Monthly Archives: February 2021

Adjustment of Status, Applying for a Visa, Public Charge- Financial Requirements

The Affidavit of Support – Who is a Sponsor, a Joint Sponsor or a Household Member?

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Almost every family-based immigrant needs to have a sponsor who will file an Affidavit of Support for them.  The purpose, as stated in my recent posts, is to assure the USCIS or the Department of State that the immigrant will not need to access welfare.

A family-based immigrant is coming to the United States because someone in the United States filed a petition for them.   That person, the “petitioner”, is the “sponsor” and must file an affidavit of support for all of the immigrants for whom he petitioned.   If he doesn’t satisfy the essential requirements, set out last week, he cannot file an Affidavit of Support, and the immigrant cannot come to the United States.

If however, the only problem is that the sponsor lacks the required income or assets, he has two options.   He can get a “joint sponsor” or he can have a “household member” lend him assistance.   I will discuss the household member first.

The household member has to be the sponsor’s close relative: parent, spouse, child or sibling or any other person who is listed on the sponsor’s most recent tax return as a dependent.  The parent, spouse, child or sibling needs to live at the same address.  A person who is listed as a dependent on the tax return does not need to live at that residence.   The intending immigrant can also be a household member if they have income or assets that can be counted in order to keep him off welfare.   Foreign income cannot be counted for this purpose. The household member also has to satisfy the normal requirements of all sponsors relating to domicile and filing tax returns, etc.

The advantage of having a household member join in the sponsorship is that the household member’s income and assets are added to the income and assets of the primary sponsor.    Then the total is used to prove that the immigrant will not be able to and will not need to access welfare.

A joint sponsor’s income and assets are counted differently.   A joint sponsor is treated just like a separate sponsor.  They have to satisfy all the requirements of being a sponsor — relating to filing taxes and domicile.  They do not need to be related to the main sponsor.  They do not add their income and assets together with the main sponsor — instead, they need to have enough income and assets on their own (or with the help of a household member of their own) to guarantee that the immigrant will not need to go on welfare.

There is one interesting quirk with a joint sponsor.   If, suppose, I bring over my brother and his wife — a total of two people.   As the sponsor, I need to file an affidavit of support to cover both of them.   However, if I can find two joint sponsors, one can sponsor my brother, and the other can sponsor his wife.   This reduces the amount of income that both joint sponsors need to show.   You can only do this with joint sponsors and you can only do this if there are at least two people to sponsor and you can only do it with a maximum of two joint sponsors.

I hope this is interesting and helpful.   Remember that this is not legal advice.  It is just a summary of certain aspects of immigration law which may or may not apply to your situation.   I encourage you to consult an attorney if you think any of this may apply to your situation.

Gunnar Armstrong

Adjustment of Status, Applying for a Visa, Green Cards, Public Charge- Financial Requirements

The Affidavit of Support – Who Can Submit an Affidavit of Support?

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There are a number of considerations as to who can submit an affidavit of support.   The first requirement is that it has to be a person.    A company or a ch-rch or m-ssion organization cannot submit an Affidavit of Support.

On the other hand, anybody can submit an Affidavit of Support.  It doesn’t have to be a close relative.   It can be a friend.   However, I will add this.  Lately, they have been taking into consideration the motivation that the sponsor has to support the immigrant.   They are looking for blood or relationship ties that will motivate the sponsor to carry through with his promise to provide the support.

In order to submit an Affidavit of Support, however, the sponsor also needs to be a U.S. citizen or a U.S. lawful permanent resident.  The sponsor also needs to be “domiciled” in the U.S.  That means that he has to actually be living there (or intends to be living there).   There are some exceptions to this rule, such as a missionary temporarily stationed abroad.   But I have heard of at least one case where a U.S. spouse was told to go live in the US before they would allow her to be a sponsor.   But I think that a carefully prepared case presentation will usually resolve this issue.

The Sponsor also generally needs to have sufficient U.S. income to equal 125% of the poverty level for his household and the immigrant.   If his income is insufficient, sometimes he can make up the difference using his assets — but you usually need quite a bit of assets to successfully do this.   I will talk about doing this in a later posting.

The Sponsor also needs to have filed US taxes for the past three years.  If he has not, then he has to provide a reasonable explanation for why he has not filed — such as insufficient income.  However, of course, if he has had insufficient income in the past three years, that will probably disqualify him from being a sponsor.

I hope this is interesting and helpful.   Remember that this is not legal advice.  It is just a summary of certain aspects of immigration law which may or may not apply to your situation.   I encourage you to consult an attorney if you think any of this may apply to your situation.

Gunnar Armstrong

Adjustment of Status, Applying for a Visa, Green Cards, Public Charge- Financial Requirements

The Affidavit of Support – What is It and Who Needs It?

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There has always been the question of whether or not immigrants should be able to access welfare.  There are those who think it is fine.  There are those who are strongly opposed to it.

A couple of decades ago, those who were opposed to the idea of immigrants getting welfare came up with the idea of an Affidavit of Support.  The Affidavit of Support they created has since become an important part of the immigration process.

This Affidavit of Support is required for every person, with limited exceptions, who obtains permanent resident status in the United States through a relative-based visa petition.   It even applies to certain beneficiaries of an employment petition if a relative of theirs owns a 5% or greater interest in the company that is sponsoring the immigrant.  It does not apply to most employment petitions or to Special Immigrant R-ligious worker petitions.

One of the few exceptions for relatives is if the immigrant is an adopted child who will automatically gain citizenship upon entry to the United States.  In that case the child will not need an Affidavit of Support.

The Affidavit of Support is a promise to keep the immigrant off welfare.  Among other things, the Sponsor, the person signing the Affidavit of Support, needs to demonstrate that he has the income and/or assets necessary to keep the immigrant off welfare.  Originally, the idea was simply that the Sponsor’s income and assets would be counted in determining if the immigrant was able to access welfare — if you don’t know, a person cannot access welfare if he, or his sponsor, has a certain level of income or assets.

As with most things, Affidavits of Support have changed in how they are applied.  Over the years, courts have expanded the effects of signing an Affidavit of Support.  There have been cases where the immigrant have even successfully sued the Sponsor for financial support — which I think clearly was not the original intent.

I hope this is interesting and helpful.   Remember that this is not legal advice.  It is just a summary of certain aspects of immigration law which may or may not apply to your situation.   I encourage you to consult an attorney if you think any of this may apply to your situation.

Gunnar Armstrong

Citizenship

Dual Citizenship

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Does America require you to give up your original citizenship if you become a U.S, citizen?  The answer is a very clear, “No!”  It is true that the U.S. citizenship oath requires that you say, “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.”  This sounds like you are giving up all other citizenships, but the U.S, courts have clearly held that it does not mean what it seems to mean.

You can only voluntarily surrender your U.S. citizenship if you fully and completely intend to renounce your U.S. citizenship.  They have applied this same logic to this statement.  The U.S. courts have held that this statement is about obtaining U.S. citizenship, it is not said with the intent of renouncing all other citizenships.

Therefore, there is no restriction under U.S. law in regard to keeping your foreign citizenship when you obtain U.S. citizenship.  Now, that doesn’t mean that another country won’t require you to give up their citizenship when you become a U.S. citizen, but that is outside the scope of this article.

I hope this is interesting and helpful.   Remember that this is not legal advice.  It is just a summary of certain aspects of immigration law which may or may not apply to your situation.   I encourage you to consult an attorney if you think any of this may apply to your situation.

Gunnar Armstrong