigrant not your wife.