Welcome to today's live attorney chat. My name is Attorney Desiree Koger Gustafson with Immigration
for Couples. For those of you who are new to our firm, we host these Facebook live chats to
give you updated information about navigating the immigration process from a couple's perspective
mostly and we just work to help couples navigate that process on a daily basis
and that's exactly what this firm is dedicated to doing. Today, we are going to be discussing
larger topics, so I hope you grabbed that second cup of coffee, I know I did. We are going to look
at the adjustment of status process, specifically looking from the fiancé visa (K1) to adjustment
of status. What do I do next? I've entered the United States, what do I do next? After that,
we're going to look into the Affidavit of Support a little bit more. That is
part of that adjustment process and so, we'll be looking at that and what if I don't make enough?
Just know that if you're joining us live today, please feel free to put questions and comments
in the chat. I'll try to get to those as I can. If for some reason it's a larger topic, hopefully we
can hit on that later on in one of our other chats so let's dive right into the adjustment of status
process. Let's discuss the Affidavit of Support more in depth and what if I don't make enough?
A common RFE is the Affidavit of Support and not satisfying all of those requirements. Let's say
USCIS has received the documents. For one reason or another,
they are stating that the petitioner does not make enough money. You have basically two options.
You could submit for a joint or co-sponsor or you could just supply assets. Whether or not
you do one or the other could be dependent on where you are in that process. If you've not
yet received an RFE, but you have just looked at the 864-p, which is the document put out
every year by USCIS that has listed the levels of poverty guidelines that you would need to meet.
If we've looked at that and we decide you are very borderline on income and I will say this
happens quite a bit. A lot of our couples could be young or early in their careers and
maybe one is still in school and so they're just really close on meeting that poverty guideline.
If that's the case, then maybe we look to assets. We look to see what they have in order to be able
to supply or support with assets the income that is being made by the petitioner. I will say even
if the petitioner makes zero money, the petitioner is required to file an Affidavit of Support.
If the petitioner makes some money but then maybe just doesn't have enough in assets, then we would
look to filing for a joint sponsor. If for some reason, we've supplied assets and the assets seem
to be way above what we would need, they could still issue an RFE for that and we have seen that
on occasions. Where you are in that process, if you've been issued an RFE, you want to make sure
that whatever you respond to the RFE completes the process. I wouldn't likely supply assets if I've
received an RFE. I would encourage a co-sponsor in order to be able to fully satisfy whatever the
USCIS officer adjudicator is going to look at to make sure that we've met that income guidelines.
Who would make a good joint sponsor? In that regard, we've seen a lot of different things
and a lot of things to consider. First of all, the person would have to be willing to supply
everything that that petitioner has supplied. Last three years of taxes, their income verification.
Most of the time, we like to submit an employer letter if that's available. As well as pay stubs
for the last three months is a good general guideline. You'd want somebody that's willing
to do that. A lot of people don't want to supply their Social Security Number and unfortunately,
that is required. You want to make sure that they are willing to give over their information.
Another thing is making sure a lot of people will go directly to a business owner or somebody who
has significant assets. Business owners can be great co-sponsors or joint sponsors. However,
a lot of times, to be able to show earnings is more difficult and so then you're straight away
into looking at assets of the business which many times business owners are reluctant to do.
Again, just finding a person who maybe only has one or two people in their household but yet
has a good stable income, has been at a regular job for a while, can provide us with pay stubs
that support what their earnings say. If they have a last tax return that says they make eighty
thousand dollars a year, you'd want to look at the pay stubs and make sure that though that
the pay stubs support that. If for some reason that that co-sponsor or a joint sponsor has two
working people in their household, but only one of them want to sign but they file taxes jointly,
we'd want to make sure that we have W-2s and other things that clearly clarify what portion
of that earnings was theirs, the person that is signing the joint sponsor. I hope that this
has been helpful. If you go back and watch this video, you can comment #replay. Also know that
we're going to have another live attorney chat on Monday so be watching for that and feel free
to put any comments into the chat even following and we will hopefully look back at those and get
you an answer or do another live broadcast on this. Thanks so much. Hope you have a great day!