Friends, are you making enough money to sponsor your relative?
Income requirements have increased, guys.
Stay tuned for this video for the details.
Friends, thanks for watching this video.
I'm Latoya McBean-Pompy.
I'm an immigration lawyer in New York.
I'm also founder of Smart Immigration Academy.
Guys, you can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn @mcbeanimmigrationlaw, and
then also subscribe to this channel if you have not yet done so.
Hit the notification bell as well so that you can be the first to get my videos, which
have been coming out quite frequently these days.
So you don't want to miss any of them.
So let's get into it.
As you guys know, if you're petitioning for someone for a green card or an immigrant visa,
you're going to have to fill out the I-864 which is a contract between you and the government,
which says that you will be financially responsible for this immigrant until that person becomes
a US citizen or until 10 years.
And so it's a very serious agreement.
It's called the Affidavit of Support, by the way.
And so the Affidavit of Support indicates that you are eligible to petition for your
relative based on your income and if your income is not amazing, but yet you have assets,
maybe you have savings or property or any other type of assets that have real good value,
you could put that on the Affidavit of Support to show that you have enough resources to
petition for your relative.
So in this video I'm only going to focus on the income requirement part of the Affidavit
of Support process.
The income levels are based on the HHS Poverty Guidelines.
You must meet a minimum of 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.
And so the guidelines, friends are updated each year and the 2020 numbers are now up.
And so these numbers applies to anyone who's submitting an application or petition from
March 1st, 2020.
These are the new numbers that you must meet.
Now let's get into what those numbers are and I'm going to pull it up here in this video.
The numbers are based on a number of factors.
Firstly, where are you located?
Where are you in the US?
Are you in New York or are you in Alaska?
Because if you're in Alaska guys, or Hawaii, the numbers are higher.
The numbers are higher in those two States than all of the other States, the other 48
States.
So I'm going to exclude Alaska and Hawaii from this video.
I'm going to put a link below in the description of this table so you guys can go check it
out.
If you're in Alaska or Hawaii, you could go check it out and see what those numbers are.
But for everyone else in other States in the US, these are the numbers that you must now
meet.
So secondly, if you're in the military, your numbers are lower than everyone else.
I'm not going to cover the military numbers in this video either.
Check out the chart, click on the link below.
The numbers that I'm only going to focus on are generally speaking for everyone else within
the 48 States, including DC, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands.
Here's what you now need to meet.
If you're a family size of two, husband and wife, the minimum requirement is $21,550.
Last year that requirement was $21,137.
If you're a family size of three, the minimum requirement is $27,150.
Family size of four, that number is $32,750.
If you're a family size of five, it's 38,350 and you guys can see the rest for family size
of six, seven and eight.
Those numbers are on that table as well.
So those are the new income requirements that every Affidavit of Support sponsor must meet.
Now I've also put together a really cool chart.
As you guys know, many of you may have already downloaded the chart from last year, 2019
numbers.
I've updated that chart and what's different about my chart guys, is that I've added a
column for public charge purposes and that other column that I've added to my chart tells
you what income you actually need to have in order to heavily weigh down your application
in a very, very, very positive way.
I've included a column for 250% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, which if your income is
at that level, then it is an extremely positive factor for the application.
So take a look at my chart.
It's free.
Download it right now and check out those numbers.
Just to recap, friends, the new income requirements are in place.
They're out.
The 2020 numbers are out.
Your income must be slightly higher than the income that was reported out last year in
the 2019 table.
Make sure you meet the minimum requirement.
If you do not meet that minimum income requirement, get a joint sponsor and that joint sponsor
must meet the minimum requirement.
Friends, thanks so much for watching this video.
Share it with other people and guys, I'll see you in the next one.
Bye, bye.