I-864 Question for someone who is about to be self employed

[benlabscdk]

I am currently working on the I-864 application to send in with my wife's I-485 form. I am a graduate student and am starting a self employed job as an independent contractor, tomorrow. Now given my own financial situation, I know I do not meet the income requirements (as I will not begin working in my field in a full time job, till next year after I finish my Master's degree) so my parents have filled out I-864A documents in order to push the income above the requirements. But on my I-864, for evidence it says I need "If you are currently self-employed, a copy of your Schedule C, D, E, or F from your most recent federal income tax return which establishes your income from your business." Since I will be starting tomorrow, but I am hoping to send out my documents this week as this is the last one I have to complete, what should I do since I do not have a Schedule C document on my last tax return. Should I ignore it or write some kind of letter explaining my situation, as technically we are using my parent's finances to reach the requirement? Does anyone know what I could do in this situation? Thank you so much for your help!

[newacct]

First, your parents can only be "household members" (and fill out I-864A to have their income count in your household income) if they live in the same residence as you.

Regardless of whether they can be your "household members", it might be better to have one of them be a "joint sponsor" instead. A joint sponsor fills out their own I-864, and the joint sponsor's own household income needs to be sufficient.

Regarding your question, obviously you can't provide a Schedule C if you have not had business income in past years. You can try to provide an explanation, and in the worst case they would just not count any income from your self-employment.