i864 - File as Co-Sponsor or as Household Member using i864a?

[M Clifton]

Hello All,

I hope this post finds you well during this difficult time. I am a first time poster. Apologies in advance for the lengthy background to the question!

I am writing to you as the applicant of a family based Green Card. My American wife is my sponsor.
We are filing with the US Embassy in London.

I am struggling to find an answer to a specific question regarding the I-864, despite having trawled through the guidelines and additional reading.

My wife and I currently live in the UK. My wife is filling out an i-864 as my sponsor. However because she is currently unemployed she does not meet the income requirement to be my only sponsor. Her mother who lives in the US has agreed to be a joint sponsor as she more than meets the income requirement. Her mother as the joint sponsor is also filling out an i-864 and providing the necessary evidence.

It is likely that my wife will move to the US slightly before me and she will live at her place of domicile which happens to be her mother's house. Our plan is that when I receive the Green Card/ admitted to the US, we will briefly stay at her parents while we look for our own place.

We consider this situation to mean that my wife and I have our own household as we live in the UK. We will temporarily be joining her mother's household but will not remain part of it beyond the short term. We believe that she should continue to file as a joint sponsor.

However, given that it is her mother who is the joint sponsor and on the i-864 it is her mother's address that will go down as my wife's places of domicile I see that there is an option of her filing as a household member, using form i-864a.

This would mean extra paperwork but also infers that the relationship between my wife as sponsor and her mother as household member is ongoing as household members which it is not. We would only be living with them briefly. Technically my wife as my sponsor could use the current UK address or the soon to be US domicile address as current address on the i-864.

I'm sorry for the long winded background, but it is simply to provide context.

My question is, given all of this background, are we ok to have my wife's mother file as a joint sponsor or do we have to have her also fill in the i-864a so that she becomes a sponsor who is a household member?

If you are able to help with guidance on this matter it would be so much appreciated.

Thank you for the time taken to read this.

Best wishes,

Marley Clifton

[newacct]

The advantage of having your wife's mother be her household member is that they can combine their incomes; but since your wife doesn't have income anyway, there isn't any advantage as far as the I-864 is concerned.

Another issue is how you are going to have enough household income for the public charge questionnaire (DS-5540). For public charge purposes, the household does not include an adult living in the same residence, but it does include someone who provides more than 50% of your support or claims you as a dependent, so maybe your wife's mother can be included but I'm not sure.

[M Clifton]

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. There is no mention whatsoever in the application process of a DS-5540. I'm not sure if this is something that is used when filing in the US but in our process of applying via the US Embassy in London and not with the NVC, the DS-5540 isn't mentioned anywhere.

We can use my income going forward and there are various Assets that can be used in the family. Proving income isn't going to be an issue, my question was more aimed at if there is a correct route to go down in terms of co-sponsor vs household member when referring to my Mother-In-law. Hope that makes sense!