Postdocs taxable fellowship income when no taxes withheld (no W-2) for I-864?

[Sponsorer]

I could not find clear and legitimate answer to the following questions; not even with lawyers or USCIS webpage.

Hope someone would share his/her knowledge and experience with the same situation.

Please do not guess and provide documentary evidence justifying your answer.


Background:

1. I am a US Citizen.
2. I am a postdoctoral fellow.
3. I receive income which is denoted as fellowship grant or other income.
4. This income is taxable. I file 1040 along with schedule 3, and state taxes.
5. No taxes are withheld (employer does not report to IRS). So it is a self-reporting income, and there is no W-2/1099 Misc./etc.
6. My income is above poverty line.

What is going on:

1. My I-130 petition has been approved by USCIS for my spouse living abroad, and now the case is pending with NVC.
2. I need to submit affidavit of support.

Questions:

1. Which form should I use I-864 or I-864ez? I know that I could use only my income on form I-864ez, but instructions say that I should be showing my income with W-2, which I do not have. Here is what I-864ez instructions say: "The income you are using to qualify is based entirely on your salary or pension and is shown on one or more Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form W-2s provided by your employers or former employers." The bold italic part does not apply on me, so I am not sure if I can use I-864ez.
2. Can I use I-864 irrespective to whether I qualify to file I-864ez?
3. I just paper filed my 2019 taxes. Transcript will not be available until April or so. NVC application is pending now, so I can not wait until transcript becomes available.
4. What proof on income can I use? I have a copy of my 2019 federal and state taxes I just filed, and a letter from my employer stating my income and that they do not send W-2/I099 misc./etc. I can also get my December 2019 pay stub showing YTD amount paid to me (income). This probably could be use in replacement of W-2/1099 misc.
5. I could also get a bank statement showing ending amount each month, and the final amount available now (but this will become an asset, so I will not be able to use I-864ez).

Looking forward for your advise.

Thanks!

[newacct]

Since it's before April 2020, you can use 2018 tax return as your most recent tax return.

[Sponsorer]

Since it's before April 2020, you can use 2018 tax return as your most recent tax return.

USCIS webpage says that if you sign I-864 in a given year, then you have to present tax return from year immediately preceding. So if I sign I-864 in year 2020, I must show tax filed for 2019.

By the way it does not answer my questions.